Stacey's Portrait

[msstock87]

I find it a little weird that 6 years old watched MTV, I didnt even know what it was when i was 6 years old. Anything is possible i guess.

[greer]

It's not that weird. I think it just depends on how strict your parents are.

[aln1982]

My little cousin, whose parents are actually quite strict in many ways (won't let kids play that barbie and ken are boyfriend and girlfriend - have to be brother and sister - which is just wierd if you ask me), actually encouraged her to like Brittney Spears when she was six. She used to put on these little concerts singing Brittney's songs and take off her shirt stripping down to a sports bra while her parents laughed. Some parents make no sense to me. Where is the BSC when you need them to raise your kids

[macca]

^ I find it really weird when people compare 2006-Britney to the apparently wholesome 1999-Britney. IMO, she was always suggestive and risque. She never seemed sweet and innocent to me, I know she had the Debbie Gibson style "bubble-gum pop" music (although "Hit me baby, one more time" sounds questionable, no matter what the context) but her actual image was far from wholesome.

The scariest thing I ever saw was in McDonalds on McHappy Day. They had a karaoke thing and two seven yr old kids were singing Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty"

[fairy3lf2]

macca said:

^ I find it really weird when people compare 2006-Britney to the apparently wholesome 1999-Britney. IMO, she was always suggestive and risque. She never seemed sweet and innocent to me, I know she had the Debbie Gibson style "bubble-gum pop" music (although "Hit me baby, one more time" sounds questionable, no matter what the context) but her actual image was far from wholesome.

Finally somebody agrees with me! I've heard people say that she was a good girl back in 2001 but I remember people complaining about her style of dress then. I think she started out being a Lolita-type teen, seemingly innocent but actually sexual while now she's just skanky.

[macca]

^ 2001... that's when "I'm a slave for you" came out and Britney was practically being gang-banged in the video. Yeah, real wholesome. And in 1999, that's when she posed for those kiddie-porn Rolling Stone photos.

[wanderingfrog]

The first time I ever heard of Britney Spears was in my Intro to Psychology class in 1998 when we had a tutorial on stereotypes in the media and the instructors played the ...Baby One More Time video in class as an example. I don't remember the exact context, but I assume it was something to do with sexism.

[aln1982]

It always sickened me when I heard my cousins singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time" at the top of their lungs. I asked the older one (she was like 10 at the time and the other one was 5 or 6) what she thought those words meant. She said she had no clue but "Britney was cool." And Grandma encouraged this train of thought!!! I just don't see too many positive ways to take the words "hit me baby one more time."
Macca, I saw the McDonalds Christina Aguilera commercial and it also frightened me. Glad to know I'm not the only one. And people wonder why today's kids are growing up so fast...

[sugarmonkey]

A Brittney interview along time ago (she was on the set of the Baby One More Time video) She said it means "hit me with a sign." She implied that there was some misinterpretation of the lyrics. I can totally see why.

[ktag]

Kids don't really "get" it, so it's pretty harmless at that point. By the time they do get it, there's a lot more worse things to worry about. I remember my cousin once mimed the song by pretending to cry at the "sad" parts and hitting herself on the head at the title line. Heh, at least they're over that phase now.

[Amalia]

When I was younger, I never paid attention to what the lyrics for certain songs were actually saying (i.e. "Genie in the Bottle"), but I still had the words memorized. I just didn't pay attention to what I was reciting. I just sang at the top of my lungs because I liked how the melody with the words sounded together. Basically, I did it more for the beat.

[greer]

This girl I used to baby-sit loved the song "It wasn't me" by Shaggy, the lyrics of which I am not going to post quotes from cause they're too dirty. Then she had sex education in school and no longer liked the song and was too embarrassed to listen to it.

[macca]

sugarmonkey said:

A Brittney interview along time ago (she was on the set of the Baby One More Time video) She said it means "hit me with a sign." She implied that there was some misinterpretation of the lyrics. I can totally see why.

Yeah, I knew logically that the song wasn't literally asking a guy to "hit me one more time" but it still sounds off to me.

Kids don't really "get" it, so it's pretty harmless at that point. By the time they do get it, there's a lot more worse things to worry about.

Oh yeah, when I was a kid, I loved the "Erotica" song by Madonna and used to wander around humming "Erotic, erotic, put your hands all over my body" not really thinking about what I was singing. I know kids don't get it, but in a way, that's what makes it worse. A seven yr old kid blindly chanting "wanna get DIRTY! sweat until my clothes come off" is just ... wrong... to me. Not the biggest deal in the world, but still unnecessary.

[sotypical42483]

I just read this for the first time. I was very pleasantly surprised. I thought it'd be filled with stories about her move to Stoneybrook and her parents divorce... so glad it wasn't. I loved it. I thought it was odd how they were 8 and watching MTV/singing along, but my 7 year old niece LOVES Britney Spears, which I find odd only because Britney hasn't had anything out since my niece was like 4, yet she somehow knows all her songs from 1999 (the year my niece was born) thru whenever her last cd came out.

Anyway... digressing... loved the bits about them going to ballroom dancing class (or rather, not going). What parent signs their kid up for ballroom dancing? Weird. I love how their mothers are so close, that's really cool. The part with Claudia was just dumb, I don't know why that had to be included.

I'm one of the few who likes Laine. I really enjoy reading about her and Stacey when they're friends.

[inge]

Reviving this thread! This is the only portrait I've read and I loved it! I really liked to learn more about Stacey's past, about growing up in New York and I really liked the island plot, too. The Claudia part was just meh and boring to me, and I hate when they put the age wrong on purpose. 13 is 13, man! Don't pretend they were 12 because it is actually 34 years ago!