We live in a culture that is incredibly charged and divisive. People take stands, and people do ugly things. It feels like now, more than ever, there is the talk of racism, sexism, homophobia, elitism, sexual assault, and everything else that makes people uncomfortable.
The existence of the Internet and social media means that we know exactly what everyone thinks about everything, particularly celebrities. The second somebody says something or does something wrong, they’re ostracized and written off forever.
Admittedly, a lot of these celebrities have done some incredibly bad things, and probably deserve to be written off. But it feels like it’s happening with everyone. Every celebrity you’ve ever loved has either committed assault, some sort of other bad crime or has sickening views. I’ve lost count of every celebrity I’m supposed to label as trash.
Honestly, it’s disheartening. It’s disheartening that so many of the people we idolize think like this, and it’s disheartening that people still support them.
People get defensive over their favorite celebrities. And it feels like you’re only allowed to have two opinions: either a celebrity is a terrible person who never should be spoken about again, or they’re a precious cherub who can do no wrong. And realistically, that’s just not what most people are like.
People, even celebrities, are ever-changing. They can make mistakes, and they can learn.
Celebrities aren’t perfect, and you’re only going to find a Jessica Chastain every once in a blue moon. But honestly, the way that people idolize and hyper-fixate on celebrities can get a little tiring. I’m as guilty as the next person, but, ultimately, celebrities are going to disappoint you. They’ll either do something bad, or they won’t be up to your standards of the kind of person that they should be.
So I say we need to stop getting so attached to celebrities. They’re probably going to disappoint you. And, ultimately, they’re just people. They’re not some form of super-people who are all good or all bad. Of course, some people are that bad and deserve to be seen that way, but for the most part, celebrities are on neither end of the spectrum.
I think we need to drop them and leave them alone. Detach ourselves.
I know it’s nice to have idols, but there aren’t that many out there worthy of idolizing. It’s a byproduct of the unfortunate world we live in. Honestly, I think we’d be better for it.
