Comments on: Britney & the Bald Call: From Isht to iSht

By: A Circle of Protection for Britney « Waking the Midnight Sun

A Circle of Protection for Britney « Waking the Midnight Sun — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 14:54:12 +0000

[...] my Britney and the Bald Call: These representative god/desses of our culture exhibit considerably less self-awareness and [...]

By: The Continuing Ritual Sacrifice of the Representative Goddess « Waking the Midnight Sun

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:36:39 +0000

[...] As I wrote almost a year ago in Britney and the Bald Call: [...]

By: Meet the New Sacrificial Goddess? Same as the Old One? « Waking the Midnight Sun

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 12:50:39 +0000

[...] The Bald Call: From Isht to ISht [...]

By: cadeveo

cadeveo — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 18:36:44 +0000

I appreciate your compassion, Kaylenna. What you imply is correct–she’s just a person, like you and me. So then we fall into a dangerous manipulation of our time and energy when we devote ourselves to the images of her rise and fall and rise and fall…
We’re feeding something we ought not to feed and our passive consumption of her image and mediated ritual life does not, in any way, help her…or us.

By: Kaylenna

Kaylenna — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 01:40:52 +0000

I think Britney has just had a hard time adjusting to Mommyhood. She needs to stay home and put her kids to sleep and let go of the who’s hot party world. But, maybe she never had that simple nuturing growing up…so how is she to understand how to let go and do if for her own kids?

By: cadeveo

cadeveo — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 07:10:10 +0000

Compassion isn’t quite the same thing as “feeling sorry” for someone, at least not how I perceive it.

The jury’s still out as to whether ANS really drank herself to death and media reports for or against, really prove nothing–it’s representation, not reality, mixed and edited.

As for Britney, the act of shaving one’s head does not necessarily make one crazy. If my friend shaved her head, I would never jumpt to that conclusion; however, the way the image of Britney is framed for the masses, we are led by the nose to simply say, “Well, she’s nuts.” I think that’s a pretty simplistic reading–the act can have other meanings with a different, deeper framing–I just point out one.

I don’t think I’m “just blaming the media” or people who believe them (cuz there are many media), but maybe. What I’m intend to show is that there are more than surfaces in the world, but the surfaces are manipulated. And the more surface-like one is, the more easily manipulated s/he is–whether it’s ANS, Britney or you or me. The point is to gain awareness, to wake up–those enacting rituals and playing roles without awareness are tragic for not being in a state to realize that, as you point out, there is personal responsibility. But along with personal responsibility, there are quite a few forces working against its realization.

Thanks for your thoughts and for sharing your personal story. My condolences for your losses and admiration for your strength.

By: detoam

detoam — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 05:39:37 +0000

To be honest I do not feel a bit sorry for them. They had control of their lives and still do. It is easy to blame media or those who believe the media, but the truth is this so-called stars have done all that to themselves. I am not a heartless person and I do sympathize with them on one level. That being that people are so stupid that they will take their insecurities on someone else and see nothing but bad in a person. I am talking from a very much personal experience. I have, since 2002, being talked about in a very degrading manner. I cannot reveal the details, but it all lead to losing my family and lot of self doubt. Why? All because someone assumed that what they heard was true. From there it, overnight, became a nightmare. And even though I have proven it to be not true it is too late. However instead of drinking myself to death or shaving my head I told myself that life goes on whether I want it or not and there will always be someone pathetic enough to want to make someone else doubt themselves. BTW I have a bipolar disorder and even my doctors are surprised that I have not killed myself despite losing everything and everyone I have loved. Even my little angels.

By: cadeveo

cadeveo — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 06:12:09 +0000

There are deeper things going on with pop culture than the train wreck fomented and exploited by the mass media framing of things. The images of ANS, Britney, etc. get edited, distorted and framed in a certain way (just as the people themselves are), for specific purposes–through their images, individuals get manipulated and controlled, not the least of them being the celebrities themselves.
Certain things we can only approach symbolically. In the end, the symbols represent US as well as that which is external to but still part of US.
Compassion is important–but compassion that is limited to just feeling sorry for someone, without it having any effect on how *we* as individuals live, is simply the sign of compassion, not the thing itself. Not saying that’s where you’re coming from, b/c I do agree with you; but real compassion comes through a change in ourselves–a weaning off from our fascination with the illusions placed before us to consume us and be consumed by us; this will give us greater time to engage real compassion as individuals, one on one, with those who share our real lives, b/c we seldom have the means to effect the lives of those we will only see imagistically via media priestcraft.

ANS absolutely needed a hug and a well-grounded friend, I agree; but she wasn’t going to get one, i believe–for that was simply not in the cards, given the role she was chosen to play and which she did play, without enough consciousness to escape the trap.

There’s still hope for Britney…and part of that hope is realizing what rituals we are still taking part of unwittingly and with destructive results, so that we can extricate ourselves from them and create other, more compassionate rituals–true community–to replace them. Hug the Britneys in your actual life!

By: Avarign

Avarign — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 07:04:55 +0000

Interesting ideas. I find it’s not everyone who’s fascinated with the degradation of a human, and for many who watch ET, etc., it’s an unconscious escape from boredom. Britney needs a hug and a well grounded friend. Anna Nicole needed that too!
I understand you’re seeing them from a symbolic place. I feel the less we symbolize them, the more we see ourselves in them. Hence we’ll extend to them the compassion we hold for ourselves.
Peace!