Responsibility, Not Prerogative

Celebrities are, by definition, famous people. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a celebrity is "a celebrated person" (183). According to that same dictionary, "celebrated" means, "Widely known and often referred to" (183), and famous also means "widely known" (420). Using these two definitions, we can say that a celebrity is someone who is famous. Celebrities can be famous for being a musician, an artist, an author, an athlete, a politician, a social critic, wealthy, or, as William Zinsser put, "Famous for being famous—and possibly nothing else" (On Writing Well, 41). Since they are famous, celebrities have great responsibility and need to take their responsibilities more seriously than they usually do.

As stated before, celebrities have fame. Fame doesn't bring power; it is power, the power to be heard and seen on national television, radio, movies, or magazines before an audience of millions. They can also influence and inspire people, and often pool the power of fame to try and change society for what they believe is the better.

They also have another more important power: they are role models, and people of all ages—children in particular—shape their lives by mimicking their favorite celebrity. People mimic the clothing that celebrities wear; you can often tell the type of music someone prefers by the way they dress. Some celebrities, such as Gwen Stefani, even have their own fashion companies, a most lucrative business when it is the rich and famous who decide what people wear. People mimic the words celebrities say. Many celebrities are very much against the seal hunt, and a simple search will garner links to many sites that rail against the hunt, yet very few that have anything positive to say. If Paul McCartney says that seal hunting is evil, then it is evil, and his adoring fans will not gainsay him—or non-adoring detractors of Paul McCartney will gainsay him simply to gainsay him, regardless of what the former Beatle says. People mimic the actions of celebrities. Gestures, walks, and even ways of life are inspired by the things celebrities do.

This is not always a good thing—indeed, it is more often than not a bad thing. Celebrities often say and do inappropriate things, and this is all captured by the public eye.

The most blatant—and most lamented—effect celebrities have had is on sexual mores. Many famous women portray themselves as sex objects, while many famous men treat women as such. This has caused a lot of confusion amongst children, adolescents, and young men and women, who begin to see such behavior as being completely normal.

One way that these morals are being eroded is through music videos. Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Madonna, to name a few celebrities, have released videos that depict them as sluts. As a roommate of mine once remarked of Britney Spears, "I ain't seen strippers with moves that good!" [sic] Christina Aguilera released a song entitled "Dirrty" on her album Stripped, which has very provocative lyrics—for example, "sweatin' till my clothes come off"—and filmed a music video full of blatant sexuality and fetishism for that same song. Madonna's music video Erotica showed her in a leather outfit, acting dominantly amongst several submissive, half-naked men.

Male musicians such as 50 Cent, Aerosmith, Kid Rock, Lou Bega and others (rappers in particular) have written songs depicting women as things to be used and desired. Indeed, Lou Bega's song "Mambo No. 5" described the singer as being the lover of no less than 10 women. Videos often show men with scantily-clad women dancing around them, and rappers again are the most egregious example of this.

Fashions show much the same trend. As little as 50 years ago, women were expected to show no more skin than their face, hands, and perhaps their arms. To show the belly, legs, or the tops of the breasts was considered scandalous and indecent. Today, just such scandalous and indecent outfits are available for girls 10 years of age and younger! Abercrombie and Fitch even sold underwear with phrases such as "wink wink" on the front, and sold T-shirts for girls with phrases such as "who needs brains when you have these" written across the chest. Men can buy T-shirts with an arrow pointing to the face above the words, "The Man;" below the words "The Legend," an arrow pointing to the crotch.

Sex is hardly the only vice glorified by superstars. Drugs (alcohol included) are also the subject of many songs. "You & Me & the Bottle Makes Three Tonight", a song by swing band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on their album Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, is about a man having a drink at a bar. "Because I got high" by Afroman, released on the album The Good Life, is a tongue-in-cheek song about marijuana, which jokes about what marijuana did to his life. Many rappers boast about using and selling even more potent drugs, and alcohol and tobacco are substances found in every genre of music and many, many movies.

The same people who glorify drugs also glorify crime. On his CD The Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem describes rape, murder, illegal drug use and slander at a funeral, and boasts of being "mentally ill from Amityville" (Amityville). On the CD ANThology by the band Alien Ant Farm, a man murders his girlfriend, then mockingly says "Happy Death Day To You, Baby . . . Daddy's got a brand new body bag for you" (Death Day). "The Night I stole old Sammy Morgan's Gin," on the Hank Snow album The Singing Ranger, is a comical song about a man who steals and drinks a jug of moonshine.

Then there are antics which, while not illegal, are certainly questionable, immoral, or downright disgusting. Britney Spears upset many people with her 55-hour marriage to Jason Alexander, of which she later said, "Honestly, I really wanted to see what it was like to be married," suggesting one can learn about being married in a mere two days.

What tends to be particularly disturbing is the attitude many celebrities take towards this responsibility. Bobby Brown's album Don't Be Cruel includes a song called "My Prerogative" which states "Everybody's talking all this stuff about me/Why don't they just let me live/I don't need permission /Make my own decisions oh/That's my prerogative." The word "prerogative," means, "An exclusive or special right, power, or privilege as . . . one belonging to a person, group, or class of individuals" (Merriam-Webster 921). It's a view that many celebrities agree with. Naomi Campbell sued the tabloid The Mirror for publishing pictures of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. Michael Jackson's legal troubles have been a matter of constant publicity, and he recently attempted to seek increased privacy. Paul McMasters explained this in his online article "Celebrity privacy claims trump public justice."

Grand jury transcripts have been sealed. So have more than 40 search warrants. So has a motion to suppress evidence and most of a motion to dismiss charges. The names of five alleged co-conspirators have been kept secret. The trial judge has imposed a sweeping gag order on the prosecution and defense attorneys.

But that is not enough for Jackson. His attorney has filed a motion with California's 2nd District Court of Appeals seeking to extend and expand barriers to public interest and press access in the case.

Britney Spears even said in an interview with Diane Sawyers, "If you don't like it, turn the TV off. The only person I want to be a role model to is my sister, Jamie Lynn."

However, as a celebrity, Britney Spears and all other famous people should know that this is not the way it works. Celebrities are famous, and, as stated before, fame makes them role models—whether they want to be or not. Even when they do act as role models, the results aren't always desirable.

Celebrities, like everyone else, have opinions about issues. Like everyone else, they are entitled to their opinions about issues. Unlike everyone else, their opinions about issues are broadcast across the nation as soon as they open their mouths. The problem is these celebrities seldom pause to actually think about what they are saying.

Environmentalism is a good place to begin. Many celebrities express concern about the environment and global warming. To a point, this is good; caring for the environment is everyone's responsibility. What goes haywire is when they demand an end to climactic change. After only a couple centuries of studying the weather, how are we to understand—much less control—forces that take millennia to cycle? People like David Suzuki seem to miss this particular point.

Environmental activism is related to animal rights activism. Before we begin, allow me to speak about the difference between animal welfare and animal rights. People who support animal welfare believe that animals under humans' care should not be mistreated or needlessly harmed, a perfectly valid and enforceable viewpoint. People who support animal rights believe that animals should be treated as human—no matter what inhuman behavior they may display. Such people tend to be highly naïve. Animals freed from farms, rodeos, zoos, and households (that is, animals kept as pets) and released into the wild face a grim—and often short—future. These animals often starve or freeze to death within days because they never learned to find food or shelter or are killed by predators they never learned to fear.

Another example of animal rights activism is the constant call for an end to the seal hunt. Stars such as Richard Anderson, Charles Aznavour, Kim Basinger, Sir Paul and Lady Heather McCartney, Mick Jagger, Martin Sheen, Pierce Brosnan, Robert Kennedy Jr., Bridget Bardot, Berkley Breathed, and Morrissey have these things in common: they are all against the seal hunt, and none of them were born, raised, or live where the hunting takes place. Therefore, they have a significant blind spot in their viewpoint: they have no experience of local life. They cannot, therefore, understand how seal hunting affects the local community. Some have offered to donate the money raised by seal hunting, oblivious to the effect handouts have on a person's self-esteem.

Another set of issues celebrities enjoy getting into is politics. One example was the Rock Against Bush series of CDs—of which there are two available and a third forthcoming—an anti-war, pro-peace, anti-George Bush project which, of course, presented a great deal of ad hominem argument against George Bush and his policies. George Michael—independently of this project—released a video mocking George Bush and Tony Blair as homosexual lovers. Many demand that the United States remove its military from Iraq, even as a religious civil war is building. This is not to say that celebrities should not have opinions on politics. However, should they wish to make these opinions public, one would hope that they would think of possible consequences or fully understand the issues.

So can celebrities be positive role models at all? It may seem like they're not good for anything. Here are a few celebrities, however, to consider: Billie Holliday, Louis Armstrong, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Pink, and Bill Cosby.

The first four mentioned did a lot for civil rights for Blacks, which were severely lacking in their day. In 1939, Billie Holliday shocked the patrons of the Café Society by singing Abel Meeropol's song Strange Fruit, a disturbing song about lynching. Louis Armstrong's trumpet playing destroyed many stereotypes about blacks, and supported Martin Luther King Jr. financially. Rosa Parks became a celebrity when she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white person on a bus. In protest of her arrest, Blacks boycotted the Montgomery transit system for more than a year, depriving it of three quarters of its passengers and, consequently, its income. And Martin Luther King, Jr. used his power as a celebrity to bring the misery of African-Americans to the national stage, where they could not be ignored.

How is this different from celebrities complaining about the seal hunt? The difference is simple: how well the celebrity in question understands the issue. Paul McCartney toured Newfoundland, but that is not enough for him to understand the culture, no more than I would understand German culture after a short tour through that country. Holliday, Armstrong, Parks, and King understood racism very well; it defined their very lives.

Comedian Bill Cosby, a more recent celebrity, is very vocal about how Blacks behave. He has expressed little patience with "Ebonics" and holds Blacks to a higher standard. He is notable for never swearing in his comedy routines and for rejecting stereotypes normally applied to blacks.

Singer Pink's album I'm Not Dead includes a song called "Stupid Girls," lambasting the stereotypical "sex kitten" image that many other celebrities show. She mocks current fashions, bulimia, concerns about how much one eats, and careless driving. At the end of the video that accompanies the song, a girl grabs a football and goes out to play.

The all-women band TLC released the song "Waterfalls," giving a warning against illicit sex and crime, describing these things as ending in death.

As you can see, some celebrities are responsible, some think they're being responsible but really aren't, and some are simply irresponsible. What we, as people, tend to forget is that celebrities are people. They make mistakes, they do silly things, have dumb ideas, just like everyone else; in short, they're flawed. As their fans, we ourselves must take that into account and think over what our role models say, rather than just parroting their words.

Earlier, I mentioned that celebrities are role models for children and adolescents whether or not they want to be. They are also role models for children and adolescents whether or not parents and other people not graced with fame wish them to be. And thus we have a serious responsibility ourselves: to present ourselves as role models, and to teach the younger generation that simply because they have someone as a role model does not mean they have to copy that person exactly. They must be encouraged to become their own person. Wild Bill Peyto is a man I admire, but I wouldn't let a lynx loose in a bar like he allegedly did (Brennan 47).

Lastly, we have to consider whether we want someone who acts irresponsibly to be a celebrity. Sometimes celebrities—particularly those who are simply "famous for being famous"—are comparable to the popular kid in school that nobody likes (what does Paris Hilton do?). If we really cannot abide them, we should express our disapproval by refusing to support them and encouraging others to do the same. We even have an excellent word for this action, supplied by a 19^th century British politician who was ostracized by Irish peasants because of his harsh policies towards them. His name was Captain Charles Cunningham Boycott (Strange Stories, Amazing Facts 526-527).

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