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I guess what bothers me with the current Britney cycle is that we tend to have these ~20-year cycles of realizing our cultural misogyny ruined some woman’s life — Britney, Diana, Amy Winehouse, Whitney Houston, etc. — and by the time we’re sorry half of them are dead.
We often “repent” only for really pretty blonde celebrities who are beloved for other reasons. Like, we decide that Britney didn’t deserve it. Or that Diana didn’t deserve it. We tell stories about how sweet they were. We don’t ask about the less sweet, less famous victims.
We don’t say *no-one* deserves it. And that’s a problem, because when the cycle is ongoing, everyone can come up with a reason why the target is the worst or had it coming. Women shouldn’t have to be pretty & talented & nice enough to *earn* basic recognition of their humanity.
“Trainwreck” talked about this a bit, how death or extreme suffering allows us to “forgive” the trainwreck, put her back on her pedestal. But you can actually not hate women NOW. You can refuse to engage in those narratives NOW. You don’t have to be sorry. You can just not do it.
