Ok, who here has watched the New York Times documentary on Britney Spears, "Framing Britney," that dropped on Hulu last week?!
Y'all, when I say my heart broke, I truly do mean it.
A little background: I, like so many other 90s kids, grew up on Britney and body glitter. My dedication to her was FIERCE. I went to every concert when she came through town, bought every book and magazine, researched her story for every elementary school report, and spent an inordinate amount of my parents' money at Limited Too on pleather pants I was too scared to wear in public and a mass amount of butterfly hair clips, just to emulate her. (Uh...see above.)
I was convinced that if she could do it, so could I. Never mind the fact that I lacked musical talent...I just knew that if this young, down to earth, humble Southern girl could command the world's stage the way she did, there was hope for me.
There was hope for all of us.
Britney represented a childhood yearning so many of us didn't even understand: the desire to leave our towns, connect with a big, beautiful, outside world, and be universally loved the way she was. I mean if you weren't around during the Britney heyday, you may not fully understand but this girl was EVERYWHERE. From pencils, keychains, lip gloss, even McDonald's Happy Meal Toys.
We built her up. And then we tore her down.
A little recap for those of you who may not have followed her story closely: Britney suffered a mental breakdown in 2007, following a high-profile divorce, bitter custody battle of her two children, and an insane tabloid media that documented her every mistake and magnified it for the world to dissect and discuss.
To outsiders, she seemed to have reached her breaking point when she walked into a tiny California hair salon and proceeded to shave off her own hair. When asked why she did it, she simply said "I'm just tired of people touching me."
A week later, she attacked a photographer's car with an umbrella as he chased and filmed her during an attempted custody exchange with her ex-husband.
Not long after that, there were a couple stints in rehab and two psychiatric hospitalizations. Her mom came on record saying she suffered from severe postpartum depression. Literally, helicopters, multiple ambulances and a multitude of police officers swarmed her home to escort her to the hospital after she apparently barricaded herself crying in a bathroom with her youngest son. The whole thing played out on live television.
She was hounded at every turn. The documentary shows footage of tabloid photographers circling around her to the point that she could barely even walk through a parking lot. As she sat down at a table to eat, the flashes were so bright, she couldn't take off her sunglasses. Many times, she begged for them to stop and leave her alone, to the point of tears, but they continued. All about that money shot.
Listen, the girl made some bad choices. She got wrapped up in the party scene at a time when that was likely the last thing she should have been doing. She rebelled, she pushed the envelope, and she made some selfish, misguided decisions that she's still paying for all these years later.
But honestly? Why are we surprised? Why wouldn't she? If I was followed like she was, if I had people telling me how to act, how to dress, what to say, and what not to do....I'd likely do the same thing. You gotta remember, she had no childhood. She was a music industry work horse from the age of 10. She was robbed of her teen years, she had hardly any normal formative young adult experiences to learn from. I think I would have easily hit a breaking point myself, probably a lot sooner than she did.
Imagine waking up to headlines making fun of your mental illness, calling you an unfit mother, spreading lies and criticizing your weight, day in and day out.
Guys, she's human. We should have known better. We should have done better.
So, fast forward to 2021: Following Britney's struggles, she was deemed by a court to be unfit to manage her finances and personal affairs. In 2008, she was put into a conservatorship controlled by her father, Jamie.
A conservatorship legally puts all of your decisions, including medical care and access to your own money, in the hands of someone else.
Britney, who has performed several world tours, recorded albums, launched two clothing lines, and served as a TV judge on The X Factor in the time since, was deemed to have a "form of dementia," therefore stripping her of her rights and abilities to act as an adult.
She can still work. But. Ya know. Incompetent.
Conservatorships are usually for the elderly that are no longer able to care for themselves.
Britney will turn 40 this year. She has the rights of a child.
I fully accept that she needs help, and probably will, for the rest of her life. I accept the fact that she has personal struggles and that a lot of her big decision making may need to be aided by a professional in some capacity.
But for her to literally have NO say? And for these choices to be made by her father, a man she's publicly admitted she's never had a good relationship with? A man that was in and out of rehab himself, who filed bankruptcy after a failed business, and who verbally abused Britney and her family for years?
Why is THAT guy the one in charge? Why is HE the one running the show, even after Britney recently appealed to a judge to remove him, stating that she's "scared of her father" and won't work until he's no longer her conservator? (She was denied.)
Fun fact: Britney's kids even have a restraining order against him after he got into a physical altercation with her oldest son.
I get that there's so much we don't know, and don't need to know. But still. Something just doesn't sit right with me. Something just seems so unfair.
For a woman who had a song called "Overprotected," it's eerie how much life seems to imitate art.
It's heart-breaking that this is what we did to her.
Anyways, as you can tell, I got a little long-winded talking about my girl 😂 but I'll leave you with this:
"Even when you go to jail, y'know, there’s the time when you’re gonna get out. But in this situation, it’s never ending. It’s just like Groundhog Day every day...If you do something wrong in your work, you can move on, but I’m having to pay for a long time...When I tell them the way I feel, it's like they hear but they're really not listening...I never wanted to become one of those prisoner people. I always wanted to feel free...I think I've learned my lesson now...enough is enough."
-Britney Spears, 13 years ago
Post a Comment