Britney on VMAs
I was going to come up with some clever title for this post, but then went with the obvious in a blatant attempt at getting more Google traffic. But I’m sure that even so, I won’t even be on the first 100 pages.
So yes, this post is about Britney Spears at the MTV Video Music Awards. In case you have better things to do with your life and don’t know what I’m talking about, Britney Spears did a surprise performance at the VMAs last weekend that was pretty much a train wreck. No, a train wreck would have been her falling off the stage or something so let’s say it was a 5 car pile-up. Everyone says train wreck. Let’s start a new phrase.
I knew as soon as I saw it that the Internet would be flooded with people trashing it. You can do a search yourself. She wore this slutty bikini and didn’t seem to know her dance moves or her lyrics for that matter (lip-synced). It was just embarrassing to watch. I noticed (because it’s impossible not to in that outfit) that she wasn’t quite the skinny girl she was before. Had a little padding on her. I thought that it probably wasn’t the best choice in costume and I would have went with something a little less revealing if I were her. But I really didn’t think much of it, I just thought the performance was bad.
Then I read online people making fun of her for being “fat” and it made me mad to be honest. Yes that’s right, you thought this was going to be all about Britney-bashing didn’t you? Well I like to surprise ‘ya.
I thought “I should do a post about that”, then later I saw an article on CNN.com saying pretty much what I was saying so good for them. But I’ll continue my point anyway.
People always complain about these super-skinny models and how it sets unrealistic expectations for adolescent girls. Now you have a young woman that (for whatever reason) young girls seem to look up to looking not fat but not exactly skinny - and everyone pounces on her for being fat and don’t think what adolescent girls are going to take away from that? Let’s get real people. A girl that looks like Britney Spears, at any bar in any city in the USA, would be getting hit on left and right.
That’s what made me mad. I just pictured some teenage girl hearing how “fat” Britney was and thinking “gee, I look about like that in a bikini and most of my friends say I look good - I guess I’m really fat though”.
Would I have advised Britney to wear that outfit? Most definitely not. I mean it’s just trashy regardless of her weight. But with her having a bit of a “paunch” on her (seems to be the word everyone’s using - one site said “paunch me baby one more time” which I admit made me laugh out loud), it would have been best to cover it up a little and she still could have looked hot. I read that she was advised to wear this corset thing but she wanted the bikini. So make fun of her for her fashion choices. Make fun of her for her awful performance. Make fun of her for shaving her head or whatever other nonsense she’s done recently. But don’t make fun of this mother of two for having a little tummy.
I don’t know if I’m explaining myself well so I thought of a way to summarize how I feel about heavier 2007 VMAs Britney. I think it will make things totally clear. Imagine someone punches me in the face, then throws me in a cage for a night. But they throw in Britney with me, wearing that outfit. It’s a wash. The beating and false incarceration is canceled out.
But now say they punch me repeatedly in the face, break my left arm, and set my eyebrows on fire before they throw me in. They better get themselves a time machine and throw in 2003 VMAs Britney!! Either that or Rihanna. Preferably after she’s been deprived of any sexual pleasure for two years. Which now that I think of it would also require a time machine.
There, see what I’m saying now? No? OK, nevermind.
September 16th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Gee, Kev, I feel so much better about me right now.
I didn’t see the VMAs, as we don’t have cable and I live under a rock, but I appreciate what you’re saying. Thats not a flattering photo, but she looks real to me, not exactly toned, but hardly fat. I can say first-hand that when the dr approves “normal exercise” six weeks after the birth of a baby, they don’t mean pilates after a c-section. I look pretty much the same as I did before the baby, but not as toned. My bikini didn’t make it out this summer. Maybe next year.
September 18th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
great post… and I agree with you. I did not see the performance, but i did read several articles after the fact, and the FAT label is ridiculous. This girl had 2 kids within a year and she looks fantastic. The choice of outfit, very poor - even for someone super skinny (which is me, and i doubt anyone wants to see my skeleton bouncing around in that either.) yeah, let’s focus on getting this girl some help because she is screaming for it. perhaps NOW she’ll focus on getting her sh*t together before scheduling another “comeback.”
September 18th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
I read an article about the performance in Entertainment Weekly. They said it was “billed as the music world’s biggest, most anticipated performance in months”. It was? Guess I was out of touch there because I was surprised to see her performing (thus my description of it above as a “surprise performance”). Guess I was the one under a rock, huh?
That same article also said she was, until the VMAs, “riding a positive wave of press thanks to ‘Gimme More,’ the well-received first single from her next album”. I had never heard that song until she performed it that night. Strike two for me.
As for her comeback, someone at EW that heard four unreleased tracks from her new album said that they were pretty good. So we’ll see. She could pull this off. If not, she’s still welcome in that cage.