Britney Spears Just Tried to Free Britney, Here We Go

For weeks now, the #FreeBritney story has been firmly ensconced in tabloid fodder. Even Britney herself made an Instagram video saying everything is fine, and despite the fact that her eyes jarringly said otherwise, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to chalk this whole ordeal up as another step back in her ongoing mental health issues. She had to stay in a facility for a bit? It happens. But the internet loves a good conspiracy theory, so it didn’t take long for fans to accuse Britney’s dad of locking her up against her will, which again, she denied.

Until now.

In a surprise move that’s going to get real ugly, real fast, Britney has not only requested that a judge end her conservatorship, but she’s also accusing her dad of placing her in a mental health facility against her will, which means a batsh*t fanbase was… right about something? Goddammit.

TMZ reports:

As we reported, Jamie Spears does not have the power under the conservatorship to either commit Britney against her will or to ply her with drugs against her will. A mental health facility that accepted an adult patient against that patient’s will when the conservator did not have such power would be committing a crime. And remember, Britney frequently left the place and was seen out and about.

Britney wants more freedom and asked the judge for certain adjustments … but didn’t get them. Sources tell us Britney would like to end the conservatorship, which has been operating for 11-plus years.

This is a huge development. In all of the years that Britney has been under a conservatorship, she has never made a move to end it and has been seemingly content with the fact that the arrangement could last a lifetime. Granted, her dad makes a metric butt-ton of money for his efforts, Jamie Spears really did get Britney’s sh*t together for an impressive amount of time. She went from losing custody of her kids — to f*cking Kevin Federline — while running off to Mexico with Adnan Ghalib during her dreadlocks phase (a.k.a. “Predator Britney”) to having a healthy relationship with her sons as her pop culture empire returned to glory.

So for Britney to come out against her dad is some serious sh*t. As for her mom entering the mix, despite her proclamations to the contrary, I’m going to put my chips on her making a move to take control of the conservatorship, which she very much wants to keep in place. There’s no #FreeBritney going on here.

Via Us Weekly:

However, the “Toxic” singer’s mother, Lynne Spears, who appeared in court with her, is not on board with her daughter’s plan. “Lynne isn’t supportive of Britney ending the conservatorship, but there is nothing she can do to stop it,” the insider explains. “Lynne doesn’t believe that the 730 evaluation, which is essentially a very comprehensive report prepared by a team of Britney’s doctors and possibly a court-appointed medical professional to evaluate Britney, will find that Britney would benefit from the conservatorship ending.”

For those of you who don’t know my past work, I spent a decade covering Britney Spears on The Superficial, and even though that site imploded two years ago, old habits die hard. So, yes, I’ve been following this situation like the gossip dork I am. However, I’ve been hesitant to voice my thoughts because I don’t know how well they’ll play on Pajiba, but here goes.

Right off the bat, the details of Britney Spears’ conservatorship have always been shady as hell. Back in 2016, The New York Times wrote an exposé that I highly recommend reading if you want to immerse yourself in all things Britney. It basically asserts that this level of control is reserved for the elderly or the severely disabled. In other words, it’s extremely unprecedented for the state of California to maintain a conservatorship like this for a 30-something popstar, who had a justifiable breakdown from the pressures of fame and possibly being bipolar. (For the record, there has been no official report of Britney’s mental health condition.)

On top of that, Jamie Spears and a handful of lawyers have made millions from the arrangement, which really makes it look like Britney is trotted out like a circus animal to sh*t golden eggs. There’s also the very gross implications of how a woman who’s been declared mentally unfit by the state to somehow consent to a sexual relationship with her manager Jason Trawick (and others) while under her father’s supervision. Readers of The Superficial will recall me exploring this dynamic in my extremely questionable series of “Bertney Stories,” and the conclusion I drew is probably best left in the dustbin of the Wayback Machine. (Her dad pimped her.)

That said, without the conservatorship, Britney Spears would be dead by now.

While it may feel empowering for her fans to scream “Free Britney!” I don’t think any of them grasps what exactly that entails because, at the end of the day, something is undeniably wrong with Britney. The erratic driving, the constant dropping of her kids, the questionable relationships with grifters like Sam Lutfi, it was all bad. It’s not like a judge will flip a switch, and magically, a fully functional and alert Britney Spears will emerge. Does that mean she still needs a conservatorship like the one she has now? I honestly don’t know. If she was an ordinary person, she would’ve been left to her devices because generally a person’s civil rights trumps the urge to strip of them autonomy even if it’s in their best interests. (Also, America is a sopping wet sh*t show at mental health care.) But Britney isn’t an ordinary person thanks to a money-printing fanbase that allowed her dad to afford the legal shenanigans needed to keep her Tasered like a circus bear. In other words, there are no easy answers here. Everything is terrible.

But here’s the thing: If you’re demanding Britney be free while also gobbling up her songs and concert tickets, why do you think her cage was built? (Hint: It was for you.)