When does making fun of people turn into worshipping them? When does mocking a lifestyle turn into extolling it? These are the questions the Web site dirtyscottsdale.com needs to answer.
The site, which details the lives of Scottsdale's twenty-something, club-hopping, plastic wannabes, started off as a comical social critique but has sadly turned into a monstrosity.
Originally a blog of sorts, in which clubbers doing idiotic things were caught on camera and mocked in poorly written captions, this site became a phenomenon with Scottsdale's "elite." Today, having a picture up on the site is a badge of honor among those who care.
And that is the problem. Whatever the creator's original intent was, the site is now a place for non-celebrities to stroke their egos and act like Scottsdale is someplace important. The culture promoted on the Web site is one of spending without thought, fake breasts, and desperate adulation of larger-than-life caricatures.
The tone of the site is mocking but indulgent. It makes fun of the denizens of Scottsdale, but in a "here, let me show you exactly why you aren't being quite enough of a loser," sort of way.
In the end, people on the site are always mocked not for being too Scottsdale, but for not being Scottsdale enough.
The fact that there is even a Scottsdale designation is mildly appalling. After all, the city is just a small-scale imitation of Beverly Hills, only without any actual celebrities.
Seeing this problem, the creator of the site made his own. In what is possibly the strangest aspect of the site, specific club-goers with larger than life personalities are now written about and photographed on the Web site simply for being who they are. G-Girl, P-Nazi and Gumby are mocked on the site, but are also minor celebrities in Scottsdale clubs.
In this way, the site is a sad reflection on a smaller scale of our celebrity-obsessed culture. We in the media hate that Alberto Gonzales's resignation was rivaled in the news today by Britney Spears' custody battle.
Indeed at ASU, and consequently at the Scottsdale clubs, most people could probably tell you more about the former pop star's descent into trash than they could about the resignation of the U.S. attorney general.
Scottsdale has always been the epitome of mindless self-fellation. The fast cars, tacky, overpriced art, and general lack of soul or culture has plagued Scottsdale since time immemorial. But things have finally gone too far, and a wake up call is needed. Don't look for it to come from dirtyscottsdale.com.
