I actually didn’t plan on writing this, but since everyone seems to be putting their two cents on this new installment in the FX/Hulu series, The New York Times Presents, which is titled: Framing Britney Spears, I figured I’d write about it because I did have some thoughts that I just had to get out. I guess I should start off by saying that I’m actually a massive Britney Spears fan, going all the way back to, I believe, first grade when the album “…Baby One More Time” came out and became an instant phenomenon, especially with the younger crowd. Though pop was never usually my preferred genre of music to listen to, she just happened to come in at the right place and the right time, and I found myself among these young fans. I grew up listening to all of her albums, watching her on TV whenever she came to perform, I saw her movie Crossroads, as well as every episode of her reality series, Britney & Kevin: Chaotic. She was also my first celebrity crush.
Unless you were around my age or older when Britney was at her peak, it’s hard to describe just how much of a global icon she was. I’ve never seen anything quite like it since, and I doubt any one individual will reach the level of exposure and fame that she did at that time in the early 2000s. The thing was, despite how big she got, it always seemed like she never lost sight of her roots. She really seemed like someone who was more or less the kind of person they presented themselves to the world, as in not just talented, but also kind, smart, funny, and totally authentic to herself.
And that’s what made her eventual downfall in the public eye sting that much more. Despite my love of her music, I wasn’t open about it at all. I was always a shy kid, so it’s not like I was very social, so whenever I was socializing, I was too nervous to admit that I liked a pop star who was more popular with girls. In and around 2007, my early teens, I would sometimes overhear jokes about Britney being crazy or slut-shaming comments among my classmates (though, not as much as you’d expect), and I didn’t say anything. I didn’t defend her. I didn’t try to change their attitudes, even though I knew it was wrong. After all, Chris Crocker famously pleaded on camera to leave Britney alone, and he was thoroughly mocked for it. I’ve always felt weirdly guilty about that, which might seem both silly and unnecessary, but considering how far her conservatorship has gone, I think the complicity and lack of conversation and reconciliation regarding our society’s attitude towards Britney (and women in general, if we’re being honest here), especially from the generation older than mine who largely perpetuated and profited from this attitude, is a huge part of what led her to where she is at this very moment.
I suppose that is the general point of this documentary, which was directed by Samantha Stark. The basic throughline involves the exposure of rampant misogyny that Britney experienced at the hands of her industry as well as the media. Through various interviewees, including her longtime former assistant, Felicia Culotta, which really brought a sense of legitimacy to the proceedings in my eyes, we get an idea of the kind of person she was, as well as the struggles she faced leading up to her conservatorship. And once it gets into the conservatorship, it dives into the shady elements that imply she is being taken advantage of, especially by her father, Jamie Spears.
As someone who has been following this pretty much since its inception, I honestly didn’t find the documentary as insightful as it could have been. It didn’t bring up any information that I didn’t already know. In fact, it leaves quite a bit out. Be it the specific terms and limitations of her conservatorship, the questionable people who were on her team like Lou Taylor, egregious other interview moments, and various other details that would inform her experiences. Even her current boyfriend, Sam Asghari, isn’t mentioned, and it’s likely not due to an NDA since he just spoke out against Jamie Spears on Instagram as I’m writing this. But I guess it would take up too much time to cover all that. Though, there is a terrific article from Kristen Lopez about the missed opportunity to explore Britney’s struggle with the conservatorship within the broader umbrella of disabled rights. It’s well worth a read.
If anything, the doc serves as a fairly basic but very streamlined breakdown of what the #FreeBritney movement is all about, and given the response I’m seeing online, it seems to be really speaking to folks who would have otherwise not been fully aware of the situation, or the severity of it. I would say that’s a win. It’s nice to see people respond by calling for change, celebrating her best moments, and highlight the moments of empathy, like a clip from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson that went viral on Twitter, where he refuses to make fun of Britney Spears. The whole segment is actually well worth watching, Ferguson is a true class act.
I think I do find it all a bit odd though because it’s not like all this misogyny and exploitation was hidden. It was all out in the open, and for the most part people were either OK with it, or they were active participants in it. Sure, many people finding out about this are probably younger than me, they were likely toddlers when all this went down, but it is strange to see people even older than myself seem shook by the stuff that the documentary explores. I was there when the Diana Sawyer interview aired, I was even there for the Matt Lauer interview, I was even there when The View celebrated her divorce from Kevin Federline (‘m surprised they didn’t show this clip in the doc), and I was just starting to get into the internet at that time, and I was easily able to find countless videos of the paparazzi hounding Britney throughout Los Angeles, and it always registered as wrong to me.
But hey, better late than ever. I’m glad people seem to be rallying behind this, even if the doc doesn’t cover as much as I would have liked it to. Then again, I doubt they could get much new info out there considering how airtight Britney’s team keeps their information. There’s still a lot we don’t know, and I doubt we’ll find out everything about this conservatorship anytime soon unless Britney’s situation somehow changes radically. And it’s because of that I’m iffy on the fact that the New York Times would bring in podcasters who talk about Britney’s Instagram with the same energy as those Qanon conspiracy theorists. I don’t particularly care for the constant speculation, but I can at least understand why it might be necessary in some aspects of bringing this story out to the world. So, a few gripes aside, I’d say the documentary does get the job done. It is upsetting, and it is enraging, and it will make you look back at that era in a different, more critical light, as well as the ripple effects that are still in play, misogyny obviously has not gone away. And hey, I’ll appreciate anything that reminds people how much of a trash bag Justin Timberlake is. I just hope one day we’ll get to a point where any Britney Spears discourse won’t center on this drama. Her life and career has been way too impactful and interesting to be limited to this one aspect. Anyway, #FreeBritney.