Some people look up to celebrities as beacons of inspiration and motivation. From the eccentric Lady Gaga to the emotional Adele, from the dead Michael Jackson to the advocate Beyoncé each one possesses his or her own fan base most of whom mould their lives one way or the other to the image of their icon. But are some of them really people who should be given role model status?
The truth is that celebrities are people like you and I who have individual lives with good and bad times, conflicts and successes. BUT they live in the spotlight and a loss of private time is the price they pay for fame.
Maybe this is why everything they do, especially the bad or weird things seem to be magnified a thousand times over.
Though revered as the King of Pop, Michael Jackson was known to be unhappy. He avoided the public as much as he could; shielding his children by making them wear masks and veils when going out. When he died, it was revealed that he had severe insomnia and relied on drugs to sleep. In fact, this was what eventually caused his demise.
At one time Whitney Houston was the Queen of Soul but then she too fell from her public pedestal starting a life of drugs and a downward slide which she never truly recovered from. It was the misuse of drugs that finally took her life.
And what is Lady Gaga trying to prove with her outlandish outfits? She has been known to wear outfits made of beef, latex, feathers… you name it.
Does Rihanna have a point to make about love when she herself is light headed? There was the battering she suffered at the hands of her then boyfriend Chris Brown. More recently, she was reportedly the spark that inflamed a public (of course) fight between the entourages of Brown and Drake, who she was briefly involved with also. Drake and Brown did nothing to calm their parties… rather they encouraged slandering, which led to both parties throwing bottles, shoes, ice and even chairs across a club hall – resulting in injury to clubbers and staff.
From public childish conflicts like the above, to the idiotic songs Lil Kim sings about her rival Nicki Minaj – even Nicki’s numerous alter egos are dangerous for a child to copy. Sure imaginary friends are creative until one tells a child to jump down the stairs; split personality is very unhealthy and dangerous to acquire.
Don’t even get me started with the Jamaican reggae artistes like Mavado and Kartel (even his name is not influential).
Some people believe celebrities need to hold a sense of responsibility; this current generation of youths is extremely gullible and has the nature to ‘Xerox’ everything they hear on their iPods and see on their televisions. But others believe that is too much to lay on them and we should leave the entertainment to the entertainers and the nurturing to the parents. What do you think? Hit me up at www.stabroeknews.com/ category/the-scene
