I wish I had been there to tell little Britney how to flip that power dynamic. This socially acceptable way of putting attention onto men and women differently is one of the essential ingredients of the Good Girl Double Bind. We are obsessed with what men *do* and how women *are*.
Meanwhile, a man can be a genuine predator, yet what he has done and what he's perceived to be able to get done comes first and foremost in how he’s evaluated. Just think how much a woman running for office is scrutinised for how she speaks and dresses versus what she's achieved in her decades-long career. We take this state of affairs so much for granted, that it’s almost invisible. And we’re so accustomed to putting attention on what men can achieve (or are perceived to achieve) versus who they are being. We're so used to talking about who women are being than about what they achieve. In a world where we are obsessed with how women are, and what men achieve it's really easy to see what we, as a culture, did to her. And Britney Spears walked that line masterfully.until she no longer could. In The Good Girl Double Bind, a woman can be neither too bossy nor too weak, too sexy nor too prudish, and so on and so forth. As I watched ‘Framing Britney Spears’, the New York Times documentary, what really stood out to me is how well it captures the architecture of the Good Girl Double Bind and its erosive effects over the course of a woman's life. Contortions-verbal, physical, energetic-ensue. A Good Girl doesn’t want to seem pushy or domineering, but she doesn’t want to seem helpless or pathetic, either. The Good Girl Double Bind describes the precarious ledge most women live on to be socially acceptable, teetering between “too much” and “not enough.” It is a compression that has a detrimental effect on how we communicate. It is why one of our challenges at The Academy is to invent new language, terms like Freeze, Silent Expectations, and Good Girl Double Bind. Language, or a lack thereof, inhibits the ways in which women are able to speak to their experience. But the erosive effects on a woman of being pinned this way and losing her ability to speak honestly about a situation has a damaging psychological effect. In the context of the times, this moment was dismissed as funny and innocent. She is learning to walk the tightrope of the Good Girl Double Bind. In this moment she is learning how to hide her feelings, dishonor her truth, and generate the least offensive answers she possibly can. Searching for a way out, she lands on, “it depends.” As Britney shrinks and shrinks, the audience laughs and laughs. Her eyes dart to the side, searching for an answer that will not incriminate her, that will not make her sound rude, that will not give him the wrong idea, that will not give the audience the wrong idea. She freezes, and you can see it onscreen for a fraction of a second. “But what about me?” And in that moment, 10-year old Britney Spears is on the spot. “Why not?” presses Ed, “because they’re mean” insists little Britney. He comments on the 10-year old prodigy’s “pretty eyes”, rather than her powerful voice, and then asks: “Do you have a boyfriend?” “No, sir” she retorts politely.
#SPEAR GIRL WALLPAPER TV#
She has just given a jaw-dropping performance in a TV singing competition. Britney Spears is 10 years old, Ed McMahon is 69.
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