Pop Culture Junkies Anonymous

Do you remember how it was deemed “weird” for Michael Jackson to have  his children Paris, Prince Michael I and Prince Michael II (Blanket) wear masks and blankets over their faces whenever they stepped out in public? Or how people were “annoyed” that Halle Berry did not opt to sell the first photos of her baby girl Nahla after giving birth? Or how “odd” it is that Beyoncé  and Jay-Z to constantly cover Blue Ivy’s face whenever they brought her out of the house?

Well, it all makes sense to me now. People have taken a weird obsession with celebrity babies.

Let me say this again. PEOPLE have taken a weird OBSESSION with CELEBRITY babies.

Last week paparazzi successfully caught a photo of Beyoncé holding her daughter with her face showing, and the photo managed to find its way onto social media sites before Bey & Blue could leave the store. Naturally, the peanut gallery had comments. Her die hard fans and people who genuinely think that Blue Ivy is a cute baby had noting but nice things to say about the 6-month-old (I personally think that she is a cute lil chubby baby,) but there are those who made comments that were worthy of a Comedy Central roast, minus the element of comedy. We all know that Beyoncé has some serious haters out there in the blogosphere and they couldn’t wait until the next photo of Blue Ivy’s face surfaced to let out those obvious comments we all knew were coming; Blue has a lot of her father’s facial features, therefore making her “ugly” in their eyes. Oh, and you can’t only blame the haters on this one. Even people who never pay Beyoncé the time of day on a regular basis went out of their way to vent about Blue’s facial features.

There’s nothing wrong with seeing a cute picture of a celebrity parent with their kids every  now and then. It reminds us that celebrities are humans too. But I wonder why the media and the general public care so much about celebrity babies to the point of being a fan of a child that hasn’t done anything to show off their talent as of yet. I also wondered why celebrities cared that the public cares so much, until I realized that there is a catch 22 to it: If a celebrity doesn’t show their baby’s face, people speculate and criticize over what the couple could be hiding, but showing them off allows people to criticize their appearance. Celebrity parents really can’t win. And in the age of people finding a brand new set of cojones behind their laptops without having to show their faces,  people find their soap box to vent about it on a celebrity blog or social network (usually, these people have too much free time on their hands.)

Take the case of Suri Cruise. Shortly after she was born, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes did not run to a tabloid for $5 million for her first public photos. They didn’t release pictures to the public through their own website. They just went on with their lives, leaving the public to speculate & demand photos of their new born baby girl, some even saying that Suri might have been an alien baby because of the misunderstandings of Scientology in the general public (which was just plain mean.) Eventually Tom & Katie gave in and did a photo shoot with Vanity Fair and the world got to see little brown haired, blue eyed Suri, and from that day on, the tabloids and the fans were obsessed. Suri, now 6-years-old, made a Best Dressed list, beating out the likes of many Hollywood starlets. A. Best. Dressed. List. People care so much about what a 6-year-old wears that they place her on a list competing with women in their 20s & 30s, praising her for her “fashion sense” knowing damn well that Tom and Katie still help her get dressed in the morning.

Angelina Jolie gave birth to her first child Shiloh in 2006 (she had already adopted Maddox and Zahara and their faces were already tabloid regulars.) Prior to Shiloh’s birth, there was a media frenzy complete with an hour long VH1 special on the unborn child and multiple computer-simulated pictures of what she was going to look like. After she was born, Angie and Brad Pitt sold her first pics to People Magazine for millions of dollars and the issue sold millions. Fast-forward to a few years later,  “fans” and spectators began criticizing Shiloh for her choice in wearing boy’s clothing, some even going as far as calling her a lesbian and a transgender. -__- Seriously. She’s a child. Many girls go through a TomBoy phase and that is most likely what she is going through too.

And speaking of exclusive photos of children for magazines, the media has unintentionally began placing a price tag on the importance of a baby. Why was it top news that Kris Jenner cannot get “top dollar” for photos of daughter Kourtney’s new born baby girl? Why are people comparing the fact that Jessica Simpson “only” received $800,000 for exclusive photos of her baby Maxwell to the $14 million Brad and Angelina received for the first public pictures of their twins? This is sick, actually. The popularity of a celebrity now plays into how much their child is worth in dollars? *shakes head* Thank goodness Brad & Angie donated that money to charity.

It is easy to see where celebrities come from when defending their kids. Yes, we know that celebrities should not care what the common folk say about their kids, but we also know that NO ONE on this earth takes it lightly when someone says ANYTHING negative about their child. Michael Jackson knew first hand how cruel people can be to famous children after being made fun of  for his appearance while going through puberty. He was not about to let the world pick on is kids for they looked. He would be livid if he were alive and heard the way people talk about Blanket’s long hair and Paris’ “lack of black facial features.” 

It is really unfair to publicly scrutinize a child. Celebrities have to sacrifice privacy for fame, but the child did not ask to be known by the public nor did they ask to be. We know that they are not going to live the normal life that we lived as kids, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t still KIDS.  LET THEM LIVE! Let their parents be parents, and if you have kids of your own go take care of them. If a baby is cute then they’re cute, if they’re not then their not, but if you spend hours of your time online obsessing over them, then you need a new hobby. And paparazzi need to realize that stalking kids is just plain creepy. If you happen to see them out with their parents and catch a picture, cool. But if you are staking out to catch them, then you’re a creep.