Britney Spears and American Morality
Feb 18 '07
The Bottom Line It depends on your values system - if you hold to absolutes and a set morality, then yes. But in America today, it's really up to the individual artist.
I believe that Artists have a social responsibility to uphold, but the answer to this question depends entirely on the world view of the individual. Mine happens to be that I believe in a God who will reward good and punish evil. That all men and women are accountable to Him and in the end will be judged according to His revealed structure of morality, as revealed in the Bible. I state this only to make my point, because if you believe this, then you had better believe artists should be watching their influence and producing art that is "moral" or at least, not "IMmoral."
If you believe that art should be a vehicle for the complete expression of the artist without penalty, you are going to need to live with the results.
You can't have it both ways. You can't deny a system of absolutes in morality and criticize filthy lyrics - you can't hold artists to some moral standard that has no ultimate judge or creator of those standards.
Today as I am writing, the news is flashing pictures of pop icon Britney Spears sporting her new shaved head and tattoos. She walked into a salon, asked for her head to be shaved, and when the shocked stylist asked her to wait a day or two and reconsider, Britney grabbed a razor and shaved her own head. In full view of the paparazzi. It drew quite a crowd.
Like the morbid fascination that prompts some to look for bodies when passing a horrific car wreck, I find myself unable to shake the images of America's Pop Princess shaving her famous blonde locks and not caring a bit if pictures are taken; if her reputation is shaken; she is carrying out the progressive behavior of the exploited.
Britney has lost all self-respect. She started out on the Mickey Mouse Club as a young Christian girl who tried to mix fame and old fashioned values - drawing ridicule for publically stating she was going to wait until marriage to have sex. Years of teaching about morality and being a "good girl" made her a role model for young girls - she was cute and pretty and happy and positive. Of course, this was image just as much as what followed. It was just "positive" spin.
Cute and happy and positive doesn't sell records. As her image quickly was molded into a sexual one that would make any Church-going Southerner blush, she seemed to become confused and alienated from her values, having traded them in for fame. Probably justified it to herself somehow - this sexpot image that would influence millions of young women to be as trampy as possible . . . selling your soul to the Devil is probably not too extreme a statement for what Britney chose to do, and overcoming years of strict teaching about morality usually isn't entirely possible.
Britney was now living a life that was at odds with her internal values. And that leads to a profound lack of self-respect. Because Britney DID believe in absolutes - in moral right and wrong - she knew better and that makes her responsible for her actions as an individual and her choice to be a sexually immoral role model for young women.
Sadly, sex sells, but it can also get pretty old, pretty fast for the one objectified and idolized. What happens when your low self-esteem leads you to marry far beneath what you are worth, but what you think you are lucky to deserve? What happens when your choice to go the route of selling image instead of art; an image of sexuality instead of beauty . . . collides with weight gain? You are mocked by the press for your white-trash ways; you attempt being a mother when you are still a young woman who doesn't know who she is, but now your drama is played out in front of the public eye, and the public are brutally cruel?
Britney led young girls along a path that will also lead to their destruction if they are not careful. And she knows it. She KNOWS it. Baring belly-buttons and skin tight outfits and videos that promote a definition of women as sex objects . . . but by her own experience, marriage and kids require depth of character and maturity and hard work and strong self-esteem.
As an artist, I believe Britney's responsibility to the public as a role model can only be dictated by her personally held values her in the United States. As a nation, we separate Church and State - we allow freedom of expression and do not blend the sacred and the secular as some countries attempt to do. Britney is banned in many strict Muslim countries as being morally corrupt and a bad influence. If an artist's personal morality dictates that they behave "morally" you need to first ask what world view determines what they believe is moral, and the question becomes complicated in America where anything goes in the name of freedom.
Fully expressing oneself is highly overrated in my opinion. There are a lot of sick people out there, and yes, artists are sometimes the sickest! Spout your vile rage in X-rated lyrics, or dance around seductively and cheapen women as a gender . . . I guess the point is, in AMERICA today, you cannot say that artists have a social responsibility without imposing a morality that is uniform and accountable to an absolute standard. It is up to the individual. If, like me, you do believe in that absolute morality, then some day immoral and irresponsible artists will be held accountable and punished (or forgiven as the case may be!) for their immoral behavior. I just don't see the USA being a place where the artist can be held to this kind of standard.
Finally, I want to clarify something. You can believe in God and absolute morality and say that an artist like Britney Spears has genuinely betrayed her values and will be held responsible for misleading young girls into believing sex is the answer for everything . . . but the absolute morality I believe in stresses LOVE above judgement. It's easy to point the finger and get angry about immorality. But let she without sin cast the first stone. Honestly, my heart ACHES for Britney Spears when I see her self-destructive behavior. She is experiencing the logical progression of immoral behavior, but she can get back on her feet if she wants to. She is young, and has lived through the process of fame and fortune so that she knows the pitfalls. That is what I wish for her, and soon.
Thanks for reading.
Melissa
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
hempem
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: Beautiful Northwest
Reviews written: 172
Trusted by: 99 members
About Me:
You are not superior just because you see the world in an odious light.
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.