OUTRAGED, I Tell You

It seems like people are always getting OUTRAGED over the most trivial things these days.  First they were OUTRAGED because Justin Bieber left a lovely, respectful message at the Anne Frank Museum.  

Then they were OUTRAGED because Ben Affleck (who is fast turning into the Rodney "I Don't Get No Respect" Dangerfield of the modern entertainment industry) was cast as the Caped Crusader in the next Batman movie.  Seriously? Why can't he play Batman?  Of course, he's no Adam West, but he certainly might be along the lines of Michael Keaton.  In any case, there is no cause to lose sleep over this.

Now they're OUTRAGED because of Miley Cyrus' performance at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.  Now I didn't watch the VMAs. Devious Maids was on at the same time, and I have my priorities.  However I couldn't help watching Miley later to see what all the fuss was about.

My first thought was "Hey, the Furries are dancing back up for Miley Cyrus!"  People think I'm out of touch but I recognize Furries when I see them.  They have their convention in Pittsburgh every year.

There are really no words to fully describe just how terrible this performance was - on every level.  I watched with my mouth open, unbelieving and flabbergasted.  What the hell was she doing?  And why did she keep sticking out her tongue?  You'd think that Kiss' Gene Simmons was her celebrity father, not Billy Ray Cyrus.

But I wasn't  OUTRAGED.  Teenagers have been shocking their parents with their performances probably since the beginning of time and parents (who were the teenagers doing the shocking at some point) continue to fall for it.  It reminded me of performances by Madonna and Lady Gaga, except that Madonna and Gaga are actually talented.

But the funniest part I thought of all the OUTRAGE was that there was a huge backlash from some African Americans saying that Miley Cyrus had no business to be twerking, because it was their dance.  I had no idea what twerking was even after watching the debacle, so I looked it up. I found an instructional video on You Tube with the most earnest young African American woman demonstrating ("first you squat, then you put your hand here to push your hips forward, and here to push your hips back.")

So, basically, twerking is shaking your hips forward and backward while squatting.  I'm sorry to be the one to break it to anyone, but people both black and white have been shaking their hips while they dance for decades, and in a free and equal society we all have the right to shake our hips however we see fit.  Besides, it's not like she did it well or anything.

If people want to spend their time and energy being OUTRAGED about something related to pop culture, there are more important causes for concern.  Why not be OUTRAGED that none of the legislators in this nation will grow a pair and introduce and fight for a bill that bans high powered-assault weapons and high-ammunition magazines?  If they did, we all might be able to go freely to our local cineplex to view that new Batman movie without fear of being shot to death in a massacre by some random gunman when we get there. 

Frankly Outraged

I am not exactly a Justin Bieber fan, probably because I am not a 13-year-old girl.  Thirteen-year-old girls are CRAZY about him, though, because he's the teen idol du jour.

A couple of weeks ago  Bieber visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam while on tour, and wrote the following in their guestbook:

"Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a 'belieber," (which I understand is what Bieber's fans call themselves).

People around the world were outraged - yes, I tell you- OUTRAGED- by this.  Bieber was accused of making light of the Holocaust, of trivializing an "important historical figure," and of being selfish. (http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/14/showbiz/bieber-anne-frank).

So, I am going to court controversy and brace myself for the backlash and just say it.  If Anne Frank had been 13 years old in 2013 instead of 1942 she very likely would have been a "Belieber."

I read - and reread- "The Diary of Anne Frank" when I was 13 years old, the same age Anne was when she started writing it.  The thing that immediately struck me is that Anne was someone just like me - a typical teenage girl.  She wrote about "hating" her mother, and fighting with her sister, and having a crush on Peter, the son of the other family hiding in the loft with her family.  And she was totally starstruck by teen idols of the early 1940's.

Suddenly, because of Anne Frank's diary a 13-year-old Italian Catholic schoolgirl growing up in the 1960's in Swissvale, Pennsylvania really understood on a personal level the horror of the Holocaust. It was no longer some far off historical event. This terrible atrocity happened to millions of real people.

So, I have to believe that that is what Justin Bieber, who is just 19 himself, was feeling when he wrote in the guestbook at the Anne Frank House that day.  He was feeling that real connection to Anne Frank that I felt so many years ago when I read her diary.  He was inspired by her spirit and her story, just as I had been.  He hoped that if she had been a teenager today that she would have been a fan of his.  He was relating to Anne Frank as the real girl she was, not a "historical figure."

It was really quite a lovely message.