Cam and Marshall have been good about writing new posts, so here’s my latest conversation-starter: 

Kay S. Hymowitz writes a great, and lengthy essay on what Paris Hilton’s fame says about America. An excerpt that really hit home:

Paris is exhibitionistic in a way that goes beyond the everyday sluts and hos of contemporary popular culture. When Janet Jackson arranges a wardrobe malfunction, we may rue the decay of prime-time television, we may boycott her albums or send angry letters to the FCC, but we recognize that we have seen a performance—a publicity-ravenous, cheesy performance, but a performance nonetheless. Paris, on the other hand, trumpets her name-your-pleasure promiscuity in a way that speaks only of unthinking, careless decadence. It’s not that she is a working girl willing to go too far to sell her next record album; it’s that she is above morality. She can do whatever she wants, and she’s proud to rub your nose in that fact day after day. How could you not hate someone who thinks she doesn’t have to live in the same world as the rest of us?

I’m kind of annoyed that I even know who Paris Hilton is; I’m even more annoyed that I keep getting told about her on at least a weekly basis. I don’t think I watch that much television or gossip rags, and yet I keep getting told more and more about her.

I mentioned this argument that Paris Hilton is some sort of Nieschean Uber-Celebrity, Fame Beyond Good And Evil, to Mrs. Hillaryspot, [Yes, every time the blog name change, my wife’s name changes] and she said, “no, when she screws up, she gets punished with bad publicity.” But for Paris Hilton, there truly is no such thing as bad publicity. Sleeping around? Public drunkenness? This woman’s career took off with a sex tape. A bad movie? A ”music career” that never requires her to sing live? They just bounce off her, and she just keeps on going. She’s like the frickin’ Terminator of sleaze culture.

Even if everything Paris Hilton touched never made another red cent, she could still afford to live like… well, Lindsey Lohan and she would still be taken care of well into her retirement years. She’s rich beyond our imagination, the media is obsessed with her and will not stop covering her every move, and no one — N-O-O-N-E — is willing to intervene in her life, or to tell her that this isn’t the way anybody is supposed to act. Her parents clearly don’t care. Her friends clearly are just enjoying the ride. She has no role models in her life, no authority figures, no one she has to be accountable to.

This ain’t the pop culture I want any future kids to grow up in. And yet, I don’t know how to “push back” against Paris Hilton culture.