‘Framing Britney Spears’ reignited the #freebritney movement
By Emma Ralls
A&E Editor
When the name Britney Spears is heard, many different things may come to mind. Maybe it is her chart-topping songs or her iconic music videos and performances. Maybe, most notably, it is her very public break down in 2007.
What is unknown by many, however, is the lack of control and censorship Spears has been forced to endure over the past 13 years, but The New York Times is trying to change that with their new documentary.
“Framing Britney Spears” is the sixth episode in a collection of feature-length documentary episodes on Hulu in a series called “The New York Times Presents.” FX Networks describes the series as “a series of standalone documentaries representing the unparalleled journalism and insights of The New York Times, bringing viewers close to the essential stories of our time.”
The documentary does its part to shed light on what many fans might not know about Spears’s situation. It presents interviews from her family, friends, fans and lawyers involved in the legal case surrounding her career and ending her conservatorship.
In 2008, at 26 years old, Spears entered a legal conservatorship that put her father and his attorney in control of practically all of Spears’s assets and finances. Many question if the conservatorship is best for the star, especially because, as the documentary laid out, Spears’s father wasn’t present for most of her childhood and adolescence.
To many, this was a cause for questioning the validity of the conservatorship because the lack of involvement of her father in her career and early life made little sense as to why he would be the one controlling her life.
The documentary also presents the devotion and dedication of Spears’s fans who strongly believe that this conservatorship must be against her will and that she is being controlled and manipulated by her management and her father.
Fans have shown their support in many ways for Spears, making their voices heard with the trending hashtag, #freebritney. After the documentary debuted, a resurgence of the hashtag made its way to social media, and fans and celebrities across the world made their support known. Spears’s long-time friend Paris Hilton shared her opinions in an interview on Andy Cohen Live.
“I feel like if you are an adult, you should be able to live your life and not be controlled,” Hilton said. “I think that maybe stems from me being controlled so much, so I can understand how that would feel, and I can’t imagine right now if that was still happening to me. After just working your whole life and working so hard, she’s this icon, and I just feel like she has no control of her life whatsoever. I just don’t think that’s fair.”
The documentary also doesn’t shy away from pointing fingers at some people in Spears’s past who notably contributed to the situation she is in today. One in particular is Justin Timberlake.
After Timberlake and Spears split, the media and the public speculated on why a seemingly “perfect” relationship would come to an end. Rumors began to spiral that Spears was unfaithful, and Timberlake only fueled the flames with his casting of a Spears look-alike model in the music video for “Cry Me A River.” He also confirmed in an interview that he had, in fact, had sex with Spears, tarnishing the “good girl” image Spears and her management worked hard to perfect.
The documentary is also attributing the paparazzi and tabloids to helping Spears end up in her current situation. The media used a lucrative amount of photos and video evidence of Spears at one of the lowest points in her life, capitalized off the star’s demise and played a direct role in Spears entering her conservatorship.
With the #freebritney movement thrusted back into the public eye and more people talking about the star and her mistreatment, even Spears, herself, has become more outspoken. It is clear that this conversation won’t be easily ignored or unnoticed.
Anyone interested can watch “Framing Britney Spears” on FX and Hulu.