The now-famous hashtag #FreeBritney is a worldwide known movement that not only saved the pop princess Britney Spears’s life but made her situation known in order to spread awareness on wrongful conservatorships.
The American singer has lost control over her life and her finances for more than a decade when her father petitioned to institute a temporary conservatorship on Spears in 2008 that became permanent that same year. This conservatorship meant that her father would assume control of Spears’s assets and of her daily activities, requiring the singer to ask permission for basic tasks such as going to the grocery store.
The issue is that this conservatorship is starting to do more harm than good. Even though she has a successful career, releases her own music, and is pushed to the limit, always accomplishing what is asked of her, she still does not have the liberty to spend her own money that she worked and shed sweat and tears to earn.
Britney reportedly wants her father "suspended immediately" from running her estate, accusing him of robbing her and not wanting what is best for her. He is charged with making decisions about her career, as well as her estate and financial affairs and Britney is fighting for her right to decide who should be in charge of her wealth. According to Forbes, Jamie has made at least $5 million from Britney's conservatorship- Britney has had to pay her father $16,000 per month since February 2009 as her conservator. In 12 years, that amount has equaled to $2.4 million.
Like many twenty-first-century turn of events that occurred through a social platform, this was not the exception. The creation of the #FreeBritney movement amassed over half a million posts on Instagram. Social pressure has been seen recently as a game-changer for justice, and Jamie Spears has been suspended from Britney's conservatorship. Finally, the fight that every Britney fan has fought has ended in victory.
Bibliography
Bentancourt, B. (2021, September 29) Why Longtime Britney Spears Fans Are Demanding to #FreeBritney. Harper's Bazaar. https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a34113034/why-longtime-britney-spears-fans-are-demanding-to-freebritney/
Levin, S. (2021, September 29) Britney Spears’s father suspended from conservatorship in victory for singer. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/sep/29/britney-spears-father-removed-conservatorship-ruling-latest
Pizzelo, C. (2021, September 30) Britney Spears supporters demonstrate outside the Stanley Mosk Courthouse on Wednesday in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles judge removed Spears' father from the conservatorship that controls her life and money. [Photograph]. The Philadelphia Inquirer. https://www.inquirer.com/health/consumer/britney-spears-conservatorship-patient-bills-mental-health-20210930.html
Renfro, K., et. al. (2021, September 29) Judge officially suspends Jamie Spears from Britney Spears' conservatorship after 13 years. [Photograph] Business Insider. https://www.insider.com/britney-spears-jamie-spears-removed-from-conservatorship-2021-9
Wong, W. (2021, October 5) Britney Spears thanks #FreeBritney movement for 'freeing' her from conservatorship. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/pop-culture-news/britney-spears-thanks-freebritney-movement-freeing-her-conservatorship-n1280771