on celebrity

there's a possibility of a really interesting discussion (i think) in the comments below, so i've decided to post it as a new post in case people feel like discussing.

Damon said...

I can't believe you continue to pretend to not care about celebrity. You regularly write about it, and often mention past events that make me think you have the entire lives of several celebrities memorized. I don't know what the weed in the bottle thing is, and only vaguely recall there may have been a middle finger event, but wouldn't have been able to come up with that on me own. If you really don't care, then don't follow it and don't write about it. Then again I don't have to come up with blog posts, so it's easy for me to blow off almost all news with "who really gives a shit?"

my response:

well, i tend to remember things that either make me really happy or things that piss me off. i think that's a common phenomenon with most people.

i also think there are many people who are disgusted with the current state of celebrity. i write about it because it's so ridiculous and angering. the only reason i wrote this post and remembered the finger-to-the-crowd and the water bottle incident were because i turned on espn and they had a "special" on because news came out that vick was going to plead guilty. and it made me mad because this "special" was on both espn AND espn2 (and i would guess espn news as well, but we don't get that), which seemed quite ridiculous to me seeing as i've never heard of anyone getting one espn and not the other. they bumped their regular shows to show this shit on 2 channels. it was completely unnecessary.

i am actually not one of the crowd who feels as though celebrities have some greater obligation to the public to be role models and blah blah blah. some people throw themselves into the limelight, but others are just cast into it by their situation, and i think it's unfair for someone to be burdened with this role just because they are good at sports or acting or whatever (which is not to say i don't appreciate when celebrities are good role models, because i do very much. those tend to be celebrities i end up liking, partly for this reason.).

so while i find it unfair to criticize celebrities just because of their position, i think one of the themes of my writing about them is that in reality they are no better than anyone else. and while i do complain about the idiocy of many celebrities, i also complain about the idiocy of "regular" persons as frequently, if not much more frequently (think my supermarket posts, my neighbor posts, my law school posts, etc etc).

so i do occasionally blog about celebrities, but i do so regarding their actions/statements as normal people, not due to their heightened status. of course, sometimes you can't have one without the other (since no one would know of beckham or vick if they weren't famous for being a "soccer" player with a washed up girl-band wife and a criminal, respectively (i think the 2nd one might have also played american football, but there don't seem to be any awards or accolades to back this up)). and i think it's perfectly legitimate to question an individual's celebrity as well, because in order to be a celebrity lots of people have to know about you and allegedly like you, and that's something that involves the public as a whole. so i'm not sure the 2 are completely inseparable.

there's nothing at all wrong with liking someone because they're on your favorite team, or maybe they support some social issue you do, or whatever. but when people blindly support celebrities, blatantly ignoring selfish/stupid/horribly illegal things they've done, that's where i draw the line. i tuned in to espn yesterday to watch "around the horn" and instead caught the special. they had a former teammate of vick on the phone (i think it was ray buchannan, if that person exists and if my memory serves me correctly). he talked for about 5 minutes about how vick was a victim, and the league was just making an example of him, and blah blah blah. to me, this makes no sense at all. vick is the one pleading guilty. additionally, it is my understanding that the league hasn't taken any action yet because they're waiting for the official plea. so how can this guy know that already? and how can this guy say vick is such a good guy who doesn't deserve all this when he's pleading guilty? doesn't make much sense.

if you wan another example, think of all the support for paris hilton when she got arrested and jailed for her 80th drunk driving episode or whatever. there were blogs, other websites, and all sorts of fan forums about how it's "so unfair" and how they're just making an example of her. well i hate to tell everyone, but if it had been jane schmo, the african american woman from the ghetto, she probably would've been in guantanamo after her first offense. but people don't get that, or they ignore it.

so my problem isn't directed at solely celebrities themselves. it also has a lot to do with your lay citizen who blindly worships celebrity and celebrities.

in a sense, damon, i do think you are right. i do care about celebrity. but i don't think i care about them in the sense that you think (or maybe this is what you think and i'm just misinterpreting). i care about the effect celebrity has on society as a whole. i care about how people react to it and how it makes them think. i care mostly from a standpoint of curiousity, dumbfoundedness, and slight rage. i probably should have just become a sociologist (or better yet philosopher!) where i could posture about these issues and somehow get paid for it (if that's even possible). unfortunately, my training is in the legal field, so all i can do is bitch. so bitch it is.