whining about 'womanizers' is feminist? I must have been mistaken all these years. I thought the right of women to make informed sexual and personal decisions, right or wrong, and to take responsibility for those decisions was feminist. This broadsheet is really teaching me.

I'm a bit confused here, too. It seems its just about a smooth-talking guy who gets with a lot of women. Nothing about cheating on her with another woman. Just about her not falling for his lines or his moves or whatever. Not sure how it's feminist other than it being marginally about self-empowerment. But why does she have to do that by insulting the guy and/or speaking negatively about him? I fully believe in the madonna/whore dilemma, and usually the retort is that a man who sleeps with a lot of women is a stud or a player. But that isn't necessarily a positive label. Spears seems to view it as a negative here.

Hmmm, Britney Spears, preaching a contradictory, dissonant view of sex. Never heard that before. Just surprised that in the song she doesn't tell the guy she's saving it for marriage.*

*Blowjobs don't count.

A promiscuous male is called a "womanizer" but a promiscuous female is never, as far as I can tell, called "manizer."

While driving home last night "Womanizer" came on the radio and I somehow managed to endure it without swerving off the road. Whatever message is contained in this dreadful, over-produced mess is lost to me. "Hit Me Baby One More Time" is, by comparison, Bruckner's 8th Symphony.

"lobotomizer" to the nteenth degree....

Some hot racy pics of Britney would have made the article so much more informative!

Indeed, hasn't the whole point of "feminism's" insistence on access to birth control and abortion on demand been so that women could be as "slutty" as men were perceived to be? That would make Paris Hilton the ultimate "feminist" wouldn't it?

Making excuses for Britney's bad behaviors and showing her full support, while slamming K-Fed for his perceived womanizing, even though he's shown quite a bit more maturity, stability, and parental concern for their kids than she has since they broke up. Because, you know, he's male and all, and Broadsheet would be remiss if it didn't find a way to take the woman's side in everything.

Thanks, I think I've got it!

The man in the song is not doing anything really bad to her, and I don't see how it is even marginally empowering for her to call him a 'womanizer'. Or is it the case that men who were ddumped by girlfriends should call them 'bitches' or 'sluts' so as to feel more empowered? No, I don't see anything feminist here.

Still:

@ rupert_c: If you don't like tabloids, why do you keep coming back here?

@ redshooz: nope, the point of feminism in sex (and that varies according to which school of thought) is freedom from outside constraints. She should be able to do what she thinks is right. Others can still criticize her, but that's it. So that they can be more in control of their sex lives, like... well, like men.

As much as I would like to see Britney get her act together, I do wish people would stop the worship of Britney as a musical artist.

As a local DJ stated recently, "You'll never have a Britney Unplugged - Ever!"

I guess she just makes so much money for the celebrity machine, that the industry just can't let her rise (or sink) to the proper level for her kind of talent.

She refers to herself as a "victim" in the song and we're to take that as somehow feminist? That seems like it's playing right into the hands of those who accuse feminists of engaging in "victim politics."

In other Britney news...did you hear Adnan Ghalib is threatening to sell a sex tape of Britney and him? How empowering for her....

You could pretty much use the same headline (I agree with everyone else) for all of your letters to SALON. As far as my letters go, you can never be completely sure whether I am being serious or not. The main thing missin in most of these letters is HUMOR!

Once the sex tape is released, perhaps Britney will get a reality TV show and a chance to tap her shoes on Dance with the Stars.

Sex tapes didn't hurt Paris, or Kim, or even Pamela's "careers"

I think they all made a little money on them.

Okay, I'm not exactly a Britney fan, but I do have a radio in my car and I have been known to listen to it now and then, and Britney's song "Stronger" had a reasonably self-empowering, go-girl attitude about it, so I don't think it's entirely outside the realm of possibility that she would have a "feminist" song, whether or not you think "Womanizer" is one. It's too bad she didn't actually listen to her own lyrics in "Stronger" and stay on her own, but that's a different issue.

be done with Britney? She would be happier, I would be happier. Can she just go, she and her silly family, just please stop making all of this public noise. I don't listen to the radio either but I heard her first album years ago. It's not like we'd be losing any kind of huge talent. Will it ever be over, please god, they're like the bush administration.

Many older men who populate the music industry have gotten there not because they are good men, or even manly men, but because they ARE completely driven to WIN in the field.

For a man to WIN, often the shortest route is for him to abandon his 'soul' or connection to his real person. You can see many of the Masters of the Universe [in any profession] are really outward focused, not really comprehending what they feel or how it might affect them or others, for that matter.

So, you get these horny old goats running the business and they spot a powderpuff who knows how to dance but who is ALSO out of her element, not comfortable in her body or with her sexuality (she admits as much herself).

Her outward behavior matches the way the men feel, outcasts floundering outside the stream of life as they themselves are.

That she is relatively talentless is irrelevant. You can turn nearly anyone into a star with modern technology.