Where's the personal responsibility? Why we shouldn't be feeling sorry for Britney

The presenters on Loose Women are actually defending Britney Spears. I'm currently watching the show, and I can't believe that they're making excuses for her about losing her kids. For example, they're saying it's not her fault because she's "surrounded by people all the time" and declare "where is her family?" and "I dare anyone who has grown up in the public eye to not go off the rails a bit". Um, are you f***ing joking? Thank god that Jane McDonald brought up the fact that it comes down to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. All the other presenters are saying over and over that they "feel sorry for Britney" and keep excusing her losing her children by saying that the poor girl "needs a hug". Excuse me while I barf.

Firstly, these women are out of their mind. If Britney really is a drug addict or alcoholic like the courts are implying, have you ever tried to "hug it out" with an addict? It doesn't work. Britney has put her family through a lot, and Jackie Brambles actually had the audacity to say that we should feel sorry for Britney because her "Mum sided with her ex husband". I'm pretty sure that Lynne Spears is trying to look out for her grandchildren, and is trying to help Kevin protect his kids.

Secondly, if we were talking about a male pop star who flashed his penis to the world on repeated occasions, drove his children in the car without a license, and was a drug addict and/or an alcoholic, I seriously doubt these women would be saying he needed a hug. They would be up in arms. "He needs to grow up and be a father!" they'd scream. They wouldn't dare say that he needed his mummy and his daddy to rally around him and help him.

This is the the other side of sexism that nobody seems to want to talk about. Women give sympathy to other women because they're mothers, or simply because they're women, despite the wrong they've done. "She's just misunderstood." Imagine if the tables were turned and it was Kevin Federline who was doing this. The guy would be burned at the stake.

Bottom line, she's currently an unfit mother. She's an adult, she's a mother, and she is responsible for her children. No matter what.

Cate Sevilla is the Editor of Dollymix.

Jaime

The way you were raised shouldn't excuse your behaviour as a parent, no one was shocked when Courtney Love lost custody of her daughter, those rules apply to Britney.

James

While I agree it was her decision to quit rehab, etc. and a certain amount of personal responsibility is necessary in anyone's life, I find it baffling that her behaviour is interpreted on any level as a cynical manipulation of the media. I have less sympathy for someone like Paris Hilton, for instance, who seems to have a greater sense of self-awareness of the situation. In Britney, I see a border-line backwoods woman, who can't fully comprehend the parabolas her life has taken the past ten years. She was exploited by her mother initially; just check out Lynne's clawing for her own fame during the good years, having a personal page on the website etc.

And yes Cate, I do believe your original article contains some very simplisitic and naive conclusions, which do not take into account the 'big picture', rather focussing on recent events without considering the underpinning. Britney has made some horrendous decisions in recent years, but the decisions have been made as a consequence of actions by people who are far more intelligent (or cunning) up-top than she is. I'd withdraw a bit of that sympathy for Mamma Spears and more carefully consider her role in Britney's downfall!

IB

But James, it was her decision to have kids, her decision to constantly play up to the media, her decision to quit rehab (how many times?) her decision to repeatedly be caught "exposed", drunk, out all night, passing out, slutty, violent, shaving her head?

The media fuel her career and it seems she's too frightened of losing that. She needs to decide whats more important, being a pop star, or being a mom?

Cate

Naive, shallow and foolish, huh? Thanks!

James

It's foolish and naive (and dangerously simplistic) to believe that the current situation with Britney could merely be solved by taking 'personal responsibility'. The high-level of public intrusion into her life (and the public testimony of Spears' sacked bodyguard, and various sundry characters with blatant vested interests), coupled with Papa Federline's absence from the spotlight, means that the odds are highly stacked against the Britster from the start. Take into account clear signs of mental illness, no doubt enabled from a young age by the 'concerned grandmother'/showbiz harpie Lynne Spears, who I hear is about to send younger sis Jamie Lynn onto the showbiz treadmill, and you have a clear example of a situation which is far FAR more complicated than the shallow observations in this article would allow.