Lenient attitudes towards Sheen: WTF?

Great Debates
#1

I was hanging out with a close guy friend last week and while we were watching news about Sheen’s latest exploits on the radio, I was kind of taken aback by the “Why don’t they leave ole Charlie alone!” attitude my friend seemed to have.

In thisthread, I see the same thing. Take, for instance, this post:

Really now? It’s bad enough that the guy is addicted to cocaine, leading to the elimination of his sitcom and costing innocent bystanders their jobs, but the guy has a long history of being a violent and verbally abusive criminal.

Now mind you this site probably doesn’t have the rigor of the New England Journal of Medicine or anything, but after reading his timeline of activities, I really have to wonder why this guy is given so many passes and excuses. Because he’s a celebrity? Because he’s a classic bad boy-man that guys look up to? Because he’s rich? Because he’s…do I dare say this here…white?

Not that I’m a fan of this one either, but when you look at the public derison that Lindsay Lohan has earned and compare it to what Charlie has received, you see a huge disparity, with Lindsay being the loser. And as far as I know she’s never been accused of domestic violence, hasn’t been divorced multiple times following accusations of violence, or put any innocent children through undeserved pain and anguish. WTF? Is this fair?

#2

Well, I’m convinced - Lindsay Lohan must not be White. :smiley:

But seriously - does anything having to do with the absurd facsination with the lives of celebrities have to make any sense? In some cases, people are entertained by expressing shock and disgust; in others, they are entertained by expressing sympathy and admiration; sometimes for the very same traits. The only true crime a celebrity can commit to the public, is to not be entertaining. :wink:

#3

Lindsay is an idiot. Charlie is also an idiot, but Lindsay is dumb enough to get caught being an idiot, sometimes in illegal ways, over and over again. She’s also a talentless idiot, which means that she’s an actress who no one will hire, which means she doesn’t really qualify as an actress anymore. Charlie, up until these last few months, was a functioning dirt bag who heavily used drugs and banged lots of whores but still showed up to work and was competent.

Plus Lindsay seems to manage to put a great many people in danger anytime she gets behind the wheel of a car, so she doesn’t restrict herself to victimless crimes, either.

Sheen has been playing the bad boy thing up for ages, which is why he got away with it for so long (again, up until these last few months).

#4

Don’t you think it’s a copout to dismiss what appears to be double standard on the grounds that we’re talking about a celebrity?

I mean, if I wanted to talk about society unfairly biased, I guess I could pick out examples from my own life and start a thread about that. But how compelling would that be, when I’m the only witness to the so-called double standards I’m pointing to? People, rightfully so, might accuse me of possibly being under the influence of bias, since they only have access to my testimony and can’t verify any of it.

But by talking about celebrities as prominent as Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan, we all are pretty much on equal footing in the analysis of what is happening.

#5

So has Charlie. He gets “caught” every time his violence crops up in the news and in police reports. The difference is that no one really cares. It’s treated like a joke.

To me, this makes a case for why outrage against Sheen should be higher, not lower. Just why has he gotten away with beating up women and whoring around? Why hasn’t “playing the bad boy thing” cost him his career years ago?

#6

There’s just something about celebrities that makes people want to make excuses for them. If Charlie Sheen wasn’t famous, he’d probably be living on the streets by now, if he hadn’t died of an overdose. But because he’s a well-known sitcom star, people have been giving him a pass. It’s only just now that his antics are becoming so intolerable that he’s viewed as a pariah. It doesn’t make any sense.

#7

Who cares? Everyone deserves a lenient attitude.

Life is hard and getting harder because of the fucked up society we are creating, and people have varying degrees of success coping with it - not just celebrities, everyone. I think we should just leave the poor bastards alone to deal with their demons and maybe start gunning down the media in the streets, everything they do makes things worse for their targets.

#8

Actually, I was also one of those that thought, “Hey, it’s his life, who cares,” but the numerous Jewish slurs from his interviews yesterday have definitely turned me against him.

Maybe odd that I would care about that more than the drugs and physical abuse, but there you go.

#9

Bullshit. Sheen has everything he needs to lead an incredibly good life–hit TV show, fame, fortune and a good family. If he chooses to piss it all away, you can be damn sure I’m going to piss on him for doing so.

#10

Not really. The only reason anyone cares about Sheen’s rather run-of-the-mill problems (or Lohan’s) is that they are celebs. Pretty well by definition, the interest in them is not going to be of the same type as the interest in someone we actually know.

Celebs are people that folks pseudo-“know”: that is, they know all sorts of details about their lives through the media. What they care about is a media creation, not the actual individual (whom they cannot really know in any event). So they classify them in their minds in ways that would not make sense when discussing “real people” (defined as people they actually know, people in their ‘monkeysphere’) - as example some “care” about Leonard Nemoy because he played Mr. Spock: and because of that, to some, they are more likely to sympathize with him, even if he’s caught doing horribly bad things - as if what role he had made any difference to who he is as a person. [I’m just using Nemoy as an example here]

In short, a good number of people (maybe even most) cannot really seperate the celeb from the reason for his or her celebrity; and indeed, why should they? The one is as “real” to them as the other. Thus, an actor who plays good roles can be simply classified as a roguish “bad boy” when he does drugs, beats up prostitutes, and utters racial slurs.

#11

I think he’s been given a pass by many because they perceive him to be charming and charismatic. The part about being good-looking doesn’t hurt, nor does the part about being Martin Sheen’s son.

If ‘white’ was the key, people wouldn’t be so pissed at Lohan (as pointed out) or Mel Gibson.

#12

The man held a hooker hostage in a hotel bathroom while his kids were across the hall!

#13

Since Charlie Sheen is part Spanish, I’d say this isn’t the reason. But I think the reason people keep ignoring Sheen’s indiscretions is pretty obvious: he’s usually pretty smart about them or lucks into an out.

After shooting Kelly Preston in the arm, she told everyone who’d listen that it was an accident.

After being caught on Heidi Fleiss’ client list, he dropped the still quotable line “I don’t pay them for sex. I pay them to leave.”

After his drug bust in the late 90s, Martin Sheen spoke out on his behalf, and encouraged him to get help. Is there a more respected actor than Martin Sheen?

After the domestic abuse charges a few years ago, it came out that his wife was high out of her mind during the whole thing. So who knows what really happened?

He may have gone too far this time, so let’s see how the public reacts in a few months when (if?) Two and a Half Men comes back on the air.

#14

Cite?

#15

CBS made over 150 million dollars from his show last year.

#16

While you Google…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110225/en_afp/entertainmentustelevisionjewssheen

Wow… LFMAO!

Incredible! Just incredible… :rolleyes:

#17

I didn’t even know Chuck Lorre is a Jewish name. Are there a lot of Jewish people named Chuck?

#18

Lorre is Jewish. His birth name is Chaim Levine.

#19

The birth name is pretty obviously Jewish - but I honestly wouldn’t have guessed Lorre to be a Jewish name.

Sheen seems to be a piece of crap in a lot of ways, but I’m not sure he’s earned the anti-Semite tag yet.

#20

This is all nice theory and everything, but blaming this on celebrity still seems like a lazy attempt to wave away the issue as typical “that’s just the way it is” BS.

Charlie Sheen is given a pass to abuse drugs, beat women, and take a crap on other people because of rich white male privilege. He’s been given a pass to engage in behavior that would get him labeled a destestable thug if he were another race, a whore if he was another gender, or locked up in prison if he were another race or in a lower socioeconomic class. That he’s “America’s Favorite Bad Boy” is an inadequate explanation for this simply for the fact that it ignores the reality: only rich white men are allowed to be bad boys. Everyone else faces punishment when they do what they do. Society’s attitude towards Charlie Sheen embodies white male privilege in one of its more insidious but no less obnoxious forms.

Does anyone disagree with this assessment? If so, I’m interested in hearing why.