What Do You See? | Teen Ink

What Do You See?

October 26, 2018
By Anonymous

When people say that they have a celebrity role model, I laugh and ask why. I don’t think most celebrities deserve to be called role models in society. Yes, there are some good ones who give back, but other than those few who are actually real people, there isn’t anyone in Hollywood that I would call a role model, or put their opinion above another’s. To explain, i’ll use a baseball player because I am a big fan of baseball, especially of the New York Yankees. There was one player on the Yankees who I remember watching when I was younger, and his name was Alex Rodriguez. He was a fantastic player, and nothing against him as a person, but he is one of the infamous baseball players that was linked to performance enhancing steroids. In turn, this left his years with the Yankees in scandal. When him and other baseball players who were superstars, and looked up to as role models came out as being linked to a form of cheating, the fans that looked up to them freaked out, as did myself. Fans like me felt betrayed by the stars we once adored, had done something in the baseball world that is seen as unforgivable. A problem with our society is that we place regular people who have an extraordinary skill , or can perform something at a high level, that our society craves, like singers, athletes, or actors, and we put them on a pedestal, and make them the end all, be all. Our society makes these people out to look perfect and infallible, but in actuality, they are no better than the rest of us. They are just people, who are admired, and are listened to because of their skills, but that doesn’t mean that we should make what they say gospel.  I think that our society does this too often with people who aren’t very good at their core, but are nice on the outside. Kind of like in Macbeth, Fair is foul, and foul is fair. What is shown on the outside isn’t always the truth. When you put someone like a star under a microscope, and you examine their lives piece by piece, and they don’t turn out to be the people that you thought they were, it can make for harsh feelings. Some in our society listen to their favorite star or role model in everything, even if it lies beyond their area of expertise. If Alex Rodriguez gave me advice on my batting stance, I would be wise to take it, but if he tells me I should vote for a certain politician, there isn’t any reason or fact that makes his opinion better than mine, or any other person. The people that our society should put on the pedestal are ordinary citizen that do their job for society, and their families. Our society should also learn from those who have messed up in the past, and overcame adversity to become better people, because that is what life is all about.



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