Note: This article was first published in the tenth screening room, now authorized to release
Author: Rabbit Maru
In addition to shock, it was shocked.
On June 23, Britney Spears "Little Sweet" attended an online hearing, revealing her real life for the first time to the outside world for many years.
More precisely, it is a history of blood and tears.
The amount of information she revealed was like a blockbuster, which instantly detonated an upsurge of public opinion on a global scale.
I have to admit that the real world is indeed more absurd and unthinkable than novels.
According to Britney’s self- report , from 2008 to 2021, she was monitored by her father Jamie Spears for a full 13 years.
During this period, she was forbidden to marry and give birth, was forced to work long hours, and was forced to accept a resident singing treaty. Compulsory medication and mental treatment were even more commonplace.
What is extremely outrageous is that she has to apply even if she wants to drink a glass of soda. "In California, only sex workers who are locked up are so miserable."
Once she refuses to obey, the management team will not only deprive her of all her property, but will also prohibit her from meeting with her boyfriend and children.
Out of fear, she can only be manipulated like a puppet.
I know, there must be countless question marks in your heart at this moment.
As a social celebrity, why did Spears fall to this point?
In any age when entertainment gossip can dominate the hot search, why hasn't the truth been discovered until now?
The point is, who on earth caused this tragedy?
Although after many years, the damage caused in the past cannot be easily healed, the above questioning is still meaningful.
In any case, Britney's story deserves more people to understand.
In this way, you will know that the suffering she endured is not only the result of misogyny society, but also a variant of the "crazy woman" story that you and I know well.
There is no real culprit in this "crazy woman" story, because everyone is a conspirator.
01.
For the older generation of Internet people, just as they don't understand why the youth of the Z era are addicted to blind boxes and script killing, the popularity of Bili Eilish is also puzzling.
They can't appreciate the obscure and blurred electronic music, and the trendy and anti-traditional style of Bi Li himself.
In contrast, Britney Spears is the common divisor of popular aesthetics in the 1990s.
She has a beautiful voice and a unique voice. Anyone who has heard her songs will not have the slightest doubt about her becoming a pop queen.
He debuted at the age of 16, and released his first album "...Baby One More Time", which hit a blockbuster, with sales exceeding 10 million.
It was this album that changed Britney's life.
The music video of this song is the key clue that strung up the whole story.
In the MV, the white shirt tied into a bow, the half-covered dark corset, and the calf wrapped in black silk all show Britney's youthful vitality.
In the lens, she has both the innocence of a young girl and the sexy of a mature woman, with a charming temperament.
In other words, it is pure and lustful.
That year, coincidentally the affair scandal between President Clinton and Lewinsky broke out, and the American public's interest in "sex" was unprecedentedly high.
It is not shy to say that in addition to a sweet voice, "sexual charm" is also the key to Britney's heartstrings.
So this charm, is it lucky or sad? All I can say is mixed sadness and joy.
Fortunately, Britney has won a place in the music scene dominated by the men's group, and she likes to mention countless true fans.
Unfortunately, her popularity is often accompanied by controversy.
Some people want her to keep the status quo and continue to be a sexy stunner, and many people hope that she can get back on track and be an innocent girl who wears jeans and sings barefoot, especially the parent of fans.
Seeing their daughters become more and more obsessed with Britney Spears, the parents panic. They are afraid that the good girls who are in their adolescence will be taken badly and become the next sexy and precocious "Little Sweets."
What's more, Britney was threatened grandly and warned her that she had better stop being coquettish.
All this perfectly confirms the wise saying in "Second Sex", "Women are not born, but are formed by nature."
The above controversy is essentially a tug-of-war for the right to speak on "how to define women".
When people looked away from Britney's face, chest, and calves, they turned to her "private part."
The outside world began to reluctantly ask about the details of her relationship with her boyfriend Justin Black.
On the radio show, someone asked, "Are you a virgin?"
Faced with uncomfortable questions and bursts of laughter, Britney was embarrassed, "Yes, I'm still a virgin."
For women, sexual experience is taboo and shame, but for men, it is a show off.
Faced with similar questions, Justin laughed directly and gave an affirmative answer. This even won him a "Medal of Honor"-even if his song is average, he still has an enviable love history.
As for whether this operation will harm Britney herself, no one cares.
In 2002, the two officials announced their separation, and the situation has not improved.
Justin Black chose to preemptively. In addition to accepting interviews everywhere, he also specially recorded a single called "Cry Me A River", which alluded to Britney's infidelity in the MV.
At this time, not only the public quickly made up a bloody script, but even the host of the show took it seriously.
But Britney, who was silent and right, took on more verbal abuse and accusations.
Facing the turbulent malice, she is like a magazine, spread, reviewed, and ravaged by others, and even her private life is unobstructed:
"Every fan, reporter and media commentator believes that he has the right to know and judge Spears's most personal matters. This is a disturbing violation." (Comment from CNN)
When we cast our sights on Vanity Fair, we often only see the infinite scenery in front of people, but ignore the secret exploitation and extraction behind it.
And this is exactly the shadow cast by the huge star-making machine.
There is always an unequal power difference between celebrities and fans/media/capital, which can be called another " game of power ".
All upstream players seem to be holding a remote control, staring at the entertainment star on the other side of the screen.
When the star performs well, they press the green button on the remote control to lift her up to the altar and give her a halo;
When the star lived up to expectations, they pressed the red button, as if destroying a beautiful and fragile artwork, forcing her to fall to pieces.
This kind of game is the driving force to maintain the operation of the star culture.
02.
Similar remarks often appear on social media: "When a celebrity is so rich, ordinary people care about it. If you have time, you should care more about yourself."
But people are complicated, just like Spears has different aspects: she is both a celebrity, a woman, and a mother at the same time.
Empathy should also be built on different foundations.
As bystanders, it is not difficult for us to realize that many of her oppressions are related to the latter.
In the documentary "Framed Britney Spears" there are heart-wrenching details.
In order to try to escape the reporter's chase and interception, Britney picked up her son to sit in the driver's seat and fled the scene in a panic.
This move led to her becoming a new target-a negligent mother who violated traffic regulations and ignored her child's personal safety. Facing the host's questioning, she couldn't cry.
The problem is, she was held by her father in her lap and drove since she was a child, but who would blame her father?
The answer is no.
From this, it is sufficient to conclude that misogyny in popular culture is so ingrained.
This not only refers to Britney Spears being under the male gaze all the time, and being objectified as a male sexual fantasy object, but also refers to the double-standard attitude of the outside world.
Public opinion treats men so tolerantly. They never give pointers on their figures, looks, and dressing styles, let alone accuse them of not observing male ethics.
At the same time, they are so harsh on women, too harsh to tolerate any "moral stains."
The accomplices of the misogyny culture are not others, but the media.
In my opinion, most of the media have a certain duality.
They not only symbolize the prodigal sons who are flirty in nature, surround the beautiful and sexy goddess all day long, and sometimes turn into bloodthirsty vultures, who like to peck at bloody and corrupt prey.
At this time, Britney was just the perfect goal.
In 2007, she experienced a series of setbacks such as divorce, postpartum depression, and deprivation of custody rights by court rulings, and her emotions were in a low period.
However, the reporters always cling to her. Some people take photos during dinners, are surrounded by people while shopping, and occasionally get stunned by guns and guns while driving. She was so disturbed that she simply shaved her head as a rebellion.
However, the subversion of the image from "sexy goddess" to "bald head" not only failed to suppress the rumors, but also doubled the interest of the paparazzi. They were eager to dig out new fierce materials.
Late at night, Britney was planning to visit her child but was turned away by her ex-husband, feeling depressed.
Coincidentally, another paparazzi came to harass her, and Britney, who had always been forbearing, had a sudden attack. She picked up the umbrella and slammed it at the other's car door, shouting "Fuck you!"
This candid video completely involved her in the whirlpool of public opinion.
Overnight, news about Britney’s emotional breakdown made the headlines of major weekly magazines in the United States.
People appreciate this rare "horse-catching show" with relish, while lamenting Britney's depravity. Everyone selectively ignored the plight she was facing at the time, including her family.
Many years later, the filming team reconnected with Daniel, the paparazzi who had been following Britney for a long time, and interviewed him.
Talking about the past, he kept evasive and tried to shake the pot: "Before, she said that she could make me quiet for a day, but she didn't say that we would go away forever."
It can be seen that he has no regrets.
If the genders are exchanged, the media will either have little interest in treating male stars whose emotions are out of control for a while, or they will only ridicule symbolically, "XX suffers from emotional injury and changes in temperament", and will never call it a "lunatic".
In the same way, any male singer with a long history of love will only be called "Love Field Prodigal Son" and "Playboy" instead of becoming a "male Taylor Swift", enduring long-term humiliation and being crowned as a slut. In various black names.
Regardless of the position, he can't escape the misogyny of the entertainment circle.
To a certain extent, "discipline" is like the gel coat worn by Britney Spears in concert.
The women wrapped in it must not offend or challenge the established image given by the society at will, let alone tear off and break free from the shackles of the "gelcoat"-especially not showing the dangerous traits that men are allowed to possess, such as violence and rebellion.
Otherwise, they will be punished.
For Britney, "punishment" means a steady stream of negative news and public opinion attacks.
With the fermentation of public opinion, the auras of "pop diva" and "American sweetheart" have gradually been replaced by "crazy women" and "crazy women".
Even so, this unnamed punishment has not stopped.
As Foucault's "Madness and Civilization" wrote, "Madness broke the silence of the shelter and became a performance, which became a public scandal that entertained the public...Madness became a pure spectacle of this world."
The "crazy woman" has always been the target of the media's most passionate pursuit.
For example, Lan Jieying in Hong Kong's "Four Evil Kings".
For 20 years, Hong Kong media never gave up on Lam Jieying until her death.
In addition to following up on her recent situation year after year, she must compare the glory of the once "beautiful Wutai Mountain" with the desolate appearance of the past and the past, which aroused the sigh of netizens.
Beauty and depravity, scenery and madness, the extremely concentrated tragedy and curiosity in the "crazy woman" story are undoubtedly the best food for the media and spectators.
Just like any video can eventually become the material of the ghost animal area at station B, Britney’s "pain" has undergone countless reprocessing.
Candidly photographed her paparazzi in order to make huge profits. The media repeatedly broadcast episodes of Britney’s emotional out-of-control. Variety shows arranged Britney’s "dementia" as a joke in exchange for clicks.
The public chewed this pain to their heart's content, thus forming a deformed consumption chain: "The pain she endured has made him a huge wealth."
As sung in this autobiographical "Piece of me", "You want a piece of me", you want a broken me.
What the public wants is the life fragments of the superstar Britney Spears, the scandals and scandals about her, the combination of the objectified sexy female star and the pop singer, and the "little sweetness" that belongs to everyone.
But Britney herself only wants to be a real "Britney", she wants to escape the spotlight and enjoy a moment of peace without being disturbed by others.
Broken and complete, the masses and individuals, the public domain and the private domain, scrutinized and being scrutinized, bondage and freedom, the rift between two very different expectations constitutes the abyss that Britney is in.
In the end, the public got Britney's "fragments" as they wished.
Under the heavy blow, she finally really went crazy.
03.
In 2008, Britney was forced to hospital for treatment for using psychotropic drugs.
Fortunately, she soon returned to the music scene.
In this regard, the fans showed great enthusiasm.
They gathered outside the venue, screaming and cheering like a tsunami, and the media seemed to have forgotten the unpleasantness of the past and warmly welcomed her return.
In the news reports, Britney Spears, who holds a sky-high commercial performance contract, made a lot of money, with an annual income of up to 60 million U.S. dollars.
At first glance, this looks a lot like the inspirational story of "scandal stars becoming popular" in Hollywood.
Except that the protagonist is Britney, there seems to be nothing special.
It wasn't until 2020 that everyone suddenly realized that there is another version of the story.
When Britney was discharged from the hospital, her father, Jamie Spears, applied to the court to change from her temporary guardian to a permanent guardian.
Make a point.
The guardianship system is usually a special method used for those who have lost the ability to take care of themselves, such as the elderly, severely disabled or demented patients.
The guardian has the right to decide the medical, personal, financial and other matters of the ward until the custody relationship is terminated.
This means that Britney was deprived of personal freedom.
In order to achieve comprehensive monitoring, the guardianship team has adopted a series of measures.
Restricted social interaction, team exchanges, strictly controlled interviews, arranged personal bodyguards, and even Britney's closest agent in the past was also removed.
For many years, she seemed to live on an isolated island. Although the contact with the outside world has not been cut off, no one can really listen to her.
She can only publish vetted vlogs and photos every week, pretending to be happy. The rest is work all year round.
Some friends may have noticed that there is a bug here: Britney can clearly open a concert and make money to feed the entire team, but it is judged that she has no independent decision-making power.
The interpretation given by the court is that "she is a highly capable ward," and this conclusion is naturally also questioned.
Even more frightening is that once life-long guardianship is established, it is difficult to get rid of it.
Because if you want to remove the supervision, you must provide evidence that you have normal behavior ability, but Britney is still in guardianship, which means that she does not have this qualification.
This can be called the modern version of "Catch-22".
In addition, the choice of Britney's guardian is also full of doubts.
Her father, Jamie, was absent from her growing up since she was a child, did not pay enough attention to the family, and suffered from alcoholism.
According to people around him, he once said, "My daughter will become super rich and buy me a big boat." To put it bluntly, his motive is not pure, and he hopes that his debut is not out of love, but out of "investment". "Mentality.
In the eyes of outsiders, he is not a good father at all.
In comparison, Britney's mother Lynn or former agent Felicia are more suitable candidates. But when Britney offered to change her guardian, she was rejected in the end.
Based on the above situation, Andrew, one of her co-guardians, did not forget to submit to the court, hoping to get more profits from Britney's growing income.
Obviously, the entire guardianship team is using her as a money-making machine.
So far, the guardianship system seems to constitute a metaphor- even if you are a celebrity, as long as you are a woman, then your mind, body, and personal freedom will face many yokes and controls, sometimes from the patriarchal society, sometimes from the patriarchal society. System, even from family members.
This invisible cage isolates Spears from the outside world, making it the "thing in the palm" of the patriarchy.
In order to break the prison, fans on social media have launched the #Free Britney ( #Liberty Britney ) movement.
They took to the street and held up placards to pressure the media and the government, asking the government to face the loopholes in the "abuse of guardianship" system and return her freedom as soon as possible.
All of this was relegated to "conspiracy theory" by Jamie Spears.
Even if Britney stood up to complain, he still refused to admit that the guardianship team was controlling his daughter's life and making unfair profits.
"I just want my life back."
I just want to get my life back.
In the court trial on June 30, Britney, who had been tortured for 13 years, pleaded with the judge.
As expected, her request to revoke her father's custody was still rejected.
We don't know when she will be able to regain her freedom.
The suffocation brought about by Britney's various experiences reminded me of the ending of "A Girl With A Bright Future".
In this story labelled as a "revenge film", the heroine finally realized her wish to avenge the scumbag at the expense of her life.
Fortunately, the old-fashioned narrative of "The Prince Saves the Princess" has finally been abandoned, and women are no longer eager for the prince’s "kiss"-just as the artists and fans who support Britney are mostly women, it is another Kind of "girl help girl".
Sadly, we still need to pay a heavier price to promote the reform of the old order and usher in salvation.
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