It's time to Free Britney
This story blows my mind.
I hadn't thought about Britney in years when it came to my attention she was still living under the conservatorship for 'mental instability' since 2008. She's been allowed to perform in sold out shows and make multi-millions, while being deemed too unstable to manage her own finances and make basic day to day decisions. Her father and the people behind it, have long since been thought to have her best interests at heart.
If you haven't seen the Times documentary 'Framing Britney Spears', it's worth a watch to see how her trial by media in the late 90's got her into this place - a dramatic, paparazzi-directed unravelling of a famous women's life, a cruel and unfair portrayal - and how her fans began the 'Free Britney' campaign to bring attention to her 13 year capture. It's heartbreaking to think she's had to endure this traumatic and abusive treatment for so long.
Goes to show the extent to which these crimes can be perpetuated on women and play out before our very eyes. This is the most outrageous case for psychological abuse and gaslighting I've ever seen. If it can happen to her, it can happen to anyone - and it is, in fact, happening to women all over the world right now.
If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. If you allow women to be silenced, you are a silencer too. It's not enough to mind your own business anymore and allow injustices like this to perpetuate in your family, in your friend circles, in your places of work. Allowing women to be bullied by people who have power, power without repercussions, is no longer acceptable.
Because this is what happens when society tells us to mind our own business, 13 years go by. This is what happens when we're fools enough to listen to what we're told, because it's easier than being uncomfortable and questioning the truth.
What do you stand for in this life? What if standing up for and giving voices to silenced women is your business? What if there's another version of the truth that needs to be heard? What if there's a women you know who needs you to acknowledge that you can see she's been silenced? Because that's all there is to it. That's a start.
"What’s clear is that if Britney ever wins her freedom, it will be thanks to those who insisted on hearing a woman who’d been silenced."
