Bored wealthy housewife living in the hills of Calabasas
Man, she needs help
I do have a lot of general empathy for her situation because her career took off at a time when I was starting to mature and therefore, I had a chance to witness her getting really famous and her subsequent downfall even if presented through the lens of the news media.
Her story is going to be an important case study as well as a cautionary tale against how the music industry can be quite predatory, especially when your parents are involved (as is usually the case with child stars - Britney's parents deffo got her involved in the talent show circuit before she ended up on Mickey Mouse Club in the early-to-mid 90's).
I can recall her being on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 1999 in nothing more than a bra and panties - and she wasn't even 18 yet. I also remember her being on the Kids Choice Awards on Nickelodeon in 1999 "performing" ...Baby One More Time (it was the vocals and instrumental from the album/single, nothing was live - her lip-syncing days started early on) and her headlights were clearly showing. I could be wrong about this, but I believe she was banned from performing the KCA's after that. In retrospect, it's pretty degrading and morally reprehensible that they were pimping her out on TV like that. From an image/brand standpoint, I get that her management and publicity teams were catering to adolescent/teenage male fantasies, but it's still objectifying and sexualizing someone against their (probable) wishes. Contrast that with Billie Eilish, who is now 21 - she was managed by her parents and she was very well covered up/wore baggy clothing until a short while ago - she avoided the teen starlet trap possibly because her parents are (seemingly) not predatory and waited until she was legal to let her define her public feminine sexuality instead of pandering - and that's pretty rare.
In spite of the empathy I can have for Britney Spears and her story, the current state of affairs is that she's crazy. The damage is done to the extent where people can never look at her the same way and will remember her for her crazytown tour that's been in effect once she got married in Vegas - in my opinion, that's where the first signs of trouble emerged, the quickie marriage. She was filmed in that restaurant speaking what sounded like gibberish and acting quite goofy and unhinged. If you've seen Benny and Joon, I'm reminded of the scene where Joon and Sam are on the bus trying to go on the lam and Joon has a manic episode before the bus can even leave - just a movie, but a meaningful enough image comparable to Britney's restaurant episode.
Even though the #FreeBritney movement accomplished their goals, there are still meddlesome nobodies that think it's up to them to get her out of trouble when it's not clear what the real story is. My evidence for this claim is the wellness check that was recently done on her as a result of "concerned citizens" seeing her Instagram posts and thinking she was relying on her old tricks to signal that she was trapped like she was during the conservatorship days. She deserves to be left alone, but she will forever draw attention to herself by doing weird shit on Instagram and being allowed in public while (presumably) unmedicated.
If anyone knows the Brian Wilson story, I think Britney's headed for the same existence as Brian if not already. Both of their brains are fried and require a heavily structured schedule to live a seemingly normal life. They have someone leading the effort to care for them - in Britney's case, it's Sam Ashgari, her husband - in Brian's case, it's his wife, Melinda. In the latter case, Melinda has earned accusations of being no better than Brian's previous caregivers (read up on his story for more information) by insinuating herself into Brian's music and taking control of his career. Unlike Britney, Brian has managed to create music, tour and give interviews even if he sounds a bit frazzled compared to the articulate personality he had in the 1960s. Because the younger generations are more invested in Britney's story, in large part thanks to social media, I see these white knights never giving her any peace and her "caregivers" will also be scrutinized in the way that her father was. The Catch-22 is that she will (seemingly) forever need caregivers to look after her but she'll have advocates saying she needs to be freed/left alone while she is allowed to do weird shit that reinforces the need for her to be looked after period. Her existence is tough and nobody really wins in the end.
