(Con)fusing Identities
Joanna Colangelo
Character, Celebrity and the Search for Authenticity
Before discussing the vital role of the Internet in combining the identities of Benson and Hargitay, it is first necessary to briefly understand the background and personality of Olivia Benson and the needs which that character fulfills on SVU. Following this overview, I will explore the identity that Mariska Hargitay presents to her fans by referencing her official websites (she has two: one for herself and one for her non-profit foundation). Next, I will introduce the ways in which Benson/Hargitay fans merge character and celebrity by analyzing fan postings from SVU message boards. Finally, I will conclude with a discussion on the physical reconstruction of the hybrid-character-celebrity by focusing on various fan videos on Youtube. As these videos are visual—and eperhaps the most tangible approach to recreating a purely hypothetical identity—I contend, they are the final culmination of combining the traits of "character" and "celebrity" to form a third identity which is both produced in part by the fans' projection of identity, and Hargitay's projection of her own identity. However, in the case of Benson/Hargitay, I will further propose that this reconstructed identity lends itself to the needs of a marginalized subgroup of survivors of rape and sexual assault. Thereby her virtual-celebrity has been created not only out of admiration but also out of a need to serve the emotional needs of a specific fan community.
In order to understand the fan community surrounding Olivia Benson and Mariska Hargitay, one must address the empathetic nature of Benson's role on SVU and how this has impacted her ("her," being both Benson and Hargitay's) fan base. Further, it is important to note the ways in which the television show itself sets the stage for an overlap of fiction and reality. Often advertising plots that are "ripped from the headlines," SVU consciously takes contemporary news stories, fictionalizes them, and then reworks the stories to conform to the theme of any particular show. In this sense, we could view SVU as an exaggerated "docudrama," a type of programming which P. David Marshall (1997) coined as "exemplary of how television often eschews the presentation of an aesthetic code and attempts to move to the nonfictional and newslike"(191). Therefore, as the program has rooted itself in fictionalizing current headlines and, in essence, in mirroring contemporary news stories, it is not a far leap for fans to conceive of the show's characters as also being authentic, at least in some form. The power of the "docudrama," Marshall suggests, is that if such a character can allow for a "sympathetic identification [with fans,] there is a solidarity with the audience"(Marshall, 190). When combining the factual basis of SVU with the compassion of Olivia Benson, we can begin to understand how this "sympathetic identification" precipitates an image convergence between Olivia Benson and Mariska Hargitay.
Initially, the audience learns in the pilot episode of SVU, "Payback," that Benson is the product of her mother's rape. Later in that season, we learn that Benson's mother's rape had led to her mother's alcoholism, and that Benson's "father" has never been arrested or convicted of the rape. As the show introduces the recurring debate as to whether a predisposition to violence is genetic, we are introduced to Benson's latent fears that "half her genes are drunk [referencing her mother] and the other half are cruel and violent"(Law and Order: SVU, "Quarry"). Finally, in the first season's finale, "Slaves," the Special Victims Unit detectives undergo psychological evaluations, and we fully witness Benson's organic connection to her work in Special Victims: when asked by a psychologist "what would you do if you couldn't be an SVU detective?" Benson cannot reply, but instead furrows her brow and bites her lip—one of the few times that we see her in tears throughout the first season. Thus, having "enough emotional baggage to clog LaGuardia's claims terminal," [1] as one poster had written on the SVU fan site, "SVU Crib," Benson quickly becomes the squad's victims' advocate—often identified as such by riding with victims to the hospital, staying with them during rape exams and clashing with other detectives who either question the validity of a rape victim's claims or suggest blame for a victim's actions prior to the assault.
In fact, eight years after the show premiered, we can still see the foundational significance of Benson's role on SVU. In episode 8:6, though temporarily relocated to Oregon for an undercover assignment unrelated to sex crimes, Benson finds herself unable to resist investigating a local child molestation/rape case. While FBI investigators seem unable to identify with the girl's experiences, Benson sympathizes with the young rape victim who is also suffering from Stockholm syndrome. Slowly succeeding in breaking the girl's identification with her captor, Benson encourages the victim to both recognize her rape and press criminal charges against her rapist. To further reinforce this persona, while Benson is simultaneously working undercover, the New York assistant district attorney is feverishly trying to locate her to testify against a New York rapist. Meanwhile, the New York victim (named Chelsea) has become suicidal, and without a conviction, the DA's office fears that Chelsea will act on her urges. Without the testimony of Benson, it is likely that the rapist will be acquitted and as the assistant district attorney tries to explain the difficulty in locating the undercover Benson for trial, Chelsea states: "Olivia went to the hospital with me. She held my hand; she said she'd be there for me" (Law and Order: SVU, "Infiltrated"). By the end of the episode, Benson returns to New York, walks into the courtroom and sits next to the Chelsea who says, "I was so afraid that you wouldn't show up." To which, Benson replies, "There was never a chance of that happening"—the last lines of the episode. Here, the writers and producers have made Olivia Benson's identity quite clear: perhaps due to her mother's past or her own broken childhood (she often makes mention of an abusive upbringing), victims both trust and relate to Benson"—so much so that the show can successfully base a single episode involving two independent plot lines on the strength of such an identity.
Since the inception of the show, then, the character of Olivia Benson has been fairly well defined as a strong, but vulnerable detective whose personal background undoubtedly leads to an almost biological empathy with rape victims. It would seem natural for fans—particularly a fan base of rape and sexual assault survivors—to find community, camaraderie and empowerment through the character of Olivia Benson. However, when we look at the self-representation of Mariska Hargitay through her websites, we can begin to observe how the Internet facilitates the ways in which Hargitay is portraying her "authentic" self to her fan. Richard Dyer, whose influential 1979 study of fandom, Stars, examined the degree to which controlled publicity breeds a false sense of actor identity among the fan community, suggesting that "press, magazine, radio and television interviews, and the gossip columns...[were] controlled by the studios and the stars agent," as well as the fan club publications. Dyer reveals that the concept of a celebrity's "authentic" identity is, therefore, nearly impossible to identify given the distractions and influences of commercial promotions (Dyer, 68, 69).
This question of authenticity is further complicated, Dyer contends, because "the audience is obsessively and incessantly searching the star persona for the real and authentic," but that the authentic is contaminated because "'the whole media construction of stars encourages us to think in terms of really'" (Dyer quoted in Marshall, 17). In this case, we can understand how the Internet exists as a medium through which audiences are liberated from the question of "really." With real-time blogging, message boards and the personalization of celebrities' official websites, fans are not left to construct celebrity identity from intermittent magazine, television or radio interviews (most of which are subject to an editor's framing, in any case), where the question of "really"—that is, who could this celebrity really be—threatens to contaminate the fans' perception of the celebrity's authenticity. In other words, as an actor uses the Internet to present an identity not unlike the character he or she plays on television, the seemingly one-on-one cyber conversations (not studio controlled magazine promotions) that take place between celebrities and their fans through celebrities' official websites, message boards and blogs, leads to a greater vagueness between the markers of "character" and "celebrity." When analyzing www.mariska.com, it seems more plausible to eliminate the question of really, or at least, to disempower it. Who Mariska Hargitay really is, her fans may never know, but by reading her website, they can certainly understand how she would like to be perceived. In this sense, Hargitay, herself, has established a privately owned fan-celebrity avenue which is exempt from network television politics of promotion and publicity. [2]
That being said, it is necessary to look at how Hargitay is presenting herself to her fans and how this presentation may be affecting the degree to which part of her fan base has ultimately come to merge her identity with Olivia Benson's. I have focused on two specific Mariska Hargitay websites: her own personal site (www.mariska.com) and The Joyful Heart Foundation website (www.joyfulheartfoundation.org), the site for the Hargitay-founded non-profit which works with survivors of sexual assault and rape. Having already established the connection of fictional Olivia Benson to victims of rape and sexual assault on SVU, the content of mariska.com takes on a greater significance here. Upon first glance, the website looks less like a celebrity page and more like a non-profit website, raising awareness for social causes. With the exception of a poll about SVU guest stars, nowhere on the front page is the show mentioned. Instead, there is a caricature of Hargitay (wearing a badge, which could suggest that it is, in fact, not Hargitay, but Benson), watering a garden with the words, "strength," "love," "confidence," "respect," "hope," and "acceptance" flowing out of the watering can. We can already begin to see the general theme of empowerment (rather than celebrity or fame) filtering through Hargitay's homepage, yet before looking into the personal interaction between Hargitay and her fans through this site, one must address how the site lends itself to an audience broader than simply SVU fans.
The site provides a "Resources" section which lists thirty-eight links to "helpful organizations" dealing with everything from rape to suicide. Still within the section is another heading labeled "FAQ," which provides lengthy answers to the following eight questions:
Moreover, within the "Resources" section is the sub-heading of "What to Do," which answers the site's seemingly fundamental question, "What should I do if I am sexually assaulted?" [4] Among ten bullets advising, among other things, who to call for help and how to preserve forensic evidence, the first point states: "Believe in yourself. Know that when you are forced to have ANY form of sexual contact without your consent, it is not your fault." If fans, therefore, are already capable of merging character with celebrity, then we can begin to see the power which the "Resources" section holds in furthering this identity confusion. At the very least—in terms of identity—this section represents a way in which Hargitay is providing information and support ("it is not your fault") to survivors of sexual assault, but it is also representative of how Hargitay herself is constructing her own public image out of Benson. That is to say, "Resource" sections are not all that uncommon on celebrity web sites; however, "Resource" sections that do not provide promotional "resources" for a celebrity's television show, film or album, are.
Given the extent to which Hargitay is using her website as less of an SVU homepage and more as a support site, we can identify who may be frequenting her site by discussing some of the celebrity-fan interaction taking place through the sections titled, "Ask Mariska" [5] and "Blog" [6]—the two areas where Hargitay virtually interacts directly with her fans. "Ask Mariska" is exactly what it sounds like: a forum through which fans can email Hargitay questions, and she responds by posting the answers online. While this is not particularly unique to celebrity webpages, what is of greater importance is identifying the pattern of questions that her fans are asking. Certainly there are questions related to SVU, but other questions relate to issues far removed from the television show and from Hargitay's celebrity altogether. They instead appear to be questions that Olivia Benson would find herself answering on SVU—resulting in a more intimate extension of Hargitay's "Resources" section. One fan asks the question, "What advice would you give to someone that's been raped and doesn't know how to deal with everything?" While similar in nature to the question posted on the "What to do" section, this question is more personal—asking for advice, not simply inquiring about the necessary steps to preserve evidence or what details to relay to police. Hargitay responds by writing,
Know that you are not alone, that there are people who care and who want to assist you. Confide in someone you trust and feel safe with. If you don't feel like you can disclose what happened to a friend or family member, call one of the hotline numbers listed in the RESOURCES section... Remember, what happened to you is not your fault. You have the strength within you to reach out for the assistance you deserve. You already took the first step. I strongly encourage you to take the next step. Not all questions, however, are related to sexual abuse, as another fan asks, "I suffer from Depression and I was wondering, could you give me any advice about talking to my parents about it?" Hargitay's response reads: First of all, you should be so proud of yourself for acknowledging your feelings and wanting to get better. Depression can make people feel very isolated and helpless. I strongly support your decision to disclose what you are experiencing to your parents... Before talking to them, you may want to write down what you are feeling, when you have these feelings and why you think you have them. You don't have to read this or show this to them, just the act of putting your thoughts and feelings down on paper is therapeutic. It will help you when you confide in your parents.While different in nature, both questions specifically ask Hargitay for "advice," which she gives, but only after offering support. In the case of the first question, she responds initially by saying, "know that you are not alone" and in the second question, she offers, "you should be so proud of yourself...I strongly support your decision." Her "advice," then, only comes after supporting and encouraging the acts of those asking the questions. In this sense, the need to gain strength from Hargitay can be seen as not entirely different from Chelsea's need to have Benson in the courtroom as she testified against her rapist. Yet, aside from the actual responses to these questions—which are clearly invaluable to those who are asking the questions—the questions and answers provide insight not only into an aspect of Hargitay's fan base, but just as importantly, they establish the role that Hargitay is embodying for her fans. Assuming that Hargitay's fans are those submitting the questions, which seems not to be a bold statement, it is possible to conclude that, at least a noticeably vocal presence of her fan base is comprised of survivors of sexual assault, depression and presumably other traumas—traumas which, not coincidentally affect the same victims for whom Olivia Benson acts as both a supporter and advocate on SVU.
Where "Ask Mariska" serves as a fan-celebrity avenue, Hargitay's personal blog on the same website, functions less as a mutual interaction between Hargitay and her fans and more as an arena in which Hargitay can actively communicate and reach out to her fan base. As much as "Ask Mariska" shapes a sense of Hargitay's identity, it also merely reflects the identity that her fans have constructed of her. The blog, on the other hand, can be seen as a more direct forum through which Hargitay presents her identity—it is, after all, reflective of her own personal sentiments, commitments and interests. Effectively, we can read Hargitay's blog as a reliable representation of Hargitay's "real" self—"real" in the sense that it is exemplary of a Hargitay self-constructed image.
In fitting with the traits of Benson and the above mentioned fan perception of Hargitay, the blog focuses predominantly on the themes of sexual abuse and self-empowerment. Take two entries from March 2006, for example, which were posted a week apart: the first post, titled, "Sexual Assault Awareness Month," offers information about a weeklong program at the University of San Diego aimed at preventing sexual assault (events include everything from self-defense classes to roundtable discussions). The following entry, called, "Skydivers and films..." highlights "Operation Freefall The Two Mile High Stand Against Sexual Assault," stating:
Thousands of skydivers will take to the air in order to show their support and raise money for the fight against sexual assault. Funds raised will help maintain and expand the National Sexual Assault Hotline (operated by RAINN), expand SOAR's (Speaking Out Against Rape) programs to educate lawmakers, police officers, students and the media about sexual assault and extend efforts to provide prevention, recovery, and prosecution information to tens of millions of people.In both entries, the subtext of Hargitay's "celebrity" is overtly missing, yet, even in those entries that do recognize Hargitay's celebrity status, the underlying theme is that of sexual assault awareness. An entry from September 7, 2006, for instance, titled, "Score Mariska's 2005 Emmy gown and help support JHF [Joyful Heart Foundation]," clearly references Hargitay's celebrity in its mention of an Emmy gown. The glamour of the post, however, is secondary to the actual cause of the post. Ultimately, the entry is a fundraising advertisement, having little to do with the Hollywood realm of the Emmy's, reading:
The gorgeous orange Carolina Herrera dress [from the] Emmys is being sold to benefit the Joyful Heart Foundation and Clothes Off Our Back. The auction ends on September 15th at 6 p.m. Go to CMarket and start your bidding. And check out what other cool celebrity items you can purchase at www.clothesoffourback.org.Significantly, one can read these entries as operating outside of the realm of network constructed "publicity" identity, since Hargitay is orchestrating her own publicity and that publicity is in fact, related less to SVU and more connected to social awareness. It is important here to recognize that the social awareness which Hargitay is championing is directly related to the same causes which resonate with Olivia Benson on SVU. In this way, Hargitay has used her Internet interaction with her fans to advance the authenticity of her "real-life" identity; yet, with the initial fan convergence of Benson/Hargitay, this authenticity is not limited solely to Hargitay. That is, Benson's authenticity, as a character, likely becomes stronger as a result of Hargitay's efforts on behalf of survivors of sexual assault. Therefore, if one already subscribes to Marshall's assertion that fans can share a "sympathetic identification" with a character, it is feasible to understand the ease with which a particular subgroup of Hargitay fans can approach Hargitay for advice through her website, because who they may, in fact, be asking advice from, at least in some form, is Olivia Benson—someone, whose authenticity may be rooted within the "real life" efforts of Hargitay, but someone whom they have already established a long-standing emotional connection with every week on television.
Further perpetuating the murky waters between Benson and Hargitay is the website for Hargitay's, Joyful Heart Foundation (joyfulheartfoundation.org) [7]—a link for which can be found under the "Resources" section of mariska.com. With its mission statement of, "The Joyful Heart Foundation: helping survivors of sexual abuse heal—mind, body and spirit" written on the homepage and a message from Hargitay (listed as the Founder and President) located directly under the mission statement, this site both dedicates itself to the themes already established on mariska.com and formally marks Hargitay as an advocate of sexual assault survivors. Having founded an organization that "is dedicated to not only helping survivors of sexual assault heal, but also helping to raise awareness and funding for programs with similar missions," Hargitay has taken on the mission of sexual assault advocacy professionally (not just on television), in much the same way as Benson has in SVU. Therefore, if Fiske contends that fans can construct a connection between character and celebrity, what happens, then, to fan distinction of character and celebrity when this construction actually begins to emulate itself in reality?
The Joyful Heart Foundation site presents one section in particular— "Who we are" [8]—which fosters a strong interconnection between Benson and Hargitay. By viewing Hargitay's bio (under the tab, "Who we are"), we begin to understand that in the realm of The Joyful Heart Foundation (that is, outside of television), Hargitay references her television work as secondary to her "real life" advocacy. The bio reads:
As an actress, activist, and victims advocate, Mariska Hargitay has dedicated her time, talent and resources to be an inspiration and force for change. Putting to use her passion for healing, education and community involvement, Ms. Hargitay works to help not only survivors of sexual assault but causes she is passionate about.Through her role as detective Olivia Benson on the NBC series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ms. Hargitay has become more conscious of just how difficult the healing process can be after a sexual assault. Trained as a rape crisis counselor, she has seen first hand how an assault of this nature destroys one's soul.
In this direct statement of identity, two essential details emerge in the convergence of Olivia Benson and Mariska Hargitay: not only is Hargitay actually a certified rape crisis counselor—thus solidifying "authenticity" to her audience—but, she herself, is acknowledging the influence of Olivia Benson in her own life. By recognizing that "Through her role as detective Olivia Benson on the NBC series, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Ms. Hargitay has become more conscious of just how difficult the healing process can be after a sexual assault," the bio aids in the bridging of television and reality. For her fans, Hargitay is not only taking on the role of victims' advocate, but she is, "committed to ending sexual violence and caring for those who have survived it, [spending] as much time on screen dealing with these crimes as she does off." Again, by referencing her role "on screen," the bio is not simply reinforcing Hargitay's work as Olivia Benson, but it is simultaneously blending it with her work as the founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation. The result, therefore, is a greater authenticity in both Olivia Benson (as the character has now transcended beyond television for both the audience and the actor), as well as a stronger "sympathetic identification" between Hargitay and her fan base—presumably a fan base comprised, at least in part, of sexual assault survivors (as has already been established by looking at the messages on mariska.com). In essence, Hargitay has successfully identified herself with Benson to the extent that she can parlay that identity to a larger real-life audience, thereby increasing her level of advocacy to include the realms of both television and reality.