Working the red carpet: a framework for analysing celebrities’ red carpet labour

ABSTRACT

This article critically assesses celebrities’ labour on the red carpet, with particular attention to the ways in which they engage with a variety of social and political issues. Through a discursive analysis of three 2019 red carpet events, we explore how the norms and values of the red carpet demand different forms of aesthetic and emotional labour from celebrities. We specifically theorise the concept red carpet labour as the multiple intersecting forms of work that celebrities negotiate on the red carpet, which create and constrain the possibilities for them to intervene in broader cultural conversations during their red carpet appearances. These intersecting forms of labour are laid out in a three-part conceptual framework that argues for scholarly attention to how celebrities (1) participate in the construction of red carpets as pseudoevents, (2) work to create a self-brand on the red carpet, and (3) cultivate relationships with the fashion world.

KEYWORDS:

• Red carpet
• celebrity
• labour
• gender
• promotion
• media event

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Caitlin E. Lawson

Caitlin E. Lawson (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is the Howard R. Marsh Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan.

Jimmy Draper

Jimmy Draper (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is a lecturer in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan.