You may or may not know this, but Zsa Zsa is Paris's great-aunt. Maybe that explains something.

Leaving aside the premise that Paris Hilton is a destructive force, rather than someone who chooses to spend her time with self-destructive losers, what strikes me as odd is the assertion that I or anyone else should for some reason care about what happens to Britney Spears any more than we do about Tara Reid or Lindsey Lohan.

I wasn't aware that there were gradiations at the bottom of the barrel.

As a mature adult woman, it's very easy for me to dismiss Paris as just another dumb blonde. However, I'm also a high school teacher, and that's where my real concern arises. I've been teaching for almost two decades, so I've seen other dumb blondes come and go; Paris, however, has soared above all these others to influence teens in a way I've never seen before. Male students think she's "hot," despite her vacuous smile and razor-thin stick figure. Female students idolize and want to be her.

I did not take issue with Britney Spears when she rose to stardom 10 years ago, even when so many parents were shocked and outraged by her songs and clothes. At least Britney had some talent at something. Similarly, I don't take issue with any number of tabloid stars, pop singers, and actors (i.e. Lindsay Lohan and Pamela Anderson). However, Paris is whole different force. Anyone who spends any time around young people recognizes the pernicious hold that Paris has had on them--it's no longer simply about sexy clothes and partying. It's a complete lifestyle that values materialism and stupidity over selflessness and intelligence.

But we the public are NOT clamoring for more Paris Hilton coverage -- quite the contraray. Paris Hilton is manufactured news, force-fed to a reluctant public because we're told "we" want to know. No we don't!!! I am a West Virginian - as red a state as they come -- and no, I do not know one person (not one) who admits to having an "interest" in Paris Hilton. Her comings and goings and debaucheries are force fed into my reluctant eyes and helpless ears by a media which has convinced itself that this inexpensive and "juicy" material is what I secretly crave. Again, I COULD CARE LESS!!!

But the media machines have convinced themselves we do care, and so THEY continue to shine THEIR tractor beams onto her brainless, celebrity life.

Since it is this media attention which I think drives Paris' increasingly dysfunctional behavior we must look to the mainstream tabloid media as the ultimate font of this immoral, scurrilous behavior. THERE is where you will find America's biggest want of "family values" and "traditional morality:" NOT with America's media consumers, but with the media producers.

Who knew that we needed a rich celebrity to serve as a scapegoat for the horrible behavior of other rich celebrities?

For all of you people bemoaning why Paris is famous, that it must be some media conspiracy because you couldn't care any less about her and her antics is that you are forgetting that you are not a teenager who sits around watching MTV and are on MySpace and Instant Messenger all fucking day and all you want for Christmas is the newest Sidekick and iPod and maybe that purse you saw some celeb with the other day when you were flipping through Seventeen or Cosmo. It's just sheep mentality on a grander scale, instead of wanting to look and style yourself after the most popular girl or guy in school, now it's just copying your favorite celebrity.

Teenagers now seem to have more disposable cash than in the past, so there are more things geared toward them. Think back to the 80's, how many kid channels were there? Not many, now there are plenty that kids watch all the time, when I was watching MTV as a teen it was almost all videos, and the shows were about music like Yo! MTV Raps now it is all lame ass shows where music is just a background to the reality TV antics of low level celebs or everyday people and the actual music is regulated from 2am to 6am. My Super Sweet 16, Laguna Beach, Rob & Big, The Newlyweds, the Parkers, ect are just crappy TV showcasing some of the worst excessess of America. The Real World no longer casts young 20 somethings with career asperations or interesting personalities, now they just want spoiled kids who'll get drunk and try to sleep with all their roommates on camera and every episode is someone gets drunk and hooks up with a stranger from a bar or a roommate or gets in a fight. Imagine when Real World first started and the poor kids had to find a job or tried to get a singing gig and the struggling cartoonist is eating spaghetti every meal and the girl is working at Nordstroms.

This is what is shown to the new era of teens watching the Real World, a huge great pad with toys and games just handed to you, drunken sex hook-ups which almost everyone regrets the next day, a cushy job that gets handed to you that leaves you plenty of time to drink every night and sleep till noon, enough cash to eat out all the time oh and bickering about stupid misunderstandings and if they're lucky someone will get drunk enough to get into a fist fight! Doesn't that sort of sound like Paris's life?

Drinkwater, you wrote, "We know that all of this is the flipside to the awful world that Americans have created."

Consumerism and greed and vapidity and the craving for distraction thrive in New Zealand and in every other country I've ever visited. It's also true that some of the best spiritual writing I've read comes from the States.

Best,

I found it amusing that while Rebecca Traister argues that Paris allows other media professionals to use sexist terms they ordinarily couldn't get away with ("skantron" etc.) she neglected to admit to another discriminatory epithet applied in Salon.com by Heather Havrilesky: "whoring sea donkey!" The sea donkey community, which prizes chastity and modesty as a rule, was outraged. But I hate sea donkeys--filthy animals, really--so I keep using it.

Unlike some other posters, I don't think people follow Paris because they are trying to distract themselves from the war in Iraq, the degredation of the environment, or that faulty refrigerator lightbulb they can't seem to get around to replacing. The simple fact is people need someone to look down on. This is what keeps Jerry Springer et al in business. But for the upper middle class leftie, it's hard to justify looking down on the economically disadvantaged people that appear on such shows. But Paris is perfect. She basically conforms to every stereotype we'd associate with the term "trailer trash" . . . but she's a rich, white "succubutante!" So it's okay!

I personally think Paris is doing a service to the English language. The language that pant-snorkling rent-a-wench inspires is positively Shakespearean.