We all know the golden rule: “Treat people the way you want to be treated.”
So, why do we forget this when it comes to celebrities?
Let’s take it back to New York City:
On March 12th, we drove 9hrs to meet 5SOS once again. It was an extremely cold day, filled with other 5 Seconds Of Summer fans. One thing that was quite obvious was that 90% of them were under the age of 15 and most likely skipping school like us. We were told by their management to line up, be polite and we would have a high chance of getting photos with the boys before they headed out. However, this is that what happened instead: the exact opposite. All the 15-year-olds swarmed the boys as soon as the security opened the doors to let them out. They were able to take 3 photos, Tiff managed to say hi to Calum, but thing quickly became overwhelming and they said it was too much and they needed to leave.
After this fiasco, we explored through Manhattan in hopes that we would be given another chance to meet them. After lots of coffee and some sight-seeing, we were ready to give up, get in the car and head home but we wanted to give it one more shot. We went back to the hotel and met some really nice girls outside the hotel. While freezing our asses off we shared stories and hung out for a few hours. Now, if you didn’t think being swarmed was bad enough, let us tell you the worst part. The girl who we are going to refer to as ‘The Foam Finger Girl’.
Security came back out, there were a lot fewer people waiting outside this time around and everyone was chill. Security told us once more to line up and they would love to come and say hi. So, while we were all freezing and chilling and freezing some more, about twenty minutes before the came out once more, some girl that started yelling, came in and got to the front of the line. No one knew how to tell her how to get to the back of the line so we just left her to stay there. She said some concerning things and a few of us told her to stop, that we had to stay polite and calm. Then all of a sudden 5SOS came out of the door and before anyone who had been waiting for hours, this girl ran at them waving a foam finger (hence ‘Foam Finger Girl’) yelling for them to sign it. Security immediately grabbed them and told them to get in the van, the foam finger girl then proceeded to catcall Calum and chase after them and their security. When they got on the van she proceeded to bang on the van till it pulled away and she walked down the street screaming about how pissed she was and how ungrateful they were. If this was a normal person walking down the streets of NYC, we would think it was absurd and disgusting. But since it was a celebrity it’s part of their job. Most people think this is what they signed up for, but newsflash, it isn’t. They signed up to entertain, to provide content and have fun, not to be thrown things at their faces and catcalled. We as a society need to drop this mentality that they owe us something, that they have to stop for pictures. They don’t owe us anything. We need to get past the fact of labelling them as celebrities and disrespecting them, and acting like they basically owe us their lives. We need to start treating them as normal people you would talk to in a coffee shop on your morning coffee run. For some reason, people tend to forget the golden rule we mentioned In the begging treat others the way you want to be treated. Do you want to be mobbed, catcalled, pushed, yelled at no so don’t do it to your favourite celebrity.
All images courtesy of the authors.