Enough with the Cynical Celebrity Bashing!

Celebrity bashing has become a common pastime for Americans. For some reason, regular people make themselves feel better by mocking the more famous. But their bullying of celebrities is just as bad as any other form of bullying.

Notorious gossip blogger Perez Hilton announced recently that he's going to tone down his criticism of celebrities. The rest of the world should follow his lead.

The Paris Hilton celebrity bashing incident
Not long ago, Paris Hilton was denied entry into Japan because she has a drug conviction on her record. When this news came out, commenters on various blogs and websites all tried to one-up each other with bashing and insulting jokes. A sampling:

"So we took her back... ugh... won't anyone take her?"

"Paris Hilton? Access denied? That's funny, she's open like a 7/11."

"Nobody wants her...she is a media-hungry sore excuse for a human being."

It matters who is doing the bashing
This is the thing with celebrity bashing, though: It really does matter who's doing the bashing. When David Letterman or Jon Stewart mocks Paris Hilton in a monologue, it can be a little funny. When Joe Schmo, a plumber from Poughkeepsie, makes fun of a multimillion-dollar actress, well, it just makes you wonder who the joke is really on.

When regular people constantly make fun of easy targets like Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Michael Jackson (before his death), it really makes me pause and wonder what's missing in their lives. Is their self-esteem so low they have to artificially boost it at someone else's expense? Are we as a society reverting to fifth-grade social dynamics where we have to make ourselves feel better by putting down others?

People rushed to laugh at Chris Crocker when he posted the infamous "Leave Britney Alone!" video on YouTube. But it turns out he actually had a useful perspective.

Celebrity bashing: Why does it matter?
There are bigger problems in society, for sure. But I'm sensitive to this issue because of the way Michael Jackson was treated. For years, he was mocked mercilessly by people who either forgot or simply didn't care that the man had feelings too. They made fun of his skin color even after he bared his soul by revealing to Oprah in 1993 that he had a skin condition known as vitiligo. They referred to him as "Jacko," a derogatory nickname created by the British tabloid press in an effort to de-humanize him.

It was only after Michael's death and his funeral that people remembered that he had friends and a family and that their mocking was totally overboard and insanely juvenile.

It's true that Paris, Lindsay and others sometimes invite criticism with their behavior. But you can legitimately criticize these celebs for not being proper role models. There's a difference between that and saying they "should be sent to coke-whore island." It's the cynical, I-fancy-myself-a-late-night-talk-show-host kind of criticism that has to go.

I guess what bothers me the most is the smug sense of superiority from people who have no reason to feel superior. The idea that a high school dropout from Shreveport thinks she's better than Paris Hilton just bugs me.

Celebrities are actual people, not cartoon characters. And given all the recent suicides across the country due to bullying, we should be especially sensitive to this kind of thing. Even celebrities can be victims of bullying. Just look at Michael Jackson.

Celebrity bashing: Sources
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31749_162-20017218-10391698.html