Admittedly, it's taken quite some time before I realised that all this is is a means of selling - magazines, films, whatever. All it is, is marketing, and we fall for it. It only has a power over us because we let it. And now the younger society is suffering our indulging of the media.
The pursuit of being rich, famous and beautiful is a means of instant prosperity without having to actually work for it. I entirely understand the draw! However we as a society has sadly lost the drive to work for something - winning the lottery, winning X factor or becoming a WAG seems now to be a valid career aspiration as it's gives instant celebrity and therefore instant prosperity - after all, who wants to spend a decade building a career from scratch, right?
But it' not real - and for the all but the extreme minority, it's unattainable. Therefore people will be tortured by believing something is achievable, then feeling a failure when it doesn't materialise. But in reality, the only success worth having is that which you have to work and fight for. The media gives the impression it just lands in your lap.
If you look behind the career of most slebs it has been hard graft to make it look effortless. Jordan (whatever you think of her) has been an exceptionally canny businesswoman. Most actors and actresses spent at least a decade or so grafting before they got famous. And fame isn't all it's cracked up to me - I don't fancy living behind razor wire and employing security. And it's all lost in an instant. The media's not so quick to point all that out - so therefore *we* should.
Specifically, I am utterly saddened about the rise of wanting to be a WAG. The concept of marrying well in order to live a certain lifestyle and maintain a place in society is appropriate for the works of Jane Austen, but it's a shame that young women these days are not more encouraged to have aspirations of their own, preferring to see the only way out is to live life on the back of someone else's achievements. So 21st Century... why are these girls so lacking in ambition?
And if any kid does turn out to bright and ambitious, they get a thorough psychological kicking for it. When the truth is, working damn hard and taking pride on one's own achievements is far more permanent that the fleeting superficiality of fame and beauty.
I was the fat, spotty ostracised geeky kid who hated myself to the very core of my existence. So I really do get it. I left school with an average string of GCSEs (which are pretty mediocre by todays standards) and not an A-level to my name, because I despised the sight of that building, and still do. (Made up for it in my 20s though.) I'm not blowing my own trupet, I'm just pointing out that I'm aware what things are like for the young. 'School days are the best days of your life' is the biggest lie going - I wouldn't repeat any of my first 23 years for all the beauty and riches in the world.
And if I knew what the answer was I'd start writing the book immediately. In fact, Susie Orbach has written a few worth reading - bit extreme in places, but makes the point well.
I'm just advocating a fight back, rather than pandering to it. It only brainwashes us, because collectively, we let it...