Someone has put together a 10-minute supercut of all the times Britney Spears was slut-shamed in interviews during the early days of her career in the late ’90s and early ’00s and it’s something else.
Many of the comments haven’t aged well and include people calling 18-year-old Spears a “ho,” a “wh*re”, “trashy,” and “Lolita on aerobics,” as well as being told she should be shot for being too sexy, that she was a terrible example for little girls everywhere, and constantly being asked what her parents thought about her nasty behavior.
Related: Lance Bass on that time he came out to Britney Spears to make her stop crying on her wedding night
And the remarks come from a whole host of people, too, including Carson Daly, Diane Sawyer, Matt Lauer, Rosie O’Donnell, Lisa Ling, Meredith Viera, and Tucker Carlson, plus other singers, like Mariah Carey, Avril Lavigne, and Eminem.
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What’s most interesting to see, however, is how Spears, who was in her late teens and early 20s at the time, fielded the questions with genuine maturity. She often didn’t flinch when people called her a slut to her face, nor did she apologize or make excuses. She handled it like a real pro and, considering that she’s worth over $100 million today, we’d say she came out on top in the end.
#TeamBritney forever!
Watch.
WashDrySpin
The industry made here and then sold her as a sex symbol, then they shamed her
Corbinfisher
Worth noting that Mariah’s comment was actually supportive of Britney, even when Rosie kept pushing for some reaction.
Shame on Rosie, though. And Diane Sawyer?! The judgment on her face makes me cringe. Horrible.
radiooutmike
Yeah, and to think Diane Sawyer was a beauty queen before a journalist.
Cam
Even Eminem wasn’t going in on her too much, he was saying she can do whatever she wants.
The funny thing is, when the interviewer tried to paint the picture of Brittany being forced to behave this way by others, she hit back with “I’m the one who does the concepts for my videos and they try to get me to pull it back”.
She wasn’t having it.
Josh447
After watching this video it makes me wonder if the pressure finally got to her and whether it had anything to do with her breakdown.
Creamsicle
The 90s were really conservative. Those of us who were alive at the time look back with nostalgia goggles and think it can’t have been that bad since Bill Clinton was in the White House, but the 90s were *very* conservative. That’s a big reason why people reiterate that the late Millenials and Gen Z are the most progressive generation in American history. It’s not so much because they suddenly became woke, but because America was very conservative for a very long time. Gay acceptance was a pipe dream in the mid-90s, whereas gay acceptance is the minimum requirement not to be a bigot for Gen Z.
My older sister went on a senior trip to D.C. in 1998, and when her class from California met the other classes, they were surprised to find out they were the only group that uniformly favored legalizing marriage equality. The boys from other groups were convinced that all of the California guys were gay just because they weren’t aggressively and performatively homophobic.