Rolling Stone, the magazine that’s known for treating female performers, ahem, seriously, is currently featuring an article about the travails of Britney Spears on its website (my print-out of the article has the by-line saying, “Ho lost it all” rather than “How she lost it all”). In charting the rise and fall of Britney, the piece seems to be suggesting that she is suffering from a severe case of arrested development and a desperate need to rebel against the image of wholesomeness others forced her to adopt. Britney apparently also needs to surround herself with folks who won’t challenge her take on her plight, which reminds of another famous singer from the South who was equally ill-equipped to deal with fame, or at least the unhealthy aspects of it.
There’s a sentence in the Rolling Stone item that tells us something about the pressures placed on girls to equate overt sexuality with womanhood:
Although the world thought Britney was an innocent sexed-up for the cameras, she was always lobbying to appear sluttier, which she thought would make her appear more mature.
While Britney might’ve believed her fame and association with Madonna (an adult who has more focus and strength than most mere mortals) meant her career as a sex goddess was assured, her attempts at sexiness have been taken about as seriously as any teen girl wearing too much eye shadow and a tiny skirt. That Britney, and many others, equate “sluttiness” with maturity is unsurprising, and sad, even while acknowledging that any expression of female sexuality can be judged to be sluttish by some.
Incidentally, those who are concerned about the increasing influence of celebrity culture will get no pleasure from this sentence from the article:
It’s not only bottom feeders running after Britney – a recent memo leaked from the Associated Press, which plans to add twenty-two entertainment reporters to its staff, announces that everything that happens to Britney is news (they have already begun preparing her obit).
Preparing her obit? Sometimes I really wonder about entertainment journalism. Leaving aside her recent sad life this kid does have talent. Drew Barrymore had some good advice recently for these kids, out of her own bitter experience, probaly partly due to hereditary influence. Centre yourself on your work. I realise most of these young’uns don’t have Barrymore’s advantages of a family theatrical tradition and an acquired or inherited occasional touch of genius, but it is good advice, nonetheless.
Is it so remarkable that news outlets are preparing her obit? I think this is pretty much standard practice for any celeb currently suffering from a life-threatening illness.
I think it’s off that they are preparing her obit. The illness she has doesn’t have to be life threatening at all. Hopefully she’ll get the right help.
One of the paps outside her house one of the nights she was taken away said that he didn’t want to miss seeing a body bag coming out. That’s their motivation.
“Life threatening”, not “terminal”. I haven’t been following it closely, but my understanding is that she has had at least one involuntary psychiatric admission recently, including a possible suicide attempt.
I find a huge amount of the press coverage intrusive, exploitative, and misogynistic; I just don’t find speculative obit-drafting to be at the shocking end of that. It’s pretty much S.O.P.
I often wonder if the same blatantly ‘ignorant’ (for want of a better word) coverage of mental illness could occur in Australia.
I’d like to think no, but I can’t think of a watershed case. Ideas?
Who is Britney??
“Is it so remarkable that news outlets are preparing her obit? I think this is pretty much standard practice for any celeb currently suffering from a life-threatening illness.”
Standard practice for people in the public eye full stop.
In old school UK and Aus journalism, it was customary to put young tyros with potential and fading old hacks with a bit of style left onto the obit update rounds for as long as they could stand it. “Freshen up Whitlam and Frazer, and just for laffs, Crowe as well”. An excellent workout for keeping your pyramid lead skills sharp while excerising your colour para powers.
Try writing your own obit in four hundred words from scratch to meet a 3pm deadline on the day you died.
Nabakov,
I don’t think I’d be well enough.