Letters to the Editor
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whose downfall?
Thanks to Salon and the talented Ms. Traister for bringing a glimmer of insight and empathy to the black hole devouring Britney Spears.
Her public punishment and abuse come from the same anger that a batterer turns on his victim when her assertion of personhood conflicts with his needs. Britney was commoditized, sexualized and consumed to meet the needs of her public, annihilating what might have been a healthy development of self.
The consumption of a person – her objectification, dehumanization, commoditization, and her simultaneous sexualization and shaming – to feed the unmet needs of her consumers constitutes a threat to self which (surprise!) leads predictably to disintegration of ego function: impaired judgment, loss of impulse control and ultimately, as in the case of Andrea Yates, to psychosis.
Britney’s public attempts to take back Britney, her pubic “fuck you”s and “fuck off”s, were not tolerated well. Once her damage and distress became apparent, all that was left for her consumers was to, again predictably, point away from their roles and make certain that nothing is learned form the effects of their hunger – by pathologizing their victim: “her downfall…her crackup…self-destruction…a child…bald and broken…can Britney find the road to redemption?”
Can we find the road to redemption? Britney is pointing us to it.