All Black Aaron Smith has been vilified for his brief toilet tryst.
I can't help but feel a bit sorry for Aaron Smith.
The country's media was all over Smith's toilet "romance" last week. The type of indiscretion that should be dealt with in private has been made very public.
I personally find the interest the nation has in Smith's antics a
little bit nauseating. Stories like this wouldn't be plastered everywhere unless there was a public appetite for them, and it seems we are starving. We have picked at every detail of Smith's affair like vultures over a carcass. And we are quick to ravage celebrities for their mistakes. Smith made a mistake, yes. But it's a mistake that I'm sure many other 27-year-olds have made.
The difference is that Smith happens to be a member of one of the most famous sporting teams in the world. In the moralising that inevitably followed Smith's actions, many people have said that, as a sports star that young people look up to, he should have behaved better. Can we really expect a person to be a role model just because they are in the public eye?
It's entirely unhealthy to put celebrities on a pedestal. Relationships run into obstacles no matter who you are or what you do for a job. So a young man gave into temptation - are we really that surprised?
