Britney Spears' prevalence as a pre-teen pop culture icon cannot be denied or ignored. Spears, along with her colleagues Christina Aguilera, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore and many others, are ever present on the "Top 40," make frequent appearances on MTV, and can often be found on magazine covers and in photo spreads. Spears is especially popular among pre-teen girls, who buy her records, singing and dancing along to the lyrics. These lyrics often deal with love, lust, and sex-topics some consider too mature for the young girls targeted by Spears' marketing. Young women today are maturing at increasingly earlier ages, and the sexual messages in Spears' songs may simply be satisfying an existing demand for these types of songs. On the other hand, her sexy image and provocative lyrics may be creating the demand in young women, sending harmful messages about what it means to be a young woman within American culture. Is Britney Spears the newest manifestation of "girl power," and does this make her a feminist role model? Or does she perpetuate stereotypes of thin women as sex symbols? Does she provide a healthy outlet for girls to examine their sexuality? Or does she force sexuality upon young girls, before they are ready? These are the questions that I am in interested in exploring.
It is too soon to gauge Spears' lasting influence on young women and the feminist movement. However, by making comparisons to girl groups of the early 1960s, who's influence can now be analyzed, then perhaps Spears can be better understood in the present. In her piece Why The Shirelles Mattered, Susan Douglas reflects on groups like the Shirelles and their impact on the girls who listened to them. Overall, Doug...
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...nstead of the other components that are critical to a young girl's development. The sexuality that Spears portrays, moreover, conforms to a traditional white standard of beauty that many young girls will have a hard time living up to, and this may hurt their self-esteem and confidence. Despite her shortcomings as an adequate role model, Britney Spears has a tremendous amount of pre-teen fans, who are learning about beauty, sexuality and womanhood through her. It will be interesting to see how this generation of girls will contribute to the feminist movement as they grow older.
Works Cited
Douglas, Susan. "Why The Shirelles Mattered." From Reading Women's Lives, edited by Cayo
Gamber. Second Edition, 2000.
"Pop Idolization May Be Hazardous to Girls." Marketing to Women, 13(9): 8, September 2000.
http://www.britneyzone.com/
The Articles of Confederation were approved by Congress on November 15, 1777 and ratified by the states on March 1, 1781. It was a modest attempt by a new country to unite itself and form a national government. The Articles set up a Confederation that gave most of the power to the states. Many problems arose and so a new Constitution was written in 1787 in Independence Hall. The new Constitution called for a much more unified government with a lot more power. Let us now examine the changes that were undertaken.
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maybe even killed just to look at her, he was not sure he was going to
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