Mediaboss Marketing

By Sadie Gennis,

The media narrative surroundingJustin Bieberhas spiraled out of control. He's this year'sAnne Hathaway, the person whom it's vogue to hate. But this turn isn't completely unfounded. Over the past few years, Bieber has undoubtedly become a bit of ajerk.

He was charged for illegal (and seemingly racist) graffiti, pissed in a mop bucket, left his monkey in Germany and could anyone seriously forgetthis hat? But for non-Beliebers, there has always been something grating about the singer. Everything from his swoopy hair to his sugar-pop love songs seemed designed to annoy all post-pubescents on sight, breeding discontent which lay dormant until his penchant for leather sweatpants and hocking loogies made him impossible to ignore.

Then all hell broke loose.

Justin Bieber's downward spiral: A timeline of bad behavior

Bieber is in the middle of that tricky transition from child star to adult. But unlikeMiley Cyrus, Bieber can't just put on a skimpy outfit and hump a foam finger to signify his maturity. It's come to be expected that child stars burn down their innocent image in theshiftto an adult career, but when their old franchise is nothing but ash the women still have one thing left standing: their sexuality. This is problematic for an entirely different set of reasons, but sadly it also provides female child stars the means to maintain some form of fan and industry support, no matter how misogynistic it might be.

But for the men, there is no quick antidote to destroying the very foundation of their fame. They're just another peach-stachioed kid who used to be cuter than they are now. So how does a male child star assert control over his image and establish himself an adult? Aggression, cockiness and rowdiness remain foundations of modern masculinity boys will be boys, after all so does it come as any surprise that these are the exact traits Bieber is exhibiting with nave desperation in the hopes of being respected, not as an artist, but as a man?

There are the few male child stars who have been able to navigate the problematicmovefrom baby faced ingnue to bonafide star. But for everyJustin TimberlakeandRyan Gosling, there are the dozens ofCorey Haims,Corey Feldmans, Edward FurlongsandMacaulay Culkins. Why do people seem so hell-bent to add Bieber to that list? Especially because we are the reason Bieber feels like he has something to prove in the first place.

For his entire career, criticisms of Bieber have focused on ridiculing his manhood calling him a lesbian, a little b---- and accusing him of PMSing if God forbid he expressed emotion or vulnerability. After spending his entire adolescence accused of being less than a man, is it really so hard to understand why he is trying to emulate hyper-masculinity?

Yes, it's been awkward to watch and he's made plenty of mistakes, but he's only 19. Bieber's still figuring out who he is and how that reconciles with society's expectations of him. Unfortunately, it seems as though what society expects is the popular pre-set narrative we anticipate with Schadenfreude-ian glee: that of the child star gone bad.

Read more here:
Leave Justin Bieber alone: America's problem with male child stars