Britney Spears, and more importantly, her conservatorship, is getting a lot of media attention following the premiere of the New York Times Presents: Framing Britney documentary.

After an in-depth look at the ups-and-downs of her life and career, the narrative surrounding the 39-year-old pop star is finally beginning to change in her favor. 

The documentary takes a look at her mental struggles and public breakdowns, the media scrutiny she’s been forced to endure and how it played into her downfall, and the #FreeBritney movement, which believes that Britney is being held hostage and has been advocating on her behalf to free her from her father, Jamie Spears, who controls her finances and estate.

While the information in the documentary isn’t groundbreaking for Britney fans who have followed her career for years, it reinforces and brings public attention to the question they’ve been asking for years: when will Britney finally get control over her being and her life?

Where’s Her Dad?

While Jamie is very much involved in Britney’s life now as he’s been in charge since 2008 when he was appointed co-conservator alongside a lawyer named Andrew Wallet, that wasn’t always the case. 

Kim Kaiman, senior marketing director of Jive Records from 1998 until 2004 recalls Britney’s mother, Lynne Spears, and her longtime friend and assistant, Felicia Culotta, being around in the early years of her career. One of the moments that truly stuck out the most, was when the executive said the only time she ever spoke to Jamie was when he said that his “daughter’s gonna be so rich, she’s gonna buy me a boat.” mAnd that was after all his money troubles came to light. 

It’s not entirely surprising, in that case, that the documentary asserts that Britney does not want Jamie in charge of the conservatorship anymore and prefers an independent professional.

She Was the Boss

Britney’s backup dancer up until 2004, Kevin Tancharoen, assured fans that Britney was very much in charge of her own career and making decisions.

“She was definitely in control of a lot of decisions,” he explained. “That idea that Britney is a puppet who just gets moved around and told what to do is incredibly inaccurate. When I was involved in all of those years, we would present a lot of ideas and she would have to like them, she would have to approve them. She was very creative. She was the one who knew what she wanted to do, or her people would make [what she wanted] happen for her.”

“She was the boss,” he concluded.

The “was” is chilling considering many fans don’t think Britney has much control over anything these days including her Instagram, which is brought up briefly in the documentary as fans believe she’s using the social media platform to send cryptic messages and cries for help. 

Britney vs. Justin

The world was infatuated by Britney and Justin’s romance, but the moment they broke up, she endured vile attacks as everyone took his side while he painted her as a cheater and washed his hands of any wrongdoing.

Former MTV VJ Dave Holmes says Justin “weaponized the idea” that Britney was the “school slut” for “Cry Me a River.”

Tancharoen echoed the sentiment calling the video, which featured a Britney lookalike cheating on him, as a “pure male revenge fantasy.”

The docu-series doesn’t hold back as it even features a clip of Justin doing an interview where he jokes about sleeping with Brintey. Justin willingly destroyed Britney to save himself. 

It’s a Man’s World

Numerous interviews that have lived on Youtube for years now have become a primary focus as the documentary illustrates how the media fed into a problematic narrative about Britney.

Earlier interviews take digs at Britney as a woman and a sex symbol as she fields questions about her virginity.

However, Diane Sawyer is taking most of the heat for an interview that she did in 2003 in which she unfairly asks her what she did to break Justin’s heart.

It only got worse from there when Britney was hounded after welcoming her first child and scrutinized for hold baby Sean on her lap. At the time, Matt Lauer asked her about her feelings about being called a “bad mom,” to which she replied: “That’s America for you.”

The press, paparazzi, and the misogyny surrounding her break-ups exacerbated her mental health struggles. And at the time, the conversation surrounding mental health was “toxic” and words like “crazy” were thrown around to describe Britney’s behavior including shaving her head and attacking the paparazzi with an umbrella. 

If you don’t believe it, just take a look at Family Feud, which made Britney’s meltdown a category in 2008. In the clip, contestants are asked to name “something that Britney Spears has lost” with contestant answers ranging from husband/marriage to her hair and eventually, her mind. 

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The Conservatorship

The documentary questioned how a woman who was capable of learning choreography and performing nightly sold-out shows was deemed incompetent to take care of her own life. (Her father and the conservatorship was praised for how great she was doing and turning her life around.) 

A conservatorship is designed to protect the conservatee, but in Britney’s case, it raises questions about human rights and how they can be easily stripped from someone placed in a vulnerable position.

Many who spoke out in the documentary believe Britney is being exploited and the conservatorship doesn’t have her best interests at heart, especially when Andrew, the co-conservator, requested more money after Britney began raking in more dough during her Las Vegas residency. 

In fact, Adam Streisand, the lawyer Britney initially tried to hire to represent her in the probate proceedings found that she was fit to make such a decision, and yet, the judge said she was unfit to retain her own counsel. Streisand said this was his opinion, but added he never saw the medical report that the judge cited to back up his decision. He emphasized that at the time of speaking to Britney, she was aware she couldn’t avoid the conservatorship but was adamant that she did not want her father in charge.

Despite Britney’s best efforts and all those activists in her corner, the conservatorship has been extended until at least September. 

The conservatorship is currently run by Spears’ care manager, Jodi Montgomery as Jamie was removed for “personal health reasons,” but in November 2020, a judge declined to remove him as head of the estate and co-conservator. The judge said they would consider further petitions for removal. 

But it seems as though Britney is finally firing back, standing her ground, and fighting for what she wants, especially as she stated she is “afraid of her father” and will “not perform again if her father is in charge of her career.” 

And shortly after the release of the documentary, Britney’s boyfriend, Sam Asghari, put out a statement slamming Jamie for trying to control their relationship.