I always felt like the press was a wee bit hard on Britney, and certain celebrities in general, although South Park handled that view point far better than I can here.
Suffice to say that this has been the talk of the town between my friends and I for a few months now, and we admire any artist who is willing to take the "hit" for showing themselves being less than perfect.
As I was telling my sister just a few hours ago, "the media degrades actresses for being too fat, then degrades them for being too thin...there's no winning with them."
This is not a new phenomenon, however. Recently, a fellow blogger made a post about how when "men were in control of art," the expectations of female beauty were realistic, and he cited the rubenesque blondes in paintings of old...a charming notion, but during the era in which those paintings were created, most people were dark-skinned, weather-worn, and very malnourished. So alas, unrealistic expectations of beauty may have changed, but they are nothing new.