Celebrities as Poor Role Models
Celebrities can be horrible role models, especially for teens that are very impressionable. Some may argue that celebrities never signed up to be role models; however they pursued a profession where their entire lives are in the spotlight. The crazier you are, the more coverage you get. Whether they signed up to be someone’s role model or not, celebrities are looked up to and emulated by many young people, and this is not good.
One thing that many celebrities do best is promoting bad behavior. You cannot walk by a magazine stand without seeing a cover with a picture of a celebrity whose life has gone down the drain due to bad behavior. They are either drunk all the time even in public, being promiscuous, or insulting other groups of people, usually the minority. There are so many photos in magazines like “People” where celebrities are coming out of a nightclub completely intoxicated. This is not good for our youngsters. I know plenty of young people who think the only way to have a good time is to drink on the weekends and get trashed. Where are they getting this idea? One place is definitely celebrities. Teens are just trying to follow their lifestyle because they think celebs are cool.
Something else that is “cool” right now are reality TV shows, especially the ones on MTV. I admit, I am addicted to the Hills which is supposed to be unscripted but that’s another story all together. The point is that in shows like that the girls use the term “hooking up” almost if not more than they use the term “like.” It seems as though these girls are after a new guy each week and they seem to be “hooking up” with quite a few people over an entire season. This is definitely affecting teens and their values about sex. I don’t believe that there is an exact definition for the term hooking up but I am pretty sure it is referring to some form of sexual encounter. We definitely don’t want this idea that it is OK for teenage girls to be hooking up with a different boy every other week. If celebrities do it, it must be cool right? Wrong. There are certain celebrities who have put their foot in their mouth one time too many. A great example of this is Mel Gibson making degrading comments about Jewish people after banking in on a movie about Jesus Christ’s death. Does this make racial and religious slurs OK? If Mel does it so can I. This was not the attitude that people took; they actually looked down upon the entire incident and Mel Gibson has been out of the spotlight for awhile now. I’m proud of people for not picking up this habit too badly. Oh wait, what did Kelly Tilghman say about Tiger Woods? I spoke too soon!
Many people, not just teenagers, are trying to figure out who they are and they look up to certain people to show them the way. Celebrities should not always be the people to look up to. I think a lot of celebrities promote a very bad self-image. I think I remember reading somewhere that the average size woman is a size 14. There is nothing wrong with that. However, when you turn on your TV, unless you are watching the Biggest Loser, you don’t see anyone over a size six on television or in the movies really. Celebrities that start out as heavier set actors and things usually end up losing a ton of weight and conforming to Hollywood’s extreme idea of perfection when in reality America liked them the way they were because they were more normal. I believe that both young men and women feel very pressured to be at a certain weight and look a certain way that can sometimes be unhealthy. Not only is your weight an issue but also how you dress. Girls on TV wear short skirts and low tops and that is what teenagers used to wear out on the weekends which was bad enough but now they are starting to dress like that to school. When will it stop? Not only are celebrities promoting themselves poorly as people but also as parents. Look at Britney Spears, enough said.
Celebrities have been getting in trouble more and more these days because of their bad choices, but they are also getting away with most of it. Many young people read magazines and search online for stories about their favorite stars so they get a lot of the recent information that is out. This means they are seeing so many celebrities get in trouble for DUI’s and things like that and then getting a slap on the wrist and let go. If I were to get caught on two or three different occasions for a DUI, I would be in jail for six months to a year yet Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton do it and get in almost no trouble. What is this saying to American’s? If you have money or fame then you can get away with anything? I hope this is not the case. The same goes for drugs because celebrities have been caught using them but I haven’t seen them get in trouble for it. They show up in court and then everything is handled there and the celebrities are back in their home the same day. A perfect example of this type of preferential treatment is Leonard Little, the defensive end for the St. Louis Rams. He hit another driver while under the influence of alcohol and killed them. He was only sentenced to 60 days and 1,000 hours of community service. After 6 years the entire incident was wiped from his record. This is definitely letting a celebrity off the hook for a major crime. How can you take someone’s life and only do community service? This is not someone young people should be able to look up to.
The limelight is given to those people who misbehave and go crazy because it is more newsworthy. Those celebrities that are all over the news for their bad behavior, bad self-image, and bad choices are those people that teenagers may be looking up to as role models. This is sad to think about. These celebrities may not have signed up for the job of being someone’s role model but when you know you’re life is going to be monitored twenty four hours a day and you still take the job you take the responsibilities that come with it as well.
