Celebrities seem untouchable. Constantly seeing them on billboards, TV screens, and social media at times almost makes them seem like they are from another world. Because of their seeming invincibility, it also seems like they can never die, and, when they do, it seems like it’s the end of the world. This strange concept of a celebrity can also make them seem like aliens from another universe.
But that’s just not true. They are humans too.
While this may be difficult to comprehend because of their otherworldly status, it’s a reality that the public must respect. By not treating them like the public – which is, to say, give them privacy when they want it, to give them grace for when they make mistakes, or to treat them how one would want to be treated – people are regarding them like they have no feelings, no emotions. But, like everyone else, these people started off as relatively unknown people (unless, of course, they were born into a famous family).
Lately, there has been a constant presence of anger towards some celebrities, both large and small. Whether it was something worth arguing about, or something small that regarded a celebrity’s life decision, there always seems to be a person telling a celebrity to kill his or herself.
And that is not okay. It’s unacceptable, and someone has to do something about it.
One of the most recent and most troubling examples of this phenomenon happened to the comedian, Leslie Jones, who received recognition for being on Saturday Night Live, and, most recently, in the new rendition of Ghostbusters. Many on Twitter went out to make racist and prejudiced remarks against her, even tempting to her want to leave Twitter altogether. People compared Jones to Harambe, the gorilla who was killed back in May, she was constantly called ugly, and other horrible racist comments that are just too horrible to repeat.
Although it may not seem like it to some people, this is called bullying. If these words were said to a “regular” person, the public would be outraged, and it would have been stopped immediately. But that wasn’t the case for Leslie Jones. She publicly went out on Twitter saying she was “numb” and even saying that she was “trying to figure out what human means.”
It’s haunting to hear something like this from anyone, let alone a celebrity. It’s altogether terrifying that there are people who would deliberately target other human beings for no particular reason other than to spread hate. For someone who has just recently become a breakout star, as her first appearance on SNL was back in 2014, it’s upsetting to see how quickly people will attach themselves onto other celebrities in order to create chaos with hate.
Social media is supposed to be used to connect people, not to spread hate. Social media can still be used for good, but, recently, it seems like it is just an outlet to hate on others, especially celebrities. This type of cyber-bulling needs to be addressed because it seems like nobody has the care to stop it. It may appear that celebrities can go through the day and not see any hate, but it’s very apparent, especially if there is a hashtag accompanied with the hate.
Cyber-bulling happens to everyone, even the “unbreakable” and “untouchable” celebrities. But celebrities are people too. They can feel hurt and pain, just like the general public. Just because they have a bigger audience doesn’t mean that they have accumulated the power to separate themselves from their emotions. However sad it may be, because of their famous status, they are more susceptible to being hated by others. They are so often in the spotlight that there are so many different opinions on them, from love to pure hatred, and social media can enable those who have hatred to speak their voice, sometimes even overcoming those who spread love.
It is one thing to have an opinion, but it is another thing to decide to call people names or compare them to something in a hateful way. This spew of hatred remarks needs to stop. No matter how famous a person is, there needs to be a stop to all of this sinister cyber-bulling.
Celebrities are people too. They have emotions and they can feel pain, just like everyone else. Just because they are in the spotlight doesn’t mean they have turned into robots; they are just in a different career path that calls for a more public audience. That doesn’t mean that hate needs to be spread. Stop the cyber-bulling, or it might need to be an end of all that is good on social media.
