A Desire to be ParisExposed
SEPTEMBER 16, 2021
In 2006, Paris Hilton rented a storage unit in Los Angeles, California for two hundred and eight dollars a month. By 2007, the contents of her unit were sold for two thousand seven hundred and seventy-five dollars, and resold to the company ‘Persia’ for ten million in cash. On February 23, 2007, ParisExposed.com went live. Journal entries, medical documents, intimate moments, nightclub memories, and childhood photos were cataloged for view at thirty-nine dollars and ninety-seven cents a month. To many people, including Paris Hilton, this is your worst nightmare. Unfortunately, this is my twisted fantasy.
We live in a digital age, where nothing is physical and anything can be “hacked.” Having my iCloud hacked is not my fantasy. I am fascinated with cataloging and preserving—every little thing—to create an archive of real. What we call “oversharing,” is my idea of self-documentation, because why are we on this earth if not to leave a mark?
That is what Paris Hilton, a young woman, a well-connected heiress, and a controversial party girl unknowingly did. Though involuntary, she set a hallmark in the culture that we are a part of today.
In the digital age, celebrities use oversharing as a form of compensation for the things they do not share, “filtered oversharing.” Providing you with so much of their lives via social media, reality TV, and other digital forms of media, that you think you are truly in the know. When in reality, you only know what they want you to.
ParisExposed was so iconic and important because it was everything Paris Hilton would never want you to know, it was the things she never planned to share. Be it her cocaine use, rumored std’s, or her use of racist remarks, these things were undoubtedly considered problematic and meant to be kept from the public eye, but they were true, they were the coded iconic messages of Paris Hilton’s party girl persona. An unfiltered reality that people were so curious about they were willing to shell out forty dollars a month to see. And this willingness remains true. It is a cultural myth that we don’t and shouldn’t care about celebrities. If you could see the unfiltered reality of present day celebrities for forty dollars, you would grab your card and make an account. As much as we love filtered and the “un-perfectly perfect,” we like real. We like the things that we are not supposed to see. We are a voyeuristic society.
OnlyFans is a great example of wanting “more” from the personas we follow or are attracted to, to the extent that we are willing to pay for it. It is also a great example of self-exploitation and control over your own explotation, rather than in Hilton’s case—where she never saw a dime in return for the invasion of her privacy. The modern media platform could even be seen as a form of “filtered oversharing,” as creators provide the public with personal content to the extent of what they are comfortable with.
Our perception of “exposure” is based on our beliefs about individual worth. We deem value in parts of ourselves as more or less, thus asking what do we have to offer? What parts of ourselves are we willing to share? What aspects of ourselves can we make money off of? Having those less desirable parts of yourself outed would make you feel “exposed.” Whereas the things you feel proud of, the parts of yourself you value, can be shared with ease.
After spending many years on social media “exposing” my body, something I was proud of and saw value in, I shifted my worth to my experiences and ideas, wanting a more ParisExposed outward persona. I became willing to share an unfiltered, genuine, version of myself, that others may not feel comfortable with, rather than a filtered defense of “sexiness” to diverge from the truth of my existence. That is part of the reason why I started this blog.
I am obsessed with documentation as a form of self-preservation. I quite literally believe that I will not exist, if I do not document my life. It is something I have dedicated myself to, saving anything physical that relates to a memory and moment. Notes, drawings, cards, photos, even bills. I believe these things are the proof of my existence.
It does scare me that I am attracted to ParisExposed. That I don’t hate the idea of having my stories, private photos, personal life, and every other piece of evidence that comes with it catalogued for the public to see. Realistically it is just an extension of my obsessive preservation, what good is this stuff if I am the only one to see it?
There are plenty of ParisExposed aspects that I do not want to apply to my own exposure, one of which being the lack of control she had as the spectacle.
Paris Hilton had power, fame, and wealth, but she had no control in the publicization of her personal life. With the click of a button, we too could be “hacked” or “exposed.” I want to decipher is which parts of myself are ready to be exposed so I can take the exposure into my own hands.
We live in a digital age, where nothing is physical and anything can be “hacked.” Having my iCloud hacked is not my fantasy. I am fascinated with cataloging and preserving—every little thing—to create an archive of real. What we call “oversharing,” is my idea of self-documentation, because why are we on this earth if not to leave a mark?
That is what Paris Hilton, a young woman, a well-connected heiress, and a controversial party girl unknowingly did. Though involuntary, she set a hallmark in the culture that we are a part of today.
In the digital age, celebrities use oversharing as a form of compensation for the things they do not share, “filtered oversharing.” Providing you with so much of their lives via social media, reality TV, and other digital forms of media, that you think you are truly in the know. When in reality, you only know what they want you to.
ParisExposed was so iconic and important because it was everything Paris Hilton would never want you to know, it was the things she never planned to share. Be it her cocaine use, rumored std’s, or her use of racist remarks, these things were undoubtedly considered problematic and meant to be kept from the public eye, but they were true, they were the coded iconic messages of Paris Hilton’s party girl persona. An unfiltered reality that people were so curious about they were willing to shell out forty dollars a month to see. And this willingness remains true. It is a cultural myth that we don’t and shouldn’t care about celebrities. If you could see the unfiltered reality of present day celebrities for forty dollars, you would grab your card and make an account. As much as we love filtered and the “un-perfectly perfect,” we like real. We like the things that we are not supposed to see. We are a voyeuristic society.
OnlyFans is a great example of wanting “more” from the personas we follow or are attracted to, to the extent that we are willing to pay for it. It is also a great example of self-exploitation and control over your own explotation, rather than in Hilton’s case—where she never saw a dime in return for the invasion of her privacy. The modern media platform could even be seen as a form of “filtered oversharing,” as creators provide the public with personal content to the extent of what they are comfortable with.
Our perception of “exposure” is based on our beliefs about individual worth. We deem value in parts of ourselves as more or less, thus asking what do we have to offer? What parts of ourselves are we willing to share? What aspects of ourselves can we make money off of? Having those less desirable parts of yourself outed would make you feel “exposed.” Whereas the things you feel proud of, the parts of yourself you value, can be shared with ease.
After spending many years on social media “exposing” my body, something I was proud of and saw value in, I shifted my worth to my experiences and ideas, wanting a more ParisExposed outward persona. I became willing to share an unfiltered, genuine, version of myself, that others may not feel comfortable with, rather than a filtered defense of “sexiness” to diverge from the truth of my existence. That is part of the reason why I started this blog.
I am obsessed with documentation as a form of self-preservation. I quite literally believe that I will not exist, if I do not document my life. It is something I have dedicated myself to, saving anything physical that relates to a memory and moment. Notes, drawings, cards, photos, even bills. I believe these things are the proof of my existence.
It does scare me that I am attracted to ParisExposed. That I don’t hate the idea of having my stories, private photos, personal life, and every other piece of evidence that comes with it catalogued for the public to see. Realistically it is just an extension of my obsessive preservation, what good is this stuff if I am the only one to see it?
There are plenty of ParisExposed aspects that I do not want to apply to my own exposure, one of which being the lack of control she had as the spectacle.
Paris Hilton had power, fame, and wealth, but she had no control in the publicization of her personal life. With the click of a button, we too could be “hacked” or “exposed.” I want to decipher is which parts of myself are ready to be exposed so I can take the exposure into my own hands.
The archive of ParisExposed: https://www.popculturediedin2009.com/post/156285038611/10-years-later-paris-exposed