Sarah Jensen

Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Amy Winehouse. Each of these women has helped sell millions of tabloid magazines; the issues that usually sell the best are the ones that celebrate their misery.

There’s nothing we like better than to see these women taken down.

We laugh, watch and read with morbid curiosity as each young woman spirals into self-destruction–look at her cry, look at her stumble, look at her fall apart. Jealousy often fuels our curiosity and binds our attention; the celebrity of Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian compel us to ask, “Why are they rich and famous? They’ve never done anything useful.”

Amy Winehouse was incredibly talented, but that didn’t stop us from taking pleasure in her fall from grace. Society punishes these young women. They didn’t start out as train wrecks; we pushed them to be that way. Many of the young girls we relish being ripped apart the most started out as the most innocent.

The latest trend is figuring out which former young Disney star will fall down next. Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus all started out with squeaky-clean, wholesome images. We push them to be adults before they’re ready, and then punish them when they’re not.

We love sacrificing virgins to the volcano.