Can celebrity status eradicate crimes?
The Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather fight was a sporting highlight of 2017 and created much furore for weeks on end. Following much embarrassing back-and-forth between the pair in the run up to the fight, the public and several big-name celebrities put their overwhelming support behind either the undefeated professional boxer or the underdog UFC world champion. What was seemingly forgotten throughout this highly publicised promotional tour and during the fight itself is that one of the fighters has a disturbing history of domestic violence. Mayweather, who earned a $100 million paycheck for the fight, has unnervingly been accused of violence against women multiple times. He has pleaded guilty to two counts of battery domestic violence over a five-month span in 2001 and 2002, been convicted of misdemeanour battery after a 2003 incident involving two women, and pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanour battery domestic violence against the mother of three of his children in 2011. Outside of these three charges, Mayweather has been accused of violence against women seven times in the last 13 years.
Despite the fact that these incidents are public knowledge, Mayweather has continuously been praised for his talents, been given high paying sponsorships, and has been given overwhelming public support. He has received no public scorn for his actions. There are two reasons for such a reaction. On one hand, in the commotion of such highly publicised events, such incidents are pushed to the back of people’s minds or are hidden under the weight of his past boxing successes, meaning people simply have forgotten his crimes. On the other hand, a much more disheartening answer is that people simply do not care. Unfortunately, Mayweather’s successes as a boxer and his fame and money outweigh any past crimes he has committed or any obvious moral failures he clearly has.
This is a disturbing trend for many celebrities. Not only are they hardly punished by the law for their actions — Mayweather received 48 hours community service, 100 hours community service and 60 days in jail for his three respective charges — but they also receive an automatic pardon by society. Roman Polanski, for example, who was arrested for the rape of a 13 year old in 1977 and confessed to the crime, is still praised, admired and defended by film critics, actors, other celebrities and movie fans. This is not just the case for male celebrities, however. Many female celebrities have been charged with crimes in the past and yet society has either forgotten this or ignored it. Whitney Houston, for example, had admitted to physically abusing her husband, Bobby Brown, and yet society has never admonished her for this. Clearly, this is not an issue of sexism within Hollywood. When it comes to excusing celebrities merely because of their status, there is equal forgiveness given to both men and women.
It is seemingly easy for society to separate the personal life and professional work of many celebrities — both male and female — even though this is not how many would react in normal, everyday life. If you found out your doctor, for example, had been found guilty of hitting his wife and had not been punished for his crime, would you realistically still depend on them or go to them for a professional service? The answer would undoubtedly be no because their moral standing has been lessened in your mind.
This situation raises the question of the validity of excusing past grievances once they have been paid for with jail time. The purpose of prisons is for perpetrators of crimes to be punished for their actions. Once this has occurred, the idea is for these rehabilitated individuals to be released back into society upon the assumption that their past crimes will not be held over their heads as they have already paid their dues. Whilst this is a controversial viewpoint, an ideal world would be one where people are not continually punished for their past actions, are able to become active members of society, and are not ostracised by their fellow citizens. However, this is not exactly the controversial problem that is in question here. The majority of celebrities do not have to or have not done prison time to pay for their deplorable actions. Mayweather, for example, has only had to spend a total of 60 days in jail for 4 domestic violence incidents — arguably not enough time for his unacceptable actions. As such, celebrities often do not have to experience any consequences and yet are still treated exactly the same as if they had not committed a crime. This is not the reaction that would occur if a non-celebrity had committed a domestic violence offence, for example. The reason for this? Undoubtedly it is the celebrity status and the special, undeserved allowances that come with that.
Celebrities constantly appear to be let off the hook for crimes they have committed — crimes they would not be let off the hook for if they did not have a celebrity status. The only reason that I can think of for this contrast is the idolisation of celebrities in modern society. They are viewed of as above the law or above the station of non-celebrities, and are thus deserving of special treatment. This should not be the case, however. They are no different from the everyday person other than the fact that they are in the public eye and they have the funds to bail them out of such situations. Neither of these factors deserves the lack of jail time and the complete excusal of domestic violence occurrences — or any other crimes — by the public.
This naïve celebrity worship culture we live in needs to be changed. Celebrities — both male and female — need to be seen as actual human beings instead of the idols they are presented as. This way, when they commit a crime, instead of trying to make excuses for such actions or blaming the victim or ignoring that it even occurred, society will realise that celebrities are capable of making mistakes — or in certain cases, serious crimes — and are thus deserving of the consequent punishments that result from these mistakes, including the right to be knocked off a pedestal and not heralded as a boxing God.
Edited by Maryam Elahi
