Plane Crash
Britney Spears. I can't log onto my homepage or go into a gas station without being confronted by her quickly approaching "train wreck" to crazy town (although I think of it more as a plane crash than a train wreck...plane crashes seem much scarier, and who rides a train these days anyways? Maybe it should be a subway wreck instead...).
You know, years ago at the height of her career, I predicted the craziness that we all now see plastered on magazines and buzzing on the Internet. I mean, seriously. How could she not have mental health issues?
I feel sorry for her in the same way that I feel sorry for Michael Jackson. We average Americans can't possibly fathom being literally hoisted up on to the top of the world as a global icon as mere children (teenagers, whatever). The obscene wealth, fame and attention...you have to wonder how the biggest celebrities handle it.
It was difficult to handle life as a regular teenager and come out of it without having lost your mind...and those of us who made it out and became normal, well-adjusted adults, well, we must credit those who have been there for us over the years to support us and nurture us and make us believe that everything will get better. Most of us learn from our mistakes and get better.
Many of us have to keep making more mistakes until our inner strength and common sense kicks in and we realize that we are continuing to hurt ourselves and are creating our own misery.
But in the real world, not everyone is capable of doing that. At least unfamous, average people can endure their own personal hells in the privacy of their own personal hells. The famous people who hit rock bottom though~ they don't have any privacy.
Their personal hells are splashed on the cover of magazines, and as disgusting and embarrassing as this is to admit about our country, splashed on our major news networks like CNN and MSNBC in between coverage of presidential candidates and the war in Iraq.
I always thought, "Well, they wanted to be famous and that is what they get. They want the attention."
I think of Pavlov's Dogs here. When you do something "good" you are doted over and admired and loved in the spotlight, so when you do something to act out and rebel, aren't you just seeking more attention for validation that people are paying attention to you still? Aren't you just trying to get back into the spotlight, because that's where people love you and you feel important?
Normal people act out and rebel against their parents, get in trouble at school or do other obvious stupid shit for attention~ getting caught and punished means that someone is still paying attention to you.
Celebrities act out and rebel and get in trouble for stupid shit~ and when the media is all over your ass and you are making headlines and are on TV again, that means that people are still paying attention to you.
I know I went through that stage (um, minus the headlines and TV and the media of course:). And when you are in that stage, from my experience, you are so self-absorbed and oblivious to the world around you, that you honestly do not give a shit what anyone thinks. You think you don't want the negative attention, but it's better than no attention at all, so a part of you deep inside, at the heart of where you are the most fucked up, CRAVES it. NEEDS it.
As a female, when you've been primed and groomed and cultivated to build your entire phenomenal career on the basis of your sex appeal and only mediocre talent, being surrounded by people 24:7 who are making money off of you and telling you how great you are all of the time, having access to anything and everything you want, getting to do anything you want without having to explain yourself or take responsibility for anything because you have people to do that for you, it only makes sense that you turn into an adult who feels entitled to do whatever the hell you want without having to apologize.
When you have a never ending rotation of handlers and "hanger-ons" who are supporting themselves off of you, or who are looking to gain something from being connected to you, it only makes sense that you will spend the rest of your life wondering not only if anyone is capable of seeing you for who you really are, but if anyone genuinely cares.
Who can you trust?
People may say that there are so many celebrities in Hollywood who can handle their fame and fortune without going mental and out of control...but I honestly think that Britney Spears is a celebrity in her own unique category. I don't think any other female celebrity has yet to hit her height of fame and celebrity- and who would want to?
I think she didn't just get to the top~ she went through the roof and the only way is down. And it 's sad. And cliche, the whole "falling star" thing, but it really is the best way to illustrate this pop culture fairy tale of hers.
I remember when she got married and starting popping out babies, I got this irritating vibe from the pictures and interviews and that ridiculous reality video/documentary that she put out with Kevin Federline: she was like a giddy, niave, immature 14-year old with a huge crush...getting married and getting pregnant.
She could have just about ANY guy she wanted, and she did. Most girls, when they are 14 and are crushin' hard on some guy, would do the same if she had the opportunity~ not having a clue as to what in the hell love and relationships and marriage and starting a family really meant.
Girls in junior high who have their first boyfriends and first real taste of "love" and infatuation always fantasize about marrying them and being with them forever~ and they probably would try to make that fantasy a reality if they weren't minors and didn't have parents who had the legal control to stop them.
Britney Spears was an adult 6th grade girl who had the means and legal ability to act that fantasy out~ and now we are all witnessing the fallout of that mindset when you aren't mentally and emotionally mature enough to handle being an adult. With kids no less.
And your first break up from that first "love" can really fuck a girl up in the head! It's a universal thing~ and I think that the media and public forgets those things when they see her being all crazy and depressed and miserable.
I feel sorry for her. The media splashes these bullshit headlines that there are concerns about Britney killing herself and how she is mentally sick~ but they don't actually care about her well being enough to just leave her the fuck alone for a little bit and let her burn herself out on her own.
Why would they? Those headlines and pictures of her bread trail of stupid stunts are selling magazines and making people somewhere up the top of the media food chain rich as hell.
