I pay attention to Britney Spears as if it was only Britney that the problem of misogyny would involve but sadly the problem is huge and goes on as an unnoticed light issue unchanged because why bother to change something that clearly works. Female celebrities are the tip of an iceberg, if you allow the worn-out phrase, it still works though, the phrase. It is all women who are under microscope whether they are good mothers, good women, worthy as human beings compared to men who are naturally solidly deserving and able. Celebrity women are asked if they are good mothers, their possible pregnancies are monitored in hawk-like manner like they had somehow committed the sin of having sex, living as anybody else. Her life has had a happy ending because it is the climax, the expectation realising itself, we have watched and pushed her to go exactly that direction. Women marry with men and have babies, reproduce and look happy in doing so. That is why people fuck, oh sorry, make love, and of course stay happily married to another celebrity or someone who maybe uses influence of the spouse to make a career or then they have divorce which give a story to tell and confess what went wrong. What was the wedding like, who was there, how romantic luxury life and depictions of these royals sell tons of magazines, what were they wearing. Images and stories tell, they are all we want to see and hear.
To ask whether a woman is a good mother is something that is almost a compulsory question asked of all celebrity mothers. You like to be asked whether you are a good mother frequently? Like capabilities of successful women were less in this regard still than capabilities of the male ones. Men are never asked bluntly whether they are good fathers which is of course because a man is a good parent, right. Oh yes he is a wonderful father when asked what kind of father he is to his children, and a good husband. And we imagine what is a wonderful father like: he plays with his children, spends time with them, laughs with them and reads a bedtime story.
To be worried about Britney and her health is not an issue, it is like why bother, she is where everybody wants to be and where she wanted to be so she must face all the consequences. It is to report what happens to her nonstop despite the disturbance and repetition in media, despite how media makes her act and sound like. We still think it is her and her mistakes, her shame, her falling with a baby, her fault she must run and hide from the paparazzi. It is us that they feed, we buy it, the stories with good appetite and we eat as much as there is to eat like cannibals. Not to mention what kind of culture and atmosphere all this creates for youngsters to grow into. “You are single now, why so and what is that like for you?” Circle of questions asked by journalist, by people who call themselves journalists, touch issues like sex, body, looks, pregnancies, wealth, relationships and the art these celebrities make. “Your new record, it is on the charts, congratulations. What do you think about your new record?”