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誰もが好きなスキャンダル
日本の週刊誌は有名人のスキャンダルを競って記事にするが、この種のネタを好むのは、何も日本人に限らない。
アメリカでも、タイガー・ウッズのセックススキャンダルがマスコミをにぎわせたことは記憶に新しいところだが、さて、筆者はどうかというと…。
Everyone loves a scandal
As soon as I grab hold of the hand loop on the train I look around and try to read the advertisements hanging from the ceiling. Often, posters promoting magazines that focus on the less savory side of the rich and/or famous catch my eye.
Over the past year, I saw a collection of headlines that were impossible to ignore:
"Famous announcer photographed leaving love hotel with married professional athlete;" "Pure-as-the-driven-snow singer-actress-whatever nabbed for narcotics;" "Police find Russian sumo wrestler's lost wallet with little something extra tucked inside — a marijuana cigarette."
A boy band member asks police, "What's wrong with being naked?" as they arrest him drunk as a lord and buck naked in a public park early one morning.
Well, you get the idea. There's nothing like reading about a juicy scandal to pass the time between train stations. But why does everybody get such a thrill from the failings and foibles of others?
Maybe people get a kick out of watching those who are doing well get their comeuppance. In Japan there is a saying: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."
It's an idea that is certainly not limited to the Japanese. In some parts of the Commonwealth of Nations like New Zealand, Australia and Canada, we have what is known as "tall poppy syndrome," which means that people who have achieved more than their envious peers need to be cut down to size.
Americans, too, are obsessed with celebrity scandals. While few Americans know the contents of the latest health insurance legislation, or exactly what is going on in Afghanistan, almost everyone in the United States can explain the recent Tiger Woods sex scandal in minute detail.
Personally, I don't get it. Tiger Woods is a billionaire because he can guide a golf ball into a hole better than anybody in the world. I never viewed him as the moral compass of a nation, nor did he ever seem to have sought out that role. So why is it anyone's business what he does in his spare time?
Although I don't get much of a thrill from the everyday run-of-the-mill celebrity scandal, I must confess to a feeling of immense schadenfreude (German for "getting pleasure from the troubles of others") when hypocritical politicians are caught in compromising situations, such as the 2007 arrest of former conservative U.S. Senator Larry Craig on suspicion of lewd behavior in a men's toilet in Minnesota.
Scandals and public reactions are similar throughout the world. It seems that humankind will never tire of discovering that the famous and the powerful are flawed just like the rest of us.
- grab hold of 〜
- 〜をつかむ
- hand loop
- つり革
- ceiling
- 天井
- posters
- 中づり広告のこと
- less savory
- あまりかんばしくない
- a collection of 〜
- 一連の〜
- Pure-as-the-driven-snow
- とても清純な
- singer-actress-whatever
- 歌手であり、女優であり、そのほか何でもやる
- nabbed for narcotics
- 麻薬で逮捕された
- with 〜 tucked
- 〜が隠されて
- marijuana
- マリファナ
- naked
- 裸の
- drunk as a lord
- ぐでんぐでんに酔っぱらって
- buck naked
- 真っ裸で
- get the idea
- 分かる
- juicy
- 刺激的な
- failings
- 失敗
- foibles
- ささいな欠点
- get a kick out of 〜
- 〜でわくわくする
- comeuppance
- 当然の報い
- The nail that sticks out gets hammered down
- 出る杭は打たれる
- the Commonwealth of Nations
- 英連邦
- tall poppy syndrome
- 成功を収めた人をねたむこと
- envious
- しっとする
- peers
- 仲間
- be cut down to size
- 身のほどを思い知らされる
- are obsessed with 〜
- 〜で頭がいっぱいだ
- celebrity
- 有名人
- legislation
- 法律制度
- in minute detail
- 事細かに
- get it
- 理解する
- moral compass
- 倫理基準
- sought out 〜
- 〜を求めた
- business
- おせっかいの対象
- run-of-the-mill
- ありふれた
- confess to 〜
- 〜を認める
- immense
- 計り知れないほどの
- compromising
- 名誉を損なう
- Senator
- 上院議員
- lewd
- わいせつな
- flawed
- 不完全な