People tend to idolize celebrities and forget they're human
By Sissy15
@sissy15 (12350)
United States
December 27, 2024 7:20pm CST
I often feel like people forget celebrities are people. Everyone likes to hold them to higher standards because they are in the public eye but no one can be perfect all the time. They are going to make mistakes and say and do stupid things but unlike the rest of us, it doesn't go unnoticed. The average Joe can say or do something and have it be forgotten because it's not blasted everywhere for everyone to read.
If anyone defends a celebrity when everyone is attacking them they say you're making excuses for them and I don't feel like it's making excuses for them as much as realizing they're a human with flaws like the rest of us. We like to put celebrities on pedestals and when we realize they aren't perfect that pedestal topples and falls and our illusions about them are shattered. I love reading biographies and autobiographies of actors because I find them interesting, and I go in knowing that they aren't perfect, so nothing disappoints me.
I remember reading Doris Day's autobiography, which she wrote in order to shed her perfect image. She said she was tired of everyone thinking she was some kind of saint. She was seen as wholesome because of the movies she was in but there was a lot about her life that was far from wholesome.
The older celebrities especially had very different images than those of actors today because it was easier to keep some things a secret back then. I love reading about their imperfections because it makes them more human instead of these images we see on a screen but ultimately know nothing about. We know they're human but I think sometimes when people idolize them so much they forget that. It's nice to see they aren't perfect and that they make mistakes.
There were celebrities whose image was that of imperfection that made them seem like they had more flaws than they did like Dean Martin who appeared to be a lush but that was an image he created. He was far from a perfect man but he wasn't the alcoholic that he appeared to be on stage. Foster Brooks also played a great alcoholic when in reality that was also an act and if I remember correctly he actually quit drinking after he made a bet with someone and his drunk image was just part of his act. One of my favorite sketches with him and Dean Martin was when Foster was portraying an airline pilot was drunk and he was telling Dean he flew one of those things (I'm paraphrasing here as I can't remember the exact line) with those things that stick out of the side and Dean is like "wings?" and Foster goes "Oh, you fly too?" I remember laughing pretty hard at that sketch.
My point is that celebrities are human, and we need to start remembering that and stop getting offended over every little thing they do. It doesn't take much to offend people anymore. People get in an uproar over some of the silliest things. You can't say or do anything without someone having an opinion about it. It's easier to just live your life and ignore the rest the only difference is it's a lot easier for the average person to do that than it is a celebrity who depends on people to watch their movies and TV shows. I'm of course not saying we should excuse the really bad things like bigots and predators but sometimes I think people go over the top with getting offended. It's to the point you can't say anything without offending someone.
I know there's a certain responsibility that comes with fame because they are in the public eye but that doesn't mean they owe everyone their entire life and for everything they do to be in the public eye they have a right to a private life too and they have the right to be able to make mistakes as long as it's not doing real damage.
I have always loved learning about people and not just famous people I've always loved reading non fiction and learning about different people, much the same way I enjoy people watching in a crowded place. As humans we are all incredibly flawed and sometimes it makes me feel a little better about my on flaws to know I'm not alone and to know we are all working on something.
I think about the public image a lot of older celebrities put out back when it was easier to fabricate things for image sake and know that there is no way they were as perfect as they'd want you to believe but they had a legitimate reason to lie and make themselves look better than they were and that was to keep their fans loving them, which is why it also always amused me that some made their money from an image that was flawed like Dean and Foster as drunks when neither one drank that much in real life. Some could survive their bad boy image like Frank Sinatra who it seemed that image was a draw to many women. Frank could be a nice guy but he was also not someone you messed with. I feel like some celebrities could survive almost anything while others it would ruin them and I was never sure what it was that made it possible for some to be able to almost get away with murder while others so much as have a small smudge on their record and people would look at them differently. It's like people are more likely to overlook some things for some celebrities and not others and it never made sense to me.
At the end of the day all I can say is that celebrities are human. If you want to read and learn about them you need to accept that you may not like everything you read. I have known people that have read autobiographies and then would be in shock as their illusions about them were shattered and I just thought because they're human? I can't speak for everyone but I'm very flawed and I can't sit and judge someone else just because their flaws are different than mine. I wish I were a better person and I continue to strive to be better but just like everyone else I'm a work in progress and so are celebrities no matter how many people would like to believe they're perfect they aren't and when you stop demanding perfection from people you don't even know life gets a lot easier. We shouldn't be putting celebrities on pedestals in the first place. It's not healthy to idolize anyone anyway. If you're going to look up to someone it should probably be someone you know in your life that does good things and not someone you don't really know anything about. I have favorite actors that I love learning about but I don't put them on pedestals and I don't look up to them for anything. I can say from what I know about them they seem like good people but I can't know for certain but you can also know people in real life for years and not really know them.
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