Building Them Up to Knock Them Down

As I was waiting at the check out in the grocery store today, the cover of Us Weekly caught my eye. A blown up split image of Jessica Simpson dominated the cover with the headline "Bullied For Her Weight." The cover showed a "then and now" layout of the celebrity with sub-headlines about how she is "tortured by food" and questioning her boyfriend, Tony Romo's reaction and whether or not he is in fact cheating on her. Aside from the obvious issue of why our society harps on a size 4 woman, it made me think about how, especially in America, we thrive on building people up and then pulling them down. It has been so common in the last few years for us to shine the spotlight on people and treat them as modern day Greek gods and then yank them off their pedestals and dangle them over the fire, watching with gleaming eyes. It is to the point where we now applaud a young actor who has achieved fame and managed not to get a DUI or be photographed dancing on tabletops at clubs at 3AM only to call in sick to work the next day. Take into consideration Vanity Fair's "Hollywood's New Wave" cover article from 5 years ago. Of the 10 or so aspiring young stars, 2 have since gotten DUI's, 2 have checked into rehab at least once, and one is currently dating Marilyn Manson (enough said).  It's no coincidence that half of this once promising bundle of talent went down such rocky paths after an overwhelming amount of exposure. Take for instance Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan. They are two people that for the longest time you could not get away from. They were in several movies a year, dishing out hit songs, and on the cover of every magazine. Then, when they make one mistake, suddenly they go from being able to do no wrong to being able to do no right.  It is a bizarre humdinger that our society gets its kicks out of watching the mighty fall. Maybe we do this because we thrive on the power of being able to control someone's perception. Maybe we judge them because it distracts us from judging ourselves and in hopes that it distracts others from judging us.