We may or may not be witness to Justin Bieber’s personal, emotional, and intellectual renaissance. He is throwing off those chains, man, just like someone told him this dude named Karl Marx (or is it Carl Marks?) once did. He will not be oppressed by your selfie sticks and your photo filters anymore. No, Justin Bieber has proclaimed it once and for all: his jaw will ache no more from smiling for fan pic after fan pic. He shall be free!
Behold: the Belieberssance. And I’m all for it.
On Tuesday, Bieber posted a message on his Instagram account, in which he described how constantly taking photos with his fans made him feel like a “zoo animal”:
“If you happen to see me out somewhere know that I’m not gonna take a picture I’m done taking pictures. It has gotten to the point that people won’t even say hi to me or recognize me as a human, I feel like a zoo animal, and I wanna be able to keep my sanity.”
After receiving a negative response from a fan, who called the singer “a prick” and told him “get over it and stop being a douche,” Bieber screencapped the comment and posted it with a personal followup.
“Years ago it was impossible to even take a picture at anytime not everyone was accessible to a camera now everyone has a camera phone and Now it’s just a different thing. If you think setting boundaries is being a douche I’m the biggest douche around but I think it’s smart and will be the only way I last. I wanna enjoy life and not be a slave to the world and their demands of what they think I need to do!”
Guys, I don’t even know what to do right now. I never thought I’d say this, but despite the somewhat insensitive hyperbole (re: “slave”), Bieber. Has. A. Valid. Point.
While no one wins when we attempt to diagnose celebrities, Bieber’s cancellation of his tour meet-and-greets earlier this year might also factor into his decision to construct boundaries between his personal life and public persona. Considering his long-term aims “to stay in the healthy mindset,” as the singer put it in an apology to his fans in March—a message which also alluded to the singer “feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted to the point of depression”—setting up clear boundaries sounds like a pretty healthy thing to do.
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Image via Getty.