Mixes Sexuality and Spirituality is a distinctly post-modern blend.
Like her mentor and sometime idol, Madonna, Britney Spears -- or her managers -- has risen to stardom on at not too subtle appeal to two characteristics that some people think of as opposites: sexuality and spirituality. Combining hip hugging pants and skirts with public professions of faith, Spears has been eager to promote an image that is both hip (no pun intended), as well as holy. Recently, she exchanged her trade-mark blond hair for brown, all the better to show forth her "spirituality." Britney's hairstylist, Kevin Mancuso, is quoted by Britney.com as saying that he and the music diva have been collaborating on a new look for some time: "We've been talking about doing a big change. We decided together to go dark with it. ... There are a million Britney lookalikes now -- that alone is the perfect opportunity to move away from that and say, 'Let's start the new Britney.' Just like her music evolves, I think she is evolving too -- it shows her spirituality and it's a way to move on."
But while Madonna's spirituality made generous use of religious icons, images and words like "prayer" in ways designed to provoke controversy, Britney's spirituality seems more conventional and straight forward. (She is, after all, a Baptist.) Still, one wonders to what degree either of these examples illustrates a truly authentic synthesis of sexuality and spirituality. Clearly a young woman with brown hair is no more "spiritual" than a blond. In fact, the mere suggestion that a change in hair color can reflect a change in the state of one's character or soul should give one pause.
For a thoughtful analysis of the Britney phenomenon by a writer who attempts to explore this topic from a parent's point of view, you might be interested in this editorial from the archives of the
Center For Parent/Youth Understanding.And, if you're interested in exploring the connection between spirituality and sexuality further, you might want to read my op-ed piece on the topic. For I do think there is a strong link between the two.
Consider the sacramental view of sexuality. See also:
If Pamela Anderson is spiritual ...