dianaschnuth

#1: Britney Spears’ “comeback” performance at the VMAs. I’m so out of touch that I wouldn’t have even known about this, had I not checked CNN.com yesterday morning. Yesterday evening, I looked up the performance on YouTube (I love the internet!) and saw what everyone had been talking about. She didn’t just look like she was “phoning it in” — she looked like someone who would get absolutely lambasted on American Idol. I wasn’t too keen on the song, either, but that’s just my personal distaste for modern pop music.

I had no problem with her weight. I was pleasantly surprised that she didn’t look anorexic anymore — I guess having two kids would take care of that, though. I agree that she could have been a little more toned, sure. Jiggly rock stars don’t go over too well, especially when the costume leaves so little to the imagination. But her actual size and dimensions? Perfectly fine. Pleasantly curvy.

The performance? Sub-par. Unprofessional. Not MTV calibre. She had to have done better in the dress rehearsal for the show to have gone on as planned. I’m wondering what sorts of chemicals, legal or illicit, may have helped to drag her performance down so far.

#2: Kathy Griffin’s Emmy acceptance speech quotable: “A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus. Suck it, Jesus! This award is my god now!”

As an atheist/nontheist, I find everyone’s level of taken-aback-ness to be more amusing than Griffin’s comments. Everybody knows that Kathy Griffin has a crass and irreverent sense of humor — or, at least, everyone *should* know that by now. The reaction of the Catholics and the Christians in general just reinforces the assertion of leading atheists like Richard Dawkins: in our society, religion is held on a pedestal, untouchable, and to poke fun at religion is blasphemous and unacceptable. Virtually any other aspect of life is fair game, but to make light of a person’s faith is grounds for — well, for getting your Emmy speech edited for the rebroadcast.

With that said… there is a time and a place for crass humor. An Emmy acceptance speech may not necessarily be that time or place. Were she to have included that excerpt in her stand-up routine, I’d find it hilarious and totally in line. This is why I don’t consider myself a militant New Atheist: I play the game. At the risk of exaggerating, I’ll say that I can empathize with the dilemmas faced by gays as to how “out” to be. Especially here in the Midwest, where the majority of my co-workers are Christian and strongly so, I would be asking for trouble if I told everyone that I don’t believe in God. If it comes up, I judge whether I’m safe to expose myself as an atheist, but I certainly don’t volunteer the information.

Funny, isn’t it? I’ll tell the entire internet, but not the Catholic woman who sits in the next cube.