Why I feel sorry for Britney Spears-A post by Dale

[Dale]

I never regarded the Britney Spears phenomenon as at all important during her run of success. Now, however, I find myself thinking about her and what she symbolizes. I watched her awful performance on TV the other night and I thought it painful to watch. This woman, as a child, enters showbiz and thus it is sealed that she cannot have a normal life. One wonders about the wisdom of parents who permit this. I wonder if I had a daughter with showbiz talents if I'd be able to resist promoting it. I'd like to think I would resist it.

It's an empirical question: Make a list of child stars and note how they've done as they've grown up. Notable exceptions appear to exist (see, for example, Jodi Foster.) But, for the most part, train wrecks.

So American culture hoists her onto some perverse altar of celebrity and proceeds with an orgy of celebrity worship. Then, predictably, she spins out. The relationships go funky, the drugs pop up, etc. After years of growing rich and being adored for oozing sexuality--like many victims of sexual exploitation--it confuses her and she goes there when things get weird. So, The crowd turns and it turns ugly. Her career tanks and the only thing she can do to try to recover what sanity she may have once had is the very thing she cannot do: Disappear for a year ago. This will not be permitted. Without effective help and support, she stumbles again and again and the cameras move in more closely and American culture flips the big switch and the frenzy gets ugly.

So MTV--which I used to defend when the worse behavior they engaged in was to show, you know, Def Leppard videos on Christmas Eve--and now is a shameless cash cow that exploits every base voyeuristic impulse young people have. They had to know she wasn't ready for this show and yet (or SO) they cranked up the hype, went for the big ratings, and the train derails. It's all decidedly uncool.

Dale

[Walden]

I never regarded the Britney Spears phenomenon as at all important during her run of success. Now, however, I find myself thinking about her and what she symbolizes. I watched her awful performance on TV the other night and I thought it painful to watch. This woman, as a child, enters showbiz and thus it is sealed that she cannot have a normal life. One wonders about the wisdom of parents who permit this. I wonder if I had a daughter with showbiz talents if I'd be able to resist promoting it. I'd like to think I would resist it.

It's an empirical question: Make a list of child stars and note how they've done as they've grown up. Notable exceptions appear to exist (see, for example, Jodi Foster.) But, for the most part, train wrecks.

So American culture hoists her onto some perverse altar of celebrity and proceeds with an orgy of celebrity worship. Then, predictably, she spins out. The relationships go funky, the drugs pop up, etc. After years of growing rich and being adored for oozing sexuality--like many victims of sexual exploitation--it confuses her and she goes there when things get weird. So, The crowd turns and it turns ugly. Her career tanks and the only thing she can do to try to recover what sanity she may have once had is the very thing she cannot do: Disappear for a year ago. This will not be permitted. Without effective help and support, she stumbles again and again and the cameras move in more closely and American culture flips the big switch and the frenzy gets ugly.

So MTV--which I used to defend when the worse behavior they engaged in was to show, you know, Def Leppard videos on Christmas Eve--and now is a shameless cash cow that exploits every base voyeuristic impulse young people have. They had to know she wasn't ready for this show and yet (or SO) they cranked up the hype, went for the big ratings, and the train derails. It's all decidedly uncool.

Dale

Yeah. You're right.

[djm]

There has to be a point where one takes responsibility for one's own actions. She played up the nymphette image and cashed in big time. She doesn't have to be a "celebrity" any more. She's not a kid anymore. She has enough money to live well for several lifetimes. The fact that she chooses NOT to live well is up to her, now.

Sorry, I can't get too upset for rich people who behave badly.

djm

[cowtime]

Your thread prompted me to watch the playback of her performance.

It was like watching someone prostitute themselves. (I don't think those lyrics are just coincidental...)
She is the Marilyn Monroe of her generation.
I feel sorry for her- and her children.

edited to add-

Yeah dj, she is responsible for herself.
I still feel sorry for her.

[Cynth]

I don't know much about her but I do feel sorry for her. I wonder what her parents are like?

I don't blame the TV business or whatever---those people are in business for one thing, as you say, to make money. Anything that makes money will be shown, I don't really think there are any limits there or not many at any rate. And those companies have to make money for their stockholders. That is their sole reason for existence which is fine with me.

The fact that apparently many, many people watch these shows is what makes the programming successful. I would say that if the shows are starting to seem something like the gladiator spectacles in Rome, then maybe people should not patronize those shows. Maybe if enough people stop watching these things the shows will no longer be successful and the companies will change their programming strategies.

[Lambchop]

It's a shame that there isn't an option for taking the veil anymore.

Even if you feel remorse for your ghastly life, there isn't anywhere to go. You're pretty much stuck making an ass of yourself forever.

[The Weekenders]

This is going to sound really weird, but I found myself grateful that she isn't a skinny heroin addict and/or anorexic. She looks like she's puffy with likker and french fries. From that, she can recover. If she shrivels up like shoe leather, she is truly finished, mind and body.

I just don't know where you go when you are that famous and basically that untalented at doing anything other than what worked ONCE and is now finished. Instead of a one-hit wonder, it's a like a one-style wonder and that style is over. Madonna, who did a similar thing early on, was cagey enough to move on to other personas. I don't think Britney is that smart.

[anniemcu]

This is going to sound really weird, but I found myself grateful that she isn't a skinny heroin addict and/or anorexic. She looks like she's puffy with likker and french fries. From that, she can recover. If she shrivels up like shoe leather, she is truly finished, mind and body.

I just don't know where you go when you are that famous and basically that untalented at doing anything other than what worked ONCE and is now finished. Instead of a one-hit wonder, it's a like a one-style wonder and that style is over. Madonna, who did a similar thing early on, was cagey enough to move on to other personas. I don't think Britney is that smart.

Madonna was older, and put on her own show, so could exert influence to move in any direction she chose, and she seems to have chosen well ... Britney was sold into showbiz as a child, and not only didn't know any better, didn't have the tools to make any difference in what was happening to her, let alone her own choices. I hate to see what she has become, just as I hated to see what she was made before her downward spiral. It is an ugly business in many ways. Her younger sister is following in some of her footsteps. I hope she pays attention and doesn't get shoved down the same slippery slope.

[s1m0n]

Ron Howard is the most remarkable exception I can think of; he's had three careers, all in hollywood, and all without visibly freaking out.

~~

I think you need an exceptionally strong keel to survive child stardom. Not many have it. Plenty we know nothing about leave hollywood and go and become dentists or real estate agents and have lives, and they may well be all well adjusted. Making the transition from Child to adult star is the really hard part, I think, and the ones that want or need to have the most trouble.

So they're the ones we think of--people who only stay famous for what they used to be, or for being talentless (or even more cruelly, half-talented) hangers-on in Hollywood.

~~

Daniel Radcliffe seems to to maning the transition to adult actor with more aplomb than I think I've ever seen, come to think of it. It must be helpful to have the surety of a solid-gold franchise like the HP movies, especially because his character grows up in the films. His audience, as a consequence, is allowing him to grow up. It must really suck to have your stardom in some timeless, ageless sitcom child role, and be forever 11 or something.

[Jack]

Dale, this person agrees with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

"SHE'S A HUMAN!"

[Jack]

Also, whether you're laughing at her or truly feel sorry for her, I'm certain everybody knows that discussing her just brings more attention to her, one way or another. If we really want to bring her (and those she symbolizes) peace, we wouldn't post or reply about her at all, but it's fun and even somewhat educational to talk about.

[s1m0n]

Even if you feel remorse for your ghastly life, there isn't anywhere to go. You're pretty much stuck making an ass of yourself forever.

I beg to differ; my life has been blessed with a second act, at any rate.

[buddhu]

I think the nature of Ms Spears early career possibly set the course rather than child/teenage stardom per se. Right from the calculated controversy of the '...One More Time' vid, there was an emphasis (probably not of her instigation) on sexuality. She attracted an unhelpful kind of attention and pressure from the start.

I think there are so many factors that influence the course of each life that generalisations are hard to make with confidence. One might assume, from contrasting Ms Spears with the apparent healthy state of young Radcliffe and Ron Howard that the more 'wholesome' the tone of the early career, the better the chance that the young person will emerge relatively intact. But I doubt that such an impression is more than the chance fall of dice in one small sample.

And maybe acting does not expose people to the same dangers as a successful pop career - but then how would one explain Lindsay Lohan?

[amar]

Dale, this person agrees with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

"SHE'S A HUMAN!"

holy crap

[Jack]

Dale, this person agrees with you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHmvkRoEowc

"SHE'S A HUMAN!"

holy crap

What is that for? It's me, you know.

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(no, it's not, but it could have been a few years ago...lol)