Conclusion: Reluctance’s “Other”

Abstract

Picking up from Daniel Craig’s framing of his reluctance in relation to celebrities whom he deems overly eager, this study concludes with a consideration of the way in which celebrity reluctance is constructed, whether implicitly or explicitly, by reference to its other: avidity. This eagerness tends to be associated with female celebrities (Paris Hilton, Miley Cyrus, the Kardashians), and those celebrities who denounce the fame-hungry tend to be male, white, and straight (Craig, Michael Caine, James McAvoy, George Clooney). The study concludes with a reminder to readers that reluctance, though it is often presented as a tribulation, is also a privilege: an ability to pick and choose one’s affective investments that correlates suggestively with privileged identity categories such as whiteness, maleness, cis-gender, and straightness.