Letters to the Editor
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Oh please...
Well, Rebecca, at least you got a column out of it, right? I love the way you pretend to hate the humiliation just before heaping on a good helping of it yourself. If the Britney spectacle offends, maybe you should just change the channel. There's a war going on, or hadn't you heard? Maybe you could write about that instead. Or the presidential campaign.
You're really just one small step on the food chain above MTV. You just make that clicking sound with your tongue better than they do.
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Coaxed by her handlers
I'm tempted to believe that Britney was coaxed by personal and record company managers and lawyers into going through with the performance in order to avoid a bevy of financial and legal repercussions. These would be people who ultimately don't give a damn about her long-term health, but rather wish to cover their interests before she completes the self-destruction.
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That's well-balanced
It's nice to see an article about Britney that shows her flaws without an extra helping of schadenfreude.
She's clearly a slut for attention (sorry, that term is sexist, but so apt here), is under great pressure, and doesn't know how to get on top of it. Her head-shave showed she's got pretty serious issues and, while she craves attention, a part of her just wants it all to go away too. A part of her chose to bomb at the VMAs.
What's amazing is that one of the first things that struck me about Britney was how precocious she was - not her talent, her poise. I kid not. Five years ago she had a much firmer grip on her career than most child stars - she seemed like a control freak, but good at it. In interviews she was able to shrug off innuendoes, and came off as likeable but in charge. I don't know where that side of her went to, or if she'll ever get back there. I think she loves/hates the pressure to be on 24/7, and could only sustain it with a more stable confidence and a tight support network.
It was sweet and classy how Justin reached out to her, offering to duet and, when she backed out, wishing her good luck anyway. I think she needs a few more Justins and a few less Kevins and paparazzi in her life. She could still comeback, but she needs to find more of herself first.
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Well Said.
I don't actually have cable or any other form of a television signal transmitting device. So I didn't see the video clips, images, or written accounts of Ms. Spears' performance until Monday morning, when they were plastered across every web site I came across, including those web sites I had always thought of as somewhat respectable. I was saddened not by her bumbling performance, but by the very nasty response to it.
I'll admit that, as a woman in her mid-20's, I've giggled about her antics, felt a modicum of pride in thinking myself somehow morally superior, and sighed with the disdain of an"intellectual". Lately, however, I've just been wincing.
Regardless of what anyone may say, here is a woman who has followed all the rules fed women by the "media" (I know, it's a loaded term), and still she's being ridiculed and beaten down. She sexed up her image when she was supposed to, she sang shallow but catchy songs about "love" and guys and naughtiness (we wouldn't want her to appear TOO intelligent, because that's not generally attractive in a woman), and she managed to have 2 kids (thus also living up to the idea of woman as childbearing vessel).
In short, she did what WE all told her to. Yes, WE. You and I. There's no such thing as an innocent bystander in this world. We applauded (or at least noticed) her every step of the way, watched her grow from a cute adolescent with a disturbing sexual streak into a porn star, and scrambled for every tidbit of gossip about her. Even if we didn't actively seek out information about her, when we encountered it, we got sucked in. And how much more satisfyingly self-righteous could we possibly feel than when we watch the creature we've built up come crashing down into a slobbering, intoxicated mess?
We've fixated on celebrity women like Britney Spears with the sole purpose of building them up just to bring them down from even greater heights. I'm not so concerned about Britney Spears, per se, but I am concerned about this vindictive, badgering, crude, tactless, and hurtful culture we've become. It seems to be getting worse, and I fear that it won't get better anytime soon.
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I see an analogy here
And probably a way for Greil Marcus to make another hundred grand, but...
Doesn't this sound alot like our mess in Iraq:
"... 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."
Or read, "...the disdain in which this culture holds it's "forcefully liberated democracies: the desire to fondle them as our twisted self-fellating desires, only to degrade and punish them when they grow up in a way much less attractive than we wanted them to be."
You see, just as the tabloids spent 9/10 and 9/11 blaiming Brittney for being the mess that is Brittney, they, Crocker and Petraeus spent these same hallowed days blaming Iraq for the mess in Iraq. Different lustfest, same result.
And all it cost hundreds of thousands of lives lost or ruined, a trillion dollars and one washed up teen idol.
It's life, bitch.
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Well said.
"Ur-nightmare" is exactly right; watching MTV's throw this bleeding hippopotamus to the piranha reminded me of the famous prom scene from "Carrie." In real life, of course, the bloodied and humiliated prey doesn't get to set the world on fire via telekinesis. (And it's probably for the best that Britney Spears doesn't have telekinetic powers.)
I second, also, the comment that Britney looked just fine in a bikini. It seems odd to me that there's now a 1.38 lb. weight range that women are allowed to inhabit; sink too low and the "concern" trolls will set upon them with "well-meaning" speculation about their anorexia; bob above the upper limit, and they'll be castigated for being "fat." It also seems to me that a lot of these rules are being created and enforced by other women; the truth is, any frat guy would be licking his chops if he ran into "fat Britney" on the beach.
In conclusion: blecch.