Gossip always wrong, even about celebrities
By Mary Elise Zellmer
Staff Writer
Thursday, March 3rd, 2010
This past Friday,
February 19, Tiger Woods issued a public statement addressing his
marital infidelities and apologized to all those who were hurt,
including his family, friends, business partners, colleagues and fans.
While the statement seemed to express sincere regret from a man whose public image has fallen so far from where it started, I was bothered that he felt the need to apologize to such a huge audience on a deeply personal matter. I felt that it just isn’t the public’s business.
Sure, I think that Tiger is a great athlete and, until the scandal broke, I had respected him as a wonderful family man. I would even consider myself a fan. So it would follow that when he was apologizing to fans, he was apologizing to me. This is unsettling. I do not know Tiger, his wife, Elin, or their two children. His infidelity must have caused deep hurt and damage to his family; however, after I found out about the scandal, I was a little surprised, but my day, much less, my life was certainly not affected. Why did Tiger feel he needed to apologize to the public? The only answer I can come up with is that the public demanded it.
It seems that the public feels entitled to the most personal details of a celebrity’s life. Celebrities may make their money off of their talents, and while it is true that they need fans in order to make a living, that doesn’t mean that all aspects of a celebrities’ life should be open to public scrutiny. Fans should be able to appreciate, even admire, the talents but leave the individual alone.
Some people who are hesitant to partake in gossip about their average neighbors have no problem buying magazines promising to reveal deep dark secrets about celebrities.
The fact that it is gossip to read about the personal lives of celebrities has never occurred to some. This actually isn’t too surprising. The media certainly helps people buy into the thought that this particular human being is an object that they can use for their entertainment.
People feel that they deserve to find out about celebrities’ love lives, weight gain or loss, marital status and past. If a celebrity falls short in acting morally, the public acts outraged but demands details and then insists that because the celebrity is a “role model” they need to issue a public apology.
By now, people should realize that celebrities are not always trustworthy role models. Sure, athletes can inspire us; movie stars can entertain us; musicians can get us grooving, but these people are not famous for their moral virtues. Even if a celebrity happens to be especially virtuous, even holy, that is not what they are known for.
Instead of finding inspiration in the lives of Mother Teresa or Pope Benedict XVI -- individuals known for their virtue -- the culture tends to idolize teenage girls remade with plastic surgery who happen to be able to hit the high notes.
Buying gossip magazines may seem harmless because we are so far removed from the men and women they analyze, but purchasing a magazine in order to look at the pictures and see who dressed well this week and who is impossibly unfashionable is not proper to the reader’s dignity or the dignity of the celebrity. Celebrities are told to get a thick skin, but no person should be subjected to constant criticism.
The media should not take the full blame. The public is horrified to hear about how paparazzi make celebrities’ live miserable, yet the pictures those paparazzi take are the ones filling the magazines so readily purchased by that same public.
The media is just providing the gossip that the public is so desperate for. I leave with this question: why does our culture rejoice in scandal instead of righteousness? As Catholics, let’s be sure not to be caught up in something so contrary to the dignity of the human person.
While the statement seemed to express sincere regret from a man whose public image has fallen so far from where it started, I was bothered that he felt the need to apologize to such a huge audience on a deeply personal matter. I felt that it just isn’t the public’s business.
Sure, I think that Tiger is a great athlete and, until the scandal broke, I had respected him as a wonderful family man. I would even consider myself a fan. So it would follow that when he was apologizing to fans, he was apologizing to me. This is unsettling. I do not know Tiger, his wife, Elin, or their two children. His infidelity must have caused deep hurt and damage to his family; however, after I found out about the scandal, I was a little surprised, but my day, much less, my life was certainly not affected. Why did Tiger feel he needed to apologize to the public? The only answer I can come up with is that the public demanded it.
It seems that the public feels entitled to the most personal details of a celebrity’s life. Celebrities may make their money off of their talents, and while it is true that they need fans in order to make a living, that doesn’t mean that all aspects of a celebrities’ life should be open to public scrutiny. Fans should be able to appreciate, even admire, the talents but leave the individual alone.
Some people who are hesitant to partake in gossip about their average neighbors have no problem buying magazines promising to reveal deep dark secrets about celebrities.
The fact that it is gossip to read about the personal lives of celebrities has never occurred to some. This actually isn’t too surprising. The media certainly helps people buy into the thought that this particular human being is an object that they can use for their entertainment.
People feel that they deserve to find out about celebrities’ love lives, weight gain or loss, marital status and past. If a celebrity falls short in acting morally, the public acts outraged but demands details and then insists that because the celebrity is a “role model” they need to issue a public apology.
By now, people should realize that celebrities are not always trustworthy role models. Sure, athletes can inspire us; movie stars can entertain us; musicians can get us grooving, but these people are not famous for their moral virtues. Even if a celebrity happens to be especially virtuous, even holy, that is not what they are known for.
Instead of finding inspiration in the lives of Mother Teresa or Pope Benedict XVI -- individuals known for their virtue -- the culture tends to idolize teenage girls remade with plastic surgery who happen to be able to hit the high notes.
Buying gossip magazines may seem harmless because we are so far removed from the men and women they analyze, but purchasing a magazine in order to look at the pictures and see who dressed well this week and who is impossibly unfashionable is not proper to the reader’s dignity or the dignity of the celebrity. Celebrities are told to get a thick skin, but no person should be subjected to constant criticism.
The media should not take the full blame. The public is horrified to hear about how paparazzi make celebrities’ live miserable, yet the pictures those paparazzi take are the ones filling the magazines so readily purchased by that same public.
The media is just providing the gossip that the public is so desperate for. I leave with this question: why does our culture rejoice in scandal instead of righteousness? As Catholics, let’s be sure not to be caught up in something so contrary to the dignity of the human person.