As a society, we put so much on our celebrities. We expect them to be flawless in their respective fields, and also in their private lives. Any misstep is fodder for all the media to enjoy and exploit for ratings. Their private lives are really public and the mistakes they make in their private lives can have an adverse effect on their brand. When the celebrities make a particularly big mistake, we all want them to pay for it, as if they owe us something. We become outraged in their behavior because we expect them to be infallible. Celebrities are people, just like the rest of us and maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to label them role models.
In recent news, the blog world has been buzzing about the Shaquille O’Neal alleged affair. The scandalous emails surfaced and a lot of people started discussing his “responsibility” as a role model. A few short weeks later, the media started covering Tiger Woods and his alleged affair, which is believed to be the reason behind the car accident. Now the public has shifted their focus from Shaquille O’Neal to Tiger Woods, and with that came the discussion of a celebrity’s obligations as a role model. The impossible standards we have set for these people are ridiculous. We expect more out of them than we do of the regular people in our lives, our communities.
While we would like to freely label our celebrities as role models, we need to accept that they are just as human as the rest of us. We need to become more realistic in our approach to who we deem worthy of being considered a role model. The fans need to remember that there is so much more to being a role model than just celebrity status. Holding them to unrealistic standards, as far as conduct is concerned, is just silly. Let’s embrace our celebrities as humans first, with all of their inherent flaws. There should be no outrage when the celebrities slip up and get caught making human mistakes.
When these celebrities become famous, they never cease to be human and we should accept that. Maybe we should just learn to take the good with the bad when we decide to elevate our celebrities to god-like status. Maybe we can learn to forgive the human in the celebrities we support. Maybe the recent turn of events with Shaquille O’Neal and Tiger Woods will make us look more to the extraordinary heroes serving us daily in our communities without the fame and the wealth. Perhaps regular people can learn to look at how they can step up to the challenge of becoming a role model. Instead of being terribly disappointed in celebrities failing us as role models, we could look to the extraordinary people around us who are more deserving of such a title.
