A feminist, queer punk rocker with a mohawk and tattoos sharing her insight with the world.
AIM: punkrockboi25
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Thoughts of Jess Five
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On Being a Celebrity and the Objectification of People
The American culture is dependent on the possibility that anyone can make it big. It’s the illusion that keeps the poor in line and the rich in power. The American rich 1% holds more wealth than the bottom 90%. That is hardly fair and Americans are addicted to the idea that they can become the 1%.
Due to wanting to be wealthy and not having it, America settles for the next best thing: living vicariously through celebrities and the rich. The rich and famous become objects – not people – as portrayed by the television, magazines, and news. They become a name – a brand – to be packaged, bought, and sold like any other commodity in our capitalistic system.
This is a system of control. The poor are appeased by having the rare possibility that they too – with their talents and uniqueness can also make it big. The rich and famous; who are also inmates in our cultural prison who have more privilege, are treated like gods.
For example, I just went to see a concert a few weeks ago and during the show the lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars walked into the crowd. People went out of their way to run up and touch him (it was really bizarre) to have bragging rights. To touch a celebrity or have an object that they were associated with is like touching divinity in our culture.
This is a really weird aspect of American culture that I don’t really understand because in my understanding of humanity – we are all equal. I wouldn’t want to touch another human unless I was close to them but for it to be socially acceptable to forcefully touch another person without consent on the mere fact they can sing, act, or dance is ridiculous.
This living vicariously through fame is destructive to celebrities. The latest example being the Tiger Woods incident and how people just can’t seem to mind their own business. Who cares? I have my own life to deal with and I don’t have time to be focusing my life on people I never met.
Even in death, celebrities can not escape their fame and be given an ounce of peace. Grave robbers if given the chance, will steal famous people’s remains. The Hollywood cemetery is now a tourist attractions where you can visit your favorite dead residence. Even a corpse is marketable.
People need to stop worshiping celebrities and the rich. People are people, not objects. People need to learn to live and let live and mind their own business. Here’s a secret for you: The rich and famous only have “wealth” and “power” because you give it to them. If you would stop giving them power, they wouldn’t have any. If we spent more time empowering ourselves for our own beauties and less time drooling over our fellow apes – we’d have a much healthier society.
Formspring: An Anoymous Question: College and Higher Education
Comments, Thoughts, Questions, and anything else.: i was just wondering if you go/went to college or how you felt about higher education.
Yes, I’ve gone to college. I’ve been to several colleges. I haven’t graduated yet and currently on leave from my most current school. I’ve been to a university of California, a private Catholic university, a community college, and two prestigious art schools. I’ve changed majors so far five times. I was: theater, painting, illustration, film, and fine arts. Plus, I was part of and lead several clubs and organizations. My current GPA is around a 3.5. I’ve studied on the West coast and the East coast. I’ve been through about six years of college so far. I know college very well. I might graduate someday. I have enough credits for it just none in the right places.
Overall, I was very disappointed with college. It was a lot of work but it wasn’t hard. I was hoping to find intelligent life and people I could relate to. I didn’t which is why I changed schools so many times because I thought perhaps it was the school and the crowd it attracted. First university was all sex, drugs, and beer. I’m straightedge and not into partying so I didn’t have much of a social life. The people were plastic, superficial and materialistic. So, I tried going to the extreme opposite which was a private Catholic university. The Catholic university was too Catholic - they taught creationism in the science classes and people thought that was a good thing so I had to leave. The art schools were pretentious, highly competitive, and cut throat. My fellow students were mean and jerks. The community college was something I tried to do to just get a few credits while in limbo but being surrounded by the people who attended it depressed me so much I just had to drop out.
I think college is a system within the System. It’s part of the capitalistic machine to train the next generation of workers. It’s also a system of control. Knowledge is power and the rich don’t want to part with it. Depending on which college you go to depends on what education you will get. If you go to Standford, they’ll teach you to be a CEO. If you go to a state school, they teach you to be a manager. It’s very classist because college is about the money not about teaching. If you can’t afford it, you’ll be working minimum wage jobs for the rest of your life with a few rare exceptions. In college, it’s more of the formal conditional received through the public school system as they try to control how you’ll think and relate to the world. They fill your head full of knowledge that has their slant to it. They want you to think in their terms with their ideas. They don’t want you thinking for yourself.
With that being said, the only way the system is going to change is if the people change it. The only way the system is going to change is from within. Have you seen the movie SLC Punk? Stevo’s realization that you can do more harm to the system from within than from the outside leads him to go back to school to become a lawyer. The only way the we’re going to destroy the system of control is to become the system then dismantle it. If the people don’t want the system to be there, it wouldn’t be there. We could build a new world.
I think college education is important to become the system to fight the system. I am considering going back to school to get a women’s and gender studies degree and then going on to get a PH.D. I want to teach the world about peace, love, freedom from oppression and hierarchies, and equality. However, I recently talked to a former professor of mine who has a PH.D and mentioned my idea, thinking that having a credential would make people more willing to listen to me. His exact words to me were, “I have a PH.D and it doesn’t make people listen to me.” So, I am unsure right now if I really need school. It all depends on what you want to do with your life and if school will help get you there. It’s a personal thing and the answer is different for everyone.
