Paris Hilton: celebrity culture and media influence

Paris Hilton: An Exercise in Bad Public Taste

One can never be too rich or too thin.

Agree or disagree?

If you answered yes to the above statement, then I have, dear reader, a two-word response: Paris Hilton.

Yes, if there was ever living proof that the old adage that one can never be too rich or too thin is false -- Paris Hilton exists as living proof in her media presence across the airwaves and in the black and white of the popular press. Everywhere, one sees the guise of the nubile, waif-thin form of Paris Hilton. But how can someone so svelte in person seem like such a waste of media space? How can someone so rich in fortune be so poor in human interest, even so poor in words? What has Paris ever said -- with her lips not her body in the language of love, that -- that is memorable? Even as a creative commentator on her own fame and spoofing her own celebrity she requires the assistance of a reality TV writer, rather than relies upon her own wit.

Harsh? Well, pause to ask: if this seems harsh, did the public ask to be inflicted with Paris Hilton? What exactly is Paris Hilton famous for? She is not an actress. In the infamous series "The Simple Life," she plays herself, a madcap heiress thrust into embarrassing situations -- embarrassing because they take place in real-life locations like farms and Wal-Marts, rather than across the vaunted space of catwalks and club red carpets. Yet Paris is not even a socialite in the traditional sense, as she is affiliated with no notable cause. She is not even well-known for throwing a particularly fabulous party, or of spawning an interesting style of dress. Paris Hilton is merely emblematic of a media phenomenon, namely she is famous for being famous, for having a well-known name of a luxury hotel, and of being from a famous family -- and being an attractive, although not overly attractive young woman, with all of the tools of personal trainers at her finger tips, and personal wardrobe and makeup assistants to flatter her with their attentions and knowledge of the human form. And still, she manages to find the time to get into trouble and to lower her reputation!

The only truly odd thing about Paris Hilton, one might say, is that rather than comfortably resting on her laurels as being of 'old money,' Hilton seems to wear her wealth and status not comfortably, but with the taunt and tanned stress and over concern regarding her own appearance. She behaves with the attention-hungry intensity in the public eye of someone who has just come into or is aspiring for money, fame, and power. Perhaps because her money and status is crafted and inherited, rather than won on her own merits she feels such a need, since America no longer admires its socialites and celebrities from 'fine families.'

But are there not better ways to win fame on one's own merits, regardless of laboring under the stress of having a famous name? Hilton as a 'body' does not have Pamela Anderson Lee's pneumatic breasts, but everything else about Hilton suggests a Barbie-doll wannabe. In the hotel industry of hospitality field, where the name Hilton has long been synonymous with good taste and good form, Hilton seems to do everything she can to sully that name and flaunt the family's reputation that brought her fame, rather than to use that name in a creative and sustaining fashion.

Paris Hilton could have had a notable career as a hotel executive, or even as a travel or leisure industry personality. It is easy to imagine someone with Hilton's glamorous physique slinking around the lives of the rich and famous, allowed into their homes to see their home spas and other delights concealed to the public. But instead of seeing Hilton sporting the latest trends that could advance her family fortune, Hilton's most famous escapades were transmitted over the Internet -- and they involved her in various states of undress, not sporting the latest Versace or a diamond necklace and pearls gleaned from Rodeo Drive's finest jewelry stores. The contortions she was seen performing were not those of the newest fitness trends in hot yoga, but with a hot physique of a different kind.

To pick at Hilton's unfortunate sexual performance as seen online by so many pimply-faced web surfers barely out of middle school may seem cruel. Yes, one could say, no one forced her to make it -- make the film that brought her such ill fame, that is. But few of us, public figures or not, would look particularly admirable if our intimate life was displayed for all to see across the Internet. This was, after all, not the public face Hilton wished to show to the world, but a supposedly private moment that got out into the world's eye, unbeknownst to her, in the worst possible fashion and through the worst, most easily disseminated popular media. She was taken advantage of the celebrity seeking of the man she trusted her heart and body with, not of behaving badly on her own.

Very well, give Paris that one moral allowance -- she did not wish to purvey her fame in a negative fashion that sexually exploited herself and her partner. In that incident she was a victim, not a victimizer. But how to explain, one might ask, the fact that Paris has chosen to display herself, with her close friend Nikki, as one of a pair of Malibu Barbies on reality TV -- Fox reality TV no less.

True, the show is self-satire, and shows her as one of 'the people' as part of its narrative. But it inadvertently highlights that the only time this lady gives back to the community, for all of her wealth, with no official business or royal duties unlike the late Christina Onassis or Princess Diana, is when she is purveying her image on reality TV. The only time Paris Hilton has been seen doing any social good in the past several days was when she and her erstwhile companion in arms, Nicole Richie, was seen brining their TV show, "The Simple Life," to a Wilmington day care facility Small Wonder Daycare center Wednesday morning. There, they reportedly helped load children onto a bus and pushed other children in strollers while looking rather confused at the children's antics. This was supposed to show the girls what 'real work' was like and how 'real children lived.'