Star Jones is feeling a lot of nostalgia for shame. In an editorial for Uptown, she reminisces about the good old days of beating oneself up for behaving like less than a model citizen:
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“Shame used to be the feeling you’d get just after you did something you know you shouldn’t have done. It was the cramp in your stomach when the ‘mother’ of the church looked back at you during Sunday service and threw you the eye because you were talking, wiggling, or chewing gum when you should have been paying attention. Shame was the quiver in your voice that made you stammer when you had to tell your parents that you crashed the car, got a D in geometry, were busted for smoking weed, found out you were pregnant — or when you were down at the police station making your one phone call.”
And she wants to know why this isn’t the case anymore, asking readers:
“When did the quest for fame overtake the drive for excellence? When did starring in a sex tape rather than a breakout performance in an independent film become your entrée into stardom? When did becoming the third, fourth, or fifth baby mama of an athlete or a musician make you a ‘housewife’? When did posing with your behind up and your boobs out standing in front of a stripper pole make you a model?”
Star’s answer: “When shame moved out.”
Our answer: When we, the public, decided to devour these behaviors (including, ahem, by giving them airtime and analysis on shows like Jones’ former home, The View), thereby turning them into the quickest and cheapest road to “winning” in Hollywood.
Read more at Uptown.
In other news: Muslim ‘Radicalization’ Hearings: African Americans Speak Out.
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