(You Drive Me) Crazy: The Rhetorical Construction of Britney Spears's "Breakdown"

This is my paper proposal for Basic Rhetorical Criticism with Josh Gunn:

Britney Spears has spent much of her young life within the popular gaze. Over the past 10 years through music videos, concert appearances and five successful albums, Britney’s image has become an industry. At the start of her career she was sold as a fetish of the virgin/whore dichotomy, playing the “sexy schoolgirl” role in her first video for “…Baby One More Time.” While her more talented colleagues (Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake come to mind) rely on actual vocal ability to sell records, Britney has become one of the most successful female artists of all time through a combination of a catchy (manufactured/insipid) sound and constant popular attention. However, for the past few years Britney’s personal strife has fueled her public persona as she’s undergone what Vanessa Gigoridadis (2008) calls “the most public downfall of any star in history.”

In the period from 2006 to early 2008 Britney’s music took a backseat to her stints in rehab, “accidental” crotch shots and custody battles with ex-husband Kevin Federline (K-Fed). As Grigoridadis (2008) writes, “She’s the canary in the coal mine of our culture, the most vivid representation of the excess of the past decade.” As a celebrity whose image is manufactured for public consumption, Britney Spears’s public “breakdown” has also been extensively documented, raising questions about 21st century American culture: “She's the perfect celebrity for America in decline: Like President Bush, she just doesn't give a fuck, but at least we won't have to clean up after her mess for the rest of our lives” (Grigoridadis, 2008). Just when it seemed she might make a musical comeback with her successful 5th album, disturbingly titled Blackout, she gave a performance at the 2007 MTV Awards that might lead one to wonder if she even knew she was there. Speculation about her psychological condition came to a climax early in 2008 when she was taken to the hospital by the LAPD, leading to rumors that she had attempted suicide and might be suffering from bipolar disorder.

Britney’s construction as a celebrity and the discourses about her mental illness raise several questions. What is it about Britney Spears that fascinates Americans? Why do we seem to take so much pleasure in her suffering? How might the commodification of her identity interact with the rhetorical construction of her mental illness? Is the Britney we know a cultural construct? If so, is her crazy really a communication of our cultural craziness? Did we drive her crazy? Finally, what does it say about America that we would do this to a human being? Though this analysis interrogates the discourses surrounding Britney’s “breakdown”, as a primary rhetorical artifact I have chosen as a text the South Park episode “Britney’s New Look” that first aired on March 19, 2008.

In the typical style of South Park, “Britney’s New Look” takes a satirical look at a cultural phenomenon while also driving home a clear message, which I intend to unpack in my rhetorical criticism. Within the first five minutes of the episode Britney, who has taken refuge in South Park, is driven to blow off her face with a shotgun when the boys join in on the paparazzi frenzy and break into her hotel room to take a picture of her. Through the miracle of animation, Britney survives and continues to be the focus of the episode despite not having most of her head. The media and her managers seem oblivious to her suffering as they force her to gargle her way into the studio and continue to degrade and humiliate her. The boys, however, realize the error of their ways and try to help Britney escape the constant attention.

Butters and later Stan argue that treating Britney the way we do is inhuman and that we should just leave her alone. When she attempts suicide in the episode, the message is clear: we made her do it. The boys try to take her to the North Pole, but are unable to escape because of the plot that becomes the metaphor for the message of the episode. Britney can’t escape because we need her to die. In the episode, her creation as a celebrity and subsequent downfall is explained as part of a convoluted sacrificial ritual that America engages in to insure a good harvest. The episode climaxes with a crowd gathering around Britney and photographing her to death. In an ominous conclusion, the citizens of South Park congratulate each other on the good harvest but pause to watch a celebrity gossip show talking about the newest teen sensation: Miley Cyrus. The implication is oops, we’re doing it again. Though Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s argument that we create and destroy celebrities for a good harvest is satirical, the question they ask I think is an important one because of what it says about 21st century U.S. American culture:

What have we done to Britney Spears and why?

References
Grigoriadis, V. (2008) The tragedy of Britney Spears. Rolling Stone. (Feb 21, 2008).
Retrieved September 3, 2008 from http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/18310562/cover_story_the_tragedy_of_britney_spears/print
Parker, T. and Stone, M. [Writers, directors and producers] (2008) Britney’s new look.
[Television episode]. South Park. March 19, 2008.