Bling Ring; America's Obsession with Bad Behavior

   Sofia Coppala's new movie "Bling Ring" is out now, and right when I saw the ad I decided that I wanted to see it. So, I did and it was kind of disappointing.  I thought that she missed a lot of great opportunities to talk about a very interesting topic; Americans obsession with bad behavior.  She glimpsed over this theme slightly but not enough, and in my opinion, this theme is what the whole movie should have been about.
   Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohen, Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton.  These are all celebrities who America pays (or at least paid) tons of attention to for bad behavior.  DUIs, public sex tapes, stealing, drugs, the list goes on.  We've all seen articles about these celebrities and even read them or skimmed them and thought "Gosh some people!" The fact that these celebrities continue to be publicized and looked up to by the American public is extremely fascinating.  We don't exactly support their behavior, but we do put them on the front page in all capitals.

   Americans find this celebrity bad behavior entertaining.  Televisions are filled with reality programs like "The Hills", "Keeping Up with the Kardashians", and all of the "Real Housewives" shows.  Magazines like "People" and "Star" crowd our counters plastered with photographs of celebrities and their most recent escapades; "A Night on the Town!" "ANOTHER DUI?", you get the picture.

   In "Bling Ring" Coppala could have created a fascinating layered movie about this odd obsession.  The characters in the movie have the same obsession, they break into houses of celebrities known for their dramatic or out right bad behavior and then take selfies of themselves to show off.  Already that is an extremely interesting combination, people doing immoral things to people known for being immoral and then publicizing the actions and being looked at as "cool" or "fun".  This continues to be captured throughout the film, the characters are all over the media after being caught, fan clubs are created on the internet for their wrong doings, and one character, Nicky (Emma Watson), goes on to USE her recognition from the law cases to become famous.  People can become FAMOUS by manipulating their bad behavior into fame, and that in itself is interesting, but the fact that the American public is obsessed with this "fame" makes it even more so.

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Me, Myself, and "You"

All of my crushes have been what some might call “tortured romances”, or what I call them, one-way tortures romances.  I’m a passionate person, and I fall hard. Like really hard.  A lot of girls have crushes, big and small, but I tend to be over the top passionately intensely in a one-way relationship with me, myself, and my picturesque version of the adorable boys I like.

My first crush lasted from second to sixth grade. Yup, I had a four year long crush on my best guy friend.  I don’t really share my feelings, and I kept it to myself, and it was like a tortured, passionate elementary school relationship that I would think over during long spans of time while watching “That’s So Raven” on Disney Channel.  I guess you could say it was pretty serious, I mean if I was thinking about him and our imaginary life while watching my favorite show. 

I know lots of girls who have crushes, some gigantic and some tiny, but I have always been one to go big.  Big in the sense that I have liked my crush for months, even years, pretty, much just a really, really long time.  But I never told them. Ever. Me reveal my deep, dark feelings for a boy? I’d be more likely to travel to Antarctica and live like a penguin for the rest of my life.  I’m a pretty private person; I don’t talk about my feelings with many people.  Especially people who I feel unsure about.  This bittersweet trait of mine has led to lots of heartache. (I say it’s bittersweet because no one ever really gossips about me, since I say nothing. But on the other hand, I don’t say anything, even when I should.) 

Every time I like a boy I usually make them about one thousand times better then they actually are in my head.  I make them my perfect dream, my prince charming. He can cook, is Jewish, smart and sarcastic but not a total jerk. Oh, one small important detail, also in my mind they’re head over heels, completely and totally, passionately in love with me.  This fantasy is safer then actually putting myself out there, telling them how I feel, and putting myself in what I consider a scary position.  I really hate rejection, I get embarrassed easily, and I’m not always comfortable in my own skin, making me not the best person to have a serious heart to heart about my fiery, passionate love for a guy I care about.  I wish I could tell you, dear reader, that these fantasies were satisfying.  That just imagining that the person I care about so much, cares about me just as much is enough.  But I couldn’t lie to you.  It’s not enough, not truly.

I’ve begun to second-guess my passionate imaginary love life.  The guy I like now is fantastic in real life, and I truly adore him.  I’m pretty sure that there are some of you out there who have the same way of handling these “one-sided tortured romances”.   But let me share this thought with you, maybe our passion doesn’t need to be one sided.  Maybe, if we open up, try new things, and put ourselves out there we will get a great, loving, amazing, incredible and most importantly, real, relationship.   I know it’s scary, I’m scared too but I think that it’s worth it.  Of course, this totally won’t stop me from imagining my dream guy, cooking with me while we make sarcastic comments together, but it will take me step closer to turning my fantasy into a lovely reality. 

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