Justin Bieber has been a global spectacle for a third of his life.
Cameras follow him as much as the constant frustration of being a star does. Stuck
somewhere between trying to be a normal human being whilst simultaneously being
dizzyingly and agonisingly famous is hard. But every human being deserves
respect.
A year ago, Bieber denounced himself as teenage girls’ social media
content filler when he announced that he is no longer taking photos with fans. He
is, he says (via Instagram), done with “feeling like a zoo animal” and that he
doesn’t “owe anybody a picture”. However, this has not stopped eager fans from
trying their luck.
In a recent altercation with an Australian fan, in which Bieber said
“you make me feel sick” after she tried to take a photo with him, Bieber was
shunned. You know, in the way he usually is. Journalists, ‘music experts’ and
social media commentators alike shaking their heads, sighing in unison,
speaking one of the common phrases: ‘He got rich too quickly’, ‘He has so much
money he doesn’t know what to do with it’ and ‘Look at him being a spoilt
little celebrity’.
It is not only Bieber who feels the brunt of being a well-known face in our
Instagram-obsessed society. Ex-One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson was caught
up in a brawl with a gaggle of fans and a photographer at LAX Airport, and subsequently
blamed and arrested for the ordeal. But how is it Tomlinson’s fault that he has
to walk through airport customs? Nobody expects a greeting of paparazzi and a swarm of aggressive
teenage fans in the airport’s departure lounge.
These are the frantic fans who shove their iPhones in the faces of their
idols in order to document their ‘precious moment’. The fans that should be
getting even some part of the blame for causing said celebrity’s outburst, but
never do. Because, unless you’re a paparazzi (photographer I think they prefer
to be called now) who’s unfortunate job is take photos of celebrities at
obscure angles in order to fabricate bizarre stories for slow news days, you
have no obligation to have a photo with a celebrity. It’s also not the obligation
of the celebrity to take a photo with you. Especially if you are breaching
their personal space and/or privacy. It’s what any human would want.
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