@How the Online #freebritney Movement Brought Mainstream Media Attention to the Practice of Conservatorships
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years, you’ve probably heard the term “conservatorship” tossed around here and there, possibly even for the first time.
That’s because pop music icon Britney Spears’ fierce fanbase brought the issue to the forefront via one simple hashtag: #freebritney.
But OK, if you really don’t already know, here’s the scoop — a conservatorship is a court-designated relationship in which a guardian is appointed to manage the financial and daily life affairs of another person, a “conservatee.” This arrangement can be requested either because the conservatee is elderly, or else because the conservatee is deemed otherwise mentally incapable of managing their own estate.
Enter Britney Spears and the highly publicized breakdown that unraveled in 2008. Following a series of incidents that led to several hospitalizations and multiple stints in rehab, Britney Spears’ father, with whom she has been said to have had a strained relationship for years, was appointed as a co-conservator of her finances and daily life. Britney has alluded to her unhappiness within the conservatorship several times over the years, which has ignited criticism from fans who admonish the perceived abuse she has experienced.
The outrage really began to culminate in 2019, however, after Britney canceled her Vegas residency and then later experienced another hospitalization. This is when the #freebritney hashtag really began to take off, and when fans began to take investigative matters into their own hands. Many fans began to speculate about how much control Britney had over her own social media.
As Britney’s legal battles to remove her father as her conservator were continually denied, the #freebritney movement grew so popular online that the mainstream media began to take notice, too.
The most notable of media recognition, however, was a highly anticipated New York Times documentary that investigated the background of Britney’s conservatorship and first aired in early February 2021. The documentary also covered the spawn of the #freebritney movement and the ongoing demonstrations in support of Britney’s legal battle against her conservatorship.
We often see the many ways in which journalism inspires its audiences to stand up and create change based on the information gathered by news organizations. In the case of Britney Spears and the conservatorship system, however, it has been the audience who has inspired journalism to take a more in-depth look at the practice.
The social media attention garnered by the Britney Spears conservatorship case has brought to light not only the possible abuse of Britney’s legal conservatorship but also that of other celebrities, including Amanda Bynes. It has also shed light on the idea that any flaws in the Britney Spears case could be a sign of flaws in the overall conservatorship system as a whole.
It is possible that one simple hashtag in defense of a pop music princess, #freebritney, could one day be realized as the spark that changed the conservatorship practice in the United States, which is really pretty cool.
