Hero worship and why it’s problematic

It’s one thing to worship and love a celebrity but when do we take things too far?

Brendon Urie, the lead singer for Panic! At The Disco, thought it’d be funny to make a rape joke in the middle of a concert in 2011, claiming that if he saw you after their show, he’d “have sex with you, whether you liked it or not.” Of course, it was a concert setting so the crowd of mostly teenage girls screamed.

Several members of the crowd came forward after the fact and said they felt uncomfortable in the audience when he made that joke. Those people got shunned, saying it was just Brendon and he did stuff like that all the time. It’s just a joke. But let’s face it, if a random guy on the street told you that, you’d be deeply disturbed.

But again, it was a crowd scenario so the people cheering after he made the joke probably didn’t even really hear what he said, they were just happy to hear his voice. So let’s try a different example.

On December 19, 2012, it was announced that Ian Watkins, the lead singer of the band Lostprophets was charged with conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a female under 13 years old and possession and distribution of indecent images of children. He was also accused of conspiring to rape a one-year-old child and having an extreme animal pornography collection.

After denying the charges for almost a year, yesterday it was reported that Watkins finally pleaded guilty along with two other women. Allegedly, those two women were fans. Fans who were convinced they were in love with Watkins and offered their own children up to him to abuse.

I get it; there are those celebrities that we fall head over heels in love with. We think everything about them is perfect from their appearance to their impeccable personality. Even I’m guilty of this when it comes to one (or several) musicians.

But somewhere, we have to draw the line. We have to realize that if they do problematic things, they shouldn’t be pardoned for them. If any average Joe on the street did it, you’d be calling them out on it but it’s okay for your favourite celebrity to do it?

Personally, I like to call celebrities out on problematic stuff they do, just as I call out regular people on it too. I’ve called them out on it online and ranted and I’ve received several hateful messages because of it. I’ve been called dumb and ugly and told that it’s “people like me who give fandoms a bad name” and to “stop and develop a sense of humour” by fans who believe that their idol can do no wrong. It doesn’t bother me, I’m not going to let some sad human on the other end of their computer screen bring me down. I find it funny because technically, I think they’re the one that’s wrong.

In Brendon Urie’s case, I’d be fine with it if he just apologized. He’s made several videos on the popular app, Vine, bashing religion, making sexist remarks and making light of mental illnesses and when he’s called out on it, he gets defensive about it, making fun of the people who called him out on it. Just admit you screwed up, apologize and we’re good.

I hope that one day we can have a legion of fans who’s stars in their eyes don’t affect their own personal judgement. I hope that if this happens, we won’t have so many problematic musicians in the industry.

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