Zayn Malik & the Paparazzi - Is This What We've Gotten To?

Let's be honest.

No one here likes the paparazzi.

No one anywhere likes the paparazzi.

Nothing they do actually serves society, or humanity. They are the dark end of the room, the seedy corner where all the bullshit of our culture festers. What they do can more often than not be harmless - a picture or a story on "Hot or Not", who wore it best, who's getting what facial, and it can even serve on occasion to keep the public updated on fact (though it so rarely is fact).

But in person - in person, they're vicious. If you've seen videos of celebrities trying to, for example, walk from the store to their car, or leave their house to go on a run, or literally take a stroll down the street, then you know that the paparazzi (often coupled with eager fans) make living normal life nearly, if not completely, impossible.

Now, this post is about a particular celebrity, one of five members of a boyband we all know as One Direction. Whether you like them, love them, or hate them, the point is mute. What matters here is that as a result of the paparazzi, real relationships are being damaged, people are being hurt, and not a soul on this planet is doing anything about it.

Have we really accepted this as okay?

Do me a favor - go watch this compilation of clips. These are all clips of the One Direction singers being mobbed by fans. Well, at least that's what the title says. When you watch it, you realize the real tension and discomfort and panic comes from the incessant flashing of cameras, yelling of "Liam! Can you tell me about your girlfriend?!" "Louis! Is it true you and Harry are secretly dating?" "Zayn, can you confirm that you spent most of last month at a rehab clinic in Florida?!"

They just keep their heads down and keep walking. They've learned to deal with it - they're professional and adult about it. They could very easily lash out (and yes, in the past, they've each had their moment). But no one should have to live like that.

And now, a new story has all of the paparazzi buzzing, going into a feeding frenzy on Zayn Malik. Zayn is a good person, someone with a kind heart, a love for art, and a genuine care and respect for his fans. He's engaged to a beautiful young lady by the name of Perrie Edwards, singer for Little Mix. Most of you may already know these things, but for those that don't - just know as a baseline fact that these two care, love, and respect each other.

Obviously, we can't know what goes on behind closed doors. I won't pretend to know Zayn personally, or to know the kind of person that he is when the cameras are off - but I can tell you that it isn't our place to make judgments on who these people are. Any 'celebrity', old, young, pretty, not, whatever they may be, are human. I am not a fan of Miley Cyrus, I just don't like her - but it'd be indecent to go around spreading rumors about her no matter how little I am a fan.

These people are people. Why do we think we've got some kind of excuse not to treat them like people?

If you haven't seen or heard about this, that's fine, it isn't a big deal. Really. It's not. Zayn took a couple of pictures with a fan, who he hung out with for a bit in Thailand. Who wouldn't have fun hanging out with the guys? As a fan, anyone would be ecstatic just to spend some time with them, see them in their element, just breathing easy and enjoying themselves. Most of the time they're seen in their hectic, professional, One Direction mode. Anyone would love to see them just be themselves.

And so, a casual hangout turned into a picture - a picture that, if you looked at it out of context, seems harmless. Is harmless. The photo is of Zayn leaning his head against the girls and letting his arm drape around her waist. Now, personally, I feel that the picture would've been received very differently if she had been wearing a complete shirt. No disrespect to the young lady, but frankly, people question the situation because she felt the need to wear a midriff top.

That being said, this is not an unusual pose, nor a racey one. He took a picture with a fan. They were all having a good time and he took a snap - which she posted on instagram. Quickly enough, people got ideas.

A pap then snapped them holding hands. Apparently, it’s illegal to hold someone’s hand? Now, obviously, I can recognize that at face value, the two put together make it feel questionable. I won’t lie. But first of all, who the hell are we to make judgments about the situation? I don’t remember anyone giving me a certificate that said, “Congratulations! You can now judge people who do things that everyone else does but don’t have to take responsibility for!”

And second of all, holding hands may have been momentary, may have been long-term, who cares - Zayn’s relationship with Perrie is none of our business. (I may or may not feel the same way about “Larry” and the fact that it isn’t our business to force them out of the closet even if it WAS real.) What should matter is the music. Did everyone forget why we’re here? We came to listen to some music, enjoy a fun show, and go home laughing about the good things that happened along the way.

Now everyone’s all caught up because Zayn held a girl’s hand.


And to wrap it all up with a pretty little bow, after Zayn tweeted letting everyone know that he loves Perrie more than anything and that he’s sorry for how it looks, the rumors have gotten to him and he’s flown home to the UK as a result of ‘stress’. Congratulations, world. We’ve pushed the man so hard he could do nothing but go home and escape the tour, the paparazzi, and the endless questions.

It’s rumoured that he’ll be returning to tour on the 28th of March; but at this point, all we should be caring about (though we all want to see the tour, but that’s not nearly as important) is the fact that someone’s livelihood, relationship, and happiness is at stake because of the eager, frenzied, frothing-at-the-mouths, demeanors of the press, paparazzi, and horribly, even fans, awaiting drama to keep their interest going.

This is not the first time something like this has happened, for the band it’s happened more than a few times, but it’s also been an awful trait of humankind for hundreds and hundreds of years. We’ve been doing this to each other since we formed language. And I fear that we will only continue doing it for ages to come.

All we can do, those of us who have hearts and minds and want nothing more than for the press to shut their mouths, quit their typing, and find something worthwhile to do while they’re on this planet, is not feed into the drama. If someone brings it up, let them know that you don’t feel it’s as big a deal as they made it out to be. Let them know that it isn’t our place to be questioning the relationships and actions of others.

We came here for the music. And for now, the music’s still playing. Let’s keep it that way.

March 19th, 2015 at 07:22pm