Britney (Breakdown) Bashing

Subject title says it all really. Now I don't like Britney Spears as a (ahem) musician and I was not particularly keen on the messages she was sending out to young fans BUT can't everyone take a step back from the Britney bashing? Please find below my points of reference which has resulted in a rather fed-up moi.

1. Britney has been bashed for certain lifestyle practices which have strayed from the perfect princess of pop picture (think smoking, partying, pictures of Brit with a burger and chips...) yet we're completely forgetting that she's a young woman in her early twenties who is not only capable of making her own choices, but is free to let her hair down. The minute a young starlet (Lohan I'm looking at you here too) is seen clubbing or hitting the town BAM! the media's all over it like a fucking rash - double standards somewhat? I'm sure there's not this much commotion with male stars.

2. Britney was slammed in the press for being a "bad" mother, mainly due to driving with one son on her lap and the infamous (near) baby dropping incident. I just saw a You've Been Framed this evening in which a bride dropped her baby down some stairs. Did the YBF screen the video and think 'Jesus Christ we have a bad mother on our hands...', course not! We merely got a joke about mistaking your baby for the bouquet.

3. In the same breath in which we comment on Amy Wino's skeletal drug-induced frame, put Nicole Ritchie on magazine front covers with headlines like "TOO SKINNY!" and applaud Beth Ditto for breaking the mould, we leap on Britney's comeback performance and her (apparent) tummy. Whilst the stomach may not have resembled the toned (result of workout after workout) tummy of Hit Me Baby Spears, it was your average, healthy looking belly (and using the word belly even seems wrong). So let's call it fat shall we? Really scrapping the barrel here for justified bitching people...

4. Lastly (and probably the most serious) Britney obviously has some issues (post-natal depression perhaps) which no-one seems that bothered to deal with as they're too happy reeling in the soap drama which her life has become. I might not be too proud of the fact I'm discussing Ms.Spears on my feminism blog* but I'm happy in the knowledge I'm voicing what I feel is the unjust treatment of a woman.

* also slightly perturbed by the amount of 'starlets' I've referenced

The Hysterical Woman

Since the Doctor informed me that I'm showing symptoms of anxiety, I've been thinking a lot about how I feel being a woman with what I have been told is something 'psychological' rather than 'physical'.

My first problem is attitudes towards conditions such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and so forth. Particularly when the sufferer is a woman. I've been told to take some time off work (as a student teacher) and my initial worry was how 'anxiety' would be viewed my by placement college. Would I be taken seriously? Or would I just be viewed as a woman who's taken on too much and got themselves emotionally worked up? Because this was my fear. That anything related to being stressed, emotional, run-down, tired and so forth, is also associated with being female. That all these feelings are consequences of being female. Just how, if I'm feeling a bit irritable or weepy I am immediately told I must be having my period. This is the idea that I call the hysterical woman. That woman are merely viewed by society as more prone to that which appeals to the emotions.

So this lead onto my second thought - the general history/treatment of women with conditions such as depression and so forth. I think of Girl, Interrupted and The Bell Jar - about times when women were admitted to mental hospitals and underwent shock treatment for symptoms which are now more accepted.

I really went to look further into this and I think I will research this for my next article. I really would welcome your thoughts and feelings on this (anonymously if you prefer).m