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A new documentary produced by The New York Times has found that the twenty year career of the record-breaking American pop singer Britney Spears may have not been that much fun.
The 39-year-old southern belle has returned to the headlines recently, as fringe theories about her ‘conservatorship status’ (a legal guardianship arrangement) grow in momentum amongst her beloved fans.
For years, this court-ordered legal arrangement has prevented Spears granting free and open interviews to journalists, as her father deems her to mentally unwell to control her own life – but well enough to sell out stadiums right around the world.
This ‘forced guardianship’ is the subject of the new documentary ‘Framing Britney Spears’.
Released in the US last week, and since then both fans and former critics have come to realise that maybe things really were as bad as they probably looked at the time.
The film looks at the Princess of Pop’s rapid rise to pop stardom, the deterioration of her mental health at the hands of tabloids and evil music executives, and the legal arrangement that has triggered the ‘Free Britney’ movement amongst her die hard fans.
The documentary insinuates that Britney Spears – who as a 17-year-old rose to global superstardom when she was marketed as a slutty underage schoolgirl by 60-year-old music industry executives and an overbearing father who controls her every movement to this very day – may have been exploited by powerful people who didn’t have her best interests at heart throughout the duration of her career.
It seems Baby Boomers are struggling the most with these revelations about Britney Spears – after spending two decades slut-shaming the pop singer out of a deep-seated resentment towards her because of the influence she held over their own daughters – only to now realise that it was all a plan cooked up by dirty old men who went on to do the same thing with Disney products Selena Gomez and Miley Cyrus.
On top of the sleazy music industry, media commentators also received a bad wrap – as the documentary revisits the decade long obsession that the tabloids and talk show hosts had with Britney’s virginity and whether or not her boobs were real.
The Betoota Advocate joins Puerto Rican rap star Pitbull, and several other high profile musicians in the calls to #FreeBritney.
