The Exile of Britney Spears - Christ Smit (cont'd.)

1. Name of author, name of essay/chapter reporting on: Christopher Smit, The Exile of Britney Spears, chapter 8-epilogue

2. Your articulation of their thesis:

            In the last half of this book, Smit finishes discussing exactly how we consumed Britney and how/why we exiled her. Our consumption of her was mainly done through material things – all of the stuff that was manufactured to help sell her image – but also through the portrayal of herself as a sex symbol. Not only did we consume her, however, but we digested her – we chewed her up, sucking out everything that we could, and when we were done we spat her out (or, as Smit’s metaphor goes, we excreted her). When she no longer had any more to offer, when she was well and truly ruined, we tossed her aside.

            This exile, as Smit calls it, is done for a couple of reasons. We do not cast her off because of personal beliefs or anything nearly so meaningful – she simply stops being what we expect and desire from her, both physically and mentally, so we abandon her when she ceases to be the object that we want to consume. First, she gets pregnant – her flawless body becomes larger, different, imperfect; then, her inherent humanity is revealed in an unflattering paparazzi photograph, ruining our idealized vision of her as some sort of transcendent example of sexuality; finally, she shows signs of mental illness/instability – she is no longer infallible, and eventually manages to alienate us so fully through her drastic actions that she is effectively thrown out of the spotlight – with this, her exile is complete.

3. At least three links or images that illustrate the ideas of the article:

1. Smit mentions, in his chapter about material consumption, the Britney dolls that were first made in 1999. He discusses what these dolls meant to little girls and how they teach these girls lessons about possession – that they own Britney, in a way – they can control her. Those dolls remind me very strongly of these dolls of the band One Direction – the target audience (teen/preteen girls) is approximately the same age as that of the Britney dolls, so is the message that they send the same? Are One Direction’s fans subconsciously learning that they have control, in some way, over the band? Personally, I find this worrying and very sad – fans are a big part of celebrities, yes, but people should always be in control of their own lives, not others, and I hope One Direction doesn’t feel powerless in their careers.

2. When Smit talks about Britney’s exile, he mentions motherhood; not just the actual act of parenting, but the physical changes that heralded Britney’s impending role as a maternal figure and how people reacted so negatively to her pregnant body and its connotations. The way Smit wrote about it, I felt like the public almost didn’t realize that Britney was married, and would have sexual intercourse with her husband – they seemed completely unprepared and caught off-guard when Britney was revealed to be pregnant, even though it really isn’t a surprising situation for a married couple to find themselves in. It reminded me very strongly of the virgin Mary and the immaculate conception – suddenly, Mary’s body just started changing because of the baby Jesus growing inside her, completely skipping the logical, necessary steps it would have taken to get there. This seems to reflect the way people viewed/reacted to Britney’s pregnancy.

3. Finally, we get to the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were: Britney’s 2007 mental breakdown, during which she checked herself in (and then right back out) of a rehabilitation facility and shaved her head. Smit especially talked about her head-shaving and the symbolic nature of it – she was taking back power from her managers by getting rid of a very feminine, sexually-significant part of her image, but also clearly illustrating her own instability – people who are emotionally stable and healthy don’t go around shaving their heads, after all. A very similar situation recently occurred with one of the members of One Direction (I’m sorry I write so much about them! I really am! It just always seems to apply so well), Liam Payne. The day after he and his girlfriend of two years broke up, he shaved all of his hair off, instantly sparking heated debates about why – was he devastated over his breakup? Was he doing it for Breast Cancer Awareness? Did he do it as a drunk dare? It’s inconceivable, of course, that he could have just wanted to change his hair, or pick his own hairstyle, instead of having one carefully styled for him by a specialist team from One Direction’s management company. Personally, I wish we could live in a world where celebrities could cut their hair without sparking enough backlash that half of the trending topics on Twitter refer to Miley Cyrus’ new hair color or Justin Bieber’s absent sidesweeping bangs.

4. At least two discussion questions that will help your reader develop the ideas of the article:

1. Britney was, according to Smit, “enslaved” by her parents, her fans, her managers, the industry she was in, etc. – she was trapped by their expectations and in a way, forced to act in certain ways. Do you think the Church and/or organized religion has the tendency to do this to people, also – forcing people (in a sense) to act in particular ways out of a feeling of obligation or guilt? Is this pressure a good or a bad thing (or: where does the motivation for this pressure come from)?

2. Assuming that God wants us to use digestion when we consider the issues of religion and beliefs, how does He want us to relate to the rest of the world – pop culture, media, political issues, etc.? Are there things that, as Christians, we shouldn’t worry about just consuming, instead of digesting (like Christian TV programs and music, sermons in our church, etc.)?

3. Britney was exiled from popularity and media, but not for her personal beliefs – more for the (perceived) failings of her body and mind. These things are hardly under her control, however; our exile was deeply unfair. Do you ever find yourself exiling someone for a physical or mental failing (or just difference from yourself/from your perceived norm)? What do you think it is about these differences that make us so uncomfortable and make us want to distance ourselves from these people?