Discussion: #FreeBritney

The Hangout Discuss
,
1

So um idk if I can explain this right but basically Britney is part of this Conservatorship- which is basically when someone is too mentally unwell to handle their assets so someone else or a group of people does it for them. As well as many other decisions. Like, she has so much money but she can only spend so much of it for example.
Here’s a really good video about it that I watched and you should too because I don’t know how else to explain this:


And here’s one where a nonverbal reader analyzes Britney’s body language.

Questions:
Have you heard about this before?
Do you think Britney needs help?
Do you think Britney is in trouble?
What do you think about Conservatorship and the disability rights part of it?
@Discussions

6 Likes
2

I’m disabled too…hmmm…

1 Like
3

Oof I remember when I heard about it for the first time I was honestly shocked
It’s wrong in so many ways

1 Like
4

What disabilities are included in this? I…um…am too lazy to watch the video.

1 Like
5

I remember I saw this post on Facebook the first tome I heard of free Britney

Summary

PSA on Britney Spears and the #FreeBritney movement for anyone that needs or wants more information on what is going on with her. It’s a f*cking rabbit hole, so buckle up.

A little backstory first. Britney was a child star starting at the age of 4 years old on Broadway, and then worked her way to the Mickey Mouse Club, and eventually the solo career we know today. Her career has been on autopilot her entire life. If you look back at her music, she’s been telling everyone for years she’s too controlled and treated as a product if you listen to the lyrics of most of her hits. Examples include: Lucky, Overprotected, My Perogative, Circus, Piece of Me and Gimme More. Her music videos, social media posts, tour props and photoshoots regularly show her in a cage or in chains. If anyone has ever seen videos of her when she was younger, you’d know her REAL singing voice is very similar to Christina Aguilera’s. Her record label didn’t like it, as they were both on the Mickey Mouse Club and about to release their debut albums at the same time. So they had her voice retrained to sing in the baby voice we all know today because they believed it to be more iconic and would create a brand and career for her instead of her real voice. It’s unhealthy, and it’s been destroying her voice over the years, thus why she is known for lip syncing. She wanted to make an acoustic type pop album in 2006 titled Original Doll and reinvent herself using her real voice. The album was shelved and cancelled once her label realized she would be singing in her real voice. She isn’t allowed to sing live because she will either fail terribly, or she’ll have to sing in her deep voice that she isn’t known for. Her entire career she has been treated like a product meant to sell.

Now, for the real tea.
Everyone remembers the 2007 meltdown. Everyone. Leading up the meltdown Britney was going thru a public divorce, had two children under the age of 2 at the time and was VERY much the focus of the public. We all saw her on every magazine cover. We all also saw the photo of her with one of her kids on her lap while driving. Go on YouTube once and look up ‘Britney Spears paparazzi’. You’ll watch her be chased and followed by hundreds of them, even trying to get into a public restroom to photograph her, videotaping her in tears asking them to leave her alone, and even filming her thru the windows of an ambulance while she was naked being taken away for her final mental health hold.

After the public meltdown, shaving her head, locking herself in her home with her children, speaking in a british accent on regular basis, wearing the imfamous pink wig everywhere, and shopping naked, she was hospitalized twice. After the hospitalization, her father petitioned the courts to be a TEMPORARY conservator to her until she was mentally stable and for only one years time. 2 months after her hospitalization she did a guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother. 6 months after her hospitalization, she drops the Womanizer video and starts to promote her new album Circus with its worldwide tour that grossed $131.8 million. If she’s so unwell, why did she start working right away?

Her father after one year petitioned the courts for the conservatorship to become permanent due to her ALLEGEDLY having EARLY ONSET DEMENTIA in her TWENTIES. It passed and has been that way ever since. For 12 years to be exact.

Now for everyone that doesn’t understand what that means let me break it down for you.

Britney Spears is a now 38 year old woman who is not allowed to do the following without her fathers permission or he can legally lock her up in a mental health facility:
• drive a car
• vote
• get married
• have children
• spend HER OWN MONEY
• see how her money is being spent
• see her children (she has 30% custody of both of her boys due to her dad assaulting one of her sons)
• leave her home
• hire her own lawyer
• have any control over her career
• speak about the conservatorship publicly
• do interviews that aren’t scripted and all final cuts are approved by her father as well
• use a cell phone without being monitored
• use social media unmonitored
• contact ANYONE without being monitored or having them extremely vetted. (Iggy Azalea allegedly had her house searched for drugs top to bottom when they collaborated on a song together)
• go shopping
• go for a walk
• get Starbucks

A conservatorship is meant for people with mental health issues or decaying health. Most likely grandparents or people with actual dementia etc. They are meant for people who literally cannot take care of themselves. If she is so unwell that she isn’t mentally capable of doing anything for herself, why is she still working? Since the conservatorship began 12 years ago she has:
• released 4 albums
• done 3 worldwide tours
• did a FOUR-year Vegas residency
• was a full time judge on X-Factor
• released multiple perfumes and a lingerie line
• made $138 MILLION DOLLARS or so A YEAR

In January of last year, Britney was placed in a mental health facility for 3 months after being seen driving her car to In-N-Out with her boyfriend without permission and for refusing to take the sedating medications her father has doctors prescribing her to keep her under control. She testified to a judge in documents that she was held there against her will by her father. After it was leaked to the press that she was there against her will, the Free Britney movement picked up speed causing a judge to open an investigation into the impact and legality her conservatorship has on her life. Britney’s mother Lynn was also liking and commenting on Free Britney posts saying she agrees that Britney is trapped by her father. Britney’s team had Twitter disable the Free Britney hashtag, and regularly threatens any celebrity that speaks out using the hashtag with a lawsuit if they don’t remove their support for the movement. She was seen shortly after leaving a hotel thru the front door (99% of celebrities park underground to avoid paparazzi unless they WANT to be photographed) stumbling while carrying her shoes, and out of it. Her team used that moment to justify to the public that she needs this conservatorship. She is not allowed to have any say in the hiring or firing of anyone on her team. Every year she pays $1.1 million dollars in fees for the conservatorship to continue, including paying her father a solid $100k+ salary and paying a lawyer she isn’t allowed to choose. She is allowed an allowance of around $1,500 a week for bills, shopping and essentials. Her net worth is $250 million.

So, when everyone sees her on Instagram walking up and down her hallways like it’s a fashion show. That’s all she is allowed to do. She has NEVER had control over her life. I don’t care if you personally like her or her music, NO ONE DESERVES THIS. All this woman wants is to see her children, make the music she wants to make, and go get a frappuccino in her car. She is a light of sunshine in this world, and we must protect her at all costs. So please, do not make fun of her, support the Free Britney movement, and send good vibes her way. She has a court date this month to review the conservatorship and decide if it is abusive or will continue to be in place. There are so many details to this that i left out that would make this post entirely much longer than it is, but a simple search will show you what else is out there. Spread this far and wide. :heart: Free Britney

10 Likes
6

Wait…so Toxic isn’t her real voice?!

7

I don’t know but you do have to have a serious mental illness- like for example Alzheimer’s.

1 Like
8

Oh, I don’t think I’d be applicable, then.

2 Likes
9

I have physical disabilities

2 Likes
10

And Aspergers.

2 Likes
11

Well hopefully you don’t go into a Conservatorship lol.

1 Like
12

Here’s a short description on what it is:
“Conservators have court-ordered authority and responsibility to manage the affairs of those who can no longer make their own decisions about finances or health care.”

1 Like
13

Ah ok.

1 Like
14

I did NOT know all this. I read up on some of the stuff involved with the conservatorship, but all this…wow :slightly_frowning_face:
I remember there was a documentary or some sort of TV special around the time Womanizer came out and she seemed so upset. She was saying that she wanted freedom or to not be controlled (something along those lines).
I didn’t know she was still being controlled until the FreeBritney movement! 12 frickin years!!! I hate what’s happening to her :rage:

4 Likes
15

Poor thing…

2 Likes
16

The people who did this to her are flat out evil. Free her!

2 Likes
17

Her situation devastates me
I wish I could do more

3 Likes
18

Wow! I had no clue about this! Thanks for making this thread!

I think the issues with her right now say a hell of a lot, to be honest. The woman in the first video makes some very good points. If she’s well enough to perform and live a busy schedule, then she is well enough for them to, at the very least, consider relaxing the guardianship. If they’re that worried about her not being used to taking care of her own affairs, why not do it bit by bit so that she can slowly and confidently take ownership of her life?

As a side note, I wonder why people don’t take her seriously when she insists she’s ok? Like, is it just mental health? Because, publicly, at least, she seems to have been fine for a very long time. So are there any other factors?

4 Likes
19

As a clinical psychologist by education, I need to say: We shouldn’t be discussing it as a general issue. Each conservatorship is an individual case and needs to be considered as such. Having a conservatorship invoked is, thankfully, very difficult these days - and usually done for the right reasons. Granted, it was and is abused, but in all frankness - unless we’re directly involved, we’re no one to judge it.

I don’t know. I have no insight into Britney’s health, her diagnosis, the history of her treatment or any other relevant information. Which is as it should be - these are a highly private matters and medical secrets. We’re neither privy nor entitled to know them.

In fact, what worries me the most is how public this case is. The fact there’s a whole movement of people who wish to tamper into the matters of her mental health with neither information nor clinical insights into it is… Dangerous, to say the least. Mental health is a private matter. Making it public can be extremely harmful to her treatment.

The mental health of another person is none of our business unless we’re directly involved or they make it our business. Britney asked us not to get involved. We really should respect that wish. Calling out on it and wondering whether she was ‘forced’ or ‘manipulated’ into making it can be very, very bad case of gaslighting.

It’s a very complicated and loaded matter, which can be very easily misjudged - especially these days. The truth is, these laws exist for a reason. There are people who can’t fend for themselves, either because they’re incapable of it or because their decisions would ruin their lives. In these cases, conservatorship literally enables them to live more normal, functional lives.

However, conservatorship should be only applied when it’s absolutely necessary. Just being disabled is no actual grounds for it, and no court worth its money would ever apply it lightly - exactly because it’s easy to abuse.

Another big problem with laws like that is the negativity effect: Any news of the (possible) abuse of conservatorship resonate with the public very strongly. On the other hand, successful and helpful conservatorship simply doesn’t make the news, most of the time. Because of that, the public opinion has a pretty biased view of it, seeing it mostly for the dangers it presents. This is hardly the whole story, or even the most important part of the story :confused:

3 Likes
20

Closed due to inactivity