Oh Britney, Britney...

Youth Voice: It's time to stop the Britney Spears bullying.

“I was born to make you happy”, few of us realised how prophetic Britney Spears words were all those albums ago. How could she, then America’s sweetheart have envisioned a time when we would leer and peer into her personal life so perversely and cruelly?

Then again, I doubt this Bible Belt girl ever imagined her life might go so far off the rails. Her words were meant to show us how she was going to be faithful to her boyfriend but today it means she is our freak show complete with breakdowns and hostage taking, and no matter how distressing and painful this may be, our cameras do not stop flashing. She is our punch bag, every time we want a good laugh or want to feel better about ourselves we can just talk a look at her crazy life make a few smart comments and feel the glow of knowing “at least I’m not Britney Spears”.

Watching the disturbing cirque-de-freak that the Britney world has become, I’m left with a distinct feeling of discomfort. It's the same feeling that overcomes me when watching excessively graphic scenes in films. My mind is trying to tell me to stop, to turn away, I know on a subconscious level that what I am seeing is wrong and inappropriate and that I am peering where I ought not.

The media is full of the buzz that poor old Britney needs help, that she is falling apart and from what we are shown it looks like they are correct, however I have another question on my mind and that is how right is the way we are leering and judging this woman (she is a person in the end) as she suffers what appears to be a massive breakdown?

A tale of a stratospheric fall from grace, the star who we created and fed has become a sort of beast, an ugly and disorderly impersonation of the beautiful personality we remember and more importantly expect. We sit at our desks clicking onto perezhilton.com and tut and offer our soundbytes on where it went wrong for the Pop Princess.

Many claim she brought it upon herself, she pursued the life which consumed her, this is nonsense. Britney is the reflection of everything we did to her, everything we ate up and stole from her, her youth, her innocence, her privacy, her right to live her own life. Strip a person of all these things and what are you left with? How dare we pretend to be shocked when the beast we created turns around and reveals the ugly side we knew we were breeding.

So at what point are we going to turn away? We wouldn’t stare at a stranger on a street if this happened. However these basics steps of dignity are gone when it comes to Britney.

Who is sicker at the end of the day… the one suffering or the perverts leering, jeering and devouring their pain? The truth is we love her trauma - it gives us a shameful thrill. We all know how things can go wrong, how we can have a bad day and we all know the comfort of being able to get away from it all. Now imagine you never could, imagine those who laughed at you or criticised you, were always there. Commenting none stop.

If that feels difficult to you then close your magazine, ignore the hysterics and in the words of Chris Crocker “Leave Britney Spears ALONE!” at least till she is better.

By: John Dunphy