No talent, no attention

By Brooke Boniface

One of Kim Kardashian's latest tweets reads: "I just ate breakfast & read LA Confidential magazine! I saw my column Confidentially Kim, it turned out GREAT!" While viewing her Twitter page, I don't know what was worse: seeing her background made up of a collage of countless pictures of her scantily-clad self, reading her insignificant tweet on what she had for lunch or noting that she currently has two and a half million followers.

American popular culture is dominated by celebutantes -- people like Paris Hilton and Heidi Montag Pratt -- who are famous for, what? Being famous? Millions of people are aware and are extremely interested when Kim Kardashian dies her hair blonde or when Lauren Conrad buys a new pair of Louboutin pumps.àI bet that a very limited number of these same people could tell me who their Secretary of Homeland Security is.àIt's Janet Napolitano, by the way - a Santa Clara graduate.

So what did these celebrities do to earn their fame and success? Paris Hilton was just another wild twenty-something with a lot of money who liked to party and do outrageous things, such as shoot a less-than-classy sex tape titled "One Night in Paris."àOh, and let's not forget the two little words she gave us that changed the course of this world: "that's hot." How did this blatant lack of skills catapult her to a singing, modeling and acting career of which millions of more talented people can only dream?à

Kim Kardashian went from being a pretty girl with a sex tape -- I sense a theme -- to a pretty girl with a clothing boutique named Dash, a picture on the cover of Playboy magazine and a reality show, "Keeping up with the Kardashians."àPerhaps the leader of the celebutantes, Kardashian jumps at any chance to show off her "assets" and has made an entire career out of being, well, famous. But she prefers to be called an "entrepreneur."

Similarly, Heidi Montag Pratt performed at the Miss Universe 2009 pageant in front of an estimated worldwide audience of one billion people. But how did she get there? Not through hard work and determination, but through the sheer dumb luck of being cast in a successful reality show, "The Hills." Her co-star Lauren Conrad has also milked her 15 minutes of fame for all they are worth by starring in AT&T commercials and walking countless red carpets.

It seems that an integral factor of the celebrity lifestyle nowadays is the reality television show.àWhether it came as the key to their success, as is the case with Lauren Conrad and Heidi Montag Pratt, or as a product of it, as with Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian, all celebutantes seem to feel a need to let the world witness every minute detail of their lives. And instead of laughing about how ridiculous these shows are, millions of people tune in week after week to see "The Hills," "The City," and "Keeping up with the Kardashians." They want to watch the petty drama of people they have never even met.

Whether it comes from a natural curiosity about the wealthy and beautiful or out of a desire to have the sort of carefree lifestyle which they seem to take for granted, people can't seem to get enough of these shows.à

Why is it that these seemingly untalented people are famous? Why does that fame give them amazing opportunities that the rest of the world would kill to get?àAnd, more importantly, why do we as a society invest so much time into keeping track of these celebrities and their fabulous lives? Why do we worship celebrities such as Kim Kardashian or Lauren Conrad, when we don't even know why they're so famous in the first place?

We spend so much time paying attention to these girls who arguably don't deserve their fame that we forget about people who are actually worthy of our recognition.à

Why don't we celebrate people like the founders of SCCAP, a program which serves the Santa Clara community in countless ways?

Or the students who volunteer through the Arrupe program, taking time out of their busy schedules to help young students and homeless people?

àThese are the people who should be looked up to and admired, because their actions contribute to society and help those who cannot help themselves. Instead of spending countless hours on celebrity gossip sites or stalking our favorite celebs on Twitter, we should look around us and take note of all the amazing people in our community that make it a better place with their presence, or at least credit those celebs that do positively impact our society, such as Alicia Keys or Oprah.

But if nothing else, we should ask ourselves why we are so fascinated with these vain, untalented celebrities, and what it says about our superficial society.

Brooke Boniface is a sophomore history and political science double major.