One of my favorite mangas, Helter Skelter, examines the social and aesthetic pressure falling on celebrities and women in general in the grotesque manner that is bewildering, disgusting, and infinitely appealing. Its protagonist, a young woman named Ririko, is a starlet—everybody knows her beautiful face from the TV, advertisement, and posters. As the public eye burns her down, she, scared of the fame that will wither as she, a human governed by the wind of time, overcomes her status of a young sensation, keeps putting her body—losing its vitality and health,—under the blade. Again and again. With new scarves and distorted parts of Ririko's physique, which is admired (temporarily though!) by the others and inevitably abhorred by herself, she, desperate and bulimic, spins down into the abyss that makes her face what has been hiding behind the perfectly sculptured lineaments and unnatural curves. Face her hopelessly lonely soul driven to insanity in the vane pursuit of being lovingly reflected in someone's eye.
This work, I believe, can be tailored to our conversation about surveillance in general, as we all participate in mundanely noting the lives of celebrities and those "public," and the idea of putting judgement on one's external properties. The commentary is especially striking thanks to the heroine who, instead of being a precious tragic princess, is piteous in a blood-chilling way. Ririko is indeed not the most sympathetic character. She is callous, rude, and arrogant. But this exposes the fatal danger of teaching one their value through its reflection in the eye of the other. This eye, however, lazily scans someone as if they were a morning newspaper—nonchalantly crumbled right after its yawning spectator spits an "expert" evaluation (a mean speculation) of the observed. And then moves on.
I am not sure if I am allowed to share links here, but you can just Google, "Helter Skelter manga read"—the website whose name ends with "dex" is a fitting one. You can also email me for the link.
Happy reading! But please know that the content is very sensitive, depicted in quite a gruesome, naturalistic way, and might be a trigger for some. There is also a lot of nudity, too. Feel free to email me to ask for details: lgrechanik@bmc