Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic Why is it so popular to make fun of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears?

In the previous Parish Hilton thread in this folder, LabRat made the following comment:

Well, I quite agree with you, LabRat. To me, Britney Spears and even more Paris Hilton seem extremely uninteresting. Paris Hilton in particular seems to lack almost any sort of talent. So the question is: how the heck can she be so famous? When she has so little to show for herself?

To me Paris Hilton's fame is a problem in itself, and when you couple it with the lack of fame for many women who really are bright, talented and accomplished, I think you can begin to discern a pattern here: women often get famous for the wrong things.

Before I try to delve a bit deeper into this, let me tell you about a male colleague of mine, Lasse Eriksson, teacher of literature and history. When you meet and speak to Lasse, you begin to discern how untouched he is by sexist ideas and trends our society. And you also begin to understand how sexist our society really is.

Lasse is a man who deeply admires and loves talented and accomplished people, be they writers, artists, actors, politicians, diplomats, reporters or doctors (he is married to a highly skilled and specialized medical doctor himself). The most amazing thing about Lasse, however, is that he admires so many skilled women. He can talk at length and so enthusiastically about all kinds of skilled female professionals. His eyes light up when he speaks about these great women: Cecilia Uddén, Sweden's best reporter, Selma Lagerlöf, a great female writer who died in 1940, Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, famous and very accomplished Swedish actresses, Sigrid Hjertén, a well-known painter, Anna Lind, minister of foreign affairs who was killed by a half-crazed man in 2002, Caroline Krook, bishop in Stockholm, a female professor of Chinese whose name I've forgotten, a female professor of neuroscience whose name I've also forgotten....

Does Lasse have some sort of fetish about great women? Does he know everything about skilled and accomplished women but little about skilled and accomplished men? Not at all. Lasse can talk with equal enthusiasm about great men. But, probably unlike virtually any other man I know, including many incredibly nice guys, Lasse never for a moment thinks of a woman as a woman first, and as an interesting person second. To Lasse, women are every bit as smart, bright, creative, intellectual and brave as men. And this is not something that he needs to make a point of. Why should he have to remind people of something that is so self-evident? The sky is blue, water is wet, and men and women are equally fascinating and brilliant. How could things possibly not be that way?

I don't think I have ever met another man who has this pure, perfect respect for women. Lasse respects women not because they are women, but because they are people, and because he loves people who are smart and interesting.

However, the world we live in, the world which makes Paris Hilton an important celebrity, does not respect women the same way it respects men. If it did, how could Paris Hilton ever be famous? In what ways is she bright, talented or accomplished?

The truth is that Paris Hilton is famous because she is an "ideal woman": she is young and beautiful, she is inordinately rich, she has a name that nobody can forget, and she likes to expose her body and her sexuality. So what if she can't act? So what if she can't sing? So what if she hasn't got anything interesting to say? So what if she is just a stupid sex object? Isn't that enough if you are a woman?

But what about those women who aren't perfect sex objects, but are really talented? How does the world respond to them? Unfortunately I think that the media aren't going to be really interested in these women if they haven't got a pair of lovely legs and big boobs. Lasse, my colleague, is probably just barely aware that Paris Hilton even exists. Why on earth should he take an interest in someone like her? But all the brilliant and brainy women that Lasse admires are seen as just too boring for the world to take much notice of.

A woman like Paris Hilton is held up as an impossible ideal to women everywhere. How many of us can have Paris Hilton's perfect face and body? How many of us are super-rich heiresses? How many of us can get paid for partying, more or less?

It's no wonder that many women are jealous of Paris Hilton. So when Paris falters, when she goes to jail, when she cries in public, when she makes a spectacle of herself, when she says those unbelievably moronic things that drive ordinary people crazy, is it any wonder that ordinary women laugh and jeer at her? Paris Hilton's previous successes made many of these women feel fat, ugly, poor and unsexy. Now that she stumbles they can get back at her and laugh.

And why do guys laugh at Paris Hilton? Maybe because most guys, unlike Lasse, think that women really are somewhat inferior to men, and then it's nice to see Paris Hilton confirm the idea that women are stupid?

When it comes to men, few guys become famous only because they were born rich and are beautiful. All right, a few male models are famous only for their looks, but generally the world asks for other talents in men. Therefore famous men usually have talents that are unrelated to their looks, because if they didn't have such talents they probably wouldn't be famous in the first place.

I think that the problem is that the wrong kind of women become famous for the wrong things. Then lots of people will be contemptuous of these untalented women, who don't seem to deserve the fame they have got. And maybe by extension many people will also become somewhat contemptuous and suspicious of the talents and accomplishments of women in general.



Ann

Wow! What a great topic! I'm busy at work right now but will definitely be back to comment later!!!

Actually, while I dislike Paris Hilton... she is a great business woman. The reason she is so popular is because she has marketed herself. She was a model before she ever became big news. Then through the tv show "The Simple Life" she became even more of a pulic figure. While she does stand to gain a lot of inheritence, she has plenty of money that she has made on her own.

From wikipedia:

Hilton has worked as a model, actress, musician, and businesswoman. According to Forbes Magazine, she earned approximately $2 million in 2003–2004, $6.5 million in 2004–2005, and $7 million in 2005–2006


In addition to this you can also hire her to show up at any event. That is probably why she shows up as so many places. She gets paid to do it so that event gets publicity because so many people are fascinated by her. She is playing this up and she knows exactly what she is doing.

I may hate her but she is smart enough to have figured this out. If not on her own with the help of others. But she is smart enough to rely on others in that case.

I think that is why many people are upset with her. Because I believe Paris Hilton is playing up her dumb act and that in truth she is really not as stupid as she seems.

Well, do you honestly believe that Paris Hilton would have gotten that role in that TV show if she weren't rich and sexy. Considering she is said to be a bad actress, I can't believe she'd have gotten that chance at fame without both her 'assets'. So, how did she get famous? How did she earn her money? By being good-looking and rich, of course.

And I honestly don't believe she is actually more intelligent than she lets on. Verona Feldbusch, on the other hand...

Ann, you know we've disagreed on various things in the past, but I really, really liked this post and agree with many of the points you make.

(I still can't stand Paris Hilton, though :p .)

Um...I'm assuming that you're speaking in general terms here, Ann, and that you didn't mean to imply that this was my motivation. But since you invoked my name and comment at the start of your post, just in case there should by any doubt whatsoever, I have no feelings of jealousy towards Paris Hilton and am not in the slightest bit motivated by the reasons you cite above in my response to her.

LabRat

I'm sorry, Ann - which side are you on? Should we form our opinions about people based on their merits or by their sex/skin color/IQ/bank balance/body size/etc.? Should I feel fat, ugly, poor and unsexy because I'm not Paris Hilton?

I think not. :p

Certainly not! I've had countless debates with friends over this. They think that looks are important for first impressions. Sure I'll look at a male and say 'oh he's cute' or something to that effect, but does that mean I like them? No it doesn't I'm only looking at the exterior without knowing who they are I mean they could be an axe murderer for all I know! In the case of Paris Hilton all she has other than being a spoilt brat who seems to think that the world is her oyster so everyone must like heris that she's considered to be one of the 'beautiful people'. Well reality check Paris not everyone likes you.

I remember when she went to prison for that driving conviction wherein she blamed everyone, but herself for her imprisonment. Why should she be above the law? Just because your rich and famous it doesn't mean you can escape justice and judging from the way she's ben acting since her release she hasn't learnt on thing because she's still as selfish as she has ever been.

Personally if she ever actually goes to Rwanda anytime within the next century I'll be surprised because to her shopping and partying all night long is of higher priority than orphans in Africa who can barely afford a piece of the thread of the clothes she wears.

To further answer the question Sue posted I refer to the movie Forrest Gump and the character he is. For those who have seen it you will know that he isn't the most intelligent person in the world in fact he has a really low IQ, but it didn't stop him everyone thought he was stupid, but in truth the character (at least to me) was many times better than Hilton why? Because he thought of others before himself.

To me the mark of a person I admire is their heart, their ablity to not perceive themselves to be above others and their ability overcome adversities thrown their way. Helen Keller comes to mind as does Franklin Roosevelt. Helen Keller because she over came all adversity that came from being both blind and death to graduate college and become a teacher. Roosevelt because he didn't perceive that being in a wheelchair should restrict you from anything.

Her decision to postpone her trip to Rwanda show me that she's not a person to be admired for any reason other than her ability to market herself.

Paris Hilton isn't stupid, she makes a good living playing the over-sexed bimbo and having "opinions". Do you really think she cares one whit about alcoholic elephants?

A woman like Paris Hilton is held up as an impossible ideal to women everywhere. How many of us can have Paris Hilton's perfect face and body?

A great many? I've never heard anyone refer to Paris Hilton as the pinnacle of female perfection. Quite the opposite.

Her niche is to make ordinary people feel good about themselves. Despite her wealth and fame she appears stupid, tasteless and cheap. So Jack an Jill enjoy stealing a read about her in the gossip column which give them a warm glow of superiority.
But they are the ones who pays for her champange and caviar.

No way, I don't think that people are actually jealous of Paris Hilton if they tell us that they detest her. They probably detest her and a thousand others out there just because they detest them.

She'd neither the epitome of womanhood nor an example of an ideal woman. I know people usually think in terms of 'beauty' when it comes to a woman, but do you think anybody actually wants a woman who's just a show?

If such 'beautiful' woman, rather than displaying their body, did something more productive, then I think people may comment something positive, "Hey look at her. Now that's the kind of woman I'd love/like. Not only she's beautiful, but she really has a heart and a brain."

And I still don't know why certain qualities such as kindness, sympathy, peace-making etc. are possessed by woman who aren't generally considered physically beautiful. Do you think they are trying to make up for their lack of physical beauty by being beautiful from the *inside* - the *heart*?

And the woman who have been endowed well ( I'm not jealous; I just love the way I am ) usually flaunt their beauty rather than being useful in some other way.

If popularity *is* what they want, there are a million ways to gain it, and not just by creating an effect that the only quality that matters in a woman is *beauty*. I detest such *beautiful* woman for that, not because I'm jealous. I detest them because they make everybody think that intelligence, sympathy and kindness - the *inner* beauty - should be overlooked in the face of *physical* beauty, which they are going to take with themselves to the grave!

There are millions of people out there who could use some help!!! They should make their mark in the world by doing something for such deserving people - the sort of help that stays in this world even after we depart!

The people should talk about what we've done and keep us alive in their memories, and not because we gave them such a *good physical stimulation* at night. When one *sexy* woman *dies*, the news flashes headlines about them for hardly two days before another such living *star* replaces them!!!

What attracts us all to Superman (even though he is fictional) is not his super-body or his super-abilities but his nature - using his powers to help people.

Would we have wanted a SuperLex or a SuperTempus or taking it to the feminine side, a SuperLindaKing?

By the way... you too can be as "pretty" as Paris with plastic surgery. For those who seem to think she was born with it:

http://www.awfulplasticsurgery.com/archives/005276.html

Amazing what doctors can do these days.

I do not assume that anyone here is jealous of Paris Hilton!!! Please!!!

Believe me when I say, though, that many not-necessarily too bright young women would like to be like Paris Hilton, or at least they would like to be as rich as beautiful as she is. But since they can't be wealthy beauty queens, they may feel happy and sort of vindicated in themselves when Paris (and Britney) make worse messes of their lives than these not-so-very-bright and not-rich-at-all young women have made of their own lives.

Just tell me. If Paris Hilton or Britney Spears had looked like this, would the media have been interested in their drunken driving, their jail sentences or their loss of custody of their children? Many young women who look just like this, or much worse, and who have therefore never felt that anyone has been interested in them, why shouldn't they gloat when icons of beauty queen perfection like Britney and Paris topple?



And Sue, did I so completely fail to explain what I meant?

I think that a woman who becomes famous only because she is young and beautiful runs a very great risk of coming to a tragic end. Her only "accomplishment", her youth and beauty, is doomed to fade relatively soon. If she has nothing to back up her youth and beauty with, no other talent, is it any wonder if many people will start looking down on her? She was so popular because she looked so good - well, look at her now!

I don't despise beauty, please don't get me wrong. But is a person interesting just because he or she is beautiful? Again, don't get me wrong. I don't think beauty is an impediment to brains. But why don't give the most attention to those who have beauty and brains? And why not sometimes take a real interest in females who who have brains and are accomplished (or have other good qualities), but are not beautiful?

How could a woman like Anna Nicole Smith become so famous? In their obituary, New York Times wrote that Anna Nicole Smith was famous because she was famous.



Anna Nicole Smith - thin version.



Anna Nicole Smith - fat version.



Anna Nicole Smith - Marilyn Monroe version.

In my opinion, the real Marilyn Monroe was a truly talented woman and a really fine singer and actress. Even so, she and Anna Nicole Smith came to the same end. The world can tolerate an aging Fred Astaire, Mick Jagger or Harrison Ford just fine, but could it have tolerated an old-looking Marilyn Monroe? I think not. And my guess is that Marilyn didn't think it could. So this talented, humorous and charming woman had nowhere to go but to her grave at thirty-six. No wonder that a birdbrain like Anna Nicole Smith also ended up dead when she was only around forty. Plastic surgery and liposuction can do only so much for a woman, even if it can do more these days than it could in the days of Marilyn Monroe. But if the world doesn't tolerate physical imperfection in a woman, then the woman is always going to come up short. And if her beauty was her only accomplishment, then all her other shortcomings will be a reason for others to laugh and jeer at her.

Arawn, you put this perfectly:

It's interesting that few famous men are given this role. Extremely few famous and beautiful men become laughingstocks because they are so stupid.

Anyway, let's hope that Jack and Jill pay for these women's funerals, too.

Ann

Okay, I'm probably really too late to come in on this with a worthy comment, but having to wrestle with my hubby for the PC and managing to stay up WAY past my bedtime even though I gotta work tomorrow, I feel compelled to throw in my two cents to say:

...isn't the MEDIA mostly to blame for this sort of thing?

I mean the orginal question is "Why is it so popular to make fun of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears?" I gotta feel that these gals, for whatever reason, have put themselves in the position for ridicule, but if the media turned a blind eye, they'd probably stop it.

Plus you got the human being factor on this as Arwin says: If nobody bought this stuff, it probably wouldn't be news at all.

That's all I got. Return to normal programming.

Here's a comment from a male.

Maybe the world can tolerate an aging Fred Astaire, but the world can also tolerate an aging Lauren Bacall or an aging Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. But they're the rare exceptions. Hollywood sucks in, chews up, and spits out hundreds of young and beautiful performers every year who are never seen on the silver screen again after a single appearance. The whole place is young-and-beautiful crazy, and it's not limited to women.

Ann wrote:
Ann is of the opinion (or guess, as she puts it) that Marilyn Monroe committed suicide at age thirty-six because she didn't have anywhere else to go. What Ann doesn't bring up is that Marilyn was, from the start of her Hollywood career, completely unconvinced of her own place in that world, and she was so unsure of her own talent that she was often unable to watch her own movies before the critical reviews came out. She was insecure to the point of needing applause and the approval of strangers on a daily - if not momentary - basis. It wasn't fear of the inevitable loss of her youth and looks and "sizzle" that pursued her like a banshee, it was fear of the loss of the adoration of "her public."

And in the last years of her life, she was so strung out on booze and drugs that she was unable to work. The last movie she tried to appear in was going to be a remake of a Cary Grant vehicle from about 1940 co-starring Dean Martin, but Marilyn was absent from the set more often than she was there, and when she was there she missed her marks and forgot her lines so often that the footage was unusable. Just about the only interesting footage of her that came out of that disaster (the picture was canceled about a month into the shooting schedule) was an extended nude swimming scene. I've never seen the whole thing, just quick excerpts of it, but those who have seen it say that she looked as good then as she had when she'd posed for Playboy almost two decades earlier. Truly, she had nothing to worry about in the looks department, and her acting skills were top-shelf.

Marilyn was indeed a wonderfully talented woman whose abilities were often ignored for the sake of showing off her sex appeal. You can see her near the top of her game in the movie "River of No Return" with Robert Mitchum. When you see the long shots on the river raft, know that because the new Technicolor cameras showed facial details even at that distance, she had to do her own stunts, many of which were quite dangerous. And she held her own in the scenes with the intense and powerful Mitchum.

Paris Hilton was first famous for being heir to the Hilton hotel fortune. Then she became famous as the Hilton heir who partied hard, made "private" porn videos, and liked to show off her most private parts in the most public places. Her accomplishments pale beside those of Marilyn Monroe. No way Paris could go toe-to-toe with Robert Mitchum, much less Sanjaya or even any of the Backstreet Boys. If not for her nearly inexhaustible fortune, we might never have known her name or seen her blank stare pouting at the camera.

But we have to remember that Paris is like Marilyn in one vital respect - her self-image is wrapped up in how people perceive her and not in anything she has accomplished in her life. As long as we the public pay attention to her antics, she'll keep showing off. But when the attention grows thin, she'll do something else to regain the spotlight, because she thinks that without it she isn't worthy as a person. It's a trap many performers fall into, not just vapor-minded celebrities with more money than all of us put together.

So don't be angry with Paris. Judging from the comments in this thread (yes, I know, it's dangerous to generalize with so little data), I would put forth the premise that the ladies in our L&C fan community are far better adjusted to reality than Paris Hilton or Nicole Ritchie. We all like feedback and we all feel bereft without it, and negative feedback can sting, but it doesn't drive us to suicide or greater episodes of self-promotion or self-delusion. We can take comfort in the knowledge that when our looks go (mine never really got close enough to shake hands with), we'll still have our writing and our feedback to keep us warm at night.

Do I dislike and destest Paris and Britney? YES.
Have I ever envied them - hell no.

Face it Paris in not nor was she ever pretty. The starts she got (modeling/TV) she got because her name is Hilton and she is basically a slut.

The same is pretty much true about Britney. Not the name but she is not a moral person. She starts her career as a teenbopper idol, gets a name and then has a boob job. Lies about it saying she gained weight. I saw her movie and she was in a bikini so you could tell she was flat chested. To get boobs as big as she has now from where she started she would have to weigh 300 lbs.

So as role models for our young adults we have a surgically altered, no talent, drunk/druggie Paris who got where she is by being an heires. Or a lying, surgically altered, drunken/druggie singer/mother who keeps almost dropping or driving with her kids in her lap Britney. Oh great choices.

So folks, if the public is sick of hearing about them they have no one to blame but themselves. If you are watching the shows or buying the magazines that feature them, then you are saying you want to hear about them. So the photo goons will do anything to get the picture because the tabloids you are buying will pay big money for them.

When Britney first hit and my niece wanted her CD I told my sister to give me other ideas for her because I didn't feel like Britney was a role model for my 9 year niece regardless what her mother (my sister) thought.

After Tom Cruise pulled his leaping on Oprah's sofas and attacking Brooke Shields about her post-partem depression I stopped going to any of his movies or even watching them on TV.

I have emailed networks and magazines with my opinion of their content. If you don't speak out with your negative feelings on subjects nothing will ever change.

THE MAGAZINES AND TV TABLOIDS DO NOT MAKE ANY ONE FAMOUS - A FLASH IN THE PAN MAYBE - BUT NOT FAMOUS. YOU MAKE THEM FAMOUS BY BUYING INTO THE HYPE WHEN YOU GO TO THEIR MOVIES, BUY THEIR CDS, DVDS, OR MAGAZINES THAT FEATURE THEM.

Hmmmmm. It's so interesting to hear that all of you insist that not only are you yourself not jealous of Paris Hilton, but you don't know of anyone else who might be.

I'm sure you're right. Paris has become such a ridiculous character that everyone knows that she is someone to be mocked, not someone to be envied. But for all of that, I'll insist that to many young girls, Paris - or girls who look more or less like Paris - are people to be emulated.







Young girls know that this is what they ought to look like. They see pictures of young women looking like this all the time. Kmar, you siad that your niece admired Britney Spears when she was nine. Well, when my niece was nine, she adored Spice Girls in general and Baby Spice in particular:



"She is so fine", my niece once said about Baby Spice, and you could hear the intense longing in her voice. She wanted to be just like that herself.

My niece is eighteen years old now, and she is a terrific girl. She is doing great at school - so far she actually has a perfect score!, she's got two jobs at the same time, she is almost always happy and smiling, and she is really popular. Not even my brother and his wife complain about any teenage petulance or obstinacy on their daughter's part. I'm so proud of her. But I can tell you it's obvious that she has been raised on role models like Baby Spice: She has long hair which she dyes very blonde, she looks after her body by working out, eating carefully and spending quite a lot of time in the solarium, and she dresses acceptably, but quite sexily.

My niece isn't trying to be Paris Hilton. My brother and his wife are very sensible people, and Linnea knows that wild partying and provocative sexual behaviour just isn't acceptable. She isn't imitating that kind of behaviour. But she is trying to look like a model. When it comes to her looks, she, Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Baby Spice are all reaching for the same ideal. Paris Hilton, therefore, is not so much a trendsetter herself as she is someone who is doing her very best to live up to a current ideal. Because she did not create the ideal, but just tries to live up to it, it is possible for young girls to dream of being models and actresses and singers, and to dream of being sexy and beautiful and rich, and still scoff at Paris Hilton.

I'm fifty-two years old. I was born in 1955. The fifties was an unbelievable different time compared with today, not least when it came to fashion and general ideals for young people. I searched for some pictures of young people from the 1950s, and I found this one:



These young people actually lived in an orphanage, so they were not your typical 1950s kids. Even so, their clothes and general style don't look that off to me, compared with what was normal in Scandinavia in the fifties.

In the fifties, few kids were overweight, and practically no kids at all were grossly fat. We didn't get fat because we didn't have junk food. I never saw a hamburger until I was sixteen, and I was about the same age when I tried my first pizza and Coca-Cola. (I didn't much like it.) And I was allowed to eat candy and chocolate once a week, on Saturdays, and I only got cookies when we had any at home.

Because none of us were fat, it would have been easier for us to look like Paris Hilton than it is for most of today's young girls, who are often overweight. But we weren't trying to look like Paris Hilton. We didn't know that we were supposed to look that sexy, that provocative, that blond.

Paris Hilton represents an ideal that is so hard to reach for girls of today. You have to work so hard to even get close to her looks, and so many girls just give up, eat junk food and get really fat instead. And then when someone has managed to turn her body into that impossible ideal, like Paris Hilton, and she wants to be liked and admired for it, the world jeers and laughs at her.

I'm just wondering what all this does to young girls' self-esteem. What do they have to do today to be "right"? How do they make people like them?

Ann

But it's not even about working hard. There's a multitude of body types out there. Not all women are meant to be that thin--for some people that's just not healthy.

You sound as if you're looking at Paris like a hapless victim. Poor, poor Paris.

In any case, the whole body image issue is why I appreciate campaigns like Dove's last year (I think) where the models looked like real women.

Things are slowly changing, I feel, even being the pessimist I usually am. At least here in the US, I've noticed that the media has become more conscious of the need to make a larger effort to represent diversity of all types. It still has a long way to go, but I applaud the steps its taking.

alcyone

Just my late two cents. I think one of the reasons the media tracks these people besides fame and beauty, etc. is because of the fact that they're, pardon my french, dumbasses. They haven't earned most of our respect in the slightest, and they aren't people we should be looking up to. I think the real question is, why do we spend our time following people like this when there are real, hardworking people we should be paying attention to? I know I'm guilty of this myself. Every time Britney and Paris pop up in the news, I honestly think we're focusing on their drunk driving etc to laugh at them. Their beauty and fame may put them in the spotlight, but there are plenty of beautiful, famous people who don't cause the spectacle they do. It's because they do stupid things that we keep the spotlight on them.

Just a conglomeration of thoughts while I'm running on no sleep. :p
JD

No, I don't feel sorry for Paris. I don't feel angry at her either, but she she does bore me out of my skull. Therefore I don't spend time thinking about her one way or another. But I do feel sorry for many young girls, who think that they "ought to" be somewhat like Paris. As a teacher, I see that more teenage girls than before seem to be troubled and depressed. I think that young girls are under more pressure than before to be "right". Many of them feel that they are supposed to party and drink, otherwise other kids won't like them. Therefore some of them drink too much and end up in situations they don't like at all. Huge numbers of girls feel that they have to be beautiful and thin, but at the same time it's very hard for them to say no to junk food. Many feel that they must be really sexy, but they mustn't be too sexy, because then they will be seen as sluts and people will call them bad names, so they try to walk a fine line, sometimes ending up as "sluts" anyway. Many feel that they are not supposed to work at school, because then they will be seen as nerds and bores, but at the same time they know that it is important to graduate high school. Particularly for girls who are slightly uglier than average and/or aren't bright or gifted, trying to be "right" today and trying to make people like them seems very hard and frustrating. And the way I see it, the "top model" ideal had a lot to do with young girls' lack of self-esteem. Also, I don't think it does young girls any good to be made to feel that they ought to be as beautiful as top models, yet when a top model becomes a household name, that top model is ridiculed. It seems particularly hurtful to me if that top model is accused of things that are exaggerated or untrue. If a questionable story about Paris Hilton and drunken elephants are cirulating on the internet, what does that tell young girls? That Paris Hilton is off her rocker? That she is so drunk herself that she thinks that everybody else, including animals, are alcoholics? That a young girl ought to have a bad conscience if she isn't interested in helping drunken elephants? That beauty apparently destroys your brain, so if a girl ever manages to become even nearly as beautiful as Paris, then everybody is going to think that she's the dumbest bimbo within a hundred miles?

I feel sorry for young girls today, particularly for those who aren't beautiful or bright. And I don't think that the blond bimbo Paris jokes are helping these girls, even if they, too, may laugh at them. Because what do these jokes ultimately tell not-so-beautiful and not-so-smart girls? That no matter what you do, people aren't going to like you?

Ann

I have to agree with you. It is *peer* pressure that affects the good girls. In the psychology department at our college, most of the cases coming to the resident Psychologists were young girls who wanted to be like either the latest pop-star or desperately wanting to land the latest College Boy (the all-rounder especially in sports and usually the worst sort of guy too)

Instead of exhibiting even a little bit of maturity and trying to hunt for somebody real and lovable or pursue a good career, they were busy painting their nails in horrid colors and dying their hair with glittery bluish hair-gels.

But when they peel of their facade, those girls are the ones who are most depressed, probably because they are nothing without their make-up kits. We (our batch) even held a campaign against them to create an awareness and to do something worthwhile in life rather than waste their time and money of gorgeous glittery costumes and cosmetic-kits.

Who starts all these? Who are these trend-setters? Is it the pop stars, models and actresses or is it the so-called-good-friends?

I still don't think it is because the girls are jealous of the super-models' beauty.
May be, in some rare case when a girl's ambition is to be a model. But what about the rest? Who introduces these girls to the latest trend? The other girls!!!

It's just the peer-pressure and the urge to blindly ape the person next to us, that's probably ruining these otherwise smart kids.