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Britney Spears Engages In Battle Over Who Made Her Sexy
Britney Spears via Shutterstock
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Britney Spears isn't necessarily known for toning her sexuality down. But in an interview with TMZ today, she said that she's being pushed to be overtly sexual in her music videos, and that in her ideal world, she wouldn't be hitting that note quite so hard: "A lot of sex goes into what I do. But sometimes I would like to bring it back to the old days when there was like one outfit through the whole video, and you’re dancing the whole video, and there’s like not that much sex stuff going on."
The 31-year-old singer went on to remind the world that she's a mom, for god's sake, and that she had to exert her own influence in order to tone down the sexiness of her new music video, "Work B*tch":
"Oh my god, we showed way more skin and did way more stuff for the video than what is actually there. Like, I cut out half the video because I am a mother and because, you know, I have children, and it’s just hard to play sexy mom while you’re being a pop star as well."
But as the story progresses, it turns out that Brit's dad/conservator and manager are denying her claims. In another TMZ article, Jamie Spears and Larry Rudolph tell the gossip site that, "Britney is never pressured into anything. She reviews all creative and for her 'Work Bitch' video she discussed toning down some parts in finding a balance of sexy and being a mom."
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We were also able to dig up a quote from the epic 2008 Rolling Stone cover story on Britney in which the writer describes how hard she once pushed for her own image to be sexier. That's not to say that things can't change, and that people can't taper down as they get older, but it seems as though at least at one point Britney wanted to push the boundaries as far as she could. Behold:
With her third album, Britney was told that she could change — a little. It was time to enter the "Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman" phase, but she was ready to leave it behind. All the gay dancers and stylists were always having dirty conversations around her backstage, and one day Britney piped up: "God, I want to have hot sex too! I want to have throw-down, hot sex!" Her primary creative collaborator on her tour, choreographer Wade Robson, agreed that it was her time to blossom, and she owned her new image by draping the proverbial snake around her neck while performing "I'm a Slave 4 U" at the 2001 VMAs. Her sexual curiosity got the better of her, and she reportedly began sleeping with Robson, a friend of Timberlake's who co-wrote 'NSync's "Pop" with him.
The article goes on:
Although the world thought Britney was an innocent sexed-up for the cameras, she was always lobbying to appear sluttier, which she thought would make her appear more mature. From the time she was young, Lynne and Jamie let her walk around the house naked. "Every girl in America was wearing crop tops and booty shorts, and Britney felt like she was being held back," says a friend. "She would joke about wanting to do videos topless." Her managers didn't want to scare off her fan base. "These middle-aged guys were so intense about her not being sexual that they pushed her the other way," says the friend. "They'd tell her to put on a bra or that her lip gloss was too dark. They were literally picking out her panties for her."
So, it's entirely possible that Brit feels pressure to uphold her sexy image in her new videos. But whence that initial pressure came appears to be up for debate.
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