Rishire Writes

In light of all the stuff Justin Bieber has been getting into recently, I thought I’d analyze the relationship between celebrities and their die-hard fans. No, this post will not involve actual statistics or researched facts, but it will be chock full of opinions! Enjoy!

As some or most of you know, Justin Bieber has been dabbling in some illegal activity. From the vandalism to the marijuana, he seems to have forgotten what America’s laws are. I guess his Canadian has been getting the best of him. Whatever the reason for his recent behavior, I fear that it will negatively impact his young fans. As anyone who’s ever been to a Justin Bieber concert before can attest to (me…#noregrets), his fan base consists almost entirely of baby-faced babies with high pitched squeals that they love to let loose at even the rumor that he’s within airplane distance. When he’s not onstage, they scream. When he is onstage, they scream. It’s practically their own concert. The point I’m trying to make is that they love him. He could poop in their hands, and they would still love him. Heck, he peed in a bucket and cursed out beloved former President, Bill Clinton, and I didn’t see any of them bat an eyelash at that. I also don’t stalk baby Beliebers, but that’s beside the point. He’s got them trapped in his web of catchy tunes and coiffed hair. His word is law, and his actions are commendable. The little girls long to be his wife, and the little boys (are there boy Beliebers?) want to be just like him. I’m just guessing.

Let me just say that I am a Justin Bieber fan. I wouldn’t call myself a Belieber, because that sounds stupid, but I do like his music. I’m old enough to know that he’s turned into a pretty bad person, though. I can distinguish the difference between his artist persona and who he really is. I can separate my feelings for his music from my feelings for him as a person, unlike a small child who barely knows the alphabet. Much like Justin, they don’t have the most solid grasp on what is and isn’t legal in the US. They probably think weed is a vegetable. They think Justin could do no wrong. He’s too good at singing and dancing and looking cute to go to jail or be deported. Sure, a petition to deport him got 100,00 signatures, but those probably weren’t Beliebers, and they definitely weren’t kids.

Over the weekend I went to dinner with a group of friends. As we waited for our baskets of cheddar bay biscuits (shout out to Red Lobster!), one of my friends, let’s call her E, remarked that, because Justin has been drag racing lambos and drunk driving, other people are going to start drag racing their more affordable cars and drunk driving. Of course she was exaggerating as I have been throughout this whole post, but she did have a point. When people see people they admire and look up to doing stupid things or anything at all, they more than likely want to do it too. Those reckless actions become cool when associated with someone like Justin, depending on how you felt about him before all of this craziness. Isn’t that terrifying?

Of course this could always go the other way. With people like Ashton Kutcher and Leonardo DiCaprio who do a lot of environmental work, their celebrity can influence others to follow suite, but let’s face it, what’s a more interesting news story, Leo constructing a completely environmentally friendly and completely expensive penthouse in Greenwich Village or Justin Bieber being breastfed by a stripper?