Megan Williams
Candace Wiley
English 103
February 25, 2009
Topic: My topic is whether celebrities should bear any responsibility for being role models for young children.
Thesis: Since Celebrities are in the public eye at all times, how they choose to behave is very important. With recent events involving alcohol, drugs, and racy photographs, these people are affecting children in a negative way.
Proposal: My proposal for this thesis is pretty simple. Celebrities are using their fame in a negative way. Being as they are in the public eye many times, they are under constant pressure of public scrutiny. What they do and what they say particularly influences young children. They have the ability to significantly impact their lives. Celebrities should be conscience of their actions and know that they bear a responsibility of being role models for young children. However, they choose to make bad decisions and be involved in bad circumstances which will inevitably get them in trouble with the public. Recently, the Michael Phelps scandal at USC has been in the news. How bad does it look to have an Olympic champion swimmer smoking pot on campus? There have also been countless DUI’s involving celebrities. Racy photographs involving celebrities also influence children. These photos affect how children think of their own body image. Suddenly they want to look just like stars even if it is in a very vulgar way. Being a celebrity gives these people such an amazing platform, however they do not use their fame like they should.
Points:
• Celebrities should bear a responsibility for being a role model for young children
• Everyone looks up to them
• Celebrities get away with drinking and driving
• They get away with doing drugs- most recently: Michael Phelps
• Celebrities break laws with no consequences.
• Some celebrities have been involved in vulgar photograph which leads to the image of a distorted body image in young children- girls in particular.
• They don’t care about anyone but themselves
• Celebrities live in a fantasy world- no one in real life can live like that.
• Celebrities have the potential to be such a powerful role model for children. They can do this by: acting in positive ways, and doing the opposite of all the points I have already made.
Conclusion: Celebrities are normal human beings who happen to be in the public eye at many times. Their outlook on life and their actions influence children every day. Recently, celebrities have been abusing their fame instead of using it for the good. The circumstances they choose to be a part of make them bad role models in children’s eyes. Celebrities should be held responsible for their actions and know that they bear a responsibility for being a role model to young impressionable children.
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I really like this topic and you have a lot of great points to support your thesis, which is written much better and more clearly! But do you mean "racist" instead of "racy" in your thesis? I also think it would be good for your paper if you found some instances where children have done inappropriate things that they have learned from celebrities or made comments about the actions of celebrities. Just an idea, but love the proposal!
ReplyDeleteGreat topic! I've never read a paper on this subject before so it should be interesting. Just a thought - I kept seeing major points that seem kind of biased/an opinion of celebrities. Maybe if you found more facts or real life stories that would be good.
ReplyDeleteThis is an awesome topic. I really like your ideas and where you are going with this. The only thing is maybe you could look at it from both sides, like whether celebrities are role models and also whether they are not.
ReplyDeleteMake sure you are not too biased when talking about this subject, not all celebrities are totally negative. But, since you seem so biased, maybe you could give an example of how a celebrity role model negatively affected you somehow. Make sure you give specific examples of the kinds of celebrities that are not "role model material," and what it is that makes them that way.
ReplyDeletei think that this is a great topic to write on. you seem like you know what you plan to write about and the issues you chose to address, but i agree with with sarah as well about being biased
ReplyDeleteStacking the Evidence fallacy, BIG TIME.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely rethink this whole paper. Go into this paper thinking that this issue has multiple sides (not just one or two). What are the multiple sides?
People like to talk about how child celebrities have no childhood. Let's talk about adult celebrities lose their adulthood. They don't get the chance to grow and experiment like normal young adluts.
The reason they can avoid criminal charges for some of their actions is not because they are celebrities, but cause they are rich. Think about politicians, owners of companies, etc.
Oh, and are parents no longer responsible for what their kids watch on TV? Even if they don't want to monitor their children, there are little devices that can do this job for the parents.
Let's face it, if celebrities wanted to be role models, they would have become teachers (kindergarten to 12th grade). You assume (Begging the Question fallacy) that every celebrity is like Spears, Hilton, and Lohan. No, the sensible stars don't make the news because they are at home. Are all celebrities crazy? No, the sane ones don't make the news because they are at home.
"Celebrities live in a fantasy world- no one in real life can live like that." No, the addictions are real and the problems are real. The only difference is that they are televised.
"They don’t care about anyone but themselves." I'm sure you can see how biased this statements sounds. Okay, maybe celebrities (like most people) don't care about strangers. Does this mean that they don't care about anyone? Probably not.
-Candace