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Whether you saw Britney Spears' performance on last weekend's MTV VMA show - you've undoubtably heard about it. From CNN and The View, major media outlets and bloggers of all stripes, tongues have been wagging over the performance that had been hyped as Britney's Comeback Performance.
Have you seen it yet? No? Here, go have a look.
Back with me? Great. Let's dig in, shall we?
Not the greatest performance ever given by Britney. In fact, it was really bad. And of course, critics and fans immediately leaped to add their opinions into the tsunami-like reaction.
I've always had a certain sympathy for Britney Spears. The girl has been on the fast track since a very early age, and no doubt certain aspects of her upbringing and early fame have made their mark on her. Her precocious sexuality and flashy dance moves, coupled with her catchy songs made her famous, but her recent trials - her marriage and divorce, her stint in rehab and her life as a mother have landed her in the tabloids and splattered across the internet daily.
And okay, she's given gossip-lovers plenty of material over the years. I wasn't surprised that the New York Post immediately threw out the headline "Lard and Clear," but I was disgusted. Again and again, critics gleefully pointed out that Britney is carrying more weight than before, and had no business wearing a bikini on television.
After I rolled my eyeballs down from the back of my skull, I decided to see what other bloggers had to say about this particular attack:
Jen Eyer, at Neurotic Mom, noticed the immediate focus on Britney's middle, too:
As a mom of two, I've been morbidly interested in the criticism heaped on Britney's appearance at the MTV Video Music Awards. Her performance, in case you hadn't heard, was lackluster, but her greatest crime was not being back into pre-baby shape.
Like Britney, I'm still a bit thicker around the middle, so the fat comments hit a little close to home. As this writer said: "Then, as Jay Leno heaped fat-joke scorn upon her head on "The Tonight Show," I felt sad, and paunch-conscious. If Jay thought Britney was fat, then ... then ... Jay thought I was fat! Shut up, Jay!"
Jocelyn Noveck wonders what this focus on appearance says about us in her article Harshest Words Saved For Britney's Body
Was it fair? Did Spears, lest we forget a mother of two, deserve to be held up against the standard of her once fantastically toned abs, sculpted by sessions of 1,000 tummy crunches? Or was she asking for it by choosing that unforgiving black-sequined bikini?
More profoundly, in an age where skinny models and skeletal actresses are under scrutiny for the message they're sending young girls, what does it say that we're excoriating a young woman for a little thickness in her middle?
There were some, uh, interesting quotes in that article. I particularly liked this one:
In the fashion industry, there's been an effort to promote healthier-looking models. "Girls aren't looking as skinny this season as they did," said Suze Yalof Scwhartz, executive editor-at-large for Glamour Magazine. "There's food backstage. They're looking sexier." At Glamour, she noted, a model won't be featured "if she shows too much clavicle."
There's food backstage! I'm so impressed with that! The fashion industry is actually eating this season. Yay!
I decided to take a look at what some BlogHers had to say about Britney's performance:
I know I've talked about her before, but, the whole thing is actually really sad to me.
She just looked completely lost (scared? baked?), and, I still wonder why no one can help her get herself in order before her career.
Stefania, over at CityMama also suspected drugs were in play:
I'm surprised Britney could even stand up with all that Ativ@n in her system, let alone "perform."
Princessandherpets, a great 13-year-old pop-culture blogger, gave the performance two thumbs down:
... it was horrible, and the way she was trying the lip sink was very bad. She also seemed like she didn’t know her dance moves very well. This will probably be the only time I’ll be writing a post about Britney Spears, because she is a terrible influence for girls my age (any age)
SJ, BlogHer Contributing Editor for Pop Culture points to a funny, but NSFW explanation for Britney's difficulties in life.
