Idol worship

We are in the middle of a miraculous moment in our generation’s pop culture.  

Currently, we can go about our celebrity obsession and praise without fear. This is big news and bordering on blasphemy to print. The normal trend of society is to mimic our idols as we are simultaneously knocked down by their white-powdered noses and over-inflated chests.  

We normally have to remind one another how celebrities can’t be praised because of their lewd threats to feminism, race relations and anything else holy in our modern society. But the times are changing. We have celebrities in our current culture who should be praised, followed and emulated.

To say that this is the first-ever group of role model celebrities is erroneous, but for our generation, it is almost spot-on. While those of the 1970s and 1980s are more than familiar with Bono’s efforts and all the good Live Aid brought out of celebrities, we grew up watching Anna Nicole Smith party too hard — two pretty different experiences.

Hip stars and starlets alike are putting down their shooters and hooters for better, healthier causes. Mariah Carey has been loving motherhood, caring after her twins with Nick Cannon — a route that Beyoncé and Jay-Z will be on in just a few months.  

Lady Gaga just had a multi-million viewership watch her special on Thanksgiving Day.
The icon used the time to be exposed and vulnerable, stopping mid-song to talk about pizelles with her grandparents before continuing. Clearly, we’re on a rather charming track here.

Recently, celebrities have been showing a drive that has been lacking in the past. Eager to please fans, the release dates between records, movies and other media has been significantly shorter than the past.  

Gaga put out three albums in three years; Beyoncé now has seven music videos off her newest album and Rihanna has taken to putting out an album a year. It seems our idols are actually working for their fame — a rather admirable switch from the old where they were paid for tabloid appearances.

Besides their intrinsic actions, celebrities are more actively supporting causes and becoming proactive in ones they see as underrepresented.

Gaga continues to vehemently condemn bullying and praise gay rights, while Beyoncé made many tykes’ dreams come true as she visited schools earlier in the year to raise awareness about obesity.  Heidi Klum supports a variety of organizations from UNICEF to pediatric AIDS foundations.

Celebrities are actually becoming good role models — something they should have been all along. The influx of female celebrities being good and doing good is especially refreshing for our culture. Young girls are less concerned with appearing tainted and upsetting their mothers for worshipping cleavage.

Our generation and the next is getting the role models we missed out on. If this trend continues, the stereotype of the “drunk slut” female celebrity ­—  the one the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton helped bring to life­ — will come crumbling down. No one can be upset about that.

So feel free to love all of these celebrities shamelessly. Look into their charities and causes, maybe even think of offering up some monetary sacrifice to these modern demigods. Many are trying to better our world.

Granted, we still do have the Kim Kardashians of the pop culture world going about their normal celebrity behavior.  

We can’t blindly follow all celebrities quite yet; we still have to use intelligence when praising. But we’re certainly better off than when we had bald Britney.

­— sjostrow@indiana.edu