What is a celebutante?
It is not often that you spot a hoodie, a muffin top and a celebutante all in the same place, but if you happen upon the 9th edition of the Collins English Dictionary, that is exactly what you would find.
A celebutante is a hybrid between a celebrity and a debutante. A debutante is defined as a young woman, usually over 18 who comes from a wealthy family and has received a large amount of media attention primarily for her wealth and lifestyle. It differs from a socialite because celebutantes are also celebrities and are generally famous for being famous. The term is currently being used to describe individuals such as Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Nicole Richie and the 21-year old Anne Hearst, great-granddaughter to newspaper mogul, Randoph Hearst.
The word celebutante first emerged during the Great Depression-when probably even more than today-it contained emotions of admiration and envy.
The word celebutante can be traced back to a 1938 Walter Winchell society column in which he used the word celebutante to describe prominent society debutante, Brenda Frazier, who was heiress to a banking and grain fortune. She was a star at 17, and a has been by 29. Brenda Frazier was a media sensation when she appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1938, sporting a sideways glance and one of her signature strapless gowns. Her early life was constantly chronicled in images and words down to the early 1960s.
It would take nearly a half a century for celebutante to become repopularized in the American popular press. The second time around it appeared in a June 3, 1985 Newsweek article about New York’s flamboyant clubland celebrities, focusing on the lifestyles of James St. James and Diane Brill, who was crowned "Queen of the Night" by Andy Warhol.
Newsweek wrote: Young celebutantes’ hope to win approval of full-fledged downtown celebrities like Diane Brill, a voluptuous 26-year old menswear designer who reigns over the New York night in red vinyl evening gowns.
It’s about a girl or a guy, but mostly girls in this case, who just go out and are seen and are paid to be seen. Nobody quite knows what they do, but they normally come from a lot of money and they’re normally associated with a celebrity. Whether it’s their parent, their brother or their sister. They’re just famous for no one quite knows, but they’re making a lot of money doing it. They’re everywhere. Yes, a celebutante is a man or a woman in Hollywood that is famous for being famous, and most of the time it’s because they came from money. People celebrate wealth now as opposed to talent. It’s the new phenomenon. And so if you’re wealthy, and you have access to a hundred thousand dollar a year stylist and a hundred and fifty thousand dollar a year publicist who can get you to all these parties, you’re famous.
The word celebutante is a cross between celebrity and debutante. A debutante is defined as a young woman, usually over 18 who comes from a wealthy family. She is often introduced to the social scene through a debutante ball and is thus considered eligible for offers of marriage. Today, the word debutante more commonly applies to young women who will inherit fortunes, and is less about offers of marriage.
