Free...Britney?

[woonaluna]

Hey all, 

I filed this under the politics topic because it's controversial/political in nature. I don't frequent this site enough to really know my way around, so if the mods think it would better fit somewhere else, feel free to move it.

So...you here at FJ have helped to free me as I've spoken up about my experience with TLC and my fundie family. We all want to see the Duggar kids get free from the cult they're in, and we know for a fact Jinger herself is not free. I know this is more of a snark site than anything, but I have a question: is Britney Spears free?

She's more famous than I could ever imagine being, but she's not really much of a celebrity to me because her work was too "sinful" to consume for me growing up. But as someone who's spoken up and had claims of "the truth" thrown around concerning my own writing vs. the perspective of my parents, my heart goes out to her. I believe her that her sister is a backstabber, that she's trapped despite the legal changes to her situation, and, ABOVE ALL, her every move is still being watched by the paparazzi and media in general. I mean, I've been getting news reports I didn't even subscribe to about her activities, and the poor woman deserves to have a safe place to exist with some anonymity and respect as a human being. Can anything be done against such powerful forces? 

I just want to know, how does this group feel about #FreeBritney? Is it along the lines of #FreeJinger in that someone has been exploited for entertainment all her life? 

Does anyone else...feel kind of gross that her music and videos and work are still being consumed as if she had a choice to dress up and dance for the world?

I just have questions. That is all. 

 

[Howl]

It's an interesting point. Part of it is certainly the prison of celebrity.  But I did read (and possibly posted about) her status in a conservatorship (guardianship) being  patriarchal in nature.  Daily Beast covered it here last June: The Romans, the Supreme Court, and Britney Spears—Conservatorship Abuse Has Been Happening for 2000 Years  Conservatorship was born in ancient Rome, focusing on the power and privileges invested in the father. It was, “quite literally the patriarchy.”

I haven't followed this, but I did stumble across a few minutes of an interview of the sister who seemed to be promoting some version of "I'm the nicest person ever..."

Who knows if she has any stable, emotionally healthy, nonexploitative people in her life.  That she lived under a conservatorship for so long is simply horrible. 

[meep]

Searched to find this topic because I'm in the mood to talk about it today. 

Growing up as I like to now call "fundie adjacent", Britney Spears was someone I was allowed to listen to. It was my first ever CD. She was considered innocent enough at the beginning and when my parents finally thoroughly disapproved, it was one of those things that was hard to put back in the tube. And they felt it was better I listen to Britney Spears than say someone like Christina Aguilera or - god forbid - the devil's own music, rock music! *gasp* So I grew up a great fan of Britney Spears and I have very mixed feelings just about her initial fame. How hard she was marketed simultaneously to young girls and older men, and the absolute ick factor of it. Her family's history of mental illness and fame possibly being the worst thing possible to happen to her in terms of her mental health. The awful way the paparazzi and society treated her as her fame kept growing.

One positive thing though about Britney Spears I'd like to point it is even though most of her songs do revolve around men and love and relationships (as almost every single female artist in every genre does), she has quite a few songs that are either calling out men, not even about men or love, or being okay without men (for example, I felt as a little girl growing up in the church, her song "Stronger" was downright revolutionary and scandalous to me; I've long felt that her song "Overprotected" was my life's theme song). I actually went on a small binge of trying to find songs by female artists in any genre that weren't about men or love or relationships, and this could be a reflection of what types of music I listen to, but it was extremely hard to find anything. But multiple Britney Spears songs made the playlist. 

I actually have a story about conservatorship. My best friend growing up was in one. This friend, who was a church and private christian school friend, had some mental issues growing up. She was not shy about sharing she had been sent to institutions several times throughout growing up and then also into her adulthood. When we were turning 18, she told me she wasn't going to be a "real adult" and I was like huh? She explained to me that her parents were doing something where legally she would still be like a kid and they'd still tell her what to do, and she was very upset about it. I had never heard of such a thing in my life. But she told me it was like "what Britney Spears has." This went on until my friend turned 25 and moved in with her first serious boyfriend, to which her parents relinquished the conservatorship and said, "it's his responsibility to care for you now." 

While I do think Britney Spears has mental health issues, and maybe some other issues, I also think she has been treated incredibly harshly by the media, and in a very misogynistic manner. It was clear even back then that the paparazzi would obsessively stalk her and when she (like anyone would) eventually would snap at them for following her, they'd splash those moments all over, saying, "look at crazy, out of control, terrible mother Britney." I also still to this day don't understand that huge deal that was Britney shaving her head. Even my parents took a magazine and shook it at me and said, "You see? She has been a terrible influence on you." And I was like ?????. She was sad and she shaved her head. Whatever. Male celebrities can be literal predators and no one blinks an eye, but god forbid a woman has a bad day and decides to radically change her look in a TEMPORARY WAY BECAUSE HER HAIR WILL GROW BACK. I think her conservatorship made her already existing mental health problems even worse. How could it not? Her dad taking a grown divorced woman with children and locking her up and treating her like a 12-year-old girl and anyone would come out the other side with more problems than they had originally. 

I am glad Britney Spears is now free. Because like any other free grown American woman, she will sink or swim on her own now. Be accountable instead of being put in a bubble. And actually have some type of change and access to health services, as opposed to her father who shielded her from the world to milk her like a cash cow, basically wh*ring his own daughter out to the world. Which is one of the sickest things I have heard of. 

I know there is a lot of hubbub now about the things she posts on instagram. I stopped following her because I don't need nearly-nude Britney selfies in my feed (lol). But I don't agree that there necessarily anything "bad" about it. Kim Kardashian and a myriad of other celebrities post near-nudes on their instagram feeds all the time, and it's considered trendy and artsy. Britney does it, in a much more natural and non-fake manner, yet she is labeled as crazy and off the rails yet again. Why? Why is there such a societal latch to Britney Spears being "crazy?". 

Edited August 8, 2022 by meep

[Ozlsn]

On 8/9/2022 at 3:27 AM, meep said:

This went on until my friend turned 25 and moved in with her first serious boyfriend, to which her parents relinquished the conservatorship and said, "it's his responsibility to care for you now." 

I don't know what appals me more, the conservatorship or that comment.

On 8/9/2022 at 3:27 AM, meep said:

I also still to this day don't understand that huge deal that was Britney shaving her head

I remember being really shocked at how that was covered by the media and society because it was obvious to me that she was having a breakdown and needed help. Not a conservatorship. Not ridicule. Probably a quiet place out of the spotlight and some space to clear her head. Most of us have been there in some form at some time or another, we're just lucky to not be being followed by a rabid press pack when we have that moment.