Celebrification of Breonna Taylor: perfection as the prerequisite for visibility, commodification and activism

Abstract

Breonna Taylor rose from obscurity to notoriety in the aftermath of her killing by police officers in her home. The celebrification of Taylor as an innocent young Black woman was central to the Black Lives Matter movement during the summer of 2020. This essay examines the process by which celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and artists such as Amy Sherald memorialized Taylor, while activists rallied to demand that officers be held accountable for her death. Finally, Taylor’s case is considered in the context of #SayHerName and efforts to elevate Black women victims of police violence.

Keywords:

• Breonna Taylor
• celebrity
• celebrification
• Black Lives Matter
• commodification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. It is noteworthy that ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’ gained renewed attention in 2021 when one case of a missing white woman in the United States, Gabby Petito, garnered tremendous media coverage that is not granted to women of colour who are reported missing.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Spring-Serenity Duvall

Spring-Serenity Duvall, PhD, is Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Salem College, USA. She is the editor of Celebrity & Youth: Mediated audiences, fame aspirations, and identity formation (2018) and her research appears in Celebrity Studies; Communication, Culture, and Critique; Feminist Media Studies; and Journal of Communication Inquiry.