Letters to the Editor
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Sex God Pop Stars
Calling her fat has nothing to do with girls having eating disorders and everything to do with 'live by the sword, die by the sword'.
Don't want to have your body scrutinized? Then don't make your living as a sex god/dess. I remember reading, a few years back, some story about Usher compulsively doing pushups backstage -- and crying.
It's a tough nut, making your money from having an appealing body. The only difference between Usher and Brit is that Usher brought something else to the table. Even if it wasn't much.
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Head shave
The head shaving was to prevent a hair sample drug test in her custody case. they can analyze it and tell you what drugs she took and when, which blood and urine tests cannot do. Pathetic, yes, but it was not a cry for help.
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The Consumption of Britney Spears
Yes the public has a ravenous appetite for Britney Spears. But the appetite is not as Traister describes. We're quite predictable: build them up, drag them down, build them up again; repeat. Britney is down. We want her to succeed again. We want her to want to succeed, which accounts for the post-performance outrage. It looked like she didn't even try. THAT was her offense.
The public was genuinely rooting for her. MTV did not set her up for failure. Contrary to Traister's assessment, Britney's new tracks were getting great buzz. Momentum was building. MTV gave her an opportunity to build on that momentum. Do I think MTV's motives were altruistic? No, obviously not. They want ratings, first and foremost. But I don't buy that this was a sinister ploy.
As for Britney's mother, she offered too much moral structure and not enough freedom. (Flashback to the clip from Farenheit 9/11: Britney dutifully recited that we should all just not question authority, or something to that effect.) So when she came of age, it's no wonder she rebelled in a million different directions. Her widely reported refusal to listen to the litany of advisors who surround her stems from being told what to do her entire life, always dutifully playing the role of the good girl, going so far as to cling to her virginity. And look where those traditional southern values got her - in and out of a miserable marriage, with two children she's woefully unprepared to parent.
Britney, crazy? Nah. She's the sane one.
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Poor multi-milionaires
That's pretty funny - all this concern over a woman whose personal wealth is in the $100m range... If we do need to feel sorry about someone, maybe we could pick someone who has real problems? So her comeback tanked. There are people her age who work at McDonalds.
On the plus side, I didn't know Sarah Silverman before you wrote this article - good performance, I'll try to find more from her.
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The Saddest Thing
in this story was the torture of that poor moose. The assholes who did that should've been shot, IMO.
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Hiding Idiocy Behind Feminist Claptrap
Well, at least Ms. Traister didn't bury her lead, hitting us with this wheezy whine right near the top:
"As has been pointed out before, she embodies the disdain in which this culture holds its young women: the desire to sexualize and spoil them while young, and to degrade and punish them as they get older."
Disdain for young woman? Sexualize and spoil then degrade and punish? Are you fucking kidding me?
She's a nit wit. That she pees sitting down really has no bearing on the lack of respect many of us will have for her. There's idiot male singers as well through the rapper community, too. That disdain is racism, apparently, while this disdain is some part of a Vast Penile Conspiracy to keep womyn chained the past practices of the patriarchy.
I mean, really, don't you have a freshman women's studies paper to write?
Britney lacks talent. She also seems to lack good judgment. She's not the first 20-something single mother to have questionable judgment in this country where such situations have exploded to the point of being a near epidemic. If the fact we hold this tart up for ridicule might compel a comparably aged young lovely to think twice about unprotected sex that could lead to an unplanned pregnancy and yet another child behind the eight ball of single parent household living, then pour on the damn ridicule.
Britney at least has the financial wherewithal to handle her current situation PROVIDED she has some half way decent advisors watching her cash for her. Those who previously idolized her and might now look down upon her do not.
Maybe we as a nation are re-erecting the societal guard rails we tore down in the 1960s. Perhaps piling on the foolish in pop culture or piling on the cheaters in professional sports will yield some societal benefits.
If Britney plays her cards right, she's set for life financially whether she can find a way to lip synch some saccharine teen songs correctly or not. If she acts irresponsibly, she'll be another has been reviewed every couple years or so when People Magazine does a cheesy "Whatever Happened To" article.
She's a moron, but right now she's a wealthy moron. What she does from here on out is her business and has nothing to do with sophomoric projections about the battle between the sexes.
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Skeevy
Rebecca, thanks for using the term "super-skeevy". My husband never heard the word skeevy before I used it and he thinks it's some weird New Jersey (where I grew up) term. You're not from NJ are you?
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CRASH!!!
Dennis Miller, before he turned to the Dark Side, once said about the current state of celebrity that whereas most people used to want to rubberneck the car wreck, nowadays too many people want to BE the car wreck. (See reality TV, and its endless stream of goofs: As long as everyone's looking at me, we're all good.) And that brings me to Britney Spears.
Sorry, but I can't feel much pity for Britney. She did what she wanted to do, and in a business that's all about "look at me," that means you have to take it -- even from half-wit comedians (her description, not mine) such as Sarah Silverman. Didn't somebody once write a song called Cry Me a River? I didn't ask Britney to go into show business and be the Princess of Pop Tarts. I was busy buying CDs of Pearl Jam, Radiohead and Tool, among others (you know, people who actually MAKE music).
And those hating the haters calling out Britney's body, I can't agree with you either. Yes, it's sexist, but when your sole talent and the sole foundation of your career is that you look like a porn-worthy hoochie, then how you look is fair game. It's like criticizing Silverman for her jokes (or lack thereof) or Alicia Keys for her singing (which thus far is bullet-proof). And yes, given her choice of wardrobe, Britney looked bad.