Going to hell in a Gucci handbag

The death of female popular culture icons

Leah Werier, volunteer staff

It was around this time last year that a simple news report filled me with shock, confusion and grief. The world as I knew it was ending. Could this really be happening? Were my eyes betraying me? I glanced back at the computer screen in front of me and confirmed the devastating news.

“Cocaine Kate” read the headline — my heart dropped, and it was an out-of-body experience. Surely these photos were as airbrushed as any picture of Tyra Banks. But no, the National Enquirer confirmed their irrefutable authenticity. I had trouble talking to people for a while after “the incident”: everywhere I went it was ‘did you hear what Kate Moss did?’ I felt as though an inspiring role model in my life was reduced to a failure, a farce, and a glimmer of what she once was.

It is only now, almost a year later, that I feel that I can speak out on this issue. Sure, Kate reeled in huge advertising campaigns and exponential figures after this episode but it brings back haunting memories none the less for people like me, one of her former fans. We must talk about this, and other more recent incidents that have graced the tabloids print and web-based alike.

It is at this time of desperation and disaster that we must join together. Inspirational figures, role models, famous popular culture women everywhere are failing us. Reputations are dying, nudies are exposed and everyone is going into rehab, well actually Amy Winehouse is still saying “no-no-no.” Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to mourn the death of the mainstream female role model.

Cocaine Kate set a trend and it appears as if all of Hollywood’s young women have spiralled out of control. The current starlets gracing stage and screen all have one thing in common — questionable behavior. We are experiencing the figurative death of a whole generation of role models. As a young girl I used to tune into MTV and memorize all of Spears’ moves and tunes. I can picture it as though it was yesterday that I was singing the words “Oops I did it again” over and over until I got it synched with her spins and sways. Some may say this is the reason that I suffer from serious mental episodes. But the issue at hand is not my mental ailment but the role that figures such as Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton all hold in young women’s lives. Who are young women going to turn to for an empowering message? Oprah? I hope not.

By now everyone has now heard of Britney Spears’ life and career falling to pieces. Her life has become unravelled by the paparazzi, who toy at her loose strings with their claws. She was fully exposed when she shaved off her luscious locks and started wielding her umbrella as a weapon.

Her third album, Blackout, will be her only album not to go platinum. Her house is reputably a “health hazard” and her couches are apparently smeared with feces. The paparazzi has even coined a term for general poor appearance and behavior as “pulling a Britney.” So why fixate on these lowball sleazebags such as Spears? Who cares you may ask? I care.

So what happens to people who look up to this generation of misguided female figures? Is a whole generation of people going to suffer from Lindsay Lohan syndrome as we watch the disappearance of positive role models in popular music and culture? Well apparently there is still hope for Lindsay Lohan; the third time may be the charm for rehab. However, her sudden health and vigor has contributed to the statement that she is working on another CD to be released shortly. It is the release of this kind of noise pollution alone that makes one understand why someone would “pull a Britney.”