Britney Spears: A life controlled by others
Britney Spears “has long been one of the most watched people on Earth,” said Spencer Kornhaber in TheAtlantic.com, “but it’s different to be heard.” In a recorded court hearing, the 39-year-old singer spoke out last week for the first time about living under a strict conservatorship. Several public meltdowns led to her involuntary institutionalization in a mental hospital in 2008, after which a judge gave her father legal control over her life. But 13 years later, Spears’ “chilling” testimony includes that she was forced to take lithium—a sedating medication often used to treat bipolar disorder—and that her father, who draws a $16,000 monthly salary from her while giving her a $2,000 weekly allowance, controls everything from her kitchen décor to whether she can marry her boyfriend. (No, she may not.) She alleges that she is even forbidden from having her IUD implant removed, to prevent her from having more children. “I’m not happy,” she testified. “I cry every day.”
Spears testified that her lawyer hadn’t told her she had the right to challenge the conservatorship, said Christie D’Zurilla in the Los Angeles Times. Now she knows and wants out. “Cut and dried, right? Not exactly.” Legal experts doubt that she can be freed without a thorough medical evaluation, and “a court hearing that allows the other side to present its case” could conclude that she remains a danger to herself or others. This wouldn’t have happened to “the male version of Britney Spears,” said Helaine Olen in The Washington Post. Michael Jackson, Kanye West, and Robert Downey Jr. all had severe mental health episodes or major drug problems; no one took away their autonomy or seized control of their reproductive systems.
“It’s not just her father and a judge who robbed her of agency,” said Jessica Goldstein in New Republic.com. Middle-aged men at a record company launched her career as a hypersexualized, 16-year-old Lolita singing “Baby One More Time,” and various males steered her into a level of global pop stardom that generated $60 million in revenue but left her constantly swarmed by paparazzi and gossipmongers. Only when she unraveled under incredible pressure was she deemed “responsible for the mess she was in.” It’s time to “free Britney Spears” and return “her story to its rightful owner.”