Girls Creative Roots?

Hughes claims that we (as a society) "like our female icons best when they are in distress" (p. 145). This is curious in that there is so much truth to it. Brittany Spears popularity is soaring now that she has been photographed overweight, flopped at the MTV award show, and had her kids taken away. I'm certainly not comparing Spears to the likes of Princess Di or Marilyn Monroe, but Hughes is on to something here. When compared with other contemporary pop stars, the press/ media does not seem to place so much emphasis on their failures, weaknesses, or periods of distress. Is the media still, in 2007, so male biased? Or does the stigma of sexuality carry more weight when we consider the downfalls of our female pop culture icons? Maybe man is contemptuous towards woman according to their perceived sexual persuasion over the years of humankind? Surely being in a state of distress and pressure from fighting for equal rights would foster a common bed of creativity among women (and other minority groups equally).