Living in a Material World

I have a confession to make. And please, don’t laugh or judge me too harshly.

I sometimes watch old seasons of “The Hills” on DVD.

Yes, I own the old seasons. All of them. We all have our guilty pleasures.

But in watching “The Hills” this past weekend, my cloud of embarrassing addiction suddenly had a silver lining: I realized that at least my vices and weaknesses are not as detrimental to my own self-respect as Heidi Montag’s plastic surgery addiction is to hers.

Lately, Montag’s obsession with her looks has reached obscene heights. The difference between Montag circa season one of “The Hills” and right now is stikingly obvious.

In the opening montage for the premiere season of “The Hills,” Montag is the literal definition of bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, especially if the tail refers to her naturally dirty blonde, perky ponytail that was entirely devoid of peroxide highlights or Britney Spears-esque extensions.  She was fresh-faced and impressionable, if not a bit lacking in the motivation and maturity departments.

And look at her now.

Ten plastic surgeries in one day can certainly do a number on someone, huh? Where there once was a bright young girl full of promise and hope there is now a washed-up porn star wannabe who looks twice her age and yet has half her needed amount of brain cells.  She is verging on the Michael Jackson, or at the very least has become the new Joan Rivers of plastic surgery.  And as much as that makes me feel sorry for her, it makes me sick at the same time to know that she is someone millions of young girls follow and even idolize in the press and entertainment media.

The new megawatt stars are people like Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt.  They are the Lindsey Lohans and Megan Foxs and Shia LeBoufs. These are the people our American teens are looking to and idolizing and seeing everywhere in the tabloids and on the big screen. And where most of their crimes used to be those of a fashionable nature, celebrity crimes are becoming quite a bit bigger and more offensive, even if they aren’t technically illegal.

And so it makes me sick to know that these people are not only in the public eye, but thriving in the spotlight. They are making a mess of their lives and a mockery of their profession, and we are eating it up.

I admit it, I read that issue of People magazine with Montag on the cover. I still watch old episodes of “The Hills.” I even watched the entire “Transformers” sequel.

But now that I have realized my guilty pleasures might also be melting my brain, I am trying to make a change.  Acceptance is the first step to recovery, after all — and I have accepted that by taking part in advancing the fame of people like Montag and Pratt, I am doing more harm than good to myself and my generation.

So here, I’m talkin’ to my generation and asking all of you to remember what you stand for. Remember what you believe in and what you want to be. Do you want to look like Montag one day? To be insecure and a stranger to those who love you best? I sure hope not, because we all deserve better than being known for having ten plastic surgeries in one day.

So please, put down the magazine and turn off the DVDs. I know I’m going to at least try to do the same. I’m going to try to find a new guilty pleasure. Because we deserve better than that. We deserve role models we can really look up to.

We deserve more as a generation. It’s up to us to decide.

Tagged as: Celebrities, Entertainment, Heidi Montag, Plastic Surgery, Spencer Pratt, Television, The Hills