• ArugulaZ
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    37 months ago

    Counterpoint to all this nepo baby nonsense: Nicholas Cage. Jamie Lee Curtis. Candace Bergen. John Ritter. They’re all successful actors who rivaled or surpassed their celebrity ancestors.

    • ZeroCoolOP
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      7 months ago

      That doesn’t change the fact that they’re nepo babies. That’s not even a counterpoint, you’ve just listed examples of nepo babies lmao.

      • @NightOwl
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        177 months ago

        Haha yeah it actually shows what a huge initial advantage it even is to be able to get a chance to act in the industry, and highlights how they could have not been in the industry without nepotism. There’s a lot of talented people but only so many people the industry is willing to give a look, so relationships really matter if you don’t want to rely on lottery type luck. Industry doesn’t have a shortage of people.

        • Zorque
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          27 months ago

          That’s true of any industry. They may not be as visible as those in popular media, but it’s generally just as true.

          The only reason the “nepo baby” epithet has taken off is because of parasocial pop culture relationships.

          There’s lots of people who aren’t “nepo babies” who do achieve success. Assuming that these people would never make it without their connections is speculative and not just a little bit petty.

          • @NightOwl
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            7 months ago

            Depends on the industry. Degree based ones like medicine or accounting and or trades are easier to get into the industry to make a comfortable living for the average perdon. Now upper tier is another matter, and that does heavily benefit from relationships if going for like high management level positions.

            But, the art and performance based ones like movies and music is one where relationship definitely is heavily shifted to being important, and talent and work ethic guarantees nothing. And financial security is very unstable and hard to attain for the average person to grind it out, so every advantage matters to even be considered for a job that could end up being stable.

            So nepotism doesn’t discount their talent or hard work, but there’s no need downplay the role it played to even get a shot.

      • Zorque
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        17 months ago

        Which doesn’t change the dismissive nature of the epithet. Painting targets on specific people instead of the culture surrounding them makes them seem like the problem, instead of the very nature of the industry. It says “you didn’t earn this, you just inherited it”.

        Just shouting “nepo baby” at people isn’t an argument, it’s abuse. If you want an argument, maybe change your strategy and try the next door over.

    • Remmock
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      87 months ago

      Standing on the shoulders of giants helps you stand taller. Besides, you weren’t necessarily around to experience the star power of their predecessors. You have no idea if they’re actually more successful or not.

    • @Akasazh@feddit.nl
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      7 months ago

      Nicolas Cage deliberately changed his name from Coppola to avoid suspicion of nepotism.