Outrage over Britney's Belly

Despite her many, publicly stated faults, despite her sad descent into trashiness, despite her disappointing excuse for a comeback, Britney Spears is not fat.


The Internet was teeming this morning with blogs on Britney's belly. Critics everywhere are "disgusted" and "embarassed for her" because of her appearance.

Um, excuse me? I know plenty of people who would be happy to switch bodies with her (at least the outside; who can say what state her health is in). Especially given that she has had two children in the past few years, I think she is doing just fine.

Opinions at the Associated Press were fairly open minded:

"Was it fair? Did Spears, lest we forget a mother of two, deserve to be held up against the standard of her once fantastically toned abs, sculpted by sessions of 1,000 tummy crunches? Or was she asking for it by choosing that unforgiving black-sequined bikini?

"More profoundly, in an age where skinny models and skeletal actresses are under scrutiny for the message they're sending young girls, what does it say that we're excoriating a young woman for a little thickness in her middle?

"Talk of Spears' physique comes amid an increasingly critical focus on overly skinny actresses in Hollywood, who've largely replaced supermodels as the world's fashion plates. It's hard to pick up a celebrity magazine without a critical photo of, say, Angelina Jolie's birdlike arms. And curvy actresses are getting positive attention, from Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson of "Dreamgirls" to Golden Globe-winner America Ferrara of TV's "Ugly Betty."

"In the fashion industry, there's been an effort to promote healthier-looking models. "Girls aren't looking as skinny this season as they did," said Suze Yalof Scwhartz, executive editor-at-large for Glamour Magazine. "There's food backstage. They're looking sexier." At Glamour, she noted, a model won't be featured "if she shows too much clavicle." "

I think britney should be satisfied with the way she looks. However her health, both physical and emotional, are in need of attention. Maybe if we stopped focusing on what "we the people" deem that she should look like, someone could give her the help she really needs. As long as the media and the consumers of America give constant focus to the disarray of her life, she has little hope.

I am asking you all to be better than that.