kokorodoko wrote: Fri Jun 21, 2024 6:33 am
The library also had the recent autobiography of Britney Spears on display, so what the hell.
In what looks like an amazingly corrupt arrangement, her dad worked together with some businessman whom he was heavily indebted to, who then became co-manager of the conservatorship, earning a percentage of Britney's income. During this time her dad controlled where she went, who she met, what she wore and what she ate. I can't grasp quite how it was possible for things to be set up in this way, it seems her dad managed to convince the court that she suffered from substance abuse and was unstable in other ways, which according to her stemmed from a couple of overblown media stories. But it really looks like an ambush, the way she describes the trial it's like she didn't fully know what was happening - she had been told she wasn't allowed to select her own defense, which turned out to be a lie, and so on.
I'd have wished she'd went into some more depth on the kinds of questions and comments she got from reporters early on, weird stuff about her sexuality and her body. I remember one thing I catched on TV where a reporter asked her "Are you still a virgin?", to which she laughed and answered "Yes" - a troll response, it turns out. The innocent, virginal image was in fact a complete fabrication. She says she felt relieved when Justin Timberlake supposedly outed her as a sexual being, because then she didn't have to pretend anymore.
Justin doesn't look good otherwise. They were basically on the verge of breaking up, he had been cheating, she was advised that she should be the one to break it up so as to not lose face. So she did, but that made her the villain in the eyes of the media and the public. He went on to make mope-songs about how
she had been cheating on
him. Similar bad advice was presented to her in her later marriage with K-Fed, with similar consequences. Her ex-husband then kept her from seeing her children, which may have precipitated some of her 'scandalous' behaviour.
One of the most wretched parts of celebrity culture is how famous people are on the one hand accorded a kind of moral freedom granted no one else, while at the same time having insane demands of propriety and presentability placed upon them. They are then made into someone whom ordinary people have permission to throw trash at whenever they feel like it, since there is this notion that once you become well-known you automatically sign some contract that makes any expectations of decency and respect not apply. A line of vultures by the roadside, waiting to lunge and hack somebody apart at the sound of a whistle. Although the behaviour is not unique to this sphere, it receives a special kind of sanctification here.
Surprising is how Britney mostly doesn't have anything bad to say about the people she works with. There are a few occasions where she is pressured into doing a show she doesn't want to and such, but there is nothing suggesting that she felt artistically compromised at any point. I read something about how her trademark singing voice was something foisted on her - it's very different from her
child voice - but it appears nothing like that happened. She says she thinks her new voice sounded sexy. I think it sounded stupid. But nevermind. At least one point of light in this story.
