Idol!

If someone insisted I named my first real idol, it has got to be Britney Spears – still talked about, still famous, and more recently, more infamous than famous. My friends, cousins and I bought her albums, sang along with her songs, tried to imitate her dance moves, and aped her style of dressing and projecting herself.

But that was when I was young and clueless about what I can be and what I wanted to be. Today, I know better. I know, for example, that I can never be a Britney Spears or even a poor copy of her. I have two left feet and can barely sing. I now try to be my own person with my own goals and aspirations and my own way of getting to these.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t regret being a Britney fan. She and most other idols had almost blameless reputations, at least back then. The Internet was also only a growing medium then and the dark secrets of Britney and other idols were not so readily open to public scrutiny.

But times have changed, and so has the way young people idolize their role models. Not only are their looks and moves copied but also how they lead their lives, now more open with the advent of the Net.

What makes an idol

An idol can be anyone we know or have heard or read about. At home, the parents themselves can be idols; so can older siblings. At school, the "populars" can be considered as idol figures. They are especially acceptable if they circulate in the same society a teenager does, posing no threat to the norms of that society. Our idol could also be a friend, a teacher, a relative, a neighbor. Someone who inspires us by their example to do better.

But all too often, we refer to someone prominent when we speak of idols. These are people who usually excel in their fields. They are elevated to that status by virtue of their talents and achievements, usually complemented by their looks. What then tells if the idol is worthy or not?

In the part of our culture where colonial mentality reigns, the Western standard of appearance is often used. Among local showbiz celebrities, the most idolized are those with fair skin, brown or blue eyes, light hair, and Grecian noses.

Their idolizing fans then try to make themselves as beautiful as these celebrities, which may partly explain why girls covet flawlessly white skins and most guys try to put on as many abs as possible.

How does it happen?

Sure, idols do not have to be celebrities, but tell it to the marines. In this globalized setting, many influences from everywhere enter our country, which we adopt for ourselves. These forces used to come from television, movies, books, and the traditional forms of media. Now, they are furiously pouring in through the Internet. We have easier access to more things like videos from Youtube, information from Wikipedia, and mind-boggling data from Google.

Believe it or not, kids are influenced by role models as early as pre-school.

I have a four-year-old nephew who idolizes Manny Pacquiao. He often demonstrates to us how well he can imitate the boxer’s fighting style. He sings “Para Sa 'Yo Ang Laban Na 'To” with flair. His parents allowed it, and so did we. This idol ng bayan made boxing the national sport, replacing basketball, by dint of his talent and his colorful personality.

Manny Pacquiao is just one example of how idols can impact on society with just one hit (no pun intended). He had agility, strength, and winning power in the face of – it seems – the strongest opponents. These attributes have made him unique among other idol figures such as the late Michael Jackson, or High School Musical’s talented Zac Efron. All of them were looked up to by the youth of our time as models not just because of their fame and fortune, but because they are unique. And as they won more admirers, their fame spread like virus, starting with one aspiring kid, influencing another. The alarming thing is, as the kids grow up and try to claim their places under the sun, they continue looking up to their idols, feeling their idols possess what they seem to lack.

The change does not stop there

These idols, whether we see them as gods or prodigies, have feet of clay. Most of them try to live their lives as normally as everyone else does. They aspire for the same ideals -- love, family, more money and fame. They also face problems. And, like the rest of us who roll with the times, now up, now down, they too sometimes don’t know how to cope with some of the things life deals them. Some resort to drugs or alcohol as a means of escape, others get into trouble with the law, a few get so desperate they take their own lives.

What they do, the world knows. Those who admire and idolize them get wind of their activities. Whether those things are good or bad, their behavior and values as demonstrated by their behavior are impressed on the youth’s minds. Their idol did it, why can’t they? If a teen idol, for example, poses nude on the front page of a magazine, their followers may nod in approval.

Another example is premarital sex, which is at present a common cause of controversy among young celebrities. Not a few get pregnant outside marriage. Some flaunt being single moms or dads. It is no surprise more and more teens today take premarital sex lightly.

Personally, I believe this post-modern generation seems to be more liberated that I will ever be. Should we blame the celebrities they look up to? Should these idols be held at least partly responsible for the misbehavior of their fans?

Our idols are only figures and images of admiration. Why not see the good side of them? Then again why not see the bad side? We will learn a lot from both– what we should emulate from their success and hard work as well as what we should avoid from their failures. But what really counts in the end is who we are, because that’s what will give us our own identity in this big world of ours. And that’s what can possibly make us even better than our idols.

Jess is a curious young Pinay who likes to read a good story and to write one. She also loves cooking, collecting ballpens and notebooks, and drawing illustrations. She believes in the saying: "an intelligent person knows that he/she knows nothing", therefore gives herself at least two hours of her time everyday to explore on unfamiliar things.

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