The Exile of Britney Spears – Christopher Smit

1. Name of author, name of essay/chapter reporting on: Christopher Smit, The Exile of Britney Spears, chapters 1-7

2. Your articulation of their thesis:

In the first seven chapters of this book, Smit first delves into the origins of Britney Spears – how her family, her Baptist upbringing/faith, and time as a Mouseketeer on Disney Channel affected her experiences and her rise to fame – then into how she transitioned from an innocent child actress into an oversexualized, oversold, overcontrolled pop sensation and teen icon.

Her beginnings were humble; middle-class, Southern, Christian, from a typical American family. Smit analyzes how each of these things affected her start in the media world, then how they played parts in the later parts of her career; her class disappearing as she earned more and more money, her Christianity framing her early career before disappearing for a time, her family starting out a picture-perfect American household but slowly devolving into the broken, scandalous spectacle whose dysfunction American society could watch splashed over the pages of gossip mags. Smit argues that Britney’s rise to fame, along with her (inevitable, Smit would say) fall from media preference and attention is due in large (if not largest) part to us, the consumers, who eagerly gobbled up all the “celebrity news,” the risqué pictures, the music videos, the concert tickets – everything that she produced, we happily consumed and demanded more. Smit’s thesis is that we created Britney through these actions.

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

1. When Smit mentioned that actors in Disneyland who act as Disney characters have to have “helpers” (bodyguards) to make sure that the visitors to the park don’t ‘kick’ them to try to get them to break character, I thought of an actor in Disneyland who has become especially popular lately – he’s a young man who plays Peter Pan, and I thoughtthis video of him talking to someone in-character was a good portrayal of what Smit talks about when he says Britney was playing a role on Disney Channel. Just as the guy who plays Peter Pan isn’t really Peter, Britney wasn’t really her Disney self; we simply saw her interactions with others in that character, like we see “Peter” interacting with someone who wants him to say hello to her friend. This particular person doesn’t ‘kick’ Peter to make him break character, but other videos on the internet of Peter have strict warnings attached to them about not revealing the actor’s true identity – the man is only supposed to be interacted with on the level of being Peter, just as Britney was only meant to be consumed as Media Britney, never Real Britney.

2. Obviously, a discussion on Britney Spears is not complete without an example of her work. Smit talks at length about this video and how it shows Britney first breaking out of her ‘child actor’ role and into a more mature, sexualized position in the media and the eyes of consumers. Personally, I had never seen this video before today (I was homeschooled, okay?) and what Smit has to say about the Catholic schoolgirl image is just so accurate about this video – he emphasizes how it shows her breaking out of the Baptist image from her childhood, but still keeping herself confined in a religion with Catholicity. I think the juxtaposition of this music video with her part on the Disney Channel makes the difference between the two absolutely staggering – you can see how much she’s being affected by consumer culture already, trying to sell herself to a wider audience and appeal to different ages.

3. Smit starts off his discussion of Britney with a short summary of her origins, including her first experience with singing, which she got in her church choir. He particularly mentions thissong, which she would most likely have sung at some point. This song not only would have instilled in her a belief in her own belonging in God’s love, but would have brought her praise for her singing ability. Personally, I find it absolutely staggering that a child who grew up singing such amazing, reverent songs could go to performing in the music video I talked about in the former point. Britney seems to have lost touch with the faith that this song clearly shows, replacing it with the Catholic schoolgirl skirts, bared midriff, and fluffy lyrics of ‘…Baby One More Time.’

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

1. Smit posits that Britney, starting from her time on the Disney Channel, was never really herself – she was never acting as “Real Britney,” but rather as a fake, Britney-like character. Do you think Britney made a conscious choice to act differently on the show? This choice obviously affected her future career, as she continued playing roles – perhaps never truly revealing the true Britney. Do you think it would have been better, in the end, for her to have acted authentically and been herself for the cameras on the Disney Channel?

2. Fame obviously affected the Spears family in a negative way. Why do you think this is – was the media attention simply too much stress, or were they playing a part from the beginning and the attention simply revealed their true nature? Would you ever want your family placed under that kind of scrutiny (perhaps because they could be a good example of a loving, solid family to American society)?