When I am flipping through tabloids, one thing that I do not like to see are photographs of celebrity children splashed across with ridiculous headlines. And yet, very periodically they are there.
I have been following tabloids and entertainment sections of newspapers from quite a young age. No matter whom the star kid was, their activities merely amused me, rather than provoking me to imitate their behavior to look cool. We never liked that kind of gossip.
A 14-year-old me, who was otherwise preoccupied with taking stupid decisions, had the intelligence enough to realize that there were better things to talk about in tabloids, than discussing personal lives of people who weren’t relevant.
Tell me about the stars, leave their families alone.
So, My Dear ‘Media’, Can You Please Leave Malia Obama Alone?
It’s 2016. Malia Obama is seen having a good time at the Lollapalooza festival and the internet has gone ballistic about it! Some condemn that, many support it. It’s trending massively on the internet. Every major media website under the roof has covered it with a variety of click-bait captions.
But what if there was a rule banning any kind of media reporting on children of people who are themselves not involved in any kind of public enterprise? Could there have been such a huge media outcry about Obama’s adult daughter then?
She deserves to have a normal life and not be chased by paps all over the world only because her father happens to be the President of United States!
Seriously, I was extremely irked by another news item about Malia Obama around some time back, when an article ‘exposing’ her partying in Amsterdam was titled, “Obamas Worst Nightmare Come True.”
Is an adult partying in a club really that nightmarish? I resisted reading that article for a long time, any knowledge about Malia’s parties wasn’t lucrative for me!
But guess what, the internet trapped me. I cannot even begin to list the number of random websites featuring that article as a part of sponsored highlights! It was everywhere; you had to read it to find out what was all the hype about.
And Sasha Obama Too.
In associated news Sasha Obama, the younger sister to Malia, made it to the news too, the world couldn’t avoid fawning over the details about her summer job as a waitress. I read in the same article that there were 4-5 bodyguards stationed outside the café for her security. I understand it’s necessary but imagine living like that all the time.
Remember Suri?
I remember reading a listicle that ranked the top 10 most photographed celebrities on earth, quite a long time back which claimed that Suri Cruise has been photographed more than Elvis Presley! That sounded unsettling to me, but yes, Suri has been on the radar ever since she was conceived.
Against a choice.
So much was her popularity that major fashion houses lavishly sent designs to be worn by her. Whatever she wore sold like hot cakes at their stores. She became as good a fashion icon as any major actress, owning a wardrobe close to $2 million at age 5!
Imagine the menace. She was photographed almost every day. Such an upbringing was dysfunctional.
I was pretty happy with Katie Holmes eventual decision to put an end to the unreasonable fancy life, and shape Suri’s life as a normal child, away from Tom Cruise’s stardom. Now she safely stays under the radar, enjoying her tweens like a regular child.
Star kids are kids. Not cattle.
As much as people love to consume trashy uppity celeb gossip, there is a place where they need to draw a line. Subjecting a child to intense public scrutiny because their father/mother/any-random-family is famous is plain unnecessary.
Even adults who are inviting attention just by mere association don’t have it easy with the media sitting on their every move, imagine the impact on a child, like Suri, who is not emotionally equipped to deal with it.
Even if Malia Obama was smoking weed, she was doing so in a state where it has been decriminalized. She is a consenting adult. She never brought a bad name to the White House as its resident, and now when that run is over, she deserves to live outside as she wants to.
Even if they are ‘mistakes’ they are her own, and she is not answerable to anyone. Even as Barack Obama’s daughter, she is not needed to live up to any image. She is a regular person and deserves to be respected as one.
You might also like to read:
http://edtimes.in/2016/07/dear-paparazzi-please-dont-kill-taylor-swift/
