Obscene Celebrities; A Threat to Society? Hardly.

It goes without saying that Marilyn Manson is one of the most controversial figures in not just rock, but the entire world. He is constantly deemed to be sacreligious and accused of promoting the vulgar and obscene. He has been blamed for the murders at Columbine, saying that his music influenced the 2 boys into shooting up their school, and then commiting suicide. His stage name is said to glorrify serial killers and promote acts of lesbianism. Rumors speculate that his concert antics are violent and abusive. His visual apperance is shocking. Is he truely the threat to society we make him out to be?

NO!

Marilyn Manson is nothing more than the front man of a rock group. A shocking person? Sure. A bit weird? Definitely. Dangerous? Not by a long shot. He's become nothing more than the latest scapegoat for a much bigger problem; denial. We like to deny the fact that, hey, maybe society had something to do with the Columbine shooting. Maybe society has something to do with drug use. Maybe society has somthing to do with teenage sex. So instead? We just find an easy target and take aim.

Marilyn Manson has no children. He is not a parent and in no way legally obligated to make content suitable for other peoples children.You cannot blame Marilyn Manson when underaged children are exposed to his material, it's their parents fault. Until those kids turn 18, their parents are legally obligated to ensure that their children are in a safe environment and exposed to things suitable to them. I have yet to see Marilyn Manson out in the streets beating kids in the head with his CDs, forcing them to listen. His CDs have PARENTAL ADVISORY warnings. If a child's parents are so careless and neglectful as to not monitor the media their child is exposed to, I believe that shows exactly who is to blame for the harmful behavior we see today. Songs are fictional, and anyone who listens to mature music has to be able to see that. If a teenager is unable to distinguish between the reality we live in, and the fictional world of the media, their parents are the ones who failed.

The media has become the modern day babysitter. As long as their kids are busy and entertained, parents don't seem to care what they do, clearly thats the easy way out. But, when something bad does happen, when Little Suzy gets pregnant or Johnny Boy ODs on cocaine, then parents get mad. They have to blame someone else, because they're to naive to realize it was their own fault for being so neglectful. Not Marilyn Mansons. It depresses me to realize how irresponsible society has become.

Society has also devloped the grotesque habit of shunning anything that is remotely eccentric. This is particularly evident with Marilyn Manson's apperance and opinions. The question I have for you is what gives anyone the right to decide what is just and morally ok for another human being? You haven't lived their life and have no idea why they have the views they do. A very elite group of individuals don't conform to the views of the media and what is seen as "ok", and because of that, they are judged. Marilyn Manson falls in the elite group, and for that I have exstensive amounts of respect for him. Anyone who is willing to set aside what others have told them, and be the person they aspire to be is amazing. Personally, I consider that kind of determination a positive rolemodel for kids to look up to. You see, once you actually analyze the things he stands for, you'll realize he isn't the awful person the media makes him out to be.

The media choses to fequent his character because it draws attention, and they thrive off of it. There is a thousand little pop stars out their singing about sex and drugs, and promoting a horrible image that everyone has to wear name brands and be a skinny twig, but thats ok for kids to learn from, because they come in large numbers. Marilyn Manson is individual, singular in other words, and easy to target. He forms his own views, and is very inteillgent but it's almost as if this is seen as something negative now.

I used Marilyn Manson as an example because I figured that he would be someone most people would know about, we know the way the media portrays him. But the things I said could apply to virtually any celebrity who is blamed for somthing. It isn't their fault, and the longer society stays in denial and keeps blaming them, the harder it will be for us to fix our cultural downspiral. I apologize for the length of this blog, but it was necessary to say everything I wanted to on an issue I feel so strongly about.
Posted on May 21st, 2008 at 08:45pm

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