We will return to our regular bitchiness and corpse storage options next week.
I’m not a Britney Spears fan. Not because I dislike her, simply because I have no clue. I know she’s a singer but I’d be incapable of naming any of her songs. The only things I know about this girl is what the gossip magazines covers scream out at me each week.OK, so that’s quite a lot I suppose, too much for comfort - mine at least. Do I really need to know so much about a celebrity's life?
And, to my shame, I admit having jumped on the Britney bashing bandwagon, perhaps because everyone is doing it, perhaps because it’s just so easy. The girl is eminently bashable. And yet, by society’s standards, she, with all her money and celebrity, is the winner, and we all, with our 9 to 5 jobs and boring little lives are the losers (note that I didn't say by my standards - I wouldn't want her life).
She might be trailer trash, but she’s trailer trash who hit it big. She has (I suppose) talent, or at any rate a helluva lot of chutzpah to get to where she was. And if she has no talent, why were people so gung ho on her? She was the IT girl for a long while...
So, though I might have bashed her, who the hell was I to judge her? Who were any of us to judge? And lets be honest, we did indeed judge. And now, looking at the poor kid, I find my behaviour entirely distateful. But that's another post entirely.
Point is, today pretty much everyone considers Britney to be the loser. Capitalize that. Bold it. Loser.
It hit me at lunch when I was in a magazine stand. This week’s flavour is Britney and her meltdown. Those covers (and it seems she's on every damn cover except the New Yorker) are snarky and bitchy and oh so holier than thou.
Now, y’all know I’m no angel. I have snarked more than my share of people – I might even have snarked Britney on this blog if I remember correctly.
But damn, the girl is obviously in serious need of help. She seems to be in the throes of a major depression. And what happens? People laugh and make fun.
What kind of society are we that we revel so much in the fall of others? And if indeed it is only human nature, what repulsive beings we are. I can’t help but thinking a bit of compassion would be nice.
15 comments:
Bitching about someone is a heck of a lot easier than to look at one's life. It takes the spotlight away from it, for a lot of people. The ones who don't really focus on her and her life just carry on...
I agree, she needs help. She's a person who hit big, fast, too fast and she never really had the coping mechanisms that we acquire in our day to day life and network system. So when the proverbial shit hit the fan, or in her case, life catching up to her, she has no coping skills and nobody really can help her until she hits rock bottom unfortunately. IMO, I don't think she's there yet.
You know there is actually a website at which people can guess the date of Britney's demise? That's disgusting. She's a sad and fucked up kid and I only wish she would get the help she so sorely needs and to do that she's got to get out of public (and pubic) scrutiny.
Good thoughts, but they're from you, so of course they're good.
Being an international sexpot as a teenager must surely skew one's views of the world, but if she is really mentally ill, like many are saying, she needs serious help. Mental illness isn't funny. And yes, human beings can be very repulsive creatures.
The thing about bashing people like Britney and her ilk is that no matter what our life is like, most of us can say, "At least it's not as bad as hers."
Sure, I think she needs help and I thought the way she handled the custody stuff was insane and I was willing to bash her for her stupidity, but through all of that, I was more happy that my life didn't suck that much and when it does suck, it's not on the cover of magazines or being reported by every "news" source on TV.
For that, I thank Britney, and the batshit insane pseudo-celebrities like her.
Let's face it dissing Britney right now is like shooting fish in a barrel, not very sporting. Like a deer in the headlights.
I think the only people bashing Britney are the media wags, looking for ratings and income. The vast majority of people probably think like you and me, and everyone else who commented: that she is OBVIOUSLY mentally ill (I knew the day she shaved her head) and needs psychiatric intervention of SOME sort.
I personally think she's bi-polar, or is suffereing from some mild form of post-partum psychoisis.
I've been a Brit-basher, but at the same time, I always have a certain compassion for her. She's caught in a world she has no idea how to get out of; she doesn't even have the benefit of knowing she wants to get out of it.
I feel for her. She's all sadness.
You know, there is a saying that there is no such thing as bad publicity. I think Britney Spears is crazy like a fox. She knows her behavior is putting her on the cover of every magazine. How else would a girl with absolutely no talent stay in the limelight until she is ready to make her "comeback". Hollywood is very forgiving of any transgression, except the transgression of being forgotten about. In Hollywood, there is no comeback from that. In the meantime, she is the biggest news story in the entertainment business today, and she fuels it. She's making more headlines now than when she was "sane", single and performing.
And all the while, she is making $700,000.00 a month, just doing nothing. She's actually quite brilliant in her "craziness".
Those folks live in a different world from the rest of us.
It's the old "Build 'em and kick 'em down" brand of media.
It's a real shame, the whole damn thing.
But, of course, it's her children that are going to suffer the most over the years.
And that's the real kicker, I think.
Josie's got a good point, too...maybe the media is being used? One of other old sayings is, "There's no such thing as bad publicity."
Hollywood is such a strange place indeed. It's kind of like a little fishbowl that we are fascinated with. I think it's gotten out of hand.
Thanks so much for the blog comments!
Susan
I still think she's suffering from post partum depression. I feel so sad for her.
*expecially when everyone called her fat after her MTV performance - the girl is NOT fat, why would anyone make fun of that anyway?*
I agree with you. I think this woman needs help and soon. It's a sad irony that the man in her life at the moment, if we believe the reports, is a paparazzo. It's like the frightened lamb asking the lion for help.
Britney's choice of men has generally been a disaster: Kevin Federline left his pregnant girlfriend to hitch up with her. Now he's left and has custody of their two kids. She should have stayed with Justin Timberlake.
I hope this ends happily but I fear the worst.
You ever have the experience where you thought you left a comment but somehow you didn't? I just had that. Anyway, Britney - indeed compassion is called for, as it is for every mentally ill person.
True, it's all very sad, but I think Josie may have a point. There are quite a few big name stars who are almost never in the tabloids except peripherally when they have a movie coming out or something. I don't think the media just randomly decides to follow someone around hoping to catch them at something embarassing -- I do believe they're fed information and steered in the direction celebs want them. These people pay a fortune in PR staff whose job it is to get their people into the papers and/or keep them out.
Good post, Jazz. I feel sorry for the kid, really. I did a lot of screwy things in my late teens and 20's. Most of us did/do. But we don't have upteen photographers and video cameras on us as we're doing them (not to mention while we're doing something as mundane as pumping gas). I can't imagine being stawked like that. Why, I think I'd do something off-the-wall too (like strip to my undies and take a swim in the ocean), just to feed their perversity. Bastards. Whoops...Is it okay to call them that here...?
Post a Comment