Britney

I pulled this off Plugged In Online. I thought it was very good.

QUOTE: "Who can believe there is anything more to say about Britney Spears at this point. But, alas, there is. Spears has come to represent something—something important enough that it keeps rearing its head. … 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. ... Sure, she looked better in a bikini than probably 98% of the Americans sitting on their couches and howling at her, but she was no longer porn-star perfect. And in the American lexicon, that equals fat. Wonder why your daughters have eating disorders and hate their bodies? Maybe because they're reading reports that label the thin young women dancing around in a bra and panties physically unappealing and obese. … It's a sickening covenant that seems, more and more, the building block of our pop-culture representation of young femininity."

—Salon contributor Rebecca Traister on Britney Spears' highly criticized "comeback" performance on MTV's 2007 Video Music Awards [salon.com, 9/12/07]