Save what?

I just can’t help but feel that the government is using media coverage of Britney Spears to brainwash us via some bizarre subliminal messaging technique. There is simply no other explanation for the fact that I see or hear something related to Britney Spears about every 16.83 minutes. \nGranted, she was probably the first CD purchase for many of us, myself included – a pivotal moment indeed in the mind of a pubescent, junior high school girl. Thus we can’t help but shake our heads a bit at her downward spiral. Seriously, it’s getting to be a bit much. \nAnd yes, I know my column is only perpetuating the epidemic, so don’t bother writing a letter to the editor about it.\nI had quite the surreal experience when I, wearing a “Save Darfur” T-shirt, crossed sidewalk paths with a girl wearing a “Save Britney” T-shirt. Our eyes glanced at the messages on each other’s shirts before she gave me a knowing smile and flipped her hair. I really don’t know what that was about, but over the course of this semester I’ve seen at least one Save Britney T-shirt a week. \nThis makes my brain hurt. \nChecking my mail at the Willkie Quad center desk now involves turning my face away from the large, flat-screen TV that consistently runs news channels in the building lobby. \nWhy? \nBecause the various news channels on which I used to see images of the week’s current events now run the same 10-second clip of Britney Spears’ infamous performance at MTV’s Video Music Awards, complete with deep, thoughtful questions like “Is Britney too fat?” flashing across the screen. \nIS Britney too fat? I don’t know. I don’t waste time watching things like the VMAs or the Emmys and obsessing over the people I see on the screen.\nWhat I do know is that headlines like “Lard and Clear” on the front page of the New York Post are quite unnecessary and in extremely poor taste. What I also know is that a good number of the people criticizing her appearance are no beauty-queen stick figures themselves. \nWhy do people, especially our college-aged peers, obsess so much over a celebrity who has virtually no impact on our daily lives? \nPerhaps we should turn inward for the answers. Nine out of 10 college women try to control their weight by dieting. \nWe’re busy, stressed and imperfect human beings. \nPublicizing and dramatizing somebody else’s flaws for the purposes of creating a distraction, a water cooler topic that everyone can jump on, is just a shallow way of making yourself feel better. \nIt’s easy to do, and there’s no personal accountability; she’s not going to hop out of the TV or off the front page and confront you. \nPointing out Britney’s cellulite isn’t going to make your diet go any smoother, laughing at her taste in men isn’t going to make your boyfriend any better looking and perhaps most of all, those “Save Britney” T-shirts aren’t cute.