Leave it to me

With the Dixie Chicks’ recent outburst bashing President Bush, I’ve been thinking a lot about the influence that celebrities have in our country. The Dixie Chicks publicly stated their negative feelings about President Bush to a packed house at a concert in Germany. They said they were ashamed to be from the same state as the president. Though most people probably don’t agree with their statements, I can guarantee that almost everyone has heard them.

Celebrities are watched so closely by the public eye in America and with that comes a pretty hefty responsibility – the responsibility of being a role model. Some take on this responsibility and some don’t.

We have a lot of celebrities who do plenty of good things in this country. In fact, most are involved in some type of philanthropy or charitable organization. But, the few bad things they do always seem to make headlines.

When I think about it, there are very few celebrities I would consider to be good role models for the children in our country. Britney Spears has said she never really wanted to be a role model. But that’s not something you can really make a decision about when you have millions of young, impressionable girls who literally idolize you. Now, I’m not ashamed to say that I do like Britney…but do I think she’s a good role model? Probably not.

I think Eminem uses his influence in a terrible way. His lyrics are ridiculous most of the time. The first time I heard “Cleaning Out My Closet,” I thought it was disgraceful for a guy to actually talk about his mother like that, but of course I think we all know that song pretty well by now. His songs are so catchy that you can’t help but to learn them and sing along, and even actually like them…even if you don’t agree with their message.

There are plenty of others I could mention, but what I’m really wondering is why celebrities don’t use their star status in a more positive way? Just think, what would happen if the Dixie Chicks told another country about how great America is. And what if Eminem used his catchy tunes to actually say something good? It will probably never happen, but it is something to think about.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 28 2003. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry