Sunday, September 29, 2013
Who Are the Modern-Day Puritans?
I think that you could give various types of people the "modern-day Puritan" title. People like pastors, priests, celebrities, government officials, authorities, etc. However, I think it depends on the reputation one places on themself. For instance, if your reputation is that you're kind, benevolent, and caring, many people would be shocked if you were arrested for a crime. So I think it applies to people who want to be "America's sweetheart"; like Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Amanda Bynes--people of that nature. They all started out as being the "good girl", sweet, nice, everyone's pictured sweetheart. But when they all got older they generally had an image change--intentional or unintentional. People agree that it's alright to grow up, but it's shocking when you have former role models like Miley Cyrus prancing across a stage with a provacative outfit on, twerking, and dancing on old man Robin Thicke. People are generally disappointed because of the reputation she'd already set when she was younger. When it changed, it disappointed and angered a lot of people, and opened her up for large amounts of criticism and ridicule. So some people really have to consider the image they made for themselves before they try to change--or "ruin" it.
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I somewhat agree with you. I personally didn't really care about Miley Cyrus/ Hannah Montana. The only reason I criticized her was because, in my opinion, what she didn't wasn't tasteful...for lack of a better word. The fact that she even got any sort of recognition for doing something like that was annoying to me.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that you brought up celebrities, but I think that if you're talking about celebrities in terms of the "modern puritan", it woul be the people who aren't celebrities, but discuss what they do, and talk about the mistakes they've made, because they (or we, I guess) are the ones who have a kind of "puritanical" thoughts, about people like Miley Cyrus.
ReplyDeleteI like how you brought up the criticism of celebrities, but I agree that the parallel is not from puritans to celebrities but instead from puritans for us as a society. Having said that, I don't believe the mindset we maintain today is the same as the harsh ridged ones puritans held, but instead the it is due to the accessibility to the celebrities lives that we hold due to publicity. Because of the internet and TV, we are able to see their lives an a much smaller scale similar to the small towns puritans lived in, and therefore are able to judge them almost as a connecting point with other people because we know that they have also heard of this event (In other, more simple words, it becomes small talk, like the weather)
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