Celebrities

         Ah Celebrities. I must admit out of all the thoughts I have per day, the things I question and the conclusions I come to, until last night I had never properly pondered on this thing called "celebrity culture".
What happened last night you might ask? Well, I attended my first concert! Yay!!! And it was a Beyonce one which was great! The propaganda ( that's probably not the right word), lets say hype, which greeted us in the form of posters, t-shirts of the "Queen" smoking cigars (GANGSTER) and videos of her modelling for H&M and of her steaming ad for her perfume "Heat" were totally messing with our heads as thousands of us gaped at the stage in anticipation. As it would be my first sighting of a "celebrity" I was legitimately expecting God himself in all his stereotypes to emerge on stage, like literally, our creator. He didn't, I'm sorry to report, but the screams around me indicated otherwise. And it just hit me, why do we worship these fellow human beings? I mean that's what I saw, an extremely talented, beautiful and confident human being. Nothing more than that, and as I zoomed out, starstruck, I realised that it wasn't the person on stage that had paralysed me in admiration, it was the hype. It was the screaming faces and energy, it was the photo shopped pictures and essentially the screen through which I had come to know her over the years. Do you know what all of these things had led me to believe? That she was better than me, that she and all the other people who transition so strangely into the celebrity kingdom were better than all of the people standing alongside me.

                                                                              Why?

      Why would any one person be better than another? What makes someone better than the person next to them? A particular talent? An attitude? Wealth? These reasons are pathetic to me. It is my firm opinion that we are all equal in this world, yes all, and we all deserve rights and to not be treated or made feel like we are inferior to anybody even if they can sing, are pretty or work their ass off to get where they are. I believe that everybody has the right to have their voice heard and I think people as a whole need to have a lot more faith in themselves as more than just someone ordinary, not particularly special. However, what I've come to discover is that we love worshipping. It explains a lot of religions and of course celebrities. We love idolizing and we like to think that there's something or someone bigger than us. Maybe we just love the feeling of awe.
That makes sense, doesn't it? We become desperately excited by being whisked off in wonder from a world we've made dreary. We all want to see something perfect so we don't question when the media shows us something and tells us "this is perfection". We've had our confidence and self esteem knocked down so may times from a much too wide variety of sources that we never think that we could be as beautiful or as talented as those on the red carpet.

   Do I think only people who have something to say should be in the public eye? People like Bono or others who actually want to change the world and use the power of their voice for good? No. Who am I to say what's a correct opinion to put out there, everyone has a right to freedom of speech (or should have anyway). I just personally don't understand how someone could  have a shallow status where they're famous for having a talent (or don't, they're just able to live with a camera on them) and they don't try and change something wrong in the world with their connections. It astounds me.

    However that's just me. What goes beyond me though and becomes a worldwide issue is how these "celebrities'" choices and privileges are causing injustice. Tell me, why do these people earn millions upon millions? Why is it OK for them to wear shoes and coats made of animals, spending several thousand on numerous outfit changes per show? Why do they deserve all the unnecessary luxuries when there are millions of people living in poverty? Why? What makes them so special? Nothing. Nothing makes someone so important that they suddenly develop the rights to do that to animals and other human beings.

   You know me by now though, so you'll understand as I end this on an uplifting note where we try and grasp what must be going though these famous folks' heads.The mind is such a complex matter and who knows how we would act if we were thrown into this insane world. They feel fear, their hearts pounding inside their chests, they feel pressure and they are also swept up in an empty ideal of what fame will bring to their life. Don't always be fooled in thinking that they are happier then you could ever be. Constantly chased and criticised? Expected to look a certain way? Immersed in materialism? I mean think about it, how many celebs commit suicide or at least suffer depression? How many turn to drugs and alcohol, self harm and eating disorders? How many hide it? We need to think of the back story of all these fellow human beings and not forgot that they are just like you no matter what TV tells you. And there is always hope. Hope that more people will join the few well known individuals who donate greatly to charity, stay genuinely humble, make a change to injustice and therefore retain their happiness. For the need in all of us to worship something, (a) there are so many things to become truly fascinated by if we only looked at life differently to the way we've been trained to, we shouldn't worship the hype surrounding something or someone because its false! (b) Though lowering your self esteem seems simple for people and the media to do, I guess all I can say is that we need to find a way to worship ourselves in a sense, not in an egotistical fashion but in a loving and faithful manner. Believing in ourselves, connecting with our gut/soul/ whatever you want to call it and being the best person we can be, knowing that we're not better or worse than anyone else. Strip away our behavior, external circumstances, disabilities etc and we're all equal.
 
                                                               Love,
                                                                 Rachel! =)