43.4%
Thursday, February 7, 2008
I've started about 50 drafts on this subject before...and I never hit publish. They sounded trite, preachy, uninteresting. But I just read something that confirms my fears and I can't be quiet any longer and if I sound trite or preachy or uninteresting, well, so be it.
' "There was a survey done by the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse U. that found that 43.4% of teen girls wanted to become celebrity personal assistants. They chose this option twice as often as being president of a college, three times more often than U.S. senator and four times more than chief executive of a major company," Gladstein said.'
-Fox Atomic pauses for a 'Moment', Variety
I am rendered speechless. And heartbroken. And...well...ummm...PISSED!!!
I'd feel about ten thousand times better if they had at LEAST said that they wanted to become a celebrity. And by the way, do not think for a moment that I'm dissing celebrity personal assistants because I'm not. It's a challenging job that requires very specific talents. Call me crazy, but I don't think that most of the girls answering this survey really care about the actual job of being a personal assistant. They care about being a part of what they read every week in Us Weekly. They care about getting into clubs and being in the know. They care about meeting famous people. They care about seeing and being seen. They care about being a part of a world that has become the obsession of this country.
I don't know any of this for a fact. I didn't talk to the teenage girls. I don't know what reasons they gave for having these aspirations. But I can't imagine that all 43.4% of them are sitting there saying, "When I grow up, I want to be a celebrity assistant!" because that's truly what they hope and dream of, because it's how they feel their talents will be used best. I am willing to bet large sums of money that if this was studied further, the answers as to why these girls want to be celebrity assistants when they grow up would look very similar to the list above.
So what. So what if that's what they want to do. It's their lives.
SERIOUSLY??? SO WHAT? If you're sitting here reading this saying that then please, PLEASE explain to me how it is that you view this situation differently than me because I REALLY want to understand how this is NOT the epidemic that I feel it is. That after years and years of women before us paving the way for us to be anything we want to be, what we want to be is a celebrity assistant??? This pierces me to the bottom of my soul. That the obsession with celebrity in this country has grown to such epic proportions that in order to be close to that world, 43.4% - THAT'S ALMOST HALF - of teen girls want to be celebrity assistants.
Celebrities are not the characters that we see them play. Their lives do not start with teasers and have a perfect ending after a well crafted 100 minutes filled with one major conflict that is almost always solved. They are human beings. I know...I know. They're really wealthy and they can get into whatever restaurant they want whenever they want and people send them free things. They hire stylists that allow them to be trend setters. Oh yeah...except for those moments when their stylists get it all wrong and they walk out of the house looking like bag ladies or like they're color blind and the ENTIRE WORLD comments on it. And then there's the fact that they often feel like animals in a zoo when they go out to eat because the rest of the restaurant is staring at them the whole time and there's a decent possibility that their food choices for the evening will end up on the pages of Star. They have to hear things on the news or see things in print about themselves that aren't true. They get chased by paparazzi at all hours of the day whether their going to the doctor or to their niece's 2nd birthday party. When they go to the grocery store, they inevitably end up in the "Stars...They're just like us!" section. WHAT THE HELL!!!!! OF COURSE THEY'RE JUST LIKE US. Sure there are many ways in which they lead charmed lives...but they are not exempt from being human. They feel deeply. They hurt. They have days where they feel ugly. They feel pressure. They have losses. The feel misunderstood. They need a moment to themselves. They cry and they ache and they want things that they don't have and they have moments where they wonder if everything will be ok. They have to work hard in their personal relationships. Sometimes they want to crawl under the covers and hide. Of course the world will never let them.
Meanwhile, why isn't anyone talking about the latest work that Angelina's doing in Africa instead of whether or not she's having a baby? Why isn't anyone focusing on the great humanitarians of the past 5 years rather than what and who Paris did last night? Oh please...don't get even get me STARTED down that road. That's another post entirely. Yes...the one about how posting a sex video online and having millions of dollars instantly makes you a household name and gives not only you, but the entirety of Hollywood delusions that you might be able to act or even -dare I say it - sing?? I can't. I can't right now...I'm just too upset about the 43.4%. This will have to wait for another day. But for now, someone, maybe the same person who's not upset about this whole phenomenon, please explain to me how it's possible that we live in a world that you don't have to do anything worthwhile to gain notoriety?
And people walk around saying, "Uch...kids these days..." But it's adults that are fostering this - adults are putting crap in the tabloids and paying for the pictures. The kids are just responding to the stimulus we're giving them. And now 43.4% of them just want en tree into this world, any way they can get it.
I'm telling you - it breaks my heart. And it makes me mad. And it should make you mad too.
Posted byMeesh-elle my Belle at 2:45 PM
Labels: on a soapbox, things that get me riled up
i am mad too. ugh.
It angers me too.
I wish I could say, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to TAKE IT ANYMORE"
but after years of this... apathy sets in... it only gets worse... It is MIND BOGGLING - all of it.
and ultimately so so sad.
Praise the educated
Praise the creative
Praise the TALENT - The actual TALENT not the person - but the CRAFT
Praise the humanitarian
Praise the rescuer of animals... of orphans...
Praise those trying to change the world
and YES...
Praise the BLOGGER who makes the rest THINK
Praise the writer
praise the written word
But my lord...
Praising CELEBRITY/TABLOIDS/TRASH
it is making me ill
it is actually MAKING our society ILL
where have our dreams and ambition gone
where has the LONGING in our hearts for somtehing substantive gone
where are the LAWS That say you cant stalk celebrities and post their photos EVERYWHERE
showing their hoo has
Where has common decency and decorum gone???
but more importantly
how do we resurrect it