Conservatorship fallout

 

None of this is normal. Being on TV by the age of 11, being a world-renowned popstar by the age of 16, getting married and having children young and in the limelight… and being a woman. Many male pop, rock and hip hop stars navigated the same sorts of situations taking some hits, but arguably less than she ever did. The point is — Britney Spears led a very strange life from an extremely early age, one that would have perfectly stable individuals shaken to their core. When she — famously — started acting out, people were quick to judge, quicker to dismiss. The road to reclaiming a sense of normalcy in her life was long, perilous and included a 13-year stint being placed into a conservatorship by virtue of which her father effectively had the power to weigh in on most/all of her life choices.

Spears — also famously — got out of that conservatorship last year, after years of quietly preparing a “coup” while publicly stating that everything was in fact normal. Granted, she hadn’t displayed any strange behavior in a while, but she was also being significantly more discreet that ever before. Which not everyone questioned: after all, it felt somewhat nice thinking that Britney Spears was slowly acclimating to something akin to “normal life”. It is now fairly apparent that this was not quite the case, and that she did her best to manage a terribly warped situation in which she had little control over her own life, despite being one of the most famous human beings on the planet.

Since the conservatorship ended, Spears has basically made up for her past silence in placing blame where it was due, starting with her father. She also accused other persons in her immediate surroundings of doing nothing or very near that to end what must have been an impossible situation looking in. Recently, she also criticized younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears for not being as supportive as she could have. The younger Spears predictably — and publicly — replied that these accusations were in fact unfounded and that she had done everything in her power to help her older sibling. Recently, she addressed the situation in a TV interview, seeming to shed any sense of blame while simultaneously promoting a new autobiography. While she is not in any way the first one to criticize in this ordeal, a case could be made that she would have been able to show more support — then and now.

And then there was the fact that she was there promoting a book about her life, much of which is known to the world because of said older sister. And this is where a tricky situation becomes even weirder: there are arguably different shades, degrees of blame one can place on a situation or person. From what we know, some of the actions and behaviours that took place here were absolutely sordid; others rather showed weakness and apathy. Not great signs, mind you, not the worst either. All this with a burning spotlight in front of everyone’s face. Whatever comes out of this, let us not forget that Jamie Lynn’s life was not that much easier than Britney’s, and let us hope they can both find more peace and solace than they are displaying these days…