TMZ and the Portrayal of Male and Female Artists
Results
One important thing to note with the results of this study is that TMZ is not an outlier. This could be done with most other popular gossip magazines and the results would be very similar. It is not just TMZ that is the issue, but the media as a whole and the fact that this double standard has been normalized and allowed to happen for decades.
​
A graph demonstrating the results, and a physical representation of the kinds of language used to describe the two artists can be found at the bottom of the page.
​
By looking at the results, it is hard not to see how differently TMZ looks at women and men. Despite the fact that they both faced similar issues in their career, were popular at the same time, and had relatively the same level of success, Britney Spears was talked about more often, and more negatively by TMZ.
An Analysis of the Results
I chose to compare Britney Spears and Eminem for a couple of reasons. They were both at the height of their careers around the same time, meaning that there was not going to be too much of a culture difference due to the time of their fame. Second, they both were known for their drug issues and attended rehab around the same time. Third, they were both the top selling artist of their gender for the 2000s, meaning that they had similar levels of fame and popularity.
​
The articles are divided into categories as best as possible, although there are many that could be counted in more than one category. When this issue arose, I determined which category it would count for based on the name of the article, and what aspect was the major focus of the article. The categories are: career, divorce and custody, eating habits, legal issues, mental health including substance abuse and rehab, parenting, physical appearance, public perception, relationships, and slut-shaming.
​
Overall there were 149 articles on Britney Spears that I was able to find and use for my analysis. There were 11 on Eminem. Of those articles, there were none that skewed positively for Spears, while 2 skewed positive for Eminem and 1 was neutral.
​
Career: There were multiple articles for Britney regarding her career. 5 were about new music that she was releasing, the sexual nature of it, and the lack of promotion. 1 was about her (non-romantic) relationship with her manager. Eminem had one article about his career, which was promoting his new shoe line.
​
Divorce and Custody: There were 14 articles about Britney's divorce from Federline. 5 of those articles detailed the perception of her by the court and lawyers. 2 were strictly about their divorce, and the other 7 were about the custody battle. There were 2 articles about Eminem's divorce. Both were about the way that he interacted with his ex-wife at the custody hearings.
​
Eating Habits: There were 10 articles about Britney Spears eating habits. All of them judged her for the types of food that she was eating, and the amount that she was eating out. There were no articles about Eminem's eating habits, even though he has later talked about how at this point in his career he was almost exclusively eating fast food which negatively effected his health and weight.
​
Legal Issues: There were 14 articles about Spears legal issues. 2 related to a failed drug test, 7 were about driving issues, and the others were about various legal issues or interactions with the authorities. There was 1 article about Eminem's legal issues. It focused on an assault charge he faced after he punched a man in the face in the bathroom of a strip club.
​
Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Rehab: There were 32 articles about Spears focusing on these issues, which have been combined as many of them relate to all three of these issues. 16 of them focus on her "breakdown" and rehab visits. 12 focus on her conservatorship and the legal cases involved. Lastly, 4 focus solely on her substance abuse issues. Despite his overdose, hospitalization, and rehabilitation treatment, there were no articles focusing on these areas for Eminem.
​
Parenting: There were 7 articles about Spears parenting abilities. 2 related to her confusing choice in nannies, 2 judged her parenting skills, and 3 were speculations about the name and gender of her second child. This did not include the 1 article about her driving with her child on her lap, as that was included under legal issues. There were no articles about Eminem's parenting.
​
Physical Appearance: There were 23 articles about Spears physical appearance. 1 was about her weight, although there were other articles included in other categories that mentioned her weight as well. 11 focused on judging her hair and ridiculed it. 5 were about her clothes that she wore in public, but not in the context of making a public appearance. The rest were general commentaries on her appearance, including one article that declarers her one the top three "worst looking" people to be on tv. There was one article on Eminem's appearance, and it talks about his weight gain. A key difference is that for Britney Spears there was judgment in the article about her weight, but for Eminem there was not.
​
Public Perception: There were 15 articles about the public perception of Britney Spears. This could include articles about how she was being perceived at the time, or articles that could change the publics perception. 4 relate to her performances and issues with them, such as chewing gum while she was supposed to be lip synching. 7 were about violence that was sparked by her, her body guard, or her fans. The other 4 were about the way she was being perceived and efforts by her to fix it. There were 5 about Eminem making this the largest category for him. They were all about different things. 1 was about him throwing water on Kendra Wilkinson, a playboy bunny, 1 was about him wearing a mask in order to prevent catching the Swine Flu while on tour, 1 was a commentary on the fact that he was not in jail, 1 detailed some violence that was sparked by his body guard, and the last one cleared up rumors about a prank that he and Sacha Baron Cohen played.
​
Relationships: There were 13 articles about Britney Spears various relationships. They all speculated about the seriousness of her relationships, even when it was the first time that she was seen with a guy. There was one article about Eminem, which called he and his then wife the worst celebrity couple.
​
Slut Shaming: This is the last category, and there were 15 articles for Spears. 10 regarded wardrobe malfunctions or other types of involuntary flashing of private parts to the paparazzi. 3 speculated about the sexual nature of her relationships. 1 talked about when she lost her virginity. 2 were commentaries on her being to sexual. There were no articles about Eminem's sexual nature, despite him also posing nude for a magazine, the same as Spears did.
The graph physically represents the difference in the way and amount that TMZ talked about Eminem and Britney Spears.
This shows the difference in the kinds of language used to talk about the two artists. By hovering over each circle you can see how many times each word was used in the articles that were looked at. This demonstration removes the terms "popstar" and "rapper" as they were the two most used terms, and are neutral descriptions.