Hi. I haven't posted anything in a very long time. The internet seems to have continued its existence quite nicely without my wise words for quite some time now, so obviously few cared (or noticed) that I wasn't saying anything. And likely, even fewer will notice or care that I have triumphantly returned.
The thing that has me posting today is this: everywhere you go right now, you see pictures of Britney Spears' shaved head. Or articles about where Anna Nicole Smith is going to be buried this week. Or live footage of Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton getting drunk and/or drugged-up and screaming at each other.
A little while ago I saw footage of the night that Britney shaved her head. It was a continuous clip of something like 5 minutes, as the paparazzi literally followed her from place to place, waiting for her to react to them and say something as they followed her car to the place that she got the job done. At various points she yelled curse words at them and gave them the finger, until the journey culminated at the hair salon, where she rushed in and proceeded with the head-shaving, yelling to the cameras something along the lines of "this is because of you!"
Now, the reason I bring up this subject for discussion has little to do with Britney herself. The reason is this: as I was watching this whole thing go down, it became very clear to me that there are cameras following this person literally wherever she goes. I asked, why are the cameras there? More importantly, am I the only one wondering why the cameras are there? As entertaining as the descent of a former bubblegum-pop diva is, underneath all this nonsense is a human being, constantly harassed by idiots with cameras waiting for her to do something shocking or remotely amusing. Am I alone in finding this just a little offensive?
It has occurred to me that since those like Britney are constantly being followed by cameras,
not only are we able to watch these people literally disintegrate before our eyes, but as consumers of this we are actually responsible for their disintegration as well. One day one of these young girls is going to kill herself, and we are going to be able to actually watch it happen on national TV. And by continuing to watch the drama unfold on ET, or Star TV, or in Us Magazine, we are actually causing this whole mess to happen.
Who will be first, Lindsay or Paris or Britney? I bet someone is running a pool on it right now.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
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