In 2013, I’m pretty sure when I say the name “Kanye West” most people can put a face to a name, well except for this lady apparently. Since we’re talking Kanye, most of us are familiar with his issues with the paparazzi, especially since he’s been very vocal about said problems.
Now of course, the majority of us,who don’t exactly have swarms of photographers hounding us to take pictures every waking hour of the day, can’t exactly relate or sympathize with these issues. After all, you’re a celebrity, it’s just the price of fame right?
I was in a similar place of thought, at least until I saw this video this past weekend:
There’s a list of things that are so wrong with this video that it’s hard to know where to start. First off, the paparazzi don’t seem like they’re standing at a respective distance outside of Kanye’s gate, they seem to be all of 10-15 feet away from his garage, as in, you walk outside your door and you have strangers posted up in your driveway.
Secondly, is the time of night. You’ve seen videos of paps being outside of clubs and whatnot, trying to ask questions as various celebrities enter and exit various parties but this is something different. According to Kanye, it’s 4 am in the morning. Can you imagine four or five types of people that you can’t stand the most being camped outside your house at 4 in the morning?? If that isn’t enough incentive to just start swinging we get to point number three.
A woman who I’m assuming is Kim runs out to the car. At that point, one of the photographers runs up to her to get what I’m assuming is a better picture? And Kanye understandably backs him up and the guy, who should be grateful that he isn’t gasping for air on the floor after being chopped in the throat (had it been me) tells him to relax.
For a man who is know to spaz on the paparazzi, despite it usually being the result of him being provoked, the fact that nobody ended up in the hospital that night speaks a lot on his self control.
Then we get to this video, where the man can’t even walk twenty feet to his car without people literally hanging onto his shoulder and trying to take a “Kanye and I” photo with the back of his head:
I could spin this post into a 500+ word article about how the paparazzi seem to be getting more and more extreme with their methods of trying to be the first to get an exclusive, but I’ll save that for another time.
Instead, I’ll talk a little bit about fame.
I can’t say that everybody wants fame, or even most people. What I can say though, is I’m confident that just about everyone would love the perks.
Getting Free Stuff, people paying you to show up at places, getting to be around other famous people, having people almost literally (and sometimes literally) worship you, getting free stuff, have people hang on to your every word and action, having the ability to influence masses of people all at once, and one more time for good measure, getting free stuff.
However, like everything else in life, it comes with its own set of personal drawbacks. Constant invasions of privacy, people who are constantly looking for reasons to spin your image or what you say in a bad light, cameras consistently going off and being shoved in your face, etc.
Personally, whenever I’m asked about fame, my response recently has been “I’ve been just another person to the masses for over 20 yrs of my life, I think I can handle 20 yrs of being in the spotlight.”
I think another reason people may crave for fame is the subconscious need to feel more important. For whatever reason, in our society we put entertainers on a huge pedestal, and I’m not saying that that they don’t deserve a pedestal, I, like many others, just wonder sometimes why that pedestal always seems to dwarf any other social media figure, especially if that figure has more to bring to the table in terms of sparking intelligent conversation and critical thinking.
I’ve seen people get a taste of power, and take it to the extreme. Managers who acted like they were the alpha and the omega just because they controlled when and if you took a break, Bosses who could’ve been the poster child of hypocrisy when it came to job responsibilities, and so on.
Overall, I don’t think fame is necessarily a bad thing to want to obtain, there are a lot of people who have used their fame to benefit not only themselves, but those closest to them, and even the masses… and then there’s the people who want fame just for fame’s sake. But what do you all think? Is fame something that’s worth chasing?
