I can see where people want to write Britney off— there are definitely times when she doesn’t give a fuck, when her interviews are bland and her videos lackluster, but I think there are two Britneys. There is Britney Spears the girl from the south that smacks her bubblegum and talks with a twang, and there’s Britney Spears the pop icon. And I think she likes being both, but she wants to keep them separate. I think she truly likes making music, shooting videos, going on tour and rehearsing new material. But I also think that she has the mentality that it’s a job— when the work is done, she wants to go back to wearing no make up and eating ice cream without reservation. And she’s allowed to do that.

She’s careful. As she should be— I don’t know how I would handle going on television shows, talking to people that chronicled my life at it’s lowest point. I wouldn’t be surprised if she feels paranoid, fearful. I bet she’s embarrassed. Because even if people have looked past what happened in 2007/2008, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t point and laugh when it happened. She’s smart in not walking the red carpet, where she would be asked questions about her head shaving and umbrella incidents— you know people would jump on any chance to talk to her without censor. I think she knows how this all works— she was raised as a pop star. She doesn’t know any other way of life.

What I’m trying to say is this:

Keep this in mind: It was Spears that thought up that school girl outfit, that created a monster in pink pig tails and knee highs. Spears pushed for the release of “Toxic” as a single— earning her her first and only Grammy award. She cowrote the track “Freakshow” on her critically acclaimed album Blackout, easily one of the most important tracks of the past five years.

Britney Spears is a lot smarter than people think. She’s painfully aware of who she is, and just as importantly— who she isn’t. She knows the scene better than most because she helped to create it.