University of East Anglia - Hit them, baby, one more time

A conference analysing "train wreck" female celebrities will look at the gender dynamics of fame and the popularity of news stories about the women we "love to hate". Hosted by the University of East Anglia, the conference will investigate public fascination with self-destructive celebrities such as Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and Lindsay Lohan. Delegates will question whether female fame is depreciating in value, and whether self-destructive male celebrities are treated differently from their female counterparts. "Saturation coverage of these women-in-crisis stories may be testing the limits of the public appetite," said the event's co-organiser, Diane Negra. "This seems an opportune time to analyse how such stories work, why they are repeated so frequently and what cultural functions they serve."