Paris Hilton: Person or Pose?

To put this situation simply: Paris Hilton is a very bright and intelligent human being at odds with a very ditsy, dumb and delinquent public image of herself. Who's to blame for this? Her? Yes, maybe to some extent. She did, after all, agree to do "The Simple Life," even though her mother and other family members warned her that the show was essentially meant to poke fun at her (yes, I read Confessions of an Heiress). And it's basically from the "Simple Life" that her dumb blonde persona stems from - a combination of her actually playing dumb and the manipulative editing of Fox television that portrays her as being dumb. But the general media is probably more to blame for Paris' negative influence on our culture than Paris herself. There are several interviews out there (if you look hard enough) where Paris not only explains to people that the Paris Hilton she plays on "The Simple Life" is just a character, but where she also says a variety of very bright and intelligent comments that totally undermine her dumb blonde image. This side of Paris, however, doesn't get very far. The media needs to preserve the false image of Paris Hilton as a dumb blonde because this is what people are more entertained by. To present Paris as saying anything the least bit intelligent only demolishes the very Paris Hilton persona that rakes in so much money for the media companies. Paris, in fact, is now trying very hard to shatter this false image of herself. Her new album (which, in my opinion, is fantastic) is one of her ways of doing this. She wrote all her own lyrics herself - except for one song - and all the songs truly are products of free individual expression (that is, they express very unique and genuine feelings, which is all you can really ask for). Nobody wants to admit this, though: especially members of the media. They don't want to accept the fact that Paris Hilton is intelligent and talented because that image isn't as bankable as the dumb-blonde image. The media realizes that people in our culture need stupid characters like the Paris Hilton persona so that we can feel better about ourselves. We look at her and say, "Oh, look how dumb that person is. At least I'm smarter than her." We like to have an 'other' to use as a punching bag for our own problems. Why work to change ourselves for the better when we see a person like Paris Hilton out there who is so much more stupid than and inferior to us? But the problem is that the Paris Hilton we're comparing ourselves to doesn't exist. She is a media construction, an unreal entity that exists for the sole purpose of making us feel better about ourselves and, in turn, attracting our attention, energy and, ultimately, our money. Paris may have made a mistake when she did "The Simple Life" and she may still be making some mistakes now in how she presents herself to the public, but the media (and, in a lot of ways, ourselves - the media consumers) are to blame for any bad influence her persona has on our culture. Or, in other words, the flaw with Paris Hilton is a flaw in our media-controlled culture. Or, to be even more general, it's a flaw in human nature. I for one appreciate and respect the fact that she's working hard to create a better image of herself by writing her own songs and expressing genuine emotions through her music. I think she still needs to become more secure with her real self, but at least she's trying to break her dumb-blonde mold and that's key here. She's TRYING, but the media isn't helping her. The tabloids and newspapers and TV programs and, in many ways, ourselves refuse to let the real Paris Hilton come through. We see what we want to see and, right now, everyone wants to see Paris being dumb, not smart. But to see her this way is to be blind from the truth. She's smart! And you don't have to take my word for it. Listen to her album!