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rrgailey 's review for:

Paris: The Memoir by Paris Hilton
5.0
dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced
I am among the millions of people who have condemned and written off Paris Hilton, and for that, I am sorry. Hilton’s reflections on the broader treatment of female celebrities are painfully accurate, and the personal stories she shares are deeply disturbing at times.  The middle third or so of this book is especially difficult to read as she describes being called stupid as she struggled in school with undiagnosed ADD, was roofied and raped, and then was emotionally, physically, and sexually abused for nearly two years in a center for troubled teens that was in fact overseen by a cult leader, murderer, and rapist. Her private sexual tape was released against her will, Playboy acquired and published photos of her without her permission, and a man once acquired medical records of her abortion to use as black mail. Hilton admits that she did many things she is not proud of us a young person and that her Simple Life character became a bit of a safety blanket so people couldn’t get at the real her, but considering what she went through, I’m happy she just survived. 

The world wanted to devour Hilton, and instead she found a way to feed off it herself.  If other people were going to make money off of her photos, her presence, her stories, why shouldn’t she be able to profit off of those things herself? Other people wanted to control her story, so instead she put her own out there as loudly as possible in ways the world hadn’t  seen before. Why do we love to obsess over female celebrities and then condemn them when they take advantage of that attention? As Hilton pints out, the way society treats its “It Girls” reflects on what we think of women overall, and it ain’t pretty. I’ll happily consider myself a Paris Hilton fan from here on out.
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