Britney Spears’s Conservatorship is Sadistic, Inadequate, and Laced with Financial Motives.

 

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.

Post-Election Trump Haikus

 

 

I used to write lengthy poems, and I filled notebooks for poetry courses in college.  Those were fun electives.  Now I don't find the time to divulge my poetic side as often, but this year I have been fond of haikus for their fun simplicity.

I recently typed up some haikus regarding Donald Trump's reaction to the 2020 Election results and his lack of concession.

 

Trump Haikus: 2020 Election Edition

 

Just admit you lost.

Losing hurts, but sore losers

get embarrassed fast.

 

A sore winner you

were in year 2016,

Sore loser, you’re now!

 

Biden votes aren’t fraud.

Your desperation shows now.

Perspiration drips.

 

Your scared tweets are barks,

Hark the Twitter birds herald

growls of thy foamed mouth.

 

Champ and Major are

sniffing in the White House now,

sensing their new home.

 

We learn to lose young,

when losing at a board game.

Lessons lessen loss.

Judging Icons

 

 

Judge Judy is not a real judge.  She is an arbitrator.  

Dr. Laura is not a real psychologist.  She has a PhD in physiology and just a certificate in family counseling.  

George Carlin was not a philosopher.  He was a comedian.  

Simon Cowell can’t sing – but judges everyone’s singing.  

We have a reality TV show host in the White House.

 

 

My point:  All these people get paid to demean people.  Fans feel schadenfreude for the belittled while simultaneously hoping to become the exception of the icon’s hatred.

Judge Judy exploits complainants’ lack of legal knowledge, double-binds them with questions then disallows their response, and yells like an abusive school teacher.  Viewers are deluded into feeling superior, while maintaining the same IQ by not learning anything.

In a real courtroom with a jury, attorneys can present better evidence in a fair trial, whereas Judy’s cases are a contest for paperwork quality and vociferous insult humor.  The losing side could have been the true winner if they had presented the correct materials. 

Dr. Laura has a long history of victim blaming and verbally abusing people who just want help.  In most of her conversations, she treated her callers’ problems as personal attacks and talked defensively.  Real counseling should be done in private, not broadcasted on some radio show with a host who doesn’t understand the basics of counseling.  Advertisers pulled their content once she repeatedly said the N-word in an episode with a black female caller.  It’s ironic that Dr. Laura calls people idiots.

Simon Cowell’s callousness made him famous starting as a judge on American Idol, where he would humiliate hopeful singers just for missing a note or two.  He never gave constructive criticism, and his comments reflected a layman’s reaction.  Numerous vocalists have minor flaws in their voices, which make them unique, but Cowell was more like a beauty pageant judge in the sense of narrowing the standards of beauty, vocally.  He has calmed down in X-Factor, but it seems like people want to kiss up to this overrated critic.

As for George Carlin, he was just a jerk, but that’s my opinion.  Comedy generally has no boundaries, and you are free to like any comedian, but he is not comparable to philosophers like Aristotle or Descartes.  I saw George Carlin live once.  Few people laughed, and the opening act was exceptionally better.  In one of his viral video clips, Carlin complained about words getting longer, and ironically he also complains about stupidity, despite his challenge in big words.  Granted, Carlin has passed and may he rest in peace.  Though should he be remembered as a philosopher? 

*     *     *

So, why shouldn’t I just switch the channel or tune into another radio station?  The more the masses are entertained by emotional sadism, the more channels hurtful icons pervade in the media.  People are free to like whatever they want and relieve themselves of enduring people’s merciless foolishness, but what we enjoy says something about ourselves and ultimately our culture.  The cruel entertainers are only funny until one of those TV show hosts ends up running the country.