During 2016’s tumultuous election and even weeks after the president-elect had been announced, it seemed that a powerful trend surged among celebrities. Countless famous personalities boasted to the world the candidate they stood behind. Madonna held her rally in Washington Square Park a day before the election in the name of Hillary Clinton, encouraging her fans to vote for her. Jay-Z and Beyoncé both announced themselves as ardent supporters of the Clinton campaign, going as far as delivering a performance featuring Chance the Rapper and Big Sean in her name. Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champ, proudly proclaimed his support of Donald Trump saying that if he could “get 20,000 people to vote for him or more” he would. Kanye West also met up with Trump at Trump Towers to “talk about life.” Most recently, Meryl Streep delivered a speech after winning the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Golden Globes. She took her acceptance speech as an opportunity to elaborate on her disdain for Trump, without once mentioning the President’s name. When these and countless other celebrities declared their loyalty to a candidate, media sites littered the internet with articles. Among the several websites, popular news organizations such as USA Today, Daily Mail, and CBS dedicated space to entire articles talking about the certain celebrities who supported certain candidates. CBS News actually published a list of 28 famous people who supported Donald Trump.
Amidst all these declarations, I sat there wondering…who cares? Seriously. I can’t remember the last time Jay-Z voiced his concerns over the NSA’s pervasive presence or Beyoncé declared her suggested plan on dealing with the Syrian immigrant crisis. I definitely can’t remember Kanye talking about any subject, political or otherwise, other than Kanye. The fact of the matter is these are not figures that should carry any political weight. Though you can surely appreciate their talent, they certainly shouldn’t be a determining factor in who you support. The fact that these actors’, actresses’ and artists’ opinions on matters that they have no legitimate connection with have any potential for influence on the population opens up a larger can of worms.
Fame carries too powerful of a presence in America. It determines fashion and colloquialisms, it has the power to mold the image of the ideal person, and apparently, it can have the audacity to attempt to decide how people think. It’s been said hundreds of times, though it seems the words fail to connect: “Celebrities are people too.” This isn’t just an attempt at normalizing Hollywood’s employees, it’s also an indication that they’re opinion alone shouldn’t be enough to justify one’s own beliefs. People have a chronic tendency to place them on a pedestal and take their word as law. As we have seen time and time again, they aren’t always epitomic figures of morality nor are they idols of renowned intellect. More often that not, a celebrity is simply a person with a talent that other people like to see or hear.
Clearly, there is no harm in appreciating or approving of what these figures say. If you see their words as merely preaching to the choir then your decision has, hopefully, already been decided by your own standards. You, yourself, have assessed the situation and chosen what you believe in through your own free will. The issue arises when their word has the power to influence the way you think solely due to the fact that they show up on TV or on iTunes. This is, unfortunately, an undeniable reality today. The predominant style of contemporary music has brought about a more derogatory manner of speech and style among millennials, and rather than this being a statement of rebellion or a rebuking of the status quo, it is instead done out of sheer imitation for what they hear in music. Among countless celebrities, pretentiousness is celebrated and is, in fact, becoming an attractive feature because it’s seen and heard so often in interviews, concerts, and social media. Personal taste in clothing becomes meaningless as long as you’re wearing what Taylor Swift or Kim Kardashian wore on a late-night talk show. This occurrence relentlessly wears away at individualism. The sense of a deeper meaning behind an action becomes erased. There is no higher purpose or philosophy that inspires who we are or how we act, we’re just doing what the people on the shiny screen are doing.
