To remove or strip away the idealized status of someone or something; to show something as less perfect or noble than previously thought.
From de- (reversal/removal) + idealize (to regard as ideal). Created in the 20th century by combining the reversal prefix with idealize to describe the opposite action of creating illusions.
Social media constantly deidealize celebrities in real-time—one unfiltered photo or scandal instantly removes the idealized version we constructed, showing how fragile our constructed images really are.
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