Britney Spears has been hailed as the ‘Princess of Pop’, beginning her career at the tender age of 11 on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the US alongside future stars Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling. She quickly became one of the world’s largest popstars with hits such as “…Baby one more time” and “Toxic”.
In more recent times she has been embroiled in bitter legal disputes regarding a conservatorship she was placed under in 2008 due to a very public mental breakdown she suffered in 2007. During that time of her life being one of the most photographed women in the world and the intense paparazzi presence in Hollywood, the world watched one of the largest stars sadly crumble. The breakdown was widely discussed on TV, blogs and the front pages of newspapers worldwide. The meme “If Britney can survive 2007, I can survive…” is still thrown around as a comparison to a hardship someone is facing. She was admitted and absconded from rehab and lost custody of her 2 children.
To audiences she made a triumphant return the following year and clearly was benefitting from being under a conservatorship and being looked after by a guardian — which was her Dad. She began a Las Vegas residency which became an impressive comeback and was one of the highest grossing Las Vegas residencies ever.
Yet in 2019 cracks began to show, she announced an indefinite hiatus and cancelled her residency. Fans began speculating over her conservatorship and whether it was now proving detrimental to Spears’ health and wellbeing. Closely analysing her social media posts, and even receiving a voicemail from a source claiming to be a member of her legal team who claimed she had her show cancelled due to refusing to take medication her father urged and forced her to take.
Since then, in 2021 Spears has spoken openly to courts regarding her conservatorship, detailing the unfair treatment, stress and shocking things she was forced to do due to the conservatorship. She also expressed how she wanted to sue her whole family for abuse and believes they should be ‘locked up. This was the first time the world heard the extent of Britney’s suffering and #FreeBritney became one of the largest trending hashtags and talking points world over.
During the time of her rise to fame in the early 2000s celebrity blogger Perez Hilton would regularly trash Britney in his blogs and made appearances on TV discussing her on a segment called “2007 Top 5 Celebrity Train Wrecks” and posted upskirt photos of the singer. The constant blogging and reporting of Spears when she was clearly fragile could’ve arguably been one of the reasons she was placed under the conservatorship to begin with as it pushed the narrative of Britney being ‘off the rails’
Since hearing of her struggles and the damage the media intrusion had on her mental health to the point of breakdown, he has apologised and admitted “I didn’t lead with empathy”.
Social media became detectives hunting out all the other celebrities and those in the spotlight who threw Britney under the bus during her tumultuous years and were just jumping on the #FreeBritney campaign to stay relevant and appear ‘woke’.
Her former boyfriend Justin Timberlake became another person who was forced to apologise for his treatment of her in the press due to his graphic detailing of their sex life on a live radio station. In today’s world it would be perceived as slut-shaming and the descriptions were derogatory and damaging to Britney’s image and also her mental health.
After this initial tweet fans began to call him out for his hypocrisy:
He then followed up with a statement saying:
Social media has allowed audiences to be able to hold those who used the media to portray a negative and damaging image of Britney Spears to reflect on their actions and words accountable. Mental health awareness is exponentially more present in 2021, yet it is also important to consider how detrimental slanderous journalism can be to someone in the public eye and its overpowering influence over how the public perceive them to be. Britney, once the child-star and pop sensation, became an out-of-control unfit mother, to now a damaged and desperate soul who just wants freedom from the restraints put on her because of what the media intrusion and portrayal caused her.
Her own social media has become her way of voicing her opinions and keep fans up to date with what is going on. And due to the ferocious protests the #FreeBritney campaign has caused, it is also a very good story for the media to pick up and report on. We recently found out her lawyer asked for her to be able to withdraw from her conservatorship. It could be said that due to the social media campaigns it is now impossible for her to be bound by the restraints as a 39-year-old mother of 2, and there are developments happening daily. Ask yourself, would courts have been so lenient if fans hadn’t spread awareness, if we didn’t have the ability to find out the unfair treatment she has received, and if we were still reading the likes of Perez Hilton and other celebrity gossip sites?
Let me know your thoughts below or on my socials @CWFJourno!
- C
