Consuming Britney: The Dogs Return to Their Vomit? June 22, 2011

In his book, The Exile of Britney Spears: A Tale of 21st Century Consumption, Chris Smit (professor of communication arts and sciences at Calvin College) gives a cultural analysis in which the collective “we” (that is, everyone who has ever engaged in any form of media– internet, magazines, television, etc.), were the cause of Britney Spears’ creation as the idol that she was, and the cause of her demise as we “consumed” her, digesting her and putting her through the ringer until finally she became our excrement and we exiled her. Says Smit, “Consuming Spears as a product or commodity — chewing her up, and spitting her out — is a kind of “unconscious cannibalism,” Smit says, an act of dehumanization that is “not only mindless and effortless — it is also a … sort of violence.”

Now, her period of exile is coming to an end, and we are consuming her once again. On our terms. The dogs return to their vomit, instead of leaving it alone. And Britney wouldn’t know what to do alone. She’s done the rehab. She’s been able to have some sort of rebirth– a 29year old version of her 17 year old self. She wanted to come back because she knew nothing else.

To show she would do anything to be back in the spotlight, check out this clip of her in Jackass 3. (And, ironically enough, this was deleted from the final cut of the film– the only way the public found out about it was from Jimmy Kimmel).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekIgI55XG58

Now, the video was released 2 months ago and has over 5.5 million views. That’s not bad for youtube standards. Britney is willing to consciously enter into humiliation for the sake of her fame. Any press is good press.

Her most recent video, “I Wanna Go,” has a number of interesting elements. First, she has been blonde and beautiful again the last few months, trying to erase her shaved head from people’s memory. In this video, she plays up her child-like image with pink highlights in her hair, sparkly makeup, and high pink striped socks. But, unlike when she was a teenager, she now has had some experiences that make her need protection. She wears spiked shoes and wristcuffs, a punk belt (you aint getting in these pants unless I want you there!), and a cut off mickey mouse shirt. She’s a constant paradox: trying to look young and youthful with a small pink bikini but making sure we know she’s stronger and tougher than before; she makes the rules, not whatever company she’s working for (i.e., the Disney corporation when she was a mouseketeer). The head of mickey is even a skull.

She knows she’s a sex symbol: she might as well act like it, take off her top when she wants to, grab a stranger’s junk, make men of all ages want her. The songs talk about doing whatever she wants, and not taking crap from people who talk about her. She says, “Lately I’ve been stuck imagining what I want to do and what I really think.” Implying others have done it for her. Now she talks about doing all the dirty things she has running through her mind, but of course, she doesn’t admit that she’s never had a thought that hasn’t been culturally created for her. Her song isn’t all that different than any of the other club songs out there, like JLo’s “On the Floor” (with 255 million views in 2 months).  Lopez’s song is interesting too, because she sings it with Pitbull, and he’s the one telling her to get on the floor and “back it up like a tonka truck.” I’m sure all the feminists are cringing; while these women sex objects might give the illusion that they are in control and are being hyper-sexual out of their own volition, unlike someone like Pamela Anderson, who seemed to sincerely enjoy sex for its own sake (See “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs”, the chapter on “porn” I think), these women seem to be forced into being hypersexualized as a means to an end: to be famous, you have to be sexy. Even her frequent use of the word “blow” seems intentional; one can’t really hear that word without thinking of the Ke$ha song, and the word obviously has sexual undertones. Ke$ha has perhaps been doing all along what Britney now wants to do: construct a role for herself that embraces the messy “I do what I want” image; if I want to look like I don’t comb my hair, I won’t comb my hair. If I want to drink all the time, I’ll drink all the time. If I want to have sex, I’ll have sex, with whoever I want. The last one, at least, is the avenue Britney seems to be going.

The turning point in the song comes when Britney encounters a paparazzi, and seems to give him usable, lovely photos. Until, she grabs the camera and dashes it to pieces on the ground. The lyrics say that it she is “all tied up” and “everyone is waiting for her to erupt,” and then it becomes a showdown between her and the press. Other songs have been written about the relationship between the press and celebrities: most notably “Paparazzi” (warning: that link might ruin the song forever for you if you currently like it). She seems to defeat the men with the cameras that have surrounded her, using her microphone, perhaps saying she will silence them all by just doing what she wanted to do before all the fame stuff twisted it: sing and perform for the world. But, unfortunately, her singing will not defeat them; they tern into some sort of half-machine, cyber creatures with terminator eyes. When the music video lets us see through the eyes of one of the paparazzi, it is quite telling: it says that she is the “primary target” and his “weapon of choice” is a camera, reinforcing the Smit quote earlier about how the collective “we” has done violence to Britney.

She seems to escape with the help of one of the press that she identified as “cool” at the beginning of the music video (if you know what the part with the milk is all about, please, enlighten me lol, unless its possibly a reference to her as a mother now… leave a comment if you can help the analysis there), but of course, he starts to spark, and she wakes up from the what we now know was a dream. But, “Jiarmo” (sp.) never really did rescue her, she never did discover his true nature as one of the evil paparazzi, and his act of taking her away to an idealistic landscape had been just a dream. The end scene of a stillshot of his eyes flashing red as we hear a creepy laugh is of course a montage to Michael Jackson.

The video seems really sad to me, just because it seems that Britney recognizes the cycle (at least in part) and yet can’t get out of it; and like Michael Jackson and numerous other stars, they probably will not be able to get out of the cycle and still live. Britney, perhaps you should go back into exile. It’s safer for you there. Let’s hope that the cycle might be broken; but this video ends with you still in the clutches of the paparazzi, who will eventually decide it’s time to violently consume and exile you once again.

 

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