The Renovation of Justin Bieber

Sean Swaby

9 years ago

Photo is 40% Photoshopped and he is 100% Baloney?

Justin Bieber is trying to renovate himself. I call it a Biebernovation.

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The Biebs has done a more than his share of stupid things:

Ordering his body guards to ferry him up the Great Wall of China.
Egging his neighbor’s home with two dozen eggs. Yes, that is 24 eggs.
Allegedly drag racing while under the influence and assaulting a limo driver.
Acting like he is Lord Business himself!
Making pop music. Hey, this is my article, so I get to call the shots. Lord Business.
Taking advantage of his underage female fans.
He is 21 years old and adored by 13 year old girls along with their 31 year old mothers at the same time. Just wrong.
Giant Calvin Klein ads that some claim have been modified to make him a little more ‘manly.’ GMO – Giant Modified Organ?
He wrote the song Baby.

I lost respect for Bieber because life gave him some talent but so far, he has refused to build the character to contain it. Bieber’s career was born on YouTube at the manly age of 13. Within two years, his song Baby went platinum. I have made fun of that song so often that I am beginning to think in Falsetto.

TV can do weird things to us. It can make us feel that we know a person after just a few minutes of air time. (See more about judgment in my article What I Learned about Myself from Watching Marshawn Lynch.) I decided to find out more about him by doing some exhaustive research. I read about him in the April 2015 Men’s Health Magazine, where it features a shirtless little-boy faced Justin Bieber. At first I was struck by the cover. How could Bieber qualify for the cover of Men’s Health if he has never had to apply for a job or work up the courage to ask out a girl?

Everyone has to grow up sometime. Maybe it’s his turn? I admit that I’m doubtful. In the Men’s Health article, Oliver Broudy reflects on Bieber’s attempt to reinvent himself. The Bieb’s seems genuine when he says that he needs to grow up. Maybe the first sign that he is maturing is that he realizes that you can only sing to 13 year olds for so long and then it gets weird?

To Manify himself, Bieber has started to work out, he fired some of his handlers and he has even consulted with some pastors.

“I don’t have a stylist anymore… I’ve been styling myself for the past few years, just because I know what I want now… I’m grown up, so I want to take initiative.” Justin Bieber as quoted by Oliver Broudy, MH April 2015, Page 119.

We know that we are making progress when we can comb our own hair and dress ourselves.

Being a man is hard. I have been rejected by women, by employers, by customers and by friends. But I have become a man because I keep going and keep making my own kind of Muzak. How can you grow up if life gives you a pass on the path to growth? I guess you have to Belieb in yourself.

**A Man’s got to Belieb in himself**

The article by Broudy made me think more about myself than about Bieber (Which is a sign of good writing). I think that being a man is admitting when you are an ass and then reinventing yourself.

Being a man is slowing down to think.
Being a man means being real, letting go of the lies and the pretense.
Being a man means accepting your power and influence, and leading by example rather than leading by explosion.
Being a man means accepting your limitations.
Being a man means being kind even when life takes a dump on your face.
It means fighting back, using all of that manure to first plant yourself, and then kick life in the ass.
It means that you only have to prove to yourself that you are a man, but that other people are watching.
Being a man means that you aspire to be a class act, dress as well as you can, be your best even when you get knocked around.
Being a man is accepting that you have a lot of potential but you have to accept reality, and that means you have to work your ass off.

And being a man means you need to laugh at yourself.

Can the Biebs reinvent himself? I hope so, because that is the journey that every man is asked to take. Truth, I don’t really care about Biebs or his music. I don’t know him, but I am a Belieber. I have reinvented myself over and over, sometimes daily. I belieb that everyone deserves a chance to be their own DJ.