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Go Fug Yourself: Fugly is the New Pretty - A Critique.

Blogs have become a vehicle for ordinary people to voice their opinions and views on all sorts of issues and events. These opinions and views, may at times, be those that are not found in mainstream media. They represent an alternative view on things and even at times are insightful, unconventional and just humorous pieces of writings to read. An example is the blog of go fug yourself.

So, what makes this particular blog interesting?
This blog has become a platform for people to express their personal views about the fashion “crimes” of celebrities without any restrictions. I guess it is similar to that of fashion magazines but as this blog is online there are fewer restraints in the diversity of opinions. Whether people present negative or positive views, it is difficult to track down the writers. Particularly with this blog, go fug yourself, the publishers are unknown, “we prefer to be very low-key” (www.gofugyourself.com). The blog only presents the writers as ‘meet the fuggers’, named Heather and Jessica. With no actual real photo or any concrete detail of these “fuggers” it is then difficult to know the writers of this blog personally, to build a relation with their audience. I guess, that’s one of the main advantages in blogging, one can write whatever they want and not have to have any responsibility for any negative publicity.

However, despite their ambiguity in terms of their names and details, this blog has been particularly favoured by several established newspaper organisations such as ‘Entertainment Weekly’, ‘Vanity Fair’, “Named a "site [they] can't get enough of," July 2006, p. 38.” (www.gofugyourself.com), and 'TIME', “One of the 50 Coolest Web sites of 2005, according to Time.com, the online wing of the famed newsmagazine.” (www.gofugyourself.com) As you can see this blog has built a solid reputation in terms of their insights into celebrity fashion. They have been recognised by large news organisations. This just goes to show that the power and influence of the blogosphere is on a high. It is becoming more and more acknowledged as a form of journalism?

With the content being in the form of personal commentary about celebrity fashion mishaps and entertainment based makes this blog attractive as it engages the audience through making fun of celebrities. These celebrities include Britney Spears to Gwen Stefani to Paris Hilton and the list goes on…They also write about recent celebrity events such as the Golden Globe Awards. Their latest posts include writings about the fashion “crimes” of the Golden Globes, which show that this blog is continually update with recent events. It gives the audience a sense that these writers are up to date with the latest events and then comments about it.

Go fug yourself has been increasingly popular with an average visit per day of 155, 371. This goes to show that their influence is widespread and I guess it’s just valid (the statistics) as this blog is attractive, easy to read, and very very interesting to see other peoples takes on celebrity fashion.

Hence the blog www.gofugyourself.com gives the audience an alternative view to the mainstream media. It voices the opinions of the “outsider” which may be more interesting than the “insider”. Which ever one the audience chooses, what can be agreed is that www.gofugyourself.com puts a humorous spin on celebrity fashions.

Labels: Entertainment Weekly, fashion, Go Fug Yourself, Golden Globes, TIME, Vanity Fair

posted by tephiee @ 11:03 AM