#FreeBritney
From desperate paparazzi to super-fans, rising celebrities’ mental health has been left vulnerable to the pressures of fame. With her struggles with fame recently brought into light in a new documentary called “Framing Britney Spears”, Britney Spears told the public what she has secretly dealt with since her rise to stardom at the young age of 17. Spears’ sudden push into fame took away any privacy, ethic, or morality she had. Photographers stormed restaurants and blinded her with their flash because they were so desperate to get a picture of her, completely ignoring any liberties she was entitled to.
Mental Health in Stardom
Britney Spears first debuted at the mere age of 16 years old, meaning she’s been in the public eye for about 23 years straight.
Mental health has been a rising concern for Spears these past couple of years. With the Britney Spears documentary, we get a closer look into the root of her mental health issues, specifically caused by us, her fans. It’s next to impossible to maintain a healthy mind when being a star, hence why so many celebrities fall to alcohol or substance abuse as a way to cope. The life of a celebrity is generally structured by the 3 A’s; addiction, acceptance, and adaptation. When a young celebrity has started to get a following, they start to become obsessed with the attention and love the praise their fans are giving them. It’s inevitable, humans are social creatures whose minds are wired to love to be praised.
Next, is acceptance. With a growing fan base, people will either love or hate you. To maintain a mental wellbeing, it’s critical to accept that you can’t please everyone. For most celebrities, this is the hardest stage. We either see someone who’s accepted this, or someone who overworks themselves because they want everyone to love them. This is where we often see the most reclusive behavior. Celebrities who overwork themselves and develop chronic stress often act out and go against everything they've set up for themselves. An example of this is when Britney Spears shaved her head; her mind wasn’t matured or stable enough to deal with the pressures of the public eye and the only way she was able to comfort herself was by retaking control of her life from her managers and publicists.
The last of the three A’s is adaptation. Celebrities who have come to terms with their life, set their days up to be kept out of the public eye as much as possible. This is the reason why we never see celebrities do everyday activities such as grocery shopping or simply walking around. For Britney Spears, it reached a stage where she could no longer go out to a restaurant without being trampled by flashing cameras and hungry paparazzi. Fame has many positives, like money and attention, but the invasion of privacy and overall frustration of trying to live a healthy life makes it some celebrities' biggest regret.
Britney’s Story
Britney shaved her head in a final protest to her overbearing and domineering managers and publicists. It was her way of retaking control of her life.
With her mental health on the cusp of breaking, Britney Spears’ life is further controlled by her father signing a legal conservatorship, making him the proctor of her finances. On the surface, it seems the moral thing any father would do to protect their young daughter. However, after 8 years of signing the conservatorship, Entertainment Tonight reported that Jamie Spears was making money from the contract. According to How Much Money Britney Spears’ Dad, Jamie Spears, Was Making From Her Conservatorship, her father was making $130,000 a year, almost twice the salary of a teacher, from Britney. That means every show, interview, modeling job, and appearance Britney Spears did, her father was making 1.5% off of it.
Fast forward to 2021, Jamie Spears has been given less control of Britney’s finances. Taking the conservatorship to court, a judge finalized a third party, with as much power as Jamie Spears, be granted control over Britney’s conservatorship. This means that this third party will force Jamie to work together to make a budget and investment plan based on Britney Spears’ finances. In the past and present, Jamie’s legal team has professed complete cooperation with the conservatorship. However, Jamie’s attorney argued against the third party decision by saying it was ‘unclear and ambiguous’, completely contradicting what Jamie’s team has said in the past.
Diving Deeper
Ever since of the start of her career with her hit “Baby One More Time”, Britney’s brand has been sexy. Her performance outfits have forever drawn the attention of disapproving parents and stubborn critics.
Looking closer at the way Britney was seen in the public eye before her conservatorship, we see a disturbing detail surface. Since the beginning of her career, Brtiney was constantly targeted because of the image she promoted through her music. Parents around the world were scared that she was promoting wrong behavior in their children due to the way she displayed her body in performances and music videos. Her hit song ...Baby One More Time received a lot of backlash in response to her “sexy school-girl” outfit. Britney has always been one to claim the skin she is in and respect herself no matter what, but this rise in hate sparks a conversation for a larger issue at hand.
Slut-shaming is the action or fact of stigmatizing a woman for engaging in behavior judged to be promiscuous or sexually provocative. From the beginning of time, women have been told what they can and cannot do with their bodies. This ingrained misogyny we have created as a society has not gone away, it has only evolved. When it comes to the clothes women wear to the way they carry themselves, there always seems to be someone there to criticize their every move. Britney, however, has reclaimed her body to sadly only gain negative responses and harassment. Diane Sawyer, a 75 year old popular broadcast journalist, has recently been called out and made to apologize for an interview when the popstar was only 21 years old. Sawyer asked blunt, disrespectful questions made to antagonize Spears in the public eye. She made comments about her “world famous” body, as well as directly asking her, and blaming her, for her and Justin Timberlake's breakup, alluding that she was unfaithful in the relationship. Also, Sawyer has been called out for referring to Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan as “wild wooly sluts”.
A Hope for the Future
Spears’ fans have been assembling in the wake of her situation being displayed for all to see in order to voice their support for their beloved idol.
Hopefully, Britney Spears will be able to have complete control over her conservatorship as well as live her life as healthy as possible. With the #FreeBritney act developed by Tess Barker and Barbara Gray, fans have been working hard alongside Britney to give their beloved idol control of her life again, as well as erase the negative connotation media has splattered on her name.
