April 13, 2015
Britney Spears Shows Some Skin. Time to Cue The Trolls
The former pop princess Britney Spears is attempting to mount a come back. Daily Mail ran a story on Britney's video shoot with current pop diva Iggy Azalea with the headline: Oops, that's not a good look! Britney Spears' hangs out of her low-cut jeans on set of new music video with frizzy-haired Iggy Azalea.
Really?
The article focused on the "extra" rolls that appeared when Spears was sitting in a Jeep during filming. It published every single unflattering photo possible while also running photos of Azalea and praising her relative perfection. Perhaps more mention of the comeback, the video shoot and the collaboration was in order.
Sometimes, I feel like I'm living in some bizarre movie. Daily Mail readers were quick to chime in. The comments were varied. Some believed she looked like "trash" and should be ashamed as she was setting a poor example to her children. Seriously? Showing up to work and doing her job was setting a poor example? Having a healthy but imperfect body is a poor example? If this is the case, there are an awful lot of women setting a poor example! One comment says, "I thought she looked 50 lately. I changed my mind she looks 70 and like oompa loompa with fat rolls." And another, "if Britney had 2 tusks she would look like a walrus!" Those glass houses must get tough to live in now and again.
Not to be wholly negative, there were also a bunch of comments that didn't make me want to move to a dessert island, far away from our society. These comments questioned the accuracy of the photos. More than one suggested the photos were photoshopped to make her look worse than she is while others pondered aloud the amount of editing that was going to go into the video to make her look perfect. Very real questions.
All of this is keeps me up at night. You see, I have a long standing love/hate with Britney Spears. Brit and I are the same age so I am old enough to remember when she carried the mantle of the perfect fantasy girl. I can remember watching interviews and thinking "that girl is beautiful." I didn't think she was very talented but that was just my taste. Did I dance like hell when her songs came on at high school dances? Did I rush the dance floor of the club while in university when I heard the opening notes of "Oops! I Did It Again?" You bet I did. Did I sometimes think my life would be better if I looked more like Britney, that guys would find me more attractive and things would be simpler? Yes, I did that too. Was I right? Nope. We all watched Britney go from a sweet girl to a bald, umbrella wielding shell of a person. We used her up. And we're doing it again!
We put our celebrities inside a bubble and we tell them who to be. If they step outside of that bubble for even a second, we pounce on them. But the real kicker is, we make it IMPOSSIBLE to live in the bubble. We rig the game. It isn't fair to them and it isn't fair to any of us. Daily Mail set up this piece to incite this type of response, they wanted discussion, anger, controversy. I understand that. But I also understand that there is a real person on the other side of this story. There are real people behind those comments, real people who probably have rolls when they sit. Is their loathing really directed at Britney or does it come from the fact they aren't happy with themselves? We, as a society, seem to like it when those we think have it all slip and fall. Makes us feel better about our own lot in life.
Britney Spears looks fine. Britney Spears is beautiful. She is active and fit and raises two young men. Does it matter that she has rolls when she sits? Young girls (and women) need to know that it IS acceptable to have rolls and folds when you sit. Shoot, I have them when I stand sometimes. It isn't the end of the world and it doesn't change a thing about who I am as a person. I believe the Daily Mail piece to be mean spirited and pointless. Mollypop94 hit the nail on the head when she said:
Tell us what you think. Is Britney just rocking a fabulous but imperfect body or am I overreacting and making much ado about nothing? Is shaming Britney sending the wrong message to women?
Sometimes, I feel like I'm living in some bizarre movie. Daily Mail readers were quick to chime in. The comments were varied. Some believed she looked like "trash" and should be ashamed as she was setting a poor example to her children. Seriously? Showing up to work and doing her job was setting a poor example? Having a healthy but imperfect body is a poor example? If this is the case, there are an awful lot of women setting a poor example! One comment says, "I thought she looked 50 lately. I changed my mind she looks 70 and like oompa loompa with fat rolls." And another, "if Britney had 2 tusks she would look like a walrus!" Those glass houses must get tough to live in now and again.
Not to be wholly negative, there were also a bunch of comments that didn't make me want to move to a dessert island, far away from our society. These comments questioned the accuracy of the photos. More than one suggested the photos were photoshopped to make her look worse than she is while others pondered aloud the amount of editing that was going to go into the video to make her look perfect. Very real questions.
All of this is keeps me up at night. You see, I have a long standing love/hate with Britney Spears. Brit and I are the same age so I am old enough to remember when she carried the mantle of the perfect fantasy girl. I can remember watching interviews and thinking "that girl is beautiful." I didn't think she was very talented but that was just my taste. Did I dance like hell when her songs came on at high school dances? Did I rush the dance floor of the club while in university when I heard the opening notes of "Oops! I Did It Again?" You bet I did. Did I sometimes think my life would be better if I looked more like Britney, that guys would find me more attractive and things would be simpler? Yes, I did that too. Was I right? Nope. We all watched Britney go from a sweet girl to a bald, umbrella wielding shell of a person. We used her up. And we're doing it again!
We put our celebrities inside a bubble and we tell them who to be. If they step outside of that bubble for even a second, we pounce on them. But the real kicker is, we make it IMPOSSIBLE to live in the bubble. We rig the game. It isn't fair to them and it isn't fair to any of us. Daily Mail set up this piece to incite this type of response, they wanted discussion, anger, controversy. I understand that. But I also understand that there is a real person on the other side of this story. There are real people behind those comments, real people who probably have rolls when they sit. Is their loathing really directed at Britney or does it come from the fact they aren't happy with themselves? We, as a society, seem to like it when those we think have it all slip and fall. Makes us feel better about our own lot in life.
Britney Spears looks fine. Britney Spears is beautiful. She is active and fit and raises two young men. Does it matter that she has rolls when she sits? Young girls (and women) need to know that it IS acceptable to have rolls and folds when you sit. Shoot, I have them when I stand sometimes. It isn't the end of the world and it doesn't change a thing about who I am as a person. I believe the Daily Mail piece to be mean spirited and pointless. Mollypop94 hit the nail on the head when she said:
Idiotic and pathetic scraping of the barrell journalism here, dm. Honestly, can you not work out the fact that, no matter what your size is, if you're sitting down, you're going to get a bit of folds? Look at how flat and toned her stomach is when she's standing up. Any women of any size, this happens. It's natural, it's beautiful, it's a part of being human. Why try and put a woman down, who's gone through a lot? What does this imply to young girls, when they sit down and notice the little folds? That's it's "unnacceptable" because of this stupid, pathetic article. We are the reason why younger generations struggle with the way we look.Let's all take a stand against this trash, and unlike some of the online peanut gallery, I don't mean taking a stand against Britney. We need to teach our girls to be healthy and happy whatever that looks like. Belly rolls or no. Britney, according to Daily Mail, has a body to be ashamed of while Iggy is the one to emulate. But Iggy's breasts aren't real. I'm not offering that information as a criticism, just as a reality check. We cannot walk around expecting to look like people who aren't real, the way celebrities are packaged to us is not real. Personally, I'm a little grateful for this look behind the curtain. No one is perfect all the time, let celebrities off the hook. And while you're at it, let yourself off the hook. Britney looks great and I bet if you took a moment to look, so do you. Body shaming is so passé, let's celebrate real!
Tell us what you think. Is Britney just rocking a fabulous but imperfect body or am I overreacting and making much ado about nothing? Is shaming Britney sending the wrong message to women?