Paris Hilton is obviously the subject of much hate here, and when people are asked to justify the hate, they don't mostly point to any thing that she's done to make the world a worse place; they say that she hasn't done anything worthwhile with her unearned fame and money.

It's an admirably Calvanistic response. But it begs the question, what good are you doing by directing your energies to hate her like this? It seems she's a publicity hound, and y'all are doing your best to oblige.

"Well, bearcat," you say, "you seem to have read Hitch's article and the SIX PAGES of fray posts and participated in the frivolity with your own enthusiasm; who are you to lecture us?" I'm participating in this frivolity because I've been ill, vomiting more than I ever have in my life, and am not much good to my family, my work, or my community because I just can't get out and do anything. Besides, I couldn't read the whole article; I was just appalled by the response, which mostly took unapologetic glee at the (admittedly deserved) misfortune of another human being.

I apologize if I sound hectoring...like I said, I normally wouldn't write this kind of thing. If it makes you feel any better, I'll try to make this my last "Fighting Words" post.

Shame on you.

Certainly some people have delighted in Miss Hilton's disgrace.

Most people, however, are enjoying the irony which originates with the vapid creature herself.

Her recent experiences are NOT misfortunes. They are duly earned punishments for chosen ills. She broke the law, repeatedly. She garners all attention, fame, and infamy to herself. She passes herself as an American Icon. She has rubbed our collective noses in her ascendancy. Should we NOT follow her descent into personal responsibility as we have been invited to celebrate her snobbery? Or should she get all the good and a privilege to forego the bad?

Her actions were a felony. She's been deeply unkind, selfish, emphatically ignorant, aloof. She's drawn great attention to herself. Now she has that attention.

That's hot.

You may think yourself smart and wry in using Paris's "that's hot" but what it really indicates is that she's contributed something to youth culture and the best you can do is parrot it back in a vain attempt at poking fun at her. Like it or not, she's a celeb and you're . . . umm . . . teaching school and reading the Fray. The real issue at hand should not be whether Paris deserves jail time or not: that's been covered already in many forums; the real issue here is Hitchen's typical manner of writing about his subject which mainly serves to make himself look more intelligent and in general better than whomever he writes about.

Paris did not "rub our noses" in anything: the media did. If you didn't want to listen to her music you could avoid it and likewise if you didn't want to watch her television show you could avoid that. What we could not avoid as if often the case is the attention paid to her by the media. I cannot blame her for taking that attention and crafting it to her own ends and desires. I think I would have done the very same. Yes, her actions deserve proper legal reactions but we are not in that arena here with Hitchens . . . instead we're in the arena of grown men being silly over the fact they can try to turn Paris into a symbol of whatever they want her to represent and just by reading Hitchens' comments on Paris's sex video it's easy to see he he's continuing the longstanding male gaze of women as being lower creatures than himself. Part of what I think society, especially men, hate about Paris is she controls her life and if she puts out or takes part in a pornographic video it's within also some degree of her control. The recent media circus and Hitchens' (and your own) responses to it have been a very open reaction to trying to wrap Paris into your own dreams or views . . . whether you wish her to be a child, a sexpot, or in your case an example of vapid youth culture.

What's awesome is that you don't understand that Hilton herself is a parrot, and her line-for-a-cracker is "That's hot." It's an empty signifier beacuse she's an empty signifier, but you've tried hard to imbue it with hard-won cultural signficance. Hey, date rape has cultural significane as well...should we go track down the guy who started THAT as well, and give him a pat on the back for contributing to the collective consciousness? That WOULD be hot. In fact, you're so good a rhetorical gymnastics, that in the same paragraph you congratulate Hilton for taking control of her public image and complain at the same time that "the media" (oh..that darn media) and "especially men" (not THOSE guys again!) are to blame for twisting her into their own perverted dreams. Which is it? But I too would like to congratulate Paris for taking control: for knowing when to expose her vagina on the red carpet to keep her name on Page 6, for experiencing a religious conversion after 2 days in jail so that Access Hollywood can have something new to report that evening, for taking this attention and crafting it to her desires, as you so rightly put it. Please move over, Susan B. Oh yeah, I'm one of those "guys" you mentioned. I, in fact, know many other "guys" (we meet in underground clubs). From us to you, Paris Hilton is the most sexless, boring thing around. We would love to objectify and degrade other worthy candidates, but she keeps jumping in our field of vision, Carl's Jr. hamburger in one hand and spray hose on the other. That poor girl. You've won this round, blasted media!