The Backstreet Boys have rocked the worlds of millions. They've been placed on a high pedestal by young girls all over the world, but as well loved as the boys may be, the pedestal may be just a little too high for the Backstreet Boys' own good.
Girls and young women all over the world see the fab five as a picture of perfection. They see five wonderful guys would never do anything wrong, and who, basically, have no flaws whatsoever. However the Backstreet Boys are people, and no person on this earth is perfect.
The Backstreet Boys are normal people. They may be famous, but this doesn't mean that they do not have a life outside the spotlight. They experience pain. They have fears. They have strengths and weaknesses. They've grown up facing the same peer pressures and issues that other young people in our day and age have faced. They have the same fears of rejection, longing to be accepted by others, and the same needs to be loved, just as we have.
I can personally understand why the Backstreet Boys would have secrets or things that they wish to hide from the fans and the press. A large amount of teenage fans seem to completely lose their heads when they find out unpleasant information about the boys, and that very high pedestal lowers a bit. The Backstreet Boys are adults. They're out of school. They're old enough to vote, to fight in a war, and if they choose to have a sexual relationship with somebody, it is their business. They're only human, and nobody has the right to criticize them for not being virgins. Their sex life is something both personal and private, and discussing it, is just another way of exploiting the guys. They deserve a little privacy. How would you feel if you went to a message board and found people discussing whether you were a virgin or not and debating over your morals?
The Backstreet Boys are not all clean cut. They've never claimed themselves to be rolemodels. They just sang, put a group together, and were suddenly thought of as role models. I, personally, do not condone drugs or alcohol, and I think that smoking is just a way of slowly killing yourself and others around you. If I went out with anyone who smoked, I can guarantee that they wouldn't smoke around me. But if any of the Backstreet Boys do drink, or smoke, they should not be looked down on for it. Once again, it's their private life, and it's nobody's business but their own. There are millions of people out there who drink and smoke, and if any of the Backstreet Boys drink or smoke than it's just another fine example of how they are not perfect.
The Backstreet Boys are not perfect. They never were; they never will be. Fans say that they love the Backstreet Boys, and I believe that they do. I, too, love the guys just as much as the next fan, but fans say that they love them not only for the music and the good looks, but also for their personalities. But do we really know their personalities? People say that they know all about the Backstreet Boys, and maybe they do know small things like their favorite foods or their favorite colors. However our knowledge of the guys is rather limited.
We take all this information that we know about the guys, and we add it with their musical talents, their on-camera personalities, and their looks, and we end up developing an idealistic view of who they really are. The human mind is a powerful thing. I can take all my love and my passion and block out anything unpleasant about the guys, and even use it to mold the guys into this perfect, ideal image. I can create a whole fantasy of what they would be like, how things would be if one of them was my boyfriend, and I end up creating this ideal person that, in reality, does not exist. We're in love with an image that we've created, and in reality, the guys can live up to it.
In conclusion, as fans, we should let the guys know that we don't care if they have girlfriends. We realize that they are humans, and they have needs and opinions, and feelings. We should be mature and realize that fame hasn't changed the Backstreet Boys, adulthood has. I, for one, have changed so much just in the last two years, and I'm not finished changing. Teenage years build character. Something very special happens during the years of young adulthood. We mature, and we grow up. The guys are not out to impress anyone. If you can't accept the fact that the guys won't always do the right thing, and they won't always be single, and they are not going to be the same kids they were years ago, then maybe the Backstreet Boys have outgrown you, or maybe you just need a reality pill.