Celebrities test boundaries of social media etiquette
People read about celebrities on a daily basis, and their actions can sometimes draw caution to their reputation. There are times, however, when celebrities are so popular, good-looking, innocent-seeming or when their fandom exceeds great numbers that they can get away with anything they want.
What celebrities post on social media is a good example of this behavior.
People idolize celebrities sometimes to the point where they believe it is OK for them to do anything, even if it would be horribly disgusting and non-tolerable if the average person did it.
For instance, famous YouTube star Sam Pepper was accused of multiple sexual assault cases after a hidden prank video of his went viral in 2014. In the video, Pepper would deliberately grab women’s backsides without them knowing who did it and then pretend he saw nothing.
The YouTube celebrity has more than 2.3 million subscribers on his channel, which consists of pranks and comedy skits. While Pepper received backlash for the video, he also received a lot of praise. Fortunately, the video has been taken down since then.
My question is why no one decided to block Pepper’s channel after the video was launched — though he has other prank videos of him harassing women — and why people still chose to defend him.
The fact that Pepper blatantly sexually harassed women in public and had the audacity to publish it on his YouTube channel should not be tolerated.
Another example of unwarranted celebrity praise relates to rapper Iggy Azalea, who has the continuous habit of posting racist and other controversial tweets. The rapper expresses her obliviousness toward her ignorant behavior, and she feels it is necessary to make clear that she is not racist, because she has multiracial friends and family.
Consequently, Azalea has not received much public backlash, but she also has devoted herself to fans who tweet back at her, claiming she is simply speaking her mind and being funny.
It’s not funny, however, because it is never OK for anyone to be racist — especially on social media — and then feel the need to pull the ‘I’m not racist’ card.
Celebrities should be entertaining and influencing others in a positive manner — to show regular people they can achieve success. It is shameful how people basically worship them, even though some celebrities can be cruel.
Just because a celebrity has a hit song on the radio for several weeks in a row or they have millions of subscribers on the Internet does not mean they are good people.
