Courtesy: PushTheButton.org
#14: The Britney Spears Breakdown
As another case of the patriots of this great nation loving to watch our fellow citizens crash and burn, the Great Britney Spears Meltdown of 2007 was huge. She’d been in the public eye since she was a teenager, and we’d been happily lapping up everything she gave us. Hit Me Baby One More Time! Oops, I Did It Again! A relationship with Justin Timberlake! The greatest film of all time, Crossroads! But then something shifted. She started slipping. She wasn’t acting like the adorable but also sexy baby-vixen we’d all decided she was going to be! She married a NORMAL DUDE and had CHILDREN. THEN DIVORCED HIM!!!!! She wasn’t doing the things we wanted her to do as AMERICAN CONSUMERS, and it was her responsibility to behave in the exact manner in which we deemed most appropriate and/or entertaining, dammit!!!! So, in what we somehow managed to convince ourselves was an unexpected and shocking twist, she had enough, and she broke. She shaved her head, got some tattoos, and started to attack the paparazzi that found it necessary to stalk and record this entire event.
If you haven’t already come to the realization, this was yet another young woman-centric pop culture event that we the people handled poorly. We pushed her to the edge, she fell off, then we blamed her for not being strong or sane or mature enough to hang on tighter. But, guess what? She’s now headlining her own Vegas tour, largely staying out of the headlines, and still has the honor of taking responsibility for this country’s greatest piece of art: YUP, IT’S CROSSROADS!!!