Why Perez Hilton Matters

It would be easy, far too easy in fact, to paint Perez Hilton into a corner, without having to dilute adjectives like "shallow," "vapid" and "narcissistic" into the mix. But there he is, bloviating away, an H.L. Mencken of celebrity culture minus humor, insight or even a sense of irony. He's the freakish manifestation of a celebrity-obsessed, Twitter-fied  fan base that lives, eats and breathes gossip. And the more sordid and cruel, the better. And, yet, by harnessing American's weird attraction for-slash-repulsion of the glamorous, indulgent lifestyles of the rich and famous into short, catty bursts of blogging, Perez Hilton has brilliantly married one of America's favorite pastimes - America, as it were - with the speed, efficacy and reach of the Internet. If we are are repulsed by his methods and his manner (while privately imbibing his celebrity "juice"), he need only remind us - in the words of Worst Best Friend Ever, Monica Lewinsky's Linda Tripp - "I'm just like you."

But Messr. Hilton is, if nothing else, wildly successful by any metric. His eponymously-named site ranks a remarkable 428 on Alexa.com and his advertising rates command top dollar. He has gone in a few short years from a celebrity huckster to one of the most sought after names on A-lists from here to Toronto and back again. Not bad for an unremarkable young man from Miami, Florida born Mario Armando Lavandeira, Jr. whose only appreciable skill seems to be making inflammatory comments. Or, at the very least, generating buzz about those comments and that undermine what might have been important reminders of societal bigotry and homophobia in more intellectually capable and less emotionally volatile individuals. When Mr. Hilton asked ex-Miss California, Carrie Prejean, at the U.S.A. Beauty pageant for her views on same-sex marriage, he could have left it alone and watched the young lady - who was asked an honest question and gave an honest answer - drown in the tide of social progress. But, no. He called her a "cunt." When he became involved in an imbroglio with the Black Eyed Peas in Toronto, he resorting to calling will.i.am a "faggot." He defended the use of the word by claiming that in the emotional heat of a confrontation, he wasn't thinking. Okay, fine. But that's not an apology. It's an excuse. (And I in no way condone the violence that was directed at Mr. Hilton by the band's road manager, Polo Molina.)

But as much as we abhor the violence directed at Mr. Hilton, isn't there some small part of us that feels he needs to do something besides traipses around from one hissy fit to another screaming "homophobia" and c-words to make whatever point he's trying to make. We're victims of bigotry! We've got the power! She's my sister! She's my daughter! Oi Vey! Enough with the drama already!

But he matters, believe it or not. We could just write him off as another corpse on the highway of littered dreams - only way more flamboyant - or we could recognize that if he's smart enough to have gotten where he is (and he has gotten remarkbly far), surely he's smart enough to work more constructively for our causes? Surely our movement could make room for a benificent agitator like him even if it he is an attention-starved man-boy? After all, he is one of ours and we surely have some social rule that says no matter how outlandish it gets, as long as it isn't Andrew Cunanan or Jeffrey Dahmer-ish, we need to protect our own? It should be, if it's not. Right now, we don't have a voice to lose. And Perez Hilton, voice and all, might actually do us some good once we wedge that 200-pound, gossip-mongering chip off his shoulder.

Comments

[Tre Xavier]

I'm sorry, but I am so repulsed by his existence as a gay male outing celebrities that I've come to a 1st in reading a post on your blog ---- I couldn't finish it.

I feel you talents as a writer are way too good to waste on such a long post about someone who is nothing more that the ugly fat kid envious of celebrities' beauty whose popularity is because too many people having done just like him by NOT GROWING UP.

[Tre Xavier]

P.S.
I will finish it at some point. I just need to take news of him in doses.

[Sean]

We don't need another classless douchebag stereotype. He does more harm than good.

[Terrance]

I'm sorry dude, but you lost me on this one. I'm flabbergasted. I absolutely despise this asshole and I just can't seem to muster up in my heart any sympathy or compassion for him nor can I reconcile my brain with your argument that "he matters". In what universe? Certainly not this one! Perez is a fraudulent hypocrite and a loser, plain and simple and he has caused too many people more pain and misery than we'll ever really know.

Did somebody pay you to write this? What, tomorrow, I'm going to log on to MOC and you'll have written a love poem to closeted homophobes J. Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn?

BTW, I'm gay and proud and I live in L.A. and I used to see him all the time at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf near Sunset and Fairfax. My fantasy was to dash, in flamboyant Hollywood fashion, my double expresso in his face but alas, I never did.

[Donald]

I think you summed him up nicely. He is not going away so people have to figure out a way to deal with him and keep a proper pespective about him.
I am glad I discovered this blog and will keep reading

[Victor]

I believe in the power of redemption.

[Terrance]

"He really wanted to use the N-word"?

I hope you don't mind me linking this but it's pretty much a different point of view than the one that you've presented here especially since you've always called out those that exhibited racist behavior.

http://www.queerty.com/how-the-f-word-blogger-almost-became-the-n-word-bigot-20090707/