It’s important to preface with a disclaimer: I am not a fan of Justin Bieber. Anyone that knows me is probably surprised that I haven’t joined the 200,000+ people that have signed the petition to deport him to his native Canada.
Having said that, I think we, as a public, have been a little too harsh on the Biebs.
I am surrounded every day by students that are the same age as Bieber and see them thoroughly enjoying their 20s. There are many different types of twenty-somethings. There are the super responsible and the studious kind, there are the ones still trying to “find themselves,” and of course, there are the Biebers.
We all know them — the party crowd, the rebellious, angsty ones that are maybe trying to prove themselves to their peers or Facebook friends. They party, they drink, they smoke, and, if underage, they proud whip out fake IDs. They do everything that is “wrong” and are celebrated by their peers for doing so. So, here’s a question: how is Bieber different than any of these students we see every day? We all complain about his actions and the things that he does, but Thursday night we will pat our buddies on the back for doing the same thing.
Mothers talk about how out of control Bieber is, but a study from the University of Maryland School of Public Health found that about 66.1 percent students participating had drank at least once in their first year of college.
Chances are many of these mothers’ sons just snuck into a 21 and up club with their fake ID and dragged themselves out in the early morning hours seeing stars and hugging a toilet shortly after.
According to CRC Health, about 21 percent of automobile deaths can be attributed to drag racing, which is one of the reasons Bieber was arrested in Miami in January.
I am by no means condoning the actions of the young celebrity. I am not talking about his personality or the things that he says. What I am talking about is hypocrisy. Because he is in the public eye we expect him to be something different than every other one of us?
He may be one of the few celebrities that is actually acting his age, whether that is a good or bad thing.
