Kate Stringer (The Beacon)
By Kate Stringer, Staff Commentary
"Destroying things is much easier than making them."
So says Katniss Everdeen in Suzanne Collins' "The Hunger Games." Katniss would know the truth of this statement better than anyone. She is a tribute in the Hunger Games, an annual ritual that takes children, turns them into national celebrities. And then destroys them in a fight-to-the-death televised game. And the crowds cheer.
When I first read "The Hunger Games," I was shocked. Shocked by citizens that watch the mass murder of teenagers as if it were sport. Shocked by people who adore Katniss in her red-carpet dress one day and eagerly await her downfall the next. Shocked by a culture that draws entertainment from the suffering of human beings.
And then I realized that the reason these people can find entertainment in the suffering of another human being is because they don't see Katniss as human. Instead they see her as an object for their entertainment.
And then I wondered: Is this how our culture sees celebrities? As beautiful, talented, less-than-human objects for our entertainment?
We all have favorite singers we adore, actors we expect marriage proposals from, athletes we idolize.
But in our larger than life depictions of these entertainers, we have made them less deserving of life.
We scoff when Lindsay Lohan goes to rehab for the third time. We laugh when Miley Cyrus gets caught smoking marijuana by the paparazzi. We gossip about whether Taylor Swift and Harry Styles are ever getting back together.
But if these stories of drug addictions and broken relationships were about our family or our friends, we wouldn't be so quick to laugh. We would be seriously concerned and ready to help however we could. Because when we see human beings in pain, our hearts are moved. But when it's a celebrity in pain, it's for our entertainment.
I sometimes wonder if we are the cause of their suffering.
Is the harassment from online gossip sites or our demand for their perfection enough to cause celebrities to turn to drugs and alcohol to hide their pain? Is the pressure of the paparazzi enough to destroy relationships and break up families?
I wonder if these gorgeous, golden people are truly happy.
The industry of dehumanizing celebrities needs to end. I think it's important that we don't just bet on them, that we don't pick a favorite and watch them fight to the death in our entertainment world, destroying them simply because it's easier than building them up.
We need to stop treating celebrities as non-human entities. We need to realize that just because they're our entertainment onscreen doesn't mean they have an obligation to be our entertainment off-screen.
Because if we find entertainment in the latest celebrity drug overdose, what's to stop us from finding entertainment in the destruction of other human beings?
So the next time you hear of a celebrity who has been beaten by her boyfriend or arrested for drunk driving, don't laugh. Instead, ask why. Because it's not for your entertainment.
Kate Stringer is a junior English major. She can be reached at stringer14@up.edu.
