Idolization of celebrities unhealthy for both parties
We need to stop looking up to celebrities in hero-worship.
COMMENTARY
Christopher Suffron

Last week there was a special on television about Jennifer Lopez and her boyfriend, Ben Affleck. This relationship was billed as the most talked about relationship in Hollywood history, or something along those lines, and this interview was supposed to enlighten the nation on how the relationship was progressing.

In a world of magazines and TV shows dedicated to the personal lives of celebrities, I say “Who cares?” I had never heard anything about the most talked about relationship in the history of Hollywood until I was told that I cared. I actually thought that “J-Lo” was married to or going out with P. Diddy, or Puff Daddy or Diddy Puff or whatever his name is. Apparently that is over or never was, and she is now in love with someone else.

To tell you the truth, I do not keep up with the private lives of movies stars and I don’t want to because it has absolutely no bearing on my life and it has no relevance to your life either. Unfortunately, not everyone realizes this. Otherwise the magazines would not sell and the television specials would not air.

But what is so unfortunate about that? There is nothing wrong with a person following the lives of his or her favorite celebrity, is there? I think there is. I believe it is not healthy for the celebrity or the citizenry for Hollywood lives to be so watched and idolized. The pressure of living your life under a spotlight cannot possibly be good for a celebrity’s marriage and could account, at least in part, for the amount of failed marriages you see come out of that section of the population.

However, I believe that the idol worship that is prevalent in American society is worse for the worshipper than the worshipped. If we as a society continually put these people on pedestals and make them out to be larger than life, we start to think they are better than we are when they are not. Prettier than us, perhaps. More talented than us, possibly. But they are not better than us.

You see, when we start to believe that those people are better than we are, we naturally start thinking of ourselves as less than we are. That is where the low self-esteem starts and the constant awareness of how you look and what people think about you. It is these kinds of things that can ruin a person.

Celebrity worship is not good for a person and it can end with you not giving a rat’s pa-toot that Justin Timberlake broke up with Britney Spears.

Christopher Suffron is a senior accounting major from League City. He can be contacted at (c.r.suffron@tcu.edu).