FreeBritney Comes True, Britney Spears Wins Her Legal Battle
The FreeBritney movement is taking a victory lap on Friday with Britney Spears being officially released from her conservatorship
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The FreeBritney movement can take a moderate bow. It’s been something of a saga over the better part of the last year, becoming a referendum of sorts on the possible toxic nature of celebrity and the failings of a system that grants too much power to parents of child stars. But after numerous legal battles, and a public outcry of fans who’ve come out to support her, Britney Spears was released from her conservatorship on Friday. The legal battle dominated headlines and detailed how the singer and celebrity had been held with little personal freedoms over the last many years. Variety is reporting that after 13 years, the California legal system has officially terminated the conservatorship held by Jamie Spears and a number of other entities. The FreeBritney movement can finally rest.
Britney Spears and her legal team had been arguing, for years now, that the conservatorship in place to “protect” her was no longer needed. She was earning a considerable living performing and was passed some previous mental health issues. During the summer a number of different things had come to light about the restrictions placed on Britney Spears because of the legalities in the situation. While Spears was continuing to earn money, from a number of different sources, the funds were restricted about what she actually saw in her everyday life. That money was, since 2008, fully controlled by her father.
And that wasn’t all. The setup also had allegedly required her to take birth control, and there were aspects of surveillance that were allegedly placed on the singer. Jamie Spears denied some of these things, but it was clear from the court filings that there was an outsized amount of control over Britney Spears’ life. When these things came to light, it spurred the rise in the FreeBritney trend.
The FreeBritney social media movement had picked up over the summer when things had first come to light about Britney Spears and her situation. Fans flocked to lend support to the singer with the public outcry likely helping the legal fight considerably. Because so much attention was called to what was and had been happening, there was additional pressure put on to have the conservatorship removed. Previous requests to have the conservatorship revoked had been done behind legal doors. But were denied time and time again, until now. As would be expected, those who championed the FreeBritney movement were around to take more than a few victory laps online when the judge gave the final ruling on Friday.
While the FreeBritney movement wasn’t necessarily responsible for having Britney Spears out from under the legal conservatorship hold, it’s probably at least partly to credit. Having a strong fanbase was certainly a key aspect in keeping pressure on the courts to continue hearing her case. And the hashtag became something of a media onslaught around her father who had been in charge of this for so long. Jamie Spears had been removed from control over the summer, the first domino to fall in this process, but the whole thing culminated on Friday. An accountant will still help Britney Spears with fund allocation, but by all accounts, this new ruling will provide her freedom. While it’s hard to see this whole ugly process as having “winners”, there’s at least a sense now that Britney Spears has her freedom back.
