Paris Hilton keeps us sane

Britain has Jade Goody, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Lady Victoria Hervey and a legion of other famous-for-being-famous celebrities, but none of them even begins to rival in terms of unfathomable mega-stardom what America offers. Yes, the United States has given Paris Hilton to a grateful world.

The City Journal, a seriously clever think-tank quarterly, has a superb piece by Kay Hymowitz on Ms Hilton, the Trash Princess and why Americans (and let's face it the rest of the world too) love to hate "the most powerful snark magnet in history". Hymowitz says:

She has become a synonym for American materialism, bad manners, greed, "like" and "whatever" Valley Girl inarticulateness, parochialism, arrogance, promiscuity, antifeminism, exposed roots and navels, entitlement, cell-phone addiction, anorexia and bulimia, predilection for gas-guzzling private transportation, pornified womanhood, exhibitionism, narcissism — you name it.

Hymowitz suggests, amongst other things, that we love to hate Paris Hilton because she refuses to "observe the rules of trust-fund decorum" and has become "a caricature who allows us to mock the undeserving and decadent rich." Hymowitz also argues that Paris has:

this isn't just metaphorical - sold her soul... She deliberately and programmatically offered herself up to us as an "It," a being without an inner life, a personality whose only value is to be seen and known by all. She is, in other words, the total incarnation of postmodern identity, the individual who has disappeared completely — and happily — into her image.

I wonder whether all this is a bit high falutin? Maybe, just maybe, the people who watch her programmes, buy her products and listen to her records actually like her. And that the commentators who despise her simply despise the rest of popular culture too. Nonetheless, Hymowitz's pay-off is very punchy and stylish:

Paris Hilton may be a composite of contemporary American sins, but hating Paris Hilton is another thing entirely. It’s a sign of lingering cultural sanity.

So should America and the rest despair at the existence of Paris Hilton? Or should we just say, in true Paris-style, whatever?

Robbie Millen

Comments

[Simon Lewis]

It's all so . . . like . . . whatever.

[Jared]

I don't blame Paris Hilton for being a rich vapid twit - such folk are common enough - but the media for giving her headlines. If it weren't for the broadcasters, I would never have heard of her.

[Becky lucox]

O.K so Paris is a Bitch. Most of the people who actually read the trashy magz know that anyway.
Shame she hasen't grown up yet really.
Thanks for telling me some other stuff though
:-D

[paris hilton]

paris is the marketing woman of the century !

[Sandra]

About Paris Hilton Film Archive - Paris Hilton Filmography http://philton.blogcu.com/19204211/

[DC Based]

vote for paris, she has the conclusions that the American people wish to have concluded.

Zorro