I did not expect to cry watching Paris Hilton’s new documentary “This Is Paris”.
I’m a sucker for these celeb vanity projects.
From humble beginnings to their way of dealing with fame, I’ve watched Justin Bieber’s, the Jonas Brothers and Taylor Swift’s films (the last one was really good too!).
But “This Is Paris” did not just touch nostalgia, but also unexpectedly trauma.
“Trauma gets stored in the body –
it never really goes anywhere.”
– Gabor Mate, quoted by Nicki Hilton Rothschild
Paris suffers from horrific nightmares and insomnia, just like I used to.
Paris has PTSD and gets panic attacks, just like me.
Of course, there is the difference of many millions between our bank accounts too.
I’m not going into detail of her exact trauma, you can watch the documentary for that.
But her readiness to be honest and raw made me reflect on our readiness to judge others, but empathise with our excuses that are known to us after all.
Instead of changing our idea of Paris in hindsight,
why not reflect that towards the Paris’ of today.
I was just a child watching The Simple Life around 2005, not aware of the persona Paris was portraying. But I’m not a child anymore.
We all love to make fun of the Kardashians, of Britney Spears’ conservatorship, or of Instagram models. We judge celebrities whose nudes get leaked or who end up in rehab again.
But if we got to watch a well-produced documentary of their lives, would we still laugh?
“What is insanity but repeating the same behaviour over and over again but expecting different results?”
– Common AA saying, also quoted by Nicki Hilton Rothschild
Reading through Twitter, many are not that easy to forgive Paris.
She was an ardent Trump supporter, and used visiting natural disaster victims as a photo op for her perfumes.
Everyone has encountered some kind of trauma, and from experience I found the mental and emotional abuse much harder to process than the sexual ones.
Even “just” neglect can leave crater-wide scars.
We shouldn’t pretend that celebrities are saints, but we should understand they are deeply flawed.
Just like we are after all, but we do not have millions of eyes on us.
If you liked this post, you might enjoy this analysis of Shane Dawson and blaming his trauma for abusive behaviour.
Reparent Your Soul 
YES sister🙌❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤ I agree with every word you wrote here! I too have captivated by celebrity’s biographies especially when they are raw and genuine. I’m in remission and have healed so much from the Complex PTSD I have endured most of my life. Now being on the other side has just strengthened my empathy and kindness for others. We all have something we are healing from. I chose to see others through the lense of love, we all are made from it and radiate it. We need more people to see themselves as equals of one another, that’s what we all are. Thank you for sharing this, I will watch it now on YouTube 😊
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Good on you for expressing this. Its all to easy to criticise not having a fucking clue what someone endures.. so what if they are a ‘celebrity’ that doesn’t insulate them from harm.. Recently a friend was judging Britany for acting like a small child, but maybe she never got to have a proper childhood.. I am not educated on Britany enough to comment but so it goes.. lets try to question and understand before we judge.. I know Ive been guilty of it too.
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It’s all too easy to judge with the media feeding us lies all the time! It feels like we know celebrities but we don’t, and its always better to give people the benefit of doubt. Good on you for catching that comment! X
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