Exploring the pop stars journey in the music industry over the past two decades.
At the tender age of 16, Britney Spears was a force to be reckoned with. She managed to break into the music scene in 1998 by going on a strenuous ‘Hair Zone Mall Tour’ where she performed in malls and food courts across the US. Her efforts and passion for music resulted in bounties, as the icon was shortly crowned the princess of pop for bringing back a refreshing element of teen pop that had clearly been missed by the majority of people in the late nineties and early noughties.
Despite gaining fame in such a short space of time, little did a teenager from Louisiana know that the sensationalist and tabloid media would thrive at any opportunity to bring her down. By turning private matters into public turmoils and at worst, spread alarming rumours to create a whirlwind of controversies.
Hits like 'Baby One More Time' and 'Oops!...I Did It Again' fill the lives of many millennials and gen z individuals alike with nostalgic memories. It's a shame that Britney had to go through abuse behind closed doors and be heavily criticised through the media in the public lens, whilst continuously producing a steady stream of songs that are now classic throwback songs which I myself keep going back to.
A fashion icon shamed for expressing creativity
"Everybody's always going to have an opinion, I say as long as you're comfortable wear what you want to wear, it's all in how you carry yourself and how you live, that's what it boils down to"
Britney has been good at sparking outrage from her early onset career, from raunchy school-girl outfits to her first cover on the Rolling Stone magazine in 1999, where she is pictured lying on a bed in polka dot shorts and a push-up bra. Her style and choice of outfits meant she was inevitably hyper-sexualised in the media and her management team played a big role in how she would be portrayed to the masses as a 'Lolita'.
In fact, interviewers and celebrities would often slut shame and criticise the star's outfits, calling them trashy and trampy. Eminem once expressed in a VH1 interview that he was worried his daughter would be badly influenced by Britney. He said: "My little girl is a fan you know what I mean, she listens to some of her music, and what happens is that little girls start looking up to her because she's this cute little teeny bopper, when my little girl becomes a teenager that's going to be a difficult thing to deal with."
Nonetheless Britney always stood up for herself, saying that she was singled out as many people the same age dressed like her and she was the only one being singled out. In an interview at 19, she said: "Everybody's always going to have an opinion, I say as long as you're comfortable wear what you want to wear, it's all in how you carry yourself and how you live, that's what it boils down to."
Fast forward 12 years, it is considered normal and healthy for a young person to rebel against traditional norms and truly express themselves by wearing what they feel most confident and comfortable in, take Olivia Rodrigo for an example who is setting new trends along the way.
In fact the majority of outfits worn today by celebrities and the general public include crop tops, tight dresses, mini skirts and sheer clothing. As the blueprint of what Britney Spears wore was largely criticised and sadly slut shamed by the media, strangers and celebrities.
The media’s role in Britney’s infamous breakdown
The coverage of Britney Spears from her mid-20s reached an all time high. It was so intense that wherever Britney was the paparazzi managed to follow through and pictured her having countless breakdowns, it was only a matter of time until she couldn't take it anymore, just imagine how it would feel if we had no personal space left in our lives.
The one to shake the world was when the icon shaved her head in February 2007, after fleeing from a rehab facility in Antigua in hopes of seeing her children but, ex Kevin Federline denied her the means to at the time which was deemed the final straw.
“We are all to blame for what happened to Britney Spears - we may not have caused her downfall, but we funded it. And we can try to make up for it-and do so much better.”
The tabloid media didn't hold back from publishing cruel and nasty front covers inciting that Britney had truly lost her mind, Celebrity publications like Star Magazine who had ‘Who’ll Be Forced Into Rehab Next?’ slapped onto its latest issue and People Magazine's headline 'Inside Britney's Breakdown' , told readers that the sole cause of her rehabilitation was her 'Wild partying, sobbing in public, shaving her head back'. These sad headlines show that 20 years ago someone's mental health struggles were not taken into consideration, let alone taken seriously.
Women's magazines such as Glamour have now released articles issuing an apology to the star, following the New York Times 'Framing Britney Spears' documentary which exposed the media industry heavily: “We are all to blame for what happened to Britney Spears - we may not have caused her downfall, but we funded it. And we can try to make up for it-and do so much better.”
How did the #FreeBritney Movement come about and did it make a difference?
The #FreeBritney movement was launched in 2008 by much-loved fans of Britney Spears, shortly after Jamie Spears had put his daughter under an involuntary conservatorship due to her mental breakdowns, where the court sought fit that Britney was not able to take care of herself.
This gave him control over the singer’s career, financial affairs, as well as, personal life, which meant Britney had limited access to when she could see her children and spend time with them. The star claimed that her life got extremely abusive, to the point her room was bugged so she couldn’t even reach out for help without being monitored in fear of being caught.
It wasn't until 2019 that the movement truly started to gain traction. Babs Gray and Tess Barker went on an investigative mission to find out what was going on. They would attend dozens of hearings in relation to the Spears case, and even used to monitor Britney’s Instagram, noting that she may be hinting at signs for help.
After creating a comedy podcast series in 2017 called ‘Britney’s Gram’. They held discussions on why and how Britney would go missing for days based on her social media posts, which soon turned into a true-crime series, after receiving an unsettling voicemail allegedly stating that Jamie Spears had put Miss Spears in a mental facility against her own will.
The fan-led movement, which has seen ordinary people with full time-jobs take time out of their busy lives to organise online and in-person demonstrations, whilst reviewing court documents investigating the extent to which the stars life was controlled, has proven to be all worth it. After a hefty 14 years, on November 12th 2021, Britney Spears conservatorship came to an end, letting her take the lead to make key life decisions.
Coming to terms with Freedom
"It's so mind opening being in a resort where there is no paparazzi... for the first time in my life... I can actually be that girl who can act stuck up and talk about how I'm getting married... out at dinners"
Ever since the conservatorship ended Britney has been constantly vocal on Instagram, expressing her gratitude to live a somewhat normal life without the media or public peeking through a lens and it is amazing to see.
Here are a couple of Instagram captions to put yourself in her shoes:
On Britney’s Instagram she posted a picture of herself with the caption expressing how she was grateful to have a normal holiday and put herself first instead of doing business as usual, she said: "The only thing I’ve known when I used to go Vegas was hour long meet and greets with 40 people every night getting the worst pics of me and then a two hour show, let’s just say this time visiting it gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to live."
And on another post where fiancé Sam Asghari is pictured standing in front of a window, Britney expresses how happy she is to celebrate life with him. She said: "It's so mind opening being in a resort where there is no paparazzi... for the first time in my life... I can actually be that girl who can act stuck up and talk about how I'm getting married... out at dinners."
The noughties and the terrible celebrity tabloids - there is no doubt that the media holds power in the way they control and represent women as many have fallen prey to their methods. Britney Spears is sadly one of many victims who only recently regained her freedom. Many women in the film and music industry who have been in a similar position are starting to reclaim that power by using social media to form a union of people against a patriarchal society. Things are definitely starting to change for the better, slowly but surely.
Editor's Note: Roann Gutierrez
This article is both an informative and insightful read as the corrupt truth of a world we glamourised finally sees the light of day. It's shocking to see how long it took for Britney to regain her freedom and the lengths the media and those around her took to mould her life. It definitely makes me sit and challenge the attitudes of the media towards today's rising stars and I feel gen z have more empathy and understanding towards these horrid truths. It's refreshing to read a success story and I hope Britney's narrative continues to inspire many other women who have lost their voice in the forced silence.
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