Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons
By Hiba Nawaid ’23
Over the past two months, the online #FreeBritney campaign has gained considerable traction on social media. Britney Spears has previously made headlines for her hit singles and sold-out tours, as well as her turbulent personal life and relationship with fame. Now, fans have brought under scrutiny the pop star's conservatorship arrangement, expressing concern for her well-being and self-autonomy as well as rallying for her to be “freed.”
After her divorce with Kevin Federline and highly publicized struggles with mental health and substance abuse, the court placed Spears under the conservatorship of her father Jamie Spears and attorney Andrew Wallet in 2008. Being under conservatorship entails designating full legal responsibility of an adult, including health and finances, to a conservator or legal guardian. Such arrangements are usually made when a conservatee is deemed unable to make their own decisions. Both Spears’ personal life and pop fortune are managed by her father, along with an attorney and care managers. The star cannot drive on her own, vote or hire her own lawyer.
This long-standing arrangement and the level of control assumed over Spears’ life has distressed fans. Since 2008, the singer has released a number of hit albums and gone on multiple concert tours. However, in contrast to this seemingly functional lifestyle, rumors of a strained relationship with her father and attorney Wallet's resignation as a conservator have raised suspicions about the nature of the conservatorship. In 2019, People magazine reported that the singer’s ex-husband Federline obtained a protective restraining order against Jamie Spears on behalf of his and Spears’ sons after an alleged altercation. Consequently, many flocked to social media to speculate about what is happening behind the scenes.
The campaign has also largely been sustained by Spears’ personal Instagram posts. Fans believe that her posts, which consist of workouts, dance routines and video messages, are coded calls for help. Moreover, the Instagram fixation has also been driven forward by a podcast called Britney’s Gram, which is dedicated to analyzing Spears’s online presence and, on occasion, online absences, relative to news about her life. For instance, Spears was silent on social media for three months at the start of 2019, a period coinciding with reports that she had taken a work hiatus and been admitted to a mental health facility.
This high level of scrutiny arguably treads a fine line between genuine concern and hyper-fixation on the fans’ parts. It is hard to discern whether the campaign is making its desired impact or simply causing agitation to the parties involved, as extreme fan involvement has been known to do in the lives of celebrities. The continued interest has resulted in a change.org petition for Britney to be able to hire her own lawyer garnering almost 250,000 signatures. However, Jamie Spears has gone on record with the New York Post, calling the entire campaign — as well as allegations that he has been embezzling money from his daughter’s business dealings — a conspiracy theory.
“All these conspiracy theorists don’t know anything. The world doesn't have a clue,” Jamie Spears said. “It’s up to the court of California to decide what’s best for my daughter. It’s no one else’s business.”