Love now, Regret later

Consciously or not, this is precisely what consumers did with Britney Spears. In these chapters (1-7) of Smit’s The Exile of Britney Spears, Smit argues that society has put her into exile through various means. He aims at finding the origins of this phenomenon by looking at empowerment, ideologies, and the presence of capital. When she emerged as a Southern Baptist belle, her image took a great interest in the public - only until the image grew old, and her “perfection” was slowly disintegrating, allowing the public at a peak of her humanity. This is when the person of Britney Spears was put into exile. She was never allowed to use her Southern-ness to gain stability with her identity. Even her family troubles were cast as an Americanist spectacle, a type of standard for the American family.

You could say Britney was brought up in series of ideological systems. Her first employment was at Disney, a corporation saturated with its own values and ideologies. Could it be that she possibly had been shaped by her experiences to become the narrative she is today? Could someone without such a background have become someone like Britney? One could argue that she was fit to play this puppet role of society, one that bends and contracts with the flows of society’s wavering values. Has she then become the Universal Woman/Saint or Whore? (Universal as opposed to dynamic, critical of self and others, developing, authentic) The capitalization of ideas/values has also complicated Britney’s search of identity. With all the cash rolling in, Smit contends that she has been made classless and isolated. Britney breathes, moves, dresses in currency. This rapid flow of currency sticks her in immobile contexts of complacency, and ultimates feeds her misrecognition. 

A couple of things to think about:

• Smit mentions this briefly: Britney as a Baptist means that she believes in the same God that cares for creation, guides our actions, leads us to fulfilling lives. If God is indeed in control of our lives, as well as Britney's, what does it mean for her that she has transgressed from the singing choir girl to somewhat of a sex symbol? For other celebrities? 
• What does it mean for society if we are continually chasing down these representations of ideologies that ultimately hold no Truth?

Related:

• On Leaving Britney Alone
• Chris Crocker, on consumption of Britney