Sunday, February 18, 2007
Little Girls Lost
I recently heard about the latest shenanigans (aka "cry for help") from Britney Spears. The now-infamous head shaving incident that is burning up the Internet. Yes, it's shocking and bizarre and really, really unsettling. But mostly, it's sad. Poor Britney just seems so lost and bewildered and completely out of control. Hollywood has chewed her up and spit her out. She seems to be making one bad decision after another and her innocent babies are the ones who will really pay the price. Rehab for one day? Shaving your head bald? Flashing the world your va-jay-jay? Publicly appearing like she hasn't showered or brushed her hair in an eternity? She's what -? 25 years old with 2 kids under 2 and 2 divorces under her belt. Nice track record.It's not that I'm opposed to women being bald by choice. I'm not. But this recent move by Britney doesn't smack of a rational fashion decision but instead one of desperation and temporary insanity. Or something along those lines. One of my friends will be shaving her head bald in a few weeks in support of this. Now that kind of bald move I can support. (and you should, too!)
There see
ms to be more than a few Little Girls Lost lately. Not that they are still technically "little girls", but maybe it's their lack of maturity that makes me think of them that way. That their development was arrested while still a little girl and so their behavior manifests itself as that of a lost child without supervision. Lindsay Lohan, for example, comes to mind. Here is truly a lost child. A talented actress who isn't even of legal age to drink and yet has been allegedly attending AA meetings for a year or so now. TNot that it seems to be having much effect in dampening her partying.... and she's another "victim" of the va-jay-jay flashing as well. Maybe that's an initiation into the Lost Girls club or something. 
Another current example of a Lost Girl is none other than Anna Nicole Smith. It's tragic that she's dead, but her life wasn't exactly one of health and productivity. Not exactly a role model or an exemplary citizen to emulate. 5+ men coming forward to claim paternity for her infant daughter? A son recently deceased from a drug/medication overdose? An self-imposed exile to the Bahamas? Drunken public appearances? Truly, a Lost Girl. She clearly had no direction in her life. And now that poor baby girl will grow up with any one of sub-par candidates as her father, who really only are interested in her because of her inheritance. Sad, sad, sad. No one deserves that.
Hollywood horrifies me these days. It just seems so ruthless and viscious. NOT a place I'd want to be, or a place I'd want my young son or daughter to be. I know that there are some young starlets who seem to have both feet firmly planted on the ground and a strong support system. Dakota Fanning comes to mind. But then again, young Britney seemed this way in the beginning, too. As did Lindsay and many others. MacCauley Culkin and Whitney Houston, to name just a few. Shoot, even Michael Jackson seemed "intact" in the early days and look at him now: the worlds biggest freak show. And yet so many flock to Hollywood everyday in search of the elusive fame and fortune it dangles and promises but so rarely delivers. And when it does deliver and you become a celebrity, our nations equivalent to royalty, the price you pay seems oh-so-monstrous in hindsight. A complete and utter lack of privacy. A society who will build you up only to be much too eager to witness your fall. Praise and criticism in the most public of forums. Celebrity must be like crack for so many to risk so much in it's pursuit.
My heart goes out to these Little Girls Lost. I feel bad for them. I don't think they truly understood the ramifications of the choices they were making, or others were making on their behalf, and now they're paying the price. In many ways, I think their parents are at fault, or at least partially to blame for what has befallen their children. And we, the public, are to blame as well for our unquenchable desire to see more and more of these celebrities, especially if they are in the throes of a crisis of some sort. That huge appetite feeds the paparrazi, which has to contribute at some level to the extreme invasion of privacy these people experience. Which then must lead to all kinds of self-doubt and other issues along those lines, which leads to even more questionable acts. A vicious, vicious circle.
I hope the cycle is broken soon before more talented people are destroyed on the alter of celebrity.
// posted by MP @ 12:25 PM 
Comments:
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Amen, MP. It's all so sad.
I really think Britney is cracking up, seriously. She's like a poster woman for PPD/ Bi-Polar disorder. At this rate, she'll be dead before 30.
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I really think Britney is cracking up, seriously. She's like a poster woman for PPD/ Bi-Polar disorder. At this rate, she'll be dead before 30.
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