Reeling from ‘Framing Britney Spears’

Close to the beginning of the documentary Framing Britney Spears that has made a recent splash, there is a moment where Star Search host Ed McMahon is talking to 10-year-old Britney on stage after a remarkable singing performance.

He puts the microphone to her face, tells her she has pretty eyes, and asks if she has a boyfriend. The little girl answers that she doesn’t.

“They’re mean,” she says.

Something in her eyes makes me think she’s pulling it from somewhere deeper.

McMahon looks surprised, wondering aloud if she means all boys.

It’s a fascinating exchange that makes me sit up a little straighter on my couch. Because frankly I had tuned in to this thing to see what the hype was about, but in that moment I became profoundly interested in Britney Spears. Not as voyeur to celebrity but as one human being to another.

My mind began to wander. Where does a little girl formulate that kind of opinion? A pretty girl from Mississippi, to boot. Weren’t we always led to believe these are the kinds of people who rule the world, the ones who won the beauty standard lottery and parlayed it into a lucrative living?

God, was I still thinking that way?