After thirteen years, Jamie Spears has still failed to rehabilitate his popstar daughter, Britney, through an ongoing conservatorship. The same father who profited off her youthful stardom while her bipolar symptoms developed was the main conservator entrusted to help her with that mental illness. Given the timeframe and Britney’s testimony, it’s evident that the conservatorship is a legally binding abusive relationship with no objective of recovery. Jamie and his co-conservators have ulterior motives for sustaining a vicious cycle of systemic abuse.
With total control over Britney Spears’s finances, the conservators profited from maintaining a codependent system over her, whereas if Britney gained her independence, they would lose financially. The “therapy” that she was forced to attend sounds more like abuse sessions, which exacerbated her preexisting symptoms, causing her to need more therapy. What transpired in the predatory therapy sessions stayed private, while the emotional effects right after those sessions were captured by the clueless paparazzi. Britney’s crying face was accosted by a strobe of flashing cameras, publicizing her reactions with zero understanding of what caused her tears.
The conservatorship is taking over a decade and showing
no improvement. The constant evaluation
of Spears’s mental health is testament of the program’s incompetence. Psychological evaluations for mass murderers
have taken less time. Additionally, they
mandate Spears to take mind-crippling psychiatric drugs, and switch to other
bad medications, which she involuntarily ingests. The results are not helpful or healthy. Ms. Spears expressed that the pills make her feel drunk or roofied.
Running parallel to incompetence is the complexity of maltreatment given to Britney. Despite being legally regarded as unable to make decisions, she dances practically naked in some of her videos, which means it’s nonconsensual. She is heavily drugged before performing her shows, watched while getting dressed every day, and forced to have an IUD implanted to control her procreation. She has no control over her bank account and no credit cards. It is a situation resembling human trafficking, and Britney herself has voiced that when she finally had the chance.
The conservatorship was not supposed to be indefinite. It was supposed to get Ms. Spears back on track. Around 2.3 million Americans have bipolar disorder, and not every single one of those people is institutionalized or in a merciless conservatorship. The aim of the conservatorship should have been to stabilize Britney to leading a functional life again, and instead her conservators psychologically injured her routinely to cause dependence on psychotherapy, plus she is preconditioned to anticipate that abuse. It’s analogous to a hospital making patients sicker to lengthen their stay to rack up more medical bills, and not letting them leave. Britney Spears’s father is just as sickening.
Jamie Spears relished hearing Britney sob for 30 minutes
over the phone, knowing she would face a “short rehab” program that would cause
her more pain, costing her $60,000 of funds that she has no control over. He sounds like he enjoys the control and
abuse. He micromanages Britney, but neglects Jamie Lynn who was raped at age
16. It doesn’t matter if it was middle
aged Dan Schneider or the 19-year-old boyfriend, Casey Aldridge – the
perpetrator was a full grown man raping and impregnating a child. There were no charges against Jamie Lynn’s
rapist, but heaven forbid Britney be alone in a car with her non-pedophile
boyfriend! It's strange for a father to strictly control his 39-year-old daughter's reproduction, but not the younger daughter at age 16?
Britney Spears is older than me, but she can not simply waltz outside and drive a car to CVS to buy some shampoo on her own like I am free to do. She is being treated as if she were a minor or a senior citizen with dementia. Still, who would force a child or an elderly woman to dance in a sexualized manner? Britney is forced to work, sometimes semi-nude, and her conservators/pimps collect her earnings.
When I was a teenager, I admit I used to bash Britney. Her songs were snappy, but I viewed Britney as a sex-puppet for the music industry. I was a lonely feminist in the midst of the sex-focused majority, and girls just wanted to be free to be sex goddesses rather than astronauts and lawyers. Girls would slut-shame the popstars they secretly wished to become. I just thought of all things you could be, why be just a body?
As an adult, I realize she was being used just like numerous women in the music and movie industries, who had to show flesh in order to succeed at all, while men were not required to be quasi-porn stars. No one should be treated the way Britney is being treated. Her mental illness is not going to disappear, but she should have been taught how to manage it and learn to live with it in order to move on. Her conservatorship and her family have failed to teach her that.
Sources:
Saad, N (2020 Aug 18). Britney Spears being ‘strongly opposed’ to her sole conservator. LA Times. Retrieved from: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2020-08-18/britney-spears-conservatorship-jamie-spears
Serjeant, J & McCool G, Ed (2021 Jun 22). Explainer: Britney Spears case throws spotlight on complex conservatorships. Reuters. Retrieved from: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/britney-spears-case-throws-spotlight-complex-conservatorships-2021-06-22/
YouTube (2021 Jun 23).
Britney Spears Full Conservatorship Hearing (Leaked HQ Audio) Opening Testimony. [Recording from Courtroom]. Courtesy of user: Jack Frost. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVrhKBhMrEI
[Note: One or more
people close to the person recording have noisy cellphone notifications, which
are irritatingly distracting from the main material. I could not find a copy of the recording
omitting it.]
YouTube (2021 Jun 23). Britney Spears - 42-Minute Conservatorship Hearing. [Audio recording]. Courtesy of user: Britney Online. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhw4BlhaGlg&t=702s
[Note: This video is more complete. The notifications could be from Britney's phone or from someone else in the Zoom hearing.]
McKay, H (2007 Dec 20).
Pop Tarts: Did Jamie Lynn’s Boyfriend Break the Law? Fox
News. Retrieved from: https://www.foxnews.com/story/pop-tarts-did-jamie-lynns-boyfriend-break-the-law
[Note: If Aldridge was 18 and the deed took place in
Louisiana (the other LA), then he would be legally innocent. It’s still sketchy.]
The number of people with Bipolar Disorder in America was obtained via Google on June 25, 2021. Google results may vary per date searched.
