Thursday, September 13, 2007

Post number 401!!

OK, so with Mossie's excellent post about Brittney I started thinking about the situation. Most of the people I heard talking about it have been shocked by her appearance, it seems it's worse to be out of shape than obviously in dire need of intervention. The word "fat" has been thrown about, mostly by media types (I'd like to see some of the journalists and DJs cavort about the stage in their knickers and pants....Not!). So the fact is that this girl is in trouble, she spent her childhood and youth as a "star", as soon as she was offered a "normal" life and the security of family she ran into it, she wasn't the first person to run into a bad relationship, and she won't be the last. Obviously drink and drugs are involved, and again let's be honest here are we all holy Joe's? never drunk a bottle of wine cos you don't want to face up to reality, eaten a box of chocolates, a pizza for 4 or worse?



Brittney went from sexed up teenager to yummy mummy overnight, she had two kids in extremely quick succession, they say two years is the minimum time you have between kids to let your body get back to normal, she has like a year and a bit between them? Physically her body isn't the same, and some celebrities who have kids just "snap" back into shape, do they? Apparently among the moneyed classes and the too posh to push class they have the elective section and tummy tuck done at the same time, apparently. Then there are the Liz Hurleys of this world who admit to "just not eating".


Why do we put this pressure on women who have kids to have the abs of a seventeen year old, the media encourages it, and we encourage the media by buying into the hype! Brittney has always been a sexual woman, that's how she sold herself, but when she ad her children her body would have changed, a lot of women go through this and it's hard to feel sexy while you are being motherly! Maybe that's where the "NO KNICKERS" thing comes from, a juvinille attempt to feel sexy, and be seen as sexy (I know...it's so not sexy)?

It really pisses me off, I know lots of different people, some fat, some thin, some beautiful, some ugly, some nice and some nasty. I don't judge them, I accept their good and bad qualities and I hope they accept me, so why do we judge people who's job it is to entertain us? They are human beings too, they deserve our respect, we seem to lose our empathy with people as the gain celebrity we almost see them as less human than us mortals.

By the way, I'm in no way a fan of Brittney Spears, the sexualisation of younger and younger girls is down to people like her. I just find the fact that the media have lambasted her for being badly dressed and out of shape! Would she have gotten as many front pages if she'd been toned and preformed with her old ease? This is a young mother with problems, problems a lot of women have, but because she is under the microscope of celebrity what chance is there that she'll be able to heal?

17 comments:

  1. It's some car crash of a story isn't it. Knickergate is obviously a cry for help. Same to be said for your woman Lohan.

    Could be worse...have ya seen the pics of the High School Musical girl?

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  2. Here here to the post. The worst thing is that her sister is a clone of her - winsomely pretty little perfect blond girl, it must make her feel like the wicked step mother with the mirror.

    I must be scum bag and go check out the photos. I missed all the knicker scandal!

    Have you seen Avril Levigne's new video? Two words: Sell Out. Unless it's tongue in cheek - in either case, it's just not very good!

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  3. No thanks be to god I'm not abreast of all the gossip anymore...combination of I have so little time I don't really have time for gossip, and disgust at myself for buying the magazines and fueling the demand for the gossip.
    Jo, Avril sold out long ago! She'll get her teeth fixed next, maybe a boob job, I think I've seen Britney's sister in a kids programe, but she'll head the same way, the person who should be blamed for all this is the girls mother, no kid should have their child holld taken away for stardom, no matter how much they think they want it!

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  4. I didn't see the pictures but I'm also in the camp of wanting to see Britney get back on form. Ok she used sexuality but she was a very clever popster in her day and deserves to get back to where she was I think.

    MW - as for beauty, its so not a fickle thing that its one of the major branches of philosophy going back 5 Millennia. It will always be there. Aesthetics are judged in everything, but while its deemed good to value beauty in paintings and scenery, society pretends that its bad to judge beauty in humans but its just a fact of life. Intelligence and ability is praised but its just as much out of a persons control as their appearance.

    Society places a beauty goal that few can reach but thats society for you. It has many things that make me feel subhuman but I'm still part of it.

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  5. Does the media promote these images? I think its a circle. People buy the pop mags full of skinny stars so the pop mags put more skinny stars on the cover.



    Every now and then we get a Beth Ditto and everyone predicts the end of size zero and eating disorders. Nope. Isn't she Meatloafs sister? Not a bad pop act, but the kid will still buy Girls Aloud CDs.


    Whats sad is that you could have predicted all this for Britney. Famous at 16 rarely means well balanced at 25. Just ask Michael Jackson

    Next stop for Britey - Vegas and cheeseburgers.

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  6. For fear of feeling the wrath of the ladies...I'm with goldenbeers on this one..

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  7. MW I don't think the main thrust of the "Britney's lost it" argument was that she was in less than 17 year old pop star shape, more that she looked stoned, couldn't lip synch or dance and looked like a bad Britney impersonator if anything.

    I am in the camp, just like GB and Tib, of believing that this was laid out for her in the stars. There's still time, in the future, for her to turn this around, but she needs to dump her advisors and get her head straight first.

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  8. milan, I agree that society has always praised beauty, but in todays society it's not about "natural" beauty a lot of it is starving yourself or disfiguring yourself with surgery. And apart from "newlyweds" with yer won Jessica Simpson I don't see the media placing unobtainable standards of intelligence out there :-}

    GB and Tib, of course you are right, women buy these magazines which promote skinny celebs, but you guys have created a market for the porn magazines and GQ,Esquire type magazines, do you think they have no effect on womens self image? We see skinny women with perfect bodies and faces, that's what men want, When will we have the magazines with buff guys with huge cocks on the cover??? Never, that's when. When every media outlet shouts at you that the way you look is wrong then maybe you'll know what most women go through.

    Sorry, Rant over!

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  9. MW thats not entirely true about men creating the porn market with 'perfect models'. Personally I prefer the amateur cam stuff and the college teens going wild in their dorms when they think no-ones looking ...

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  10. I think the buff guy with six pack magazine cover is already having an affect on young guys, to be honest. There are incidences of male teenage anorexia and it's growing more common, and while men get away with beer bellies better than women do, there is an explosion of fat teenage boys out there feeling shit about themselves.

    In a way I think it's worse for boys because they're not meant to be curvy like girls are, and being obese rules out a lot of really boy type activities, sports and girls at least. And boys are way crueler than girls about it.

    I think Britney needs an image change. I'd like to see her sitting on a stool, siign a nice song, no more gyrating and thrusting! I'd love to see her just singing. She's another now, she's older, she can't be her popstrel self forever. Remember Cher in the fishnets and body? Ugh. I'm not fond of Madonna's insitence on crouching in leotards either!

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  11. Well GB, that's an insight into the mind of a single irish man :-} But while there is a huge market for the amateur stuff (Red Hot Grannys anyone?)I don't think that's how Hugh Heffner got his grotto.

    Jo, personally I don't think when you hit 40 that you need to wear pearls and twinsets, there will always be room for the Cher and madonnas of this world!
    As for the Boys and their body image, I'm aware of the increased numbers of boys suffering from eating disorders, it's funny isn't it, once these things start to affect men society takes notice. Call me paranoid, but as a mother of two boys and one girl I worry about all of their self esteem as regards their weight, but in particular it will be hard for my daughter, as her body will go through more changes in puberty. The only way to help is to be happy, deal with our own body images issues, never talk in a negative away about bodies, talking about health and fitness in a positive manner, not obesity and inactivity in negative ways, anyway that's my opinion.

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  12. I am going to have to go away and scrub out my brain now that it knows GBs preferences for am cam porn.

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  13. Mmm, glossing over the above, I just want to say I'm not a believer in twinset and pearls either, perish the thought! But I think what should be celebrated about women as they get older is the changes they go through - I don't think people should still dress the way they did at 17 when they hit forty, nor be expected to. I certainly think you can be as sexy in your forties and fifties as ever, but not necessarily in the same way!

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  14. I like the absurd though, and that's what madonna and cher are, they throw the rest of us middle aged folk into perspective, you tell your teenage son/daughter, "be home by 12 or I'll dress up like Cher for your parent teacher meeting!" I think I like a bit of unpredictablity (? spelling) Keeps the weenies on their toes!

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  15. MW - you know what's interesting is that I find the Now type magazines show the size 0 women in a car crash way more than a glamourising way, and often have the thumbs up next to the curvy lady. One time I read a feature on what men really wnat - re stereo types of female grooming. Who would have thought rag mags could be so forward.

    Anyway, what annoys me most is the Dove adds. They dress themselves up as this charity campaign for inner beauty when they're pushing life use of cosmetics on teenagers just like the rest of them. By chance I'm outside the world of skin chemicals and its sometimes amusing, often annoying when I get 2 hour lectures from people about how I should start moisturing.

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  16. Re Britney, personally I find her dancing ugly but she seems to love dancing so I can't see her packing it in and going for the Westlife styley barstool.

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  17. Jo, how can we possibly gloss over GBs preferences for Am Cam porn (there, I put the picture in your head again, didn't I?)

    Definitely like the threat of dressing up in appropriately for the little ones MW. "Any hassle from you and I'm dressing like Eddie Izzard at the next parent/teacher night" Actually that sounds like a lot of fun.

    And Milan, while my experience of Now/Heat/More/Shite is fragmented at best and almost non-existent these days I seem to remember it going in cycles. This week it's "celebrities that are painfully thin", next it's be "flabby beach bodies". Just like flipping between being at war with Eurasia or East Asia. Maybe I'm taking that cultural analysis too far.

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