"The Britney Spears comeback narrative is all about saddling women with impossible expectations"

[If U Seek Amy]

Everyone loves a comeback story—especially when it comes to Britney Spears. The pop star’s performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards on Aug. 28 was billed as a rebuttal to her lackluster performance back in 2007. Her “disastrous” VMA performance of “Gimme More” nine years ago was regarded at the time as the death knell of her career. That was the year of “Leave Britney Alone;” the year that she shaved her head, wielded an umbrella against a member of the paparazzi and temporarilylost custody of her kids. Critics at the time panned her VMA set. The New York Post wrote, “Spears was stuffed into a spangled bra and hot pants and jiggled like Jell-O as she sleepwalked through the song.” MTV News called her performance a “reeking, outrageous failure.”

 

 

Almost a decade later, it’s not fashionable to be mean about Spears anymore. Reviewers grudgingly praised Spears’ performance of “Make Me,” the first single from her newly released album Glory. But the specter of 2007 Britney remained central to the conversation. BuzzFeed posted a frame-by-frame comparison of the two VMA performances, suggesting that she had finally taken back “the same stage that nearly destroyed her nine years ago.” MTV promos in advance of the awards showed clips of Spears’ on-stage “meltdown. ”

 

 

Our obsession with Spears’ storied public failures is only one part of the misogyny that underlies women’s comeback narratives. Spears is allowed to succeed again; many people are even rooting for her. But much of the appeal of her “comeback” is predicated upon revisiting her earlier public humiliation while reinforcing the unrealistic expectations to which we hold women. It’s not enough for Spears to turn in a solid performance. We want to see if she’s managed to magically transform herself back into the embodiment of smiling, shiny, **** pop-star perfection.

 

 

More often than not, this is how fame works for women. First, we hold them to a standard that no human could ever maintain, and most can’t even fake. Then we pick them apart to the point of collapse. After a few years, we attempt to prove our beneficence by “forgiving" them.

The cruelty with which Spears was treated throughout the late 2000s is shameful in retrospect. Indeed, by the time Spears hit the VMA stage in 2007, she was already viewed by both the public and the media as “crazy.” She was getting divorced from her husband, Kevin Federline. She was fighting for custody of two small children, one of whom was less than a year old. She had been in rehab and in court. The hyper-invasive, hyper-profitable coverage of her personal life meant that she was perpetually stalked by photographers, and her relationship with the paparazzi was growing increasingly hostile.

 

 

Spears had every reason to be unhappy and stressed in 2007. Yet our public acceptance of her apparently hinged on whether—in the midst of an objectively awful time in her life—she could convincingly act as if nothing was wrong. We wanted her to shimmy on stage. We wanted her to welcome the strange men with cameras who followed her home to see if she looked ugly when she cried about losing her baby son.

 

 

Women run up against smaller-scale versions of these impossible expectations every day. They experience it every time they’re told to “smile” by a stranger on the street, or get accused of having “resting ***** face,” or get called “crazy” for revealing their emotions during a confrontation. Women are routinely judged on their ability to appear pleasant and accommodating, even as they’re being mistreated. This effort is called “emotional labor”—the work of managing others’ emotional needs while hiding your own.

 

 

Spears more or less went on an emotional labor strike for all of 2007. She’d built her fame on a perpetually smiling, ****, accommodating brand. In her early career she was so beholden to our culture’s contradictory expectations of women that she seemed to be attempting to satisfy all of them. (Preach abstinence? Sure! Strip down to atransparent jumpsuit on live television? Also sure!) Her song titles expressed sentiments like “I Was Born to Make You Happy” and “I’m A Slave 4 U.” And the public loved her for it.

 

 

But when the act cracked, the public was equal parts entertained and disgusted. Even when Spears was at the peak of her career, it was inevitable that she’d one day stop being the All-American **** teen virgin. The anticipation of her eventual failure was a built-in part of her appeal.

 

 

This is exactly what makes the “comeback” narrative we’ve saddled Spears with so troubling. The tone with which we cover Spears has undeniably changed. The kids who listened to “…Baby One More Time” in middle school have grown up and gotten media jobs; the bubblegum pop music that Spears became famous for is now in vogue with critics. Even at the peak of her late-1990s fame, it would have been hard to imagine a Rolling Stone review that earnestlycompared Spears to David Bowie; in 2016, it’s par for the course. Genuine respect for Spears undoubtedly informs this response; whether or not you like her early albums, there’s no denying she changed the course of pop music.

 

 

But our eagerness for a Spears “comeback” also seems to stem from an urge to see her, literally, return to her original teenage persona: To be the physically flawless, psychologically impermeable performer upon whom we could project whatever we wanted. Perhaps that’s why we’ve been anticipating her comeback for years without ever admitting her back into the fold. Until she manages to go back in time and become a vixen with a python draped around her shoulders, we’ll never declare her fully recovered.

 

 

A sense of public guilt may also drive our obsession with a Spears comeback. We need some kind of reassurance that we did not permanently harm this woman. And we need that reassurance to come from Britney Spears herself.

 

 

The problem, of course, is that we did hurt Spears. After a long, bad year, Spears was admitted to a mental health facility. This hospital stay then became grounds for her father (from whom she’d previously been estranged) to assert a conservatorship so severe that its terms are normally reserved for people with debilitating cognitive disabilities. She makes millions of dollars per year, but still doesn’t control her own finances. She’s a *** symbol who can’t legally marry without permission. No matter how much BuzzFeed or anyone else asserts that Spears is “doing what she loves,” she does not have the legal wherewithal to sign her own contracts—meaning that we have no idea if she does love it. She didn’t in 2007. Does she really want a comeback, or do we?

http://qz.com/770807/the-britney-spears-comeback-narrative-is-all-about-saddling-women-with-impossible-expectations/

This is legit the perfect response to all the meltdowns about Britney's VMA performance. Britney was like a 10/100 in Vegas and the ppl wanted her to jump to a 90/100 even when she was like 50/100 which is reasonable and realistic but that's not enough for them and they want that unrealistic change so quickly right now so they can feel she made a comeback and there's no need to feel guilt and shame for what they put her through in 1999-2008. It's true, they need this comeback more than Britney herself does and that's exactly why some articles (and the GP's comments) picked her apart more than she probably did to herself that night. Ppl are so cruel. 

It's no just the VMAs either, it's everything in 2011-2016

[Smokez]

Very interesting article.

[Kisle]

The article is a nice read and necessary for the mindset of the GP (and 80% of exhale). But let's be real, whether anyone liked her BBMA or VMA performance, she's back in shape, happy, creating amazing music again and performing at a level no one has seen in almost a decade. People need to appreciate and enjoy the ride Britney is now taking us on.

[King B.]

1 minute ago, Kisle said:

The article is a nice read and necessary for the mindset of the GP (and 80% of exhale). But let's be real, whether anyone liked her BBMA or VMA performance, she's back in shape, happy, creating amazing music again and performing at a level no one has seen in almost a decade. People need to appreciate and enjoy the ride Britney is now taking us on.

[Applejack]

I wouldn't call it misogynist. Michael Jackson wasn't a woman, as far as I could tell. 

[Derek08]

She doesn't have a dance song like baby oops or slave to promote at the vmas. Her new single is better as a song but it is not meant to a huge danc number. What she did fit the song and did what is meant to do, promote the song and have her dancing and looking great while doing it. It was very solid and maybe next time she will have a dance song out to promote

[Guest]

interesting, but the last part was stupid i guess...

[softskeleton]

Nice article... Makes me love her even more for being here spoiling us so much with the most beautiful smile on her face even after all that she's been through. Such a strong, admirable woman. Role model. 

[Borja]

Really good.

I cringe every time I read Britney is back.

[austsilva]

I agree with most of this article. I don't think Britney wants to be on top or like she was in 1999 per se but I think she is enjoying herself as of late. She seems to be happier than ever and even with her restraints I think she still has her own say in most situations. But I think this album shows she's finally enjoying making music again and in her performances she's giving her genuine smile that she has but who really knows. Only Britney 

[Nina Dobrev]

8 minutes ago, Kisle said:

The article is a nice read and necessary for the mindset of the GP (and 80% of exhale). But let's be real, whether anyone liked her BBMA or VMA performance, she's back in shape, happy, creating amazing music again and performing at a level no one has seen in almost a decade. People need to appreciate and enjoy the ride Britney is now taking us on.

 

[OutrageousSin]

Interesting read for sure, but let's be fully honest here! 

She's not giving just 10/100 in Vegas! People forgot how Britney used to perform! She never gave it %100 unless it's an award/tv show or something important! but because it happened before 2007 then it's considered "perfect" 

No! it's not, because now she's giving way more in one show! Yes maybe the dancing was sharper than now but the effort is bigger in Vegas "sometimes" specially in the new show!

Current Britney is doing almost the same or a bit more than 2004 Britney! compare everything and you'll see! 

 

 

 

 

[GirlOnTheMoon]

10 minutes ago, Kisle said:

The article is a nice read and necessary for the mindset of the GP (and 80% of exhale). But let's be real, whether anyone liked her BBMA or VMA performance, she's back in shape, happy, creating amazing music again and performing at a level no one has seen in almost a decade. People need to appreciate and enjoy the ride Britney is now taking us on.

 

[Dolce]

But our eagerness for a Spears “comeback” also seems to stem from an urge to see her, literally, return to her original teenage persona. Until she manages to go back in time and become a vixen with a python draped around her shoulders, we’ll never declare her fully recovered.

This is so true. Even a majority of us on exhale have been thinking like this. I have to admit I'm guilty of it too   Sometimes we forget that the expectations we are placing on her are ridiculous for any human being. I think for us fans, we don't do it from a place of greed like the GP did, but cause we genuinely wanted to see her with the passion back again and succeed again. We keep hoping that she can go back to how she was before cause other popstars her age are still performing like they're 20. But I didn't realize that maybe it's not that she can't, but that she doesn't want to.  Maybe she's happier as she is now, even if she's not going as hard with the choreography as she did back in the day. We'll just have to learn to be happy with that as fans because she is happy. 

[ItsGodneyB**ch]

Great article

[I Just Want More]

19 minutes ago, Mauricio22 said:

interesting, but the last part was stupid i guess...

Mte, it was all good till they suggested she's unhappy because of the plans her management has set up for her. As much as she doesn't need the conservatorship, no one can deny that Jamie truly loves Britney and wouldn't force her into anything huge that she didn't want to do. 

[Mario]

Good read! Thanks for sharing.

[BratzBitch]

24 minutes ago, Kisle said:

The article is a nice read and necessary for the mindset of the GP (and 80% of exhale). But let's be real, whether anyone liked her BBMA or VMA performance, she's back in shape, happy, creating amazing music again and performing at a level no one has seen in almost a decade. People need to appreciate and enjoy the ride Britney is now taking us on.

Agreed, like if she really didn't want to do what she's doing now, we wouldn't have seen her current resurrection, we would be stuck with FFney today 

[colormefresh]

It was great until they brought up the damn conservatorship. It's just a legal safety net. When will people learn? 

[Maryy]

so many deep articles about her lately 

it's so nice from press to actually pay attention to her progress, musical career and personal life and kinda separate these three things while explaining it or commenting it. 

it's actually very nice from Huffington Posto, New York Times, TIME, Rolling Stone and now this QZ deep article that are analyzing her new album and VMAs performance. 

 

at least there is some constructive criticism. they all have valid points. which is GREAT!