The victim victimizes the victimized...and the circus continues
I never had much sympathy for Britney Spears – never joined the “Save Britney” campaign or put her well-being high on my list of political concerns. However, upon watching the recent documentary Britney: For the Record, I must admit that my views on her have slightly altered. Although I still believe her mental issues and meltdowns should not take precedence in the news over the global warming crisis or other matters of equal importance, I began to see her less as an attention-seeking airhead and more as a victim of the crazy media frenzy that our generation’s quench for her has spurred. It is for this reason that I cannot help but be totally transfixed by the irony that Britney – a woman who has practically become like a captive animal not only in her native country but all around the world – would perpetuate the cycle of abuse by employing the use of exotic animals in her new music video “Circus”. My sneaking suspicion is that if B.'s "people" didn't shield her from reality so severely and wave off PETA people so vehemently, she might identify that abuse and realize the use of animals in entertainment is just plain wrong. She might agree with me that the traditional circus tricks the elephants and lions in her video were made to perform, which mainsteam society has been sensitized to view as perfectly normal and acceptable, are in fact anything but. She might realize that the use of electric prods and bullhooks on the most sensitive parts of the animals' bodies in order to get them to perform such unnatural tricks is way too high a price to pay for less than a minute of pathetic entertainment, and how the owner of the company that supplied the animals for her video admitting to using this cruel method of training (even defending it!) further demonstrates that there is no other way, other than inflicting fear and pain, to get them to perform the way they are made to.
To see exactly what I’m talking about, check out the first link I posted. It gives a behind-the-scenes look at how we get animals in entertainment to perform the tricks most people, not knowing the awful price the animals must pay, blindly applaud. If the insight you get from watching this video upsets you and makes you wish you could get Britney, instead of turning a blind eye, to take a look at what she contributed to by using animals in her video, go to the second link I posted and sign the petition to urge her to give exotic animals a break by not exploiting them to promote herself ever again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOXa7Gtr_nk
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/britney_spears/
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