Lay Off the Brit

Britney Spears is the goose that's been force fed to death so that we can all eat her deliciously drowned liver as a spread over our crackers.

When clips of her performance at the MTV music video awards first started popping up on the internet, I didn't pay much attention to them. I have as little desire to see her perform now as I did when she was considered a musician and effort was put into making her music. When I heard that her act was an epic failure, I had to check it out. She struggled to get through the number - thats for sure - but it was the MTV music awards not Carnegie Hall. The biggest problem with the act is that she looked confused and uninterested.

Is anyone surprised by this? The proverbial camera stole her soul a long time ago and the shell that is left can't dance so good. This was a fairly talented young girl who got into show business at the age of 13 or so and was a pop superstar at 17. So, at an age when most kids are starting to establish who they are, what they want out of life, and what kind of people they want to spend their time with, Britney Spears has been pushed through the looking glass. From this point on, no human interaction that she has is "normal".

She continued to produce music for a couple more years until she realized that no one is interested in her music anymore. Britney Spears herself is what sells magazines, albums and TV shows. She went with it for awhile. It's easy money for everyone involved. Then, she tried to put her career on hold and just live her life. Unfortunately, her life was no longer hers to live. I think she finally flipped out when she saw her own picture in a magazine and realized that the picture was the real her and the person looking at it was a mere reflection. The only way left to learn about herself was to read her own interview in People. Say goodbye to yourself as a person; Say hello to yourself as a product.

My guess is that she fell for K-Fed because he was one of very few who treated her like a normal person. My further guess is that the reason he treated her like a normal person was because he was so into himself that she was just some chick to him.

Why am I saying all this? Mainly I'm upset that the only person that seems to be standing up for her is this guy whom the media quickly added to the circus sideshow that gets dragged along in poor Britney's wake. The far bigger trend is to pontificate on her failure as a person and relish the chance to berate her. That exploded liver sure is tasty. To use another metaphor, we are the parents that gave her nothing but candy to nourish her infant brain and now we slap her around when she fails to read at grade level.

The other thing that set me off on this rant is a post from my friend Kimya who's struggling to stay true to herself while dealing with the increased fame that her music is bringing her. She is an amazing human being who has as strong a sense of self as anyone and even she has her moments of trouble with the spotlight. The good news is that she hundreds of real friends who'll support her no matter what she does. But, if you multiplied Kimya's situation by 1000 or so and took away the support of her friends and maturity, you can imagine the Britney Spears style meltdowns.

The worst part is that it's all downhill from here. Even if Britney starts dancing and singing again like a champ, she will never get back the quality that propelled her into stardom. Yes, she will never be a 17 year old girl again.