Once cloistered in silence for fear of judgment or the annihilation of their careers, they no longer hesitate to talk about their ills. From depression to eating disorders, vulnerability is no longer a secret.
The #MeToo wave has broken the silence around sexual violence. The pandemic has normalized emotional fragility. Today, in the era of absolute transparency, stars are still pushing the boundaries of intimacy by openly talking about their health, physical or mental. They even manage to disrupt our own relationship with the disease by using their story as a driver of societal change. In January 2022, when Stromae evoked his suicidal thoughts while singing L'Enfer on the set of the TF1 news, his announcement had the effect of a bombshell. The national suicide prevention number, set up a few months earlier, suddenly found itself in high demand. On BFMTV, Charles-Edouard Notredame, psychiatrist at the Lille University Hospital and deputy coordinator of the 31 14, praised his gesture. "There are people who call us and explicitly refer to the fact that they saw him on TV. Very clearly, we have a Stromae effect. He was able to demonstrate or express his difficulties and that encouraged them, it freed up a form of speech. Thus, by simply wanting to "touch others", the Belgian singer transformed his vulnerability into a militant act whose scope potentially saved lives.
