Putting celebrities on a pedestal

Fandom has always and will always be a strange thing and a frame of mind that alludes me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of things, talent mostly, and I’m also a fan of people but only to an extent.

You see, I have this thing where I don’t understand humanity. Sometimes I feel like I’m an alien and this world doesn’t make any sense to me. People laugh at things I don’t think are funny and people are fans but, more than that, they are fanatical.

Much like laughing at jokes, fanatics are something of a particular taste. It’s a quality, a quirk in personality. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it. In fact I admire it in some people, much like how my friends can laugh at stand up comedy routines where I’m cowering in a corner at the prospect of watching someone fail at delivering a joke all because I’m embarrassed.

The pedestal, though, it’s a strange place to be. It’s high up and so attributes this illusion of awe that’s shoved down our necks every single day.

‘Wow, did you see her in that movie, she was soooo sexy’

‘Oooh did you see that photoshoot he did? He has such big muscles I want him to ravish me’

To me actors, models, musicians… they are all human beings. I can’t see them as anything other than people doing a job and I can’t help but think that if more people were ready to pull back the curtain they would see that the All and Powerful Oz is just what we all know but don’t want to admit; a guy pulling a lever whilst pouting and putting on a husky voice.

Maybe I’m the one missing out here, I don’t know. I’m the kind of person who watches a film and imagines what it was like on set that day; who is behind the camera watching the actor cry for the seventeenth time in four hours?

So next time you’re looking at Taylor Swift and you think (or someone in an article tells you to think) she’s a perfect human being or Beyonce is Queen of the Universe… maybe just stop and realise they are just people – do they deserve your respect and appreciation? Yeah, sure! These people are in the public eye for a reason, even if you don’t agree on how valid a reason it is – but should you hold them up as idols who can do no wrong? I don’t think so.

This could be early onset middle age kicking in but we’re all human on this spinning orb-like thing in space. Enjoy people’s contributions to the world but don’t for a second think you don’t have something just as important to give… that’s just yourself, by the way, just in case you were wondering where this was going.

Sam