Pet Peeve #83 Selling Out

On the Jukebox: "Cotton Eye Joe" by Rednex
Quote: "For those about to rock, I salute you." ~ School of Rock
Flair: Feed the Chil'rens

Grubble, grubble, grrr... I'm feeling peevish. Why? Because I'm sick and tired of sell-outs. What sort of sell-outs? All of them. Anyone who fits this definition: the compromising of one's integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, 'success' (however defined) or other personal gain.

Now I understand the difference between personal growth as an artist and conforming in an attempt to increase mass appeal or acceptability to mainstream society. I'm am especially disappointed when I see a young Hollywood rising star who takes the short cut to fame by posing nude or doing a questionable music video or movie. Boo! Even worse is when an LDS person sells-out. I've decided that reality TV game shows are no place for practicing members of the Church - more on that later...

I am hungry for more good examples of positive portrayals of our people in the main stream media. Yes, we get plenty of talented people on shows like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance but often the good ones become compromised with immodest costumes and questionable lyrics. They gain some success at the cost of credibility. A person who does this, as opposed to continuing along his or her original path, is labelled a sell-out and typically regarded with disgust and immediate loss of respect.

Of the Survivor contestants who claimed to be 'Mormon', Neleh Dennis is the only one that actually acted like a church going member. There were a few other LDS girls but they didn't shine through like Neleh. I think Hollywood has a personal vendetta and only cast gay-X Mormons to be on the show. There was Rafe Judkins on Survivor: Guatemala, Todd Herzog on Survivor: China, and now this season on Survivor: Tocantins we've got this naked guy Tyson Apostol (more like apostatize!) who claims to be a bad ass Mormon - once served an LDS mission but can't seem to keep his clothes on. My latest theory is that that producers are looking for LDS men but the endowed ones won't play the game for obvious reasons....

Katherine Heigl, Jewel, and Amy Adams were all raised Mormon but no longer practice. What does that say about them and the Church? I'm glad to see Julianne Hough from Dancing With the Stars has yet to sell-out. I've read many interviews that she's given and she always credits her good fortune to being a member of the Church and was planning a temple wedding with her fiance before they broke up. It's cool that her brother Derek is also on the program as well as the adorable Chelsea Hightower and rebel Lacy Schwimmer. Maybe they'll have a good influence on her and she'll clean up her act. Although I have to say that success and fame seem to be dulling her brother Benji... the word sell-out comes to mind.

I worry about how easy it is to become a sell-out when the opportunity for fame comes along. There are many successful LDS writers. Something that I've noticed is a trend to start conservative and then move towards the edge. I'm disappointed by this. I like Shannon Hale. She has a real knack for story telling, but I was a bit disappointed by her book Austenland because I knew she was LDS and didn't have to include certain things in it. I didn't expect any of her characters to be LDS but I did expect her to still show us characters with some virtues... And don't get me started on Stephenie Meyer's books! If I ever teeter towards selling out I hope somebody will smack some sense into me. I want to make sure that I am 1) true to my beliefs and am a model example of what it is to be a member of my Church 2) communicate clearly what my core LDS values are 3) stay true to my artistic senses and not pressured to make it more popular. Perhaps I'm lucky that I do what I do for my own enjoyment and not for others.