Give the Pop Princess a Break

Posted by admin on Oct 17, 2007 in Issues & Ideas | 0 comments

Deirdre Kiely

My love of Britney Lynn Spears started when my crush Kyle Svenson bought her CD. The saucy pigtails and seductive catholic girl uniform were mesmerizing to the imaginations of both a 16-year-old male and a 13-year-old female.

The reason I liked Britney was probably not typical. I didn’t want to emulate her; I wanted to be her friend. Looking back, I see that I could have learned how to be a constant contradiction—a walking paradox for the world to gawk at as if I were a zoo animal. She would have shared with me her secrets of how to be simultaneously sexy and sweet while still being a poster girl for virginity and creating a career around her sexuality. Perhaps it is the irony of her story that keeps people attached to this once-upon-a-time pop princess.

Her song “Born to Make You Happy” is a foreshadowing of her toxic relationship with the media. It writes: “I don’t know how to live without your love / I was born to make you happy… / I’d do anything, I’d give you my world / I’d wait forever, to be your girl/Just call out my name, and I will be there / Just to show you how much I care.”

These words allude to a submissive relationship with a predetermined destiny of enslavement. A captivity that looks more like a five star hotel than a prison.

Britney has constantly been criticized for not being a strong role model for her fan base, little sister, and now her children. Who thought she would be? Who honestly believes that she was set up for personal success? In what other circumstances is it acceptable for a teen girl to be sexually exploited on such a high level without question from the public? Her career is based on a song titled “Hit Me Baby One More Time” (I am skeptical to believe she would enjoy a left hook). Rarely is a 17-year-old girl asked if she is having sex at a press conference or posed on magazine racks in her underwear. Her adolescence was spent selling her sexuality in an atypical way: instead of parading her body around the schoolyard, she did it for the world.

If we take away the veneer of the millions of dollars and the popular romantic conceptions of a Hollywood lifestyle. we might see something different. We’d see a young mom struggling to get by and a scared young woman in a very dark place: a dark place that is plastered over Us Weekly, O.K. magazine and broadcast by CNN.

Helicopters fly over her compound two-or-three times daily in attempts to capture her in a moment that will make good headlines. Some of these headlines include “Britney caught in public bathroom with no shoes” or “Britney shaves her head.” She has been videotaped having sex without her knowledge, a tape that is allegedly to be released soon. Her career has been mocked, and her children have been taken away from her due to substance abuse and ill-parenting.

If we take away the fame would we scrutinize her or would our hearts break for the apparent brokenness of her life? There’s nothing different about her that should make her so open to criticism and untouchable from grace. The same audience and media force that is tearing her down created her. Some say she wants the attention, but it’s just as likely that she does not know how to function or find worth without it.