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CREEPING_SPEARS

                                            February 18, 2003

Britney Spears creeps me out.

I haven't heard any of her music to
my knowledge (or maybe I should say
"her" music, because she appears to
be up front with the fact that she
has no creative input into it).

I only see her pictures on occasion,
e.g. in the many Britney books on
the shelves of the mainstream
bookstores.

I first flipped though one expecting
that I would at least think she was
cute, or that there was something
interesting about the clothes they
had her wearing, or something like
that.

Instead I find that I'm immediately
turned off by her appearance.
Whatever image she projects, in
whatever photos she appears in, it
always seems like such a blatant
plastic overlay that I can't get
into it.

In many, if not most, of the photos,
if you just look at the expression
on her face, there's something
disturbing about it.  There's often
that -- if you'll excuse the cliche --
deer-caught-in-the-headlights look.
The big wide grin never seems like a
real smile.  The wide brown eyes
strike me as someone in a terrified
state of confusion.  Maybe she's
been living on diet pills for too
long.

And every single one of her outfits
looks (a) terrible or (b) like it
might look okay on someone else.
Even the bleached blond hair she
sports sometimes seems tremendously
wrong somehow... phony in a sense
far deeper than just artificial (any       But then I certainly
punk on the street with hair died          haven't seen any of
chartreuse looks more at home with         her videos.  I don't
it).                                       know, maybe she can
                                           dance or something.
I don't know exactly why I find this
so disturbing.  It's pretty obvious
that insincere art has a powerful
attraction these days and Britney is
hardly the only example.  But
there's something about Britney that
rings so extremely hollow...  don't
those people have eyes in their
heads?  Can't they see what's in
front of them?

In a weird way she reminds me of
Marilyn Monroe.  I've never really
understood the appeal of Marilyn
Monroe, either...                              Scanning the cover girls
        	                               at the newsstand: maybe
If I had to guess: the real appeal             they all look that way.
of a Britney is that she's *completely*
non-threatening... even more so than           This hint of
Marilyn Monroe, who had to *act*               uncomprehending panic
weak. Britney really *is* weak.                about to overwhelm them.

        		                       Long photo sessions,
Little lost lambs get wolves excited,          plastered-on smiles,
especially the weak and sickly                 living on speed and
wolves that can't even expect to               heroin.
take down a slow moving cow.
                                               And they're just not in
                                               control of what they're doing.
      ORIENTAL_TWIST

                                          Madonna never
                                          looked like this.



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