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The fall of Perez Hilton
One of the most popular gossip bloggers out there, the flamboyant Perez Hilton, has seen a dip in public favor since his most recent episode where he called Will.I.Am of the Black-Eyed Peas a gay slur and received a punch in the face. Hilton (aka Mario Lavandeira) didn’t get much sympathy, and he apologized for his words, announcing that he would give money from a pending lawsuit over the punch to a gay rights organization, the Matthew Shepard Foundation. The organization said, thanks, but no thanks.
We do not know the details of the lawsuit, whether it has been filed, the nature of his claims or the likely outcome. But because the lawsuit presumably involves the physical attack prompted by Mr. Hilton’s admitted use of an anti-gay slur, the Foundation will be unable to accept any funds obtained in such a manner.
Andrew Breitbart penned a column today saying this episode has “retroactively displayed displeasure” on the part of the public towards Hilton’s treatment of the California beauty queen, Carrie Prejean. Breitbart says “the deed of pushing ‘Perez Hilton’ off the public stage is a necessary one.”
If there is a person behaving more destructively in popular culture than Mario Lavandeira, I cannot think of one. He has used cruelty as a crass mechanism to build up his own celebrity and has utilized political correctness to protect himself while using it as a weapon to dehumanize those he doesn’t agree with.
What do you think about the fact that it took him saying a gay slur to really turn public tide against him?
back to top20 Comments to “The fall of Perez Hilton”
I think the public should have turned off most of what is on TV long, long ago….
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The first I heard of the guy was when the Carrie Prejean incident made national headlines, and I had an intense disliking for him even in that incident. He asked a politically charged question that clearly had only one “right answer,” then berated Prejean for not giving it.
Then he sat back and sanctimoniously talked about how shocked he was that someone on the national stage could be so heartless, while the ever-ravenous slime monster that passes for our “news” these days (another triumph of the free market, right?) smeared this girl through the mud for a few days — everything from her church to her risqué modeling shoots became top-of-the-hour news.
The man strikes me as a whining, preening narcissist, and a nasty little man. I dislike him for the same reason I avoid gossips in my everyday life — they are snide, self-satisfied, untrustworthy, and have nothing worthwhile to offer anyone.
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“The Fall of Perex Hilton”?
The real sad story is that, in America, there was ever a rise of a person like that.
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So now we’re gossiping about a gossiper? No thanks. See y’all on some other thread.
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I’ve never been impressed with Andrew Breitbart. He’s not a good writer, and he’s not an insightful commentator. If any one is making a connection between Will.I.Am and Prejean, I’d be amiss to locate it. Breitbart doesn’t have an artifact to support belief in his premiss, that the world is using his confrontation with Will.I.Am to punish him for his treatment of Prejean. No quotes, no polls, nothing. He doesn’t even have a single warrant to justify even talking about Prejean. He doesn’t like Hilton, he like Prejean, and he’s using this even as an opportunity to evangelize her. That’s not really great commentary, and as far as any reasonable observer would conclude he’s the only one making this rather flimsy connection.
Additionally, he just lacks good descriptions of social phenomena. “You can’t fight H8 with H8″ is not a paradox.
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So its okay for black folk to employ the dreaded “N word” but homosexuals arent permitted to use the “f word”??
A fascinating analysis. Soon to be banned will be oreo, coconut and banana ea now currently used by African Americans, Hispanics and Asians respectively to refer to their peers who are “white on the inside”??!
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Ditto to #3. His 15 minutes of fame lasted about 14 min too long as I see it.
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Like JJF, I had never heard of him.
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“Mean Little Poodle” is the name of a blues song that just came to mind. As far as I know, it wasn’t written about Perez Hilton.
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I don’t care why he fell, I’m just glad he did.
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#4 RR,
That was my first thought as well.
#3
I feel the same way as you do. I also feel the same about Barack Obama’s rise. It should never have happened.
#7 Sawgunner, I would agree with you except I place it at 14 minutes and 57 seconds too long.
And some of my best friends are oreos , coconuts, bananas, and even lemons.
#2 JJF except for your gratuitous jab at the free market I concur with your analysis.
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#10 kBELLS,
Amen.
.
And by the way, may I read your manuscript someday?
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I’m like Chas and JJF, I never heard of the guy until the Prejean episode. Not sure if that is a generation gap or cultural gap. I am out of the loop about a lot of “famous” people.
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Sawgunner,
The politics of language use are indeed complicated, and I think the gay community is not of one mind on using the word faggot. But most people agree that–contextually–Hilton was out of line. It works a little like this. The social ability to be the only group of people allowed to say faggot comes with a complimentary constraint. Only gay people can say it, but they can only say it to each other, and never in malice.
Similarly, while you may hear black people calling themselves nigga or each other niggas. They don’t call you nigga, because if they did, they’d be extending “in-crowd” status that would give you permission to say it back to them. And that’s something that everyone would like to avoid, including–probably–you.
The gays however do tend to extend in-crowd status to straights fairly frequently. Gay advice columnist Dan Savage used to start all of the letters addressed to him in his column with the salutation, “Hey Faggot.” He started off giving most sex advice to straight women. So if one of the gay friends you all claim to have calls you one (and they’re aren’t Perez Hilton), it’s probably a joke that gives you permission to call them one, as a joke. The difference between your sexualities, how gay people can sometimes be really gay, and how straight people can sometimes be really gay is something to laugh at.
It’s still fallacious to make the argument that “if they say it, I can say it” though, even if you think you are part of the “in-crowd.” If Tom laughs and calls you a fag, don’t think you can say it to your other gay friend, Bill, because Tom and Bill might have different sensibilities. Or Bill might not be as comfortable with your support for policies that hurt his economic and soical standing as Tom is.
If you’re straight, NEVER saying it is a fairly decent, safe option. And if a gay person says it to you to try and make you uncomfortable, he/she is a jerk and you shouldn’t associate with him/her.
The linguistic aspects of gay politics aside, Hilton’s explanation for why he used the word he did is inadequate. He claims he wasn’t trying to denigrate gays, just say the most hurtful thing he could think of to Will.I.Am. And that’s not at all ethical.
And of course, in meta-discussion about language it’s usually OK to check-off taboos and use the words you’re talking about. When I was teaching intro to human communication, we made list of “trigger words” and one of the biggest (and sometimes funniest) barriers to making these list is getting the students out of their boxes and into a place where they can realize that in an academic discussion they can say the words they are talking about.
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12. Let me see how badly Michelle decimates it first.
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Various accusations have been addressed to my comments on wmb over the years. “Incoherent” is one of my favorite (and there is some truth to it).
However, if I am incoherent, what would would describe this thread?
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In my city we recently had a “Pride on Parade,” and an estimated 2,000 people participated. The word “gay” was not used but it was understood generally that this was to be a display of support for GLBT individuals. One group in the lead carried a large banner reading “QUEERS.” This would seem to support the contention that it’s all right for homosexuals to call one another by that sobriquet. I doubt that I would be approved of doing so, however.
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Didja hear about the Chicago elementary school that “participated” in the gay pride parade? Go to onenewsnow dot com
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Interesting how Hilton did this *deliberately*, using the word, as one gay man apparently attacking another gay man. I wonder if this is the reason for all the difficulty, not because it was an accidental, spur-of-the-moment usage, but that Hilton did this on purpose?
In any event, good riddance…
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In a way I agree with Mynock. I would be more offended at being called a redneck or a hill billy by a Northerner then by a fellow Southerner.
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