You know things are bad when the only one who can reach mainstream America is so-called pop star Pink. She recently released a single called “Stupid Girls” in which she makes fun of the annoying celebrities who give the female gender (and the human race) a bad name. In the lyrics and music video for the song, Pink mocks all those starlets who use their bodies and lack of brains just to make a few (million) bucks. Every day, we’re bombarded with images of stupid celebrities. Paris Hilton’s entire claim to fame is her infamous sexcapade and her enormous inheritance. She’s not even trying to pretend to be talented. And Jessica Simpson has admitted to being clueless on purpose. It’s not cute; it’s just sad. But the problem has become more widespread than just a few glamorous airheads. Staying true to our consumer culture, we’re imitating every move celebrities make. All across the country, millions of people, most notably teenage girls—shocking as it may seem, even some right here at Ames High—are falling victim to the illusion of stupidity these “role models” create. What’s really frustrating is that the “role models” are acting stupid because they know it will get them the attention and, ultimately, the money they seek. Meanwhile, the “real” people who act like celebrities just end up lowering their own standards. A whole generation of young girls has been led to believe that the only acceptable occupations for women are: compulsive shopper, personal servant to a man, or mindless sex object. Apparently, women are doomed to be unimportant and unintelligent. Can’t you just hear Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Betty Friedan turning over in their graves? This is comparable to the old days when a woman’s place was said to be at home. Now, a woman’s place is… the mall? Or, even better, frolicking in scantily clad clothing in some random music video? What ever happened to the good old days when we were growing up? We were taught that, as girls, we could do absolutely anything we wanted to do. We were encouraged to develop our own unique interests, our own unique personalities, and our own unique selves. Today’s girls are being taught to ignore anything that could possibly increase their intelligence and awareness of the world around them. They’re being fooled into believing that what they see from fake celebrities is what they want and what they must strive to be. If we don’t stop this new generation of “stupid girls,” we’ll be in serious trouble. At the very least, we’ll have a new crop of confused, misled, and demoralized people. What’s the worst-case scenario? Probably the destruction of society as we know it. But, it’s no big, right? The point is, this is a serious and urgent problem. We’re such a celebrity-worshipping society that we’ve lost every shred of sense and are mindlessly following what “they” are doing. We need to make it very clear to young girls that the women dancing on MTV and strutting on the red carpet have their own agendas, and by copying them, they’re only being sucked into a black hole of stupidity. I never thought I’d say this, but it’s time to start listening to Pink.