Richard Dyer's Theory of Movie Stars

The movie star is on the cutting edge of changing portrayals of the self. A relatively recent phenomenon, stars combine a variety of representational strategies in order to produce charisma. Hollywood has capitalized on the charisma of stars in order to persuade, using stars' charisma to stimulate consumption, define and promote particular gender roles (such as moving women into the factories during WW2 and then back into the domestic sphere after the war), and promote "hardness" during times of conflict (the images of "fitness" during the cold war). Which strategies of representation produce charisma?

Richard Dyer, in his book Stars, draws on Weber's theory of 'charisma' to discuss ways in which stars function ideologically. Weber theorized that persuasion, when not achieved by force, functions through three different types of appeals: to "tradition (doing what we've always done), bureaucracy (doing things according to agreed but alterable, supposedly rational rules), and charisma (doing things because the leader suggests it)." (30) Stars, as charismatic figures, do not have the same persuasive abilities as charismatic political leaders - Dyer argues that the expressed political beliefs of John Wayne and Jane Fonda were irrelevant or insignificant - but their influence over the representations of people, their "privileged position in the definition of social roles and types," (8) has influenced how people expect themselves and others to behave. Thus stars can be studied for the ways in which they persuade: their representations of identity, of social roles and of types.

Charismatic figures, according to Weber's theory, embody a relatively stable constellation of opposing binary terms. Dyer discusses Marilyn Monroe as a notable example.