Positioning Britney Spears: Do Analogs Exist Between High vs. Low Culture and High Church Theology vs. Superstition?

[Pictured above: SEXED UP: Britney Spears is in talks to star in controversial 'sadomasochistic sex movie' The Knoxville Carjacking Party.]

Are our most popular tabloid stars trying to help make a connection between their modern grotesqueness and the grotesqueness of Medieval Saints?

It would appear that way, if you are paying attention to Britney, Madonna or Bowie, to name a few.



In our discussions here, we have been toying with fantastic ideas of beatifying our tabloid celebrities, namely, Britney herself.

Britney Spears VMA 2007 "Gimme More" UNCENSORED VERSION



This hyperbole is staged to stretch our thinking about these banal flashes of tabloid fluff, in the same way that Peter Brown tried to stretch the thinking of religious scholars in his book, 'The Cult of the Saints'.




I suppose what I am positing is that, prior to Brown's lecture, some American scholars might have written off the popular worship of saints as a sort of low-brow superstition.




In the same way, I am asking if we are too quick to write off the influence and meaning of popular obsessions, today.

This is where Britney comes in.

We are thinking about Britney, following the footsteps of her mentor Madonna, is considering doing an S&M film, to remove any doubt that her 'divine body' is being mutilated for our faithful consumption:

Click here to read the article called Britney may star in 'sadomasochistic sex movie'

I would direct you to Brown's first chapter where he makes an important differentiation between the earlier pagan 'Cult of Heroes', as compared to the later (up to the late antique) 'Christian Cult of the Martyrs'.


[Pictured above: Madonna leaves little to the imagination, as she imposes her Dominatrix of Pop imprint upon our associations between Roman Catholic icons and Sadomasochism.]

Brown's thesis in summary here is that the Heroic were never asked to function as the Martyrs or Saints, i.e., as a meeting place between Heaven and Earth.

Here's where we have to ask if the modern popular equivalent of Heaven and Earth requires functionaries of the same sort, and if the 'Cult of Celebrities' can serve any of these cosmological and eschatological functions.

We do, after all, call our modern cinematic and music heroes 'stars' do we not?




Does this imply that the rest of us are Earth Bound non-luminary units, relegated to a life of voyeuristic observations of our famous and famous-for-being-famous fixations?

This is where I would begin to position Britney, stretched sensuously out on our table for examination, while she twitches and coughs and performs her human/non-human act for our grateful consumption.



I hope Professor Brown will forgive our license with his scholarship, but it seems he would have encouraged this type of free-wheeling form of decyphering of the common and the overlooked.



And before I go to far, I just couldn't overlook this image of David Bowie posed to recall the Vatican's Pieta of Mary and dying son Jesus, or am I reading too much into this?


[Pictured above: Pietà by Michelangelo]

. . . compared to Bowie in this:



[Pictured above: May 26, 2006—This weekend, Steven Klein, the photographer behind last year's massive Brangelina spread in W, unveils Fashion Portraits at East Hampton's Vered Gallery. The exhibit features 19 dramatically staged images taken between 1995 and 2004, including shots of Madonna (before she traded in her stripper pole for a crucifix), "JT Leroy," and David Bowie, above.]

Read the entire interview with photographer Steven Klein here.

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Paradox of the Daily Blog: Evolving online satire versus superficial postings

[Pictured above: Pop culture icon Chris Crocker]

When splashing about in the modern bathtub called online creativity portals, i.e., places like blogs where one can experiment with ideas, forms and audiences, it's easy to panic and to wonder if the potential or future readers will understand the meaning and mood of random daily postings.

The thing about online blog postings is that, an academic like myself is inclined to drift back to the elevated but difficult to read formal language of academia, with its precision and balance.

But this is an impatient and instant environment, so for smart folks like me it's a new challenge to percolate short, almost trite phrases, that are more likely to get read in the high-speed web surfing world.

But sound bytes can be taken as trivial or superficial later on, or even taken out of context by later readers.

Let's avoid this here by saying that this blog is fiercely tongue-in-cheek at many levels, and intended to push some conventional limits with the outrageous and the odd commentary.

If online blogs are to be a safe place for writers to emote and to experiment, than there needs to be an agreement between the writer and all present and future readers, that this forum, which could be recorded for many generations to read, needs to be understood as a daily blog, which implies that it will contain errors and excesses.

Daily blogs do not allow the refinement of better writing practices in most cases, at least not if you have my life or schedule.

This said, I will try to let folks know when I am 'just kidding around' or being intentionally silly, just to make a later point.

Hopefully this will assist the less aware reader to be included in our more connected conversation and discourse.

For more info on the context of our satire, especially as we discuss Chris Crocker, try reading this great article by Helen A.S. Popkin:

Click hereto read Don't cry for Chris Crocker -- The 'Leave Britney Alone' guy isn’t fretting his YouTube Awards loss

Peace and Serenity to all.

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Chris Crocker: The New Male (Female) Grotesque

Is there any chance Britney will be worshiped in the same way as the late and ascended Tammy Faye Bakker Messner-- isn't Britney suffering the same way Tammy did?





Chris Crocker has taken the mutilation of the Holy and Most High Britney unto his own mortal body, which is similar, is it not, to the way a young woman, upon seeing a true vision of the Madonna, might reap a life of scorn for revealing her miracle, is it not?





But Chris takes us to a higher level of knowledge of the mutilated goddess when he mocks himself. YouTube humor has become the Rosary of the 21st century -- but even more millions chant this fallen pop star's name and mantra, don't they?

In this way, Chris might be seen as both a high priest of the broken saint's body and her living sacrifice, and also as a sacrifice himself.

You might mock or ridicule this pop culture phenomenon, which is okay with the true believers, because that way, you'll never know the TRUTH about Britney.

This is tongue-in-cheek social and cultural commentary, much the same as the genius of Chris Crocker.

Now go out and buy a Rihanna or Madonna album already, okay?

Make a pilgrimage with your purse!

(Try to wear matching hair, shoes and make-up -- Chris would approve).

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Pray for Us Saint Tammy -- Adoration of the Weeping Muddy-eyed Harlequin

[Pictured above: Tammy Faye Messner (1942-2007), from televangelist to gay icon.]

This is not meant to be trite or demeaning, but if we propose that Medieval Cults of the Saints had similarities to modern celebrity cults, then is it too bizarre to suggest that one day, folks who fill the tabloids today might eventually have cathedrals built to them?

What if, one day in the not too distant future, someone proposed devotion to Tammy as a Saint?



Maybe like this:

The prayer to Saint Tammy, three times per day for two weeks:

Oh Tammy, Thou hast heard our supplications before and answered us.
Pray for us now.

Oh Tammy, Thou hast suffered in double-wide trailers unto mansions of gold,
Pray for us now.

Oh Tammy, Why hast not thy Kraft Macaroni & Cheese TV crafts not survived?
Pray for us now.

Oh Tammy, Thou has suffered for Jim and wept more than Jan Crouch,
Pray for us now.

Amen.



This is not sacrilegious, on some level it might be satire.

But seriously, why not pray to Tammy, asking her to intercede for us?

As C.S. Lewis commented about the practice of praying to the saints, in Letters to Malcolm, are Christians merely asking those they believe to be 'alive in Christ' to pray for them, as they might ask a fellow church goer across the pew to 'remember Grandma in your prayers, she's not well'?

But is Tammy grotesque enough to be beatified?

Did she take enough suffering into her body to be glorified and to attract centuries of devotion.

I think she did. The gays worship her, at least some of my friends do.

If nothing else, her life is so fascinating to merit the obsession of 50 year old gay men who find in Tammy a 'kindred spirit'.



Is there any chance Britney will be worshiped in the same way as Tammy -- isn't Britney suffering the same way Tammy did?

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One Man's Religion is Another Man's Fetish

In this blog we generally are very specific, focusing upon Barbie Doll Saints of the New Millennium, Madonna Worship, Britney Worship, Michael Jackson Worship, Celebrity Obsession and Religious Ecstacy, Surrogate Selves, Famous Losers, TV Trash, High-Low Culture Wars, Queer Theories, Transgender Space Aliens, Appalachian Shaman, Pop Culture and other Opiates of the People, Urban Warriors, Naked Garbage Men on Acid, Your Own Personal Jesus and Other Grim Bedtime Tales, but if you insist, we can discuss your childhood nightmares, as well.

The Iconography of Saint Sebastian

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