For the last 36 hours the internet has been abuzz and at the top of the trending topics and google searches is one man, Kanye West. During Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, Mr. West went on stage after they announced Taylor Swift’s name for the Female Video of the year. Now I will be the first to admit that when they announced Taylor’s name as opposed to Beyonce, Pink, or even Lady Gaga, I was twittering away about my surprise at the choice but none of us could have prepared for Kanye’s stunt. He climbed on stage during her speech and snatched the microphone away from her. He then proclaimed that Beyonce should have won. (please see the video clip below). While he was doing it I kicked out about five tweets, and about 20 minutes later, he was a trending topic.
Kanye’s Beyonce outburst mimicked everyone’s thoughts when they read Taylor swift’s name, fortunately or unfortunately, he was in the position and obviously inebriated enough to jump on stage and say it. I read some of the public tweets and there was talk of racism, with the n word being tossed around, lots of douche bags (The AntiPopBlog called him the Doucher of the Day), and a slew of other negative things that I thought were a bit over the top, but were all a reflection of how people felt nonetheless. While I thought what Kanye did was mean, I never felt like he was the devil or evil, or stealing candy from a baby as some tweets pointed out. Maybe I am heartless or maybe I just didn’t see it as a big deal. West later took to his website to issue an apology and did the same today as well.
http://www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog/
Today proved to be one of Kanye’s worst days as a celebrity, sure but lucky for him he had a chance to redeem himself, in the form of Jay Leno’s premiere on which he was slated to perform with Jay-Z and Rhianna. Prior to the performance, Jay Leno brought out Kanye who requested a chance to speak. He was apologetic and based on his appearance, it was clear that he was sincere. Jay asked him how his mother would feel about it and his 20 second pause and struggle to hold back tears showed his sincerity.
I must say that I am kinda on Kanye’s side. As far as what he did to Taylor, it was rude, but in his defense, we were all thinking the same thing, he just had the balls to voice his opinion. And while its not an excuse, he had been sipping on Hennessey the whole night, starting from the red carpet.
I think when he sobered up and realized it didn’t go over as well as his drunk mind may have thought it would’ve, he sincerely apologized. So I suppose now the question becomes do we forgive this man who continues to act out? A man who lost his mother, who was one of his closest friends, and never took time to mourn. A man who is fed up with not being able to lead a private life when he wants to, as he is constantly hounded by paparazzi. A man who is egotistical and also emotionally unstable. How do we deal with him when he acts out? I honestly think we expect too much of celebrities. They are still people. They can be mean, they can be rude, they can be nice, then can be anything that someone in your everyday life is. We expect them to be perfect, but why? If we look at all of the deaths that have happened as of late, we can see what happens when celebrities are pushed to the limits, while they don’t deal with financial issues, such as job loss, and healthcare, they deal with things that most regular people cannot imagine. They end up addicted to drugs, they party too hard, and they act out in egotistical ways. Imagine not being able to do something as simple as going to Target. That is something Kanye can’t do and something Michael Jackson couldn’t do. Imagine how that could effect someone. When my ex put me on a pedestal I couldn’t stand it, imagine the whole world putting you on a pedestal. So while I feel bad for what happened to Taylor Swift during her special moment, nothing in me wanted to jump on the I Hate Kanye band wagon.
