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| Megan Fox hollywood.com |
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| Channing Tatum fanpop.com |
I’m all
about American pop culture, though it does occasionally annoy me to no end. It
helps define who we are as a generation, even if we sometimes strongly dislike
the movies or music that stems from it. But we can’t deny that celebrities and
the media that fuels their fame holds a kind of spell over us. We want to date
Megan Fox or Channing Tatum, we would spend hundreds of dollars to see our
favorite musician in concert for one night, and we stand in line for hours for
an autograph or a glance by movie stars. It’s nothing to be ashamed of – we are
certainly entitled to admire people’s talents (and drool over their good
looks…). However, we also have to remember that we give celebrities their fame,
their influence. They wouldn’t be as affluent or significant as they are if we
didn’t buy into the aspects of culture they produce. And while there’s nothing
wrong with enjoying a catchy song or renting a movie by your favorite artist or
actor, I will never (and I really mean never) understand how people revolve a
huge portion of their lives around celebrities, to the point of worship. Ok, if
someone has invented a new technology, cured a disease, donated time and money
to a worthwhile cause, or survived a tough situation to go on and help others
through the same, I can see how they could be a respectable idol. But to call
someone your hero because they have a catchy song, or because they have
stunning good looks – how is that worthy of a role model?
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| defendingcontending.com Google Images |
I get it; they are
rhetorically strong. Celebrities can easily influence us to download music,
tune into a TV show night after night, or buy a product. They mainly use their
rhetoric to spread their fame and increase their wealth. Yeah, I appreciate the
aspects of culture they provide for us, but it seems to me as if all that
influence is going to waste. The rich and famous constantly put tons of effort
into increasing their fan base or fattening their bank accounts. Maybe if
celebrities turned their attention from increasing their time in the spotlight
to a worthy cause the world would be a better place. I know celebrities do
occasionally advocate for charities already – but I also know that they don’t
wield their rhetorical power for good as much as they could. I can admit, with
no shame, that I follow a ton of celebrities on Twitter. And so I constantly
see tweets about how they love their fans, their fans that love them so much.
Maybe those tweets could be used for awareness of an important social issue
instead. Not everyday, but occasionally.
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| Angelina Jolie newstrick.com |
If people put half as much effort into
something that could help others as they do keeping up with celebrity gossip or
the newest song or movie, the world would be a far better place. Not only are
celebrities not doing all they could, but we, as society, aren’t doing what we
can. We give celebrities their fame, as a group. We can be powerful and make
changes. But we don’t, not consistently. We come together in crises, and that’s
wonderful! Imagine what we could do if instead of telling all of our friends to
download the newest album, we told people about a great charity, or set aside a
few cents a day for those in need. Overall, people individually and the country
as a whole would be better off if we could remove just a fraction of our focus
from ourselves or our celebrity idols and put it to use on something that could
positively impact those less fortunate than ourselves.
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