American Dream
Sylvia Epstein
My thesis work examines what a cultural icon who has maintained the public's interest for two decades reflects about American society through book design. Specifically the work deals with the pop star Britney Spears, and relates her to topics of gender, sexuality, and privacy.
As a book the project addresses how women in America are improperly treated for their physical pain, and disbelieved by medical professionals. The first half of the book contains scholarly text that explains possible factors that contribute to this phenomenon alongside lyrics of songs Spears released, in which she directly addresses her desire for both respect and help. The second part of the book combines medical illustrations, charts, and graphs explaining pain next to an article on Spears at the peak of her 2007 public mental break down. The design of the project asks the reader to resolve this material, to synthesize conflicting facts and consider the inequitable weight given to the two bodies of content.