Why, Yes. I am Still Talking About Britney. Thanks for Asking.

Salon has a really good piece up about Britney today, entitled, "Hit her baby, one more time: MTV hired Britney Spears to make an ass of herself and she sadly complied. The humiliation continues.". Whether or not you think MTV is as complicit in her trainwreck performance at the VMAs as the writer does (I personally think when they gave her the opening spot, they actually thought she would pull it off, and then when they realized she couldn't, they were all 'Whatever! Ratings!'), it's still a pretty good. I especially like this bit:

Spears has come to represent something -- something important enough that it keeps rearing its head. As has been pointed out before, she embodies the disdain in which this culture holds its young women: the desire to sexualize and spoil them while young, and to degrade and punish them as they get older. Of course, she also represents a youthful feminine willingness -- stupid or manipulated as it may be -- to conform to the culture's every humiliating expectation of her.

And I thought this was also interesting, from the reader comments, mostly because I completely related to it:

At the same time, I was reading countless articles where Britney was described as fat, bloated, out of shape, overweight ... when my body looks just like hers. Britney and I have identical stomachs: Flat enough when we stand straight up, but bulging a bit when we bend.

And after reading all of those reviews, I kept looking in the mirror. Every time I went to the bathroom I'd lift up my shirt and stare ... and it seemed like I had gained 10 pounds since yesterday. I started thinking I need to eat less, work out more ...

The endless onslaught of advertising / pop culture / celebrity trash makes us all sick. It makes women hate ourselves and each other; it makes us hope other women are worse because then we must be better.