Celebrity Culture Has Gone Too Far
Write a speech in which you attempt to persuade an audience that today’s obsession with the lives of the rich and famous has gone too far. Why are we so fascinated by the people who make no impact what-so-ever on our lives? Why do we go mad when some rich and famous person makes headlines in the newspapers and magazines for getting drunk at parties or for breaking up with their new boyfriend or girlfriend? Why do we consider these events as a big deal and try to follow up on all the news about it?
Aren’t these so-called celebrities normal ordinary people just like each one of us? However, it is right to say that all of us idolize them, follow their every move, and treat them as modern gods. I can honestly say that there is no one sitting in front of me, who never had an obsession with a celebrity before in their life. Good Afternoon ladies and gentleman, teachers and my fellow students; my name is Sinjumol Sunny and today, I will be talking about how our obsession with celebrity culture has gone too far.
Do you think our obsessions are far beyond what they should be? Well, I certainly believe it has crossed its limits a long time ago. We live in a world full of new technologies, which gives us an unlimited access to the tabloids more than ever before. We have televisions, magazines, Internet blogs andsocial networking sites that are filled with enormous amounts of images and news of the world-wide known celebrities. We are at a time where we have more contact with celebrity gossip than we have had ever before.
However, we are now faced with a question: what are the effects that these superstars have on us? I strongly believe that celebrities influence fans to be devastatingly thin, to get drunk and be high on drugs and they create a stereotypical image of perfection. Celebrities have become a terrible role model for many young people like us. Figures show that 77% of the peoplein this world believe that celebrities have too much of an influence on young girls. This effect isclear in the appearance and attitudes of young girls around us.
They try to imitate the celebrity fashion and follow the latest trends. We have all seen girls as young as ten or twelve years old go around wearing tight clothing and mini skits. They spend hours working out to achieve a size zero figure. There is also a vast amount of girls who starve themselves every day or go on very unhealthy diets just to look like the stereotypical images created by the media and the celebrities.
According to the National Institute on the media and the family,40% of nine and ten year-olds had tried losing weight. This is totally outrageous and these young girls are getting influenced from celebrities like Madonna and Cheryl Cole who have gone too far with their size zero or even double zero figures. It annoys me to see celebrities who are constantly trying to out-skinny each other while this makes the average woman left feeling very conscious about their own figures. I strongly believe that this size zero trend needs to stop and people should be much more responsible about their health especially young girls.
With celebrities creating impossible standards of beauty of goddesses, more and more young adults are feeling less confident, angrier, and more dissatisfied with their looks. Without doubt our obsession with the rich and famous celebrities has gone too far. It has gone past the stage that we are even risking our health and lives to follow them. I was shocked to hear that people are willing to hurt themselves because they are willing to do anything for their obsession. We all have seen the hash tags #cutforbieber trending on Twitter.
Although it started as a joke, it was surprisingto see so many young girls actually harming themselves. I believe that self-harming is not a fashion or statement. It’s a sign that young people are experiencing extreme distress and need help. Another example of how our obsession with celebrity culture has gone too far is when I see people having their bodies filled with tattoos of their favourite celebrities. Although having one or two is acceptable, seeing One Direction fans with around 70 tattoos on them is without doubt crossing the line.
Celebrities often get bizarre tattoos to be in the spotlight. We all know the large scaled tattoo that Cheryl Cole has on her back and Harry Style with countless numbers of tattoos on his body. Many fans are getting the identical tattoos. I believe this is really senselessand people need to be original and if you are putting any tattoo on your body, make it something special to you and something meaningful, rather than a copy of your favourite celebrity tattoo because you have an obsession on them. I believe that celebrity culture has pretty much taken over lives.
It is alarming to know that celebrity news often takes the headlines in newspapers and channels above world events. Recently, the news of the birth of Prince George has received huge coverage in the papers so much thatthose important issues that were happening at the time such as the Syria crisis were overshadowed with the news of the new-born Prince. Also the death of Princesses Diana had been due to our obsession of celebrity culture going out of control. Shedied due to a high speed getaway from the reporters and paparazzi that came after her.
Although the French courts ruled that photographers were not responsible for her death, it is a known fact that they were an inevitable source to her death and we had a major loss of a very beautiful and humble princess and great role model. It is clearly understood that our obsession with the rich and famous had a cost on us, and on them. Let me ask you a question. ? I’m sure almost 90% of you have thought of a celebrity’s name. But are they really and truly the person you want to turn out to be. It is a known fact that many celebrities take drugs.
We see them getting high in leaked pictured of private parties and even some showing up drunk at concerts and public functions. It is shameful to think that we are also following what they do and putting our lives at risk. Drinking alcohol and taking drugs seems to be acceptable to many people because their celebrity role models are taking them. However we also do need to think about people such as Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse who have passed away due to the high intake of drugs. We also see celebrities going into rehabilitation centre because they are so dependent on it.
Do we want to turn out like them? On a final note, let us rise up now and stop letting celebrity culture teach us what to do. Let’s be original, and be the person that we truly are inside. Today’s obsession with the lives of the rich and famous has gone too far. Let us stop it there before it gets too late and out of hand. Let’s do it together. We’ve heard what we have to do. We’ve seen what we need to do. Now is the time to do it, and, together, we can stop our obsession with celebrity culture. Thank you,
