Britney Spears: Media Trainwreck, or Role Model?

Britney Spears has seen the covers of more tabloids, magazines, and newspapers than any other musician I can name. Considering her youth, Britney Spears has been astonishingly influential character in recent years. Though current buzz about Britney regarding her children, weight, and personal life is generally exaggerated, controversial, and unkind, I prefer to think of the old Britney, the Britney my friends and I would sing along with in the car, the Britney who was young and happy, and who set the standards of beauty, fashion, and music when I was younger.

To give you a time and age reference, Britney's early hit, Hit Me Baby One More Time, came out when I was eight years old. I remember singing along to it with my friends, and though we all knew every single word by heart, none of us knew what they meant. Looking back, Britney's songs were always sexually charged, and she has always pushed the limits of what is acceptable in fashion, social decorum, and musical subject matter. In 1998, when contemporaries like the Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, and the Spice Girls were all doing the same thing, Britney didn't stand out as such a renegade, and actually seemed like the 'good girl' of the bunch.

What, then, made Britney rise above the others in fame and gossip? Why, after all these years, is Britney still just as famous, while many of the other past teen popstars have faded into obscurity? I don't mean to be cruel, but when you look at the boy-bands of the past, who have largely disbanded and moved on, and the Spice Girls, with their (mostly) respectable families and slowly re-emerging careers, it seems that the answer isn't what Britney did that separates her from the rest, but what she didn't do. Despite a massive fortune, an explosive career, a marriage, two kids, and a divorce, Britney never grew up.

In fact, as Britney aged, and her career and personal life grew more complex, it seemed that she withdrew from the professional aspect of her life, and began making bad choices. I remember not too long ago when the worst thing that could be said about Britney was that she had been very late for several magazine interviews, but little infractions like that were just the tip of the iceberg in the chaotic life of a woman I might once have called an excellent role model for women my age.

Despite this article's tone, I'm not disappointed in Ms. Spears. I am saddened by the outcomes of recent events in her life, and am angered by the desperate actions which our modern tabloid-hungry society has driven her to. Britney has been abused by our media in a despicable fashion, and she, along with many other celebrities of her era, are victims of the cruel and unusual way the worldwide news and entertainment media has trained itself to treat people. It's inhumane, and it's a broken system in need of reform. If Britney Spears is indeed a broken woman, than the media is responsible for making her so, and should be held accountable. It seems that celebrities are under too much pressure, and that, as spectators, we forget that they're only human.