Celebrities as role models are an ongoing debate. If you're involved in social media (which i'm assuming you might be, considering you are reading this article), you have probably stumbled upon many an argument over what should be expected from celebrities. Or, maybe you are just hanging out at a social event and happen to overhear parents ranting over why Miley Cyrus is a bad person because of the way she acts in the spotlight --and how this is bad because she is, after all, solely meant to be a role model, right? In this article, I'm not going to strictly argue for one side, but rather evaluate both viewpoints and most importantly address what I personally feel makes a person a role model or not.
As a generation surrounded with social media and pop culture, celebrities (and really anyone on the internet) has the ability to largely impact the way others think or act. We tend to idolize these people who are in the spotlight and follow their leads. Can this be a bad thing? Of course it can; however, it can also be extremely positive. It can be positive in bold ways as in the influence that seeing your favorite celeb starting movements, volunteering, or donating to people in need can have on a person, but can also be positive in a lot smaller of ways. Simply seeing someone in the spotlight with a strong sense of identity or unique style can inspire so many people to go out and do the same thing for themselves -- and these musicians, fashion icons, actors/actresses, etc. can connect and help people relate to each other through fan bases. This all being said, do celebrities have to be role models? Are they immediately expected to be role models? Personally, I can't say I agree with those viewpoints.
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I definitely believe that celebrities can make great role models, but i don't really think that it's required for them to be one. If you take a second and put aside the money and the glamor, all celebrities are still human beings.
Think for a second and ask yourself, as a human being, are you a role model? Not all of us are, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's something to strive for, but we can't all say that we are there yet. Being a person that so many others can positively look up to and follow is a wonderful thing, but we all know very well that not everything we do should be followed by others. Everyone makes questionable decisions at one point or another, and we all evolve as people and sometimes do and say things that we regret. We make mistakes -- a lot, because after all, we are all human beings. Look back at your past actions and decisions and think to yourself, would you consider your past self as a role model for who you are now? Maybe not, and this doesn't have to be because you made a lot of really bad decisions or did bad things, but because you simply would do things a bit differently as you are now. So what I'm trying to say is -- we all know that sometimes what we do isn't always what we mean or what we would currently agree with, because we aren't perfect -- so how can we expect celebrities to be that way? Especially when they are constantly in the spotlight, where every little mistake is highlighted, and every move can be twisted and manipulated by media into something that it is not.
I would also like to bring up what exactly it means to be a role model. Everyone has a personalized idea of what a role model should be because we tend to stick to our own personal views and opinions. If you look up the definition of a "role model" online, you'll find a bunch of similar answers concerning a person who sets a good example for others. The difficult thing about this: we tend to all see this in a slightly different light. We will look at someone such as Miley Cyrus and judge her harshly by the way she dresses, but neglect to acknowledge all of the positive advances she has made for other people such as donating $500,000 towards AIDS research and establishing the Happy Hippie Foundation to raise money for homeless youth (especially those who are LGBTQ).
Are you surprised to hear this? Maybe you didn't even know these facts? It turns out a ton of celebrities who are bashed and labeled as bad role models for the way they dress and perform have actually done some really great things for others. So next time, use this as something to think about.
