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| Amanda Bynes' public meltdown says more about us than her | Amanda Bynes' public meltdown says more about us than her |
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| Beautiful women who fall apart serve a necessary cultural purpose: they're a warning against over-indulgence and narcissism. They also attract the peddlers of celebrity gossip in a way that few other stories do. | Beautiful women who fall apart serve a necessary cultural purpose: they're a warning against over-indulgence and narcissism. They also attract the peddlers of celebrity gossip in a way that few other stories do. |
| Today, it's Amanda Bynes. In recent memory it's been Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paula Abdul, Anna Nicole Smith and Courtney Love. The storyline is more or less the same every time: a celebrity whose career is ebbing does something erratic; the media takes notice; the celebrity realizes the media notices and the erratic behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, often involving social media; at some point the celebrity does something illegal or at least quite alarming and the police become involved; rubber-neckers look on and murmur concern while buying Us Weekly to get the latest. | Today, it's Amanda Bynes. In recent memory it's been Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Paula Abdul, Anna Nicole Smith and Courtney Love. The storyline is more or less the same every time: a celebrity whose career is ebbing does something erratic; the media takes notice; the celebrity realizes the media notices and the erratic behavior becomes increasingly bizarre, often involving social media; at some point the celebrity does something illegal or at least quite alarming and the police become involved; rubber-neckers look on and murmur concern while buying Us Weekly to get the latest. |
| They're often women who became famous at a young age – Bynes was a child star – and their personal development seems suspended in perpetual adolescence. There are the beautiful, damaged, drug-addicted ones like Edie Sedgwick or Cat Marnell, who are waifish and sexy and wide-eyed, if not particularly sexual. Those women are cultural icons, venerated as much as they're discussed with the requisite concern. And then there are the ones we call "out of control," who stop being sexy – the women like Britney and Bynes, who transgress the boundaries of acceptable femininity by, say, shaving their heads, which the public takes as evidence that they've really lost it. | They're often women who became famous at a young age – Bynes was a child star – and their personal development seems suspended in perpetual adolescence. There are the beautiful, damaged, drug-addicted ones like Edie Sedgwick or Cat Marnell, who are waifish and sexy and wide-eyed, if not particularly sexual. Those women are cultural icons, venerated as much as they're discussed with the requisite concern. And then there are the ones we call "out of control," who stop being sexy – the women like Britney and Bynes, who transgress the boundaries of acceptable femininity by, say, shaving their heads, which the public takes as evidence that they've really lost it. |
| Clearly, we love a good train wreck, especially a female one. | Clearly, we love a good train wreck, especially a female one. |
| It's easy to go the "Leave Britney alone!" route, or to insist we collectively look away, or to criticize the media for perpetuating these downward spirals by giving the spiral-er the attention she craves. Those are all fair responses – we should all leave Britney alone and stop staring at people who are visibly troubled; the tabloid model that profits when bad things happen to famous people is clearly an evil one. | It's easy to go the "Leave Britney alone!" route, or to insist we collectively look away, or to criticize the media for perpetuating these downward spirals by giving the spiral-er the attention she craves. Those are all fair responses – we should all leave Britney alone and stop staring at people who are visibly troubled; the tabloid model that profits when bad things happen to famous people is clearly an evil one. |
| But it's also worth taking a look at why we find it so satisfying when women appear to descend into madness, especially when those women were, like Bynes, previously paragons of female sweetness and innocence. Their erratic behavior is a particularly female kind: they're brash when they were once admired for being demure, they amp up pinup model femininity in their appearance to the point of parody (think Bynes' bleach-blonde wig and push-up bras, or Anna Nicole Smith's heavy make-up and bleached hair) or tear it down in some dramatic way (head shaving seems to be a popular choice). | But it's also worth taking a look at why we find it so satisfying when women appear to descend into madness, especially when those women were, like Bynes, previously paragons of female sweetness and innocence. Their erratic behavior is a particularly female kind: they're brash when they were once admired for being demure, they amp up pinup model femininity in their appearance to the point of parody (think Bynes' bleach-blonde wig and push-up bras, or Anna Nicole Smith's heavy make-up and bleached hair) or tear it down in some dramatic way (head shaving seems to be a popular choice). |
| We love watching women the way we watch things. We're used to women's bodies being physical representations of sex, being coat-hangers for clothing, existing for our aesthetic pleasure and admiration and disgust. Even the females among us often adopt the male gaze, watching other women and watching ourselves be watched. Aesthetically, we gravitate toward culturally-agreed-upon beauty, but perfection slashed through with hideousness can be particularly compelling. When we're used to seeing actresses, pop stars and models as part of an assembly line of real-life Barbie dolls, it becomes all the more interesting to see one with go by with her head popped off. | We love watching women the way we watch things. We're used to women's bodies being physical representations of sex, being coat-hangers for clothing, existing for our aesthetic pleasure and admiration and disgust. Even the females among us often adopt the male gaze, watching other women and watching ourselves be watched. Aesthetically, we gravitate toward culturally-agreed-upon beauty, but perfection slashed through with hideousness can be particularly compelling. When we're used to seeing actresses, pop stars and models as part of an assembly line of real-life Barbie dolls, it becomes all the more interesting to see one with go by with her head popped off. |
| While we're transfixed, women are especially punished for appearing to go off the deep end. Men who behave like raging narcissists and actually get violent, on the other hand, are routinely enabled and placated. Take Charlie Sheen as the most obvious example: he attacked a couple of women and went on TV ranting about tiger blood, all while maintaining his role on a popular (if astoundingly bad) television show. His behavior, though violent and abusive, was laughed off as "antics". | While we're transfixed, women are especially punished for appearing to go off the deep end. Men who behave like raging narcissists and actually get violent, on the other hand, are routinely enabled and placated. Take Charlie Sheen as the most obvious example: he attacked a couple of women and went on TV ranting about tiger blood, all while maintaining his role on a popular (if astoundingly bad) television show. His behavior, though violent and abusive, was laughed off as "antics". |
| Chris Brown, who beat up his famous girlfriend and engaged in several other rage-fueled incidents involving throwing chairs and destroying dressing rooms, continues to have a successful music career and hasn't had his mental health roundly questioned. Those men actually hurt people, and appear to lack any sort of regret for their actions. We may tsk tsk them, but we still line their pockets and perpetuate their careers. | Chris Brown, who beat up his famous girlfriend and engaged in several other rage-fueled incidents involving throwing chairs and destroying dressing rooms, continues to have a successful music career and hasn't had his mental health roundly questioned. Those men actually hurt people, and appear to lack any sort of regret for their actions. We may tsk tsk them, but we still line their pockets and perpetuate their careers. |
| The women we use as morality tales. It's a sort of superiority to be able to take to Twitter or any tabloid pages and remark on how sad a woman's behavior is. It's the nice-girl flipside of flat-out calling her a whore, as model Chrissy Teigen did to Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham. It is, of course, sad to see anyone descend into what looks like an untreated mental illness. But wide mockery followed by feigned concern for the person behaving erratically only benefits the pontificators. | |
| In the months leading up to her recent arrest, Bynes shaved part of her head, posted a series of lingerie selfies on Twitter, claimed to be emabrking on a rap career and pierced her cheeks. She has threatened to sue In Touch magazine, Us Weekly, TMZ, the New York Police Department and a variety of other entities. She lashed out at model Chrissy Teigen after Teigen took to Twitter to voice her concern that it was "unsettling" that anyone was giving Bynes attention. Bynes' Twitter account also included tweets attacking Rihanna, which Bynes later claimed were mocked up by someone else. (Rihanna, true to form, responded with restraint and humor). The tabloid media and many mainstream sources continue to report on Bynes' ongoing meltdown. Thousands of Twitter uses are getting in on the action. TMZ updates its website practically every time Bynes tweets. | |
| In the Twitter age, these kinds of celebrity meltdowns followed by the inevitable B-celebrity feuds also give us remarkable insight into profound and widespread idiocy. I want to believe that most people are reasonably intelligent. But watching Team Amanda tweeters fight with Team Chrissy about who is the most ugly/beautiful/crazy/important leads me to think that we're all terrible and should just elect a Kardashian president to get the ball really rolling on our inevitable and (frankly) fully deserved demise. | In the Twitter age, these kinds of celebrity meltdowns followed by the inevitable B-celebrity feuds also give us remarkable insight into profound and widespread idiocy. I want to believe that most people are reasonably intelligent. But watching Team Amanda tweeters fight with Team Chrissy about who is the most ugly/beautiful/crazy/important leads me to think that we're all terrible and should just elect a Kardashian president to get the ball really rolling on our inevitable and (frankly) fully deserved demise. |
| I suppose I'm doing my part by even writing about Amanda Bynes in the first place. | I suppose I'm doing my part by even writing about Amanda Bynes in the first place. |