The Fame Game
Kim Kardashian. Miley Cyrus. Paris Hilton. Katy Perry. Taylor Swift - But a few of my favourite celebrity icons. (Not)
We live in a generation where we idolize people who have done nothing special to achieve their celebrity status. Kim Kardashian is famous for being on a reality show where she spends her life crying and moaning about broken nails and a hair falling out of place. Miley Cyrus is famous purely because she is the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus. Paris Hilton is famous for being in line to receive an ungodly amount of money (putting her in a position to do whatever she likes, like poisoning our ears with a record release, our noses with a new perfume, and our eyes with a television reality show) Katy Perry is famous for singing about how much she liked kissing a girl, and Taylor Swift is famous for moaning about how terrible men are and how much she will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever (And just in case you didn’t get it the first time, EVER…) take them back. A big hit with the feminists, surely.
Back in the day, you actually had to possess a skill or a talent to be “famous”, to be noticed and appreciated. Edith Piaf. Tuesday Weld. Marilyn Monroe. Audrey Hepburn. Elvis Presley. All of these people had something special, something different from your regular person, a talent that differentiated them from the rest of society. That was the whole point and purpose of being an entertainer – you had a gift. The problem with all of my abovementioned fiends is that none of them, NONE of them possess any notable talent. Argue with me to your heart’s content, but neither Katy Perry nor Taylor Swift are gifted singers. Watch any video on YouTube of them singing live, and come back to me with bleeding ears and eyes. I have myself seen videos where audience members reach out for certain celebrities, and scream and cry if their hand gets touched. Lovely, now that person is not going to bath for the rest of their existence. Also, how can the celebrity so openly allow this? Allow themselves to be touched like a savior, enjoying every sickening moment. Why are they worshiped like Gods? How the hell are they more special than anyone else? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it. Why do their concerts always have a massive build-up at the beginning, with strobe lights and drum rolls, like the messiah is about to step out onto stage and save us all? I wish he would, to save us from this abomination of a world we live in.
There are two reasons these people get away with the fact that they can’t sing – they are “good-looking” in society’s view (So apparently genetics that you cannot control is enough to get you famous) And the fact the something called “Lip-Synching” exists. I’m sorry, but if you are talented enough to be famous, shouldn’t you be talented enough to break into song anywhere, anytime? The mere fact that stars have to lip-synch displays their utter lack of talent, and lack in confidence (Knowing they are not good enough to sing live) We live in a world where physical appearance means more than raw talent, and I think there is something seriously wrong with that.
There are people who study for years and years to perfect a certain skill or talent, and then people like Paris Hilton waltz along and “throw a few scents together” to design a perfume. People study the art of perfume making for years, and she “throws a few scents together”? (To quote her words) She feels like singing, so she makes a record. She feels like designing, so she gets people to design something and slaps her name on it as a new brand. She feels like acting, so Hollywood directors cast her in their film. Why? Because she is Paris Hilton. Her ancestry is the only reason she “is” who she “is”. I personally did an internal air punch when that pole went straight through her head in House of Wax.
The worst part of this whole irreversible fad is that our children are now being raised to worship celebrities. How is this positive or educational? How can bowing down to a Kardashian, someone who is involved in sex tape scams and dresses like a prostitute, be a good example to our future generations? How can admiring Miley Cyrus be wholesome, a girl who sings about being unable to be tamed at the age of 16? Children are becoming more and more promiscuous, younger and younger. As opposed to a 12 year old playing with her friends and diving into her studies, she is playing with things she should not be playing with, and diving into things that…well, we don’t really want to think about. The skirts are getting shorter, and the brain capacity getting smaller. We need role models that can actually teach our children something valuable, as opposed to valuing materialism. The future of society is full of brain-dead, materialistic zombies, but that’s ok, because they will look good, right? As long as our eyes are happy, let’s forget about our minds.
How can we sit in front of a television, watching a show about another person’s life, as opposed to leaving our homes and living our own lives? How does Kim Kardashian’s new boyfriend affect your own life in any way? How? Why does it matter that Kristen Stewert cheated on Robert Pattinson? Why does it matter that Paris Hilton bought a new pair of shoes? And why does it matter if a celebrity puts on a bit of weight and is seen on the beach looking “fat” and “disgusting”? It is their own business and their own lives, and it is not our place to get involved. They are people just like the rest of us.
Celebrities, as I said earlier, are made to seem almost God-like. They are portrayed to be so amazing and perfect that they are better than us. They are more than us. The fact that we are raising children to believe this is an atrocity. They need to be taught from the minute they can talk and understand their language, that “celebrities” are people, human beings like anyone else. They need to eat, sleep and use the toilet like the rest of us. Also, just like the rest of us, if they are deprived of any of these necessities, the same consequences will apply – hunger, thirst, illness owing to sleep deprivation, and constipation. “Celebrities” are also prone to cancer, HIV/AIDS, Colds, Flu, and spontaneous death from unpredictable accidents – just like any of us normal fellows. “Celebrities” experience emotions, and are also susceptible to pain. If they fall and cut themselves, they will bleed. If someone breaks their heart, they will cry. If they eat too much, they will put on weight. There is NOTHING that divides us from celebrities in any manner whatsoever. People just love to see if a celebrity has put on weight, as it makes them feel good and reassures them that it happens to the best of us – but the point is that we do not need that validation! We should already know that they are humans; we do not need proof spilling out of a glossy magazine into our faces.
We are falling down an irreversible and never-ending downward spiral. The only thing we can do is realize the truth about celebrities for ourselves, and teach our children what the meaning of a role model is, giving examples of who our actual role models should be. Teaching them to aspire to be like Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton is like a penguin dreaming it can fly – it is just not natural. Even if you don’t teach them this, doing nothing about preventing it makes you just as guilty. A child’s role model should be their Mother and Father, their older siblings, people who have made a different in the world like Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King, People with intelligence and class and opinions in life.
Let’s strive for knowledge and wisdom, instead of fame and lies.
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