Newsflash: Britney Spears found to be human

Today smacking: An insensitive media

So, Britney Spears shaved her own head, which according to psychologists who have never met her, may or may not be symptomatic of a full-scale breakdown.

In light of that, I was going to write this whole diatribe about how ashamed the media should be of itself for turning Britney’s obvious difficulties into such amusement. But then I realised I couldn’t really be angry at a media that is just doing exactly what we expect it to do, as fucked up as that is, and as disgusted and nauseated as it makes me.

I feel nothing but sorry for the poor girl. Never mind that she has the paparazzi on her back all the time, or that the whole world is interested in her private life, or that she just split from her husband, or that her career may never recover: what I feel is the most salient issue here is that she just gave birth to her second child. How could anyone possibly feel normal in her situation? Even in a stable, loving relationship with financial security and family for support, a new mother can find herself beset by feelings of incompetence and depression at the very best of times. With some help this, in some cases, will be diagnosed as postpartum depression, after which a new mother can hopefully get all the support and understanding she needs. Poor Britney has no hope of psychological stability with the hounds of fame nipping at her heels. The world seems to have forgotten that the girl's body is surely still in the grip of the after-effects of pregnancy, and it will be a while yet before even her body – let alone her life – feels normal.

So I am championing Britney Spears, the mother and the human, whom none of us really knows, and whom I suspect doesn’t really know herself. I sincerely hope she gets all the help she needs and finds herself on the sunny side of the street, with the world at her feet, sometime soon.