Archive for October 19th, 2009
This is the first draft of a paper for my pop-culture class. Read it and weep.
Britney Spears’ shaved head at face value only seemed culturally relevant because it was shocking, but the significance of one individual’s breakdown quickly became the metaphor of one culture’s implosion: celebrity culture. Britney Spears’ shaved head is culturally significant, because prior when we saw any other “celebrity starlet” bareheaded it was a symbol of strength. Sinead O’Connor, Natalie Portman, Demi Moore, (we’ll ignore that it’s problematic that a woman has to have male attributes to appear strong). These women were revered and admired, artists or dedicated actresses in fulfilling their roles, going against the grain of convention, a woman’s bald head—a celebrity woman’s bald head—meant that she transcended beauty because she didn’t need something that is a paramount part of femininity’s essence—long locks—to appear beautiful.