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Misogyny is ingrained into our brains since birth. Generations, centuries, some can argue since the conception of time with Adam and Eve…misogyny is everywhere. Women are the most scrutinized, the most hated, the most blamed, and most degraded. As a woman, my worth, my contributions, my talents, my intelligence, my sexual history, my mental health, my being as a whole will always be tainted just slightly in the eyes of the world because I have breasts. While I can argue about misogyny every day of the week for the rest of my life until my face turns blue, this specific article was inspired byt he Britney Spears’ documentary Framing Britney.
Britney Spears was done dirty.
While I do not need to get into the specifics, I encourage everyone to watch Framing Britney to get an idea of what is happening. Britney Spears was failed by a lot of people. People who claimed to love her, people who claimed to respect her, people who claimed to be fans of her, people in general. Why? Several reasons, but the point that caused the whirlwind was a man. Think about your life, think about high school or your early twenties, think about dating when you were young. Now, do you remember a specific young woman from that time who dated some unremarkable guy, and once they broke up the narrative became sour. That unremarkable male became the respected Adam to her sinful Eve. No matter what happened, whether it was true or not, whether it was just a relationship that ran its course, she was villainized. I don’t know about you, but I can think of just five situations off the top of my head that eerily similar to such. Why is that? Misogyny.
Britney Spears was burned at the stake after dating some unremarkable guy.
While the breakup was not the only thing that resulted in an (unjust) conservatorship, it was the start of what became the spectacle of the world letting this woman down. I don’t want to focus on the chaotic, upsetting, and abusive nature of how Britney Spears ended up essentially with no freedom. I do want to just share how much Britney Spears means to me and how much I love that woman.
I have loved Britney since the first time I ever heard …Baby One More Time. I was four turning five years old. The song made me do a little dance and I had no idea what she was saying other than the aforementioned title in the chorus. I. Loved. Britney. During social dance in junior high the gym teachers would make us do corny line dances to (You Drive Me) Crazy (it might be my only positive memory from then). I was six when the video for Oops!… I Did it Again debuted. All I wanted was to dress up in a red latex suit and find an astronaut boyfriend. Yesterday I was in a mood and I sang Sometimes at the top of my lungs while driving (the man next to me seemed impressed by my theatrics). I was nineteen when Work Bitch was released and it is the first song on my workout playlist. I was eight years old when Crossroads came out and I’ve seen that movie more times than I can count.
#FreeBritney
I can keep going. I have specific memories of where I was, how I felt, or what I was doing during specific Britney moments. I have never gotten sick of a Britney song, Britney has never failed me in cheering me up, Britney is arguably one of the greatest pop stars to ever exist. We remember the dark moments and we sometimes focus on that, but we need to remember what made her Britney Spears. She topped the charts, not some unremarkable boyfriend, not some self-centre father, not some greedy lawyer, not some crazed photographers, not early 2000’s talkshow hosts. Britney, a woman, is the reason for Britney.
I have always and will always be a Britney Jean Spears fan.
Here is a playlist of my favorite Britney tracks
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