Back to frivolity on the double!

[elfs]

On a completely frivolous note, I'm a little confused by Keith Olbermann's comments about Britney Spears. Okay, yes, she phoned in her performance at the MTV Music Awards show two days ago and yes, she looked like she'd had one too many roofies beforehand. What I don't understand is the accusation that she's "fat" or "out of shape."

We've wandered deep into Mixedmessagestan to tell young girls that their bodies are okay and they don't need to look like Kate Moss or Barbie to be attractive, and then to diss Britney because her midriff is softer than an armadillo.

Britney!

I mean, c'mon. I'd do her. I mean, that is, if it wasn't, y'know, like, Britney Spears and all.

Comments

I'm not quite following the simile here....

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

Armadillos are covered with bone plates. Are you saying that the ideal midriff is harder than that? Eeewww. Or are you comparing her midriff to the archetypal auto-squashed armadillo that's becoming more and more common as their range spreads as far west as Colorado and as far north as Illinois?

Re: I'm not quite following the simile here....

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Certainly the idealized midriff seems to be an armor-plated sixpack and Britney ain't got that.

Re: I'm not quite following the simile here....

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

I noticed an article on the CNN website this morning going back over this very subject, conceding that while her performance was lackluster, she was by no means 'fat', and lamenting the current fixation on anorexic-like figures -- along with bits from several women that in general took umbrage at her daring to wear that outfit after having let herself get that far out of shape...

[shunra.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it horribly disturbing that she's being put up as a role model for girls at all.

I mean, she's so far gone that she forgot to put clothes on. How long before we see that "look" at public schools everywhere? (shudder. 9 year old daughter. shudder.)

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

I feel sorry for her on that front. I would hope that friends or family would (and would by allowed to by her agent to) take her away out of the media's eye and help her get better, like a non-celebrity's folks might.
She does make a useful role model in one way: She's been in front of a camera since she was a kid, with everyone paying attention to how she looks. Maybe she'd have turned out happier and healthier without all the pressure to live up to an image and with a chance to figure out who she really is. Sort of a Little Mermaid story--the Andersen version, not the Disney.

[mikstera.livejournal.com]

I'm just disgusted by a society that puts people on a pedestal for being able to sing (to some extent) and dance (to some extent), essentially prostituting their attributes in exchange for money and fame... the very same society that feeds on their inevitable fall from fashion like a pack of vultures for reasons as temporary distraction from their boredom.

Britney and her ilk are our collective creation, regardless of her freedom of action as an individual. She is precisely what we crafted her to be.

And yes, she isn't a role model... she's a cautionary tale.

[slutdiary.livejournal.com]

She is such a really good lousy role model.