Bring in the Dancing Lobsters
On our way to #FreeAmanda
Oops I Did It Again
Another piece on the legendary Miss Britney Spears? You better believe it.
New headlines have been surfacing every few days since Britney spoke out about her abusive conservatorship on June 23rd. Her case is shedding light on guardian abuse, holes in the LA court system, the treatment of women in the media, mental health, disability, and other celebrities who were threatened with conservatorships.
While the details keep getting darker, the July 14th hearing saw major strides in Britney's case. She was granted the ability to hire her own lawyer, and she gave a tearful statement where she asked to charge her father with conservatorship abuse. Additionally, Bessemer Trust, the current co-conservator of her estate, was approved to resign.
No one wants to be associated with Jamie Spears when the shit hits the fan.
On the heels of Britney's success, many fans are hoping to draw attention to Amanda Bynes. Bynes has been stuck in a conservatorship since 2013, and recently she's been vocal about getting out.
Get your hashtags ready - it's time to #FreeAmanda
Iconic
Naughty Noughties
In 2007 the world was agog watching starlets party in Hollywood. Paparazzi culture ran rampant, and burning these women alive seemed to be the end goal. A DUI, a shaved head, an upskirt coming out of a cab - nothing was off limits. You shoot until your subject (or your camera) breaks.
As consumers we were fascinated by teen idols behaving badly. They were unapologetically messy, unimaginably rich, and immortalized on our tabloids as the new era of partiers. Never were big pupils and tiny hangover hoodies more trendy.
We had a morbid fascination with the demise of child stars in particular. Something about a “promising young women” going wild was too hard for us to stomach. Any type of rebellion seems wrong when you've watched someone grow up.
Alas, people change. The party lifestyle might not be sustainable, but neither is a goody two-shoes front. As a performer Britney was forced into an “innocent but sexy” box. Eventually that restriction became too much. She wanted to be herself, meaning bras and shoes were optional on her days off. One of the reasons her fans love her is because of she has an “I don’t give a fuck” attitude.
The media couldn’t handle that.
Instead Britney was painted like a lunatic. They portrayed her as out of control, so we were initially grateful to see her monitored under a conservatorship. Her “comeback” showed us the filtered Britney we thought was acceptable. No paparazzi boyfriends, tank tops with rude slogans, gas station hangouts, or funky coloured wigs.
Over time, no personality either.
Recently The New Yorker published an exclusive on the inner workings of Britney's conservatorship. The article describes details of her father's abuse, from telling her she's “a whore and a terrible mother” to using her children as pawns to force her into performing.
Britney is living like a fugitive: old friends have snuck her cellphones in gym bathrooms to use in secret, familiar housekeepers have been forced out of her life, and her trust has been completely decimated.
She's a (pop) princess locked in an impenetrable tower.
The 2000s depiction of these "girls gone wild" paved the way for Britney to lose her fundamental rights. We’d rather see someone controlled against their will than have them alter the image we've come to expect.
To Lindsay Lohan’s father, Britney had an ideal situation. In 2013 he tried to get his daughter in her own conservatorship. His lawyer even wrote, “Michael has seen how well a conservatorship worked for Britney Spears, and now he wants the same for his own famous daughter.”
Ultimately Michael was unsuccessful. Lindsay narrowly avoided this parent trap, but Britney and Bynes weren't so lucky.
The new model for controlling young, famous women was created.
Walking into social gatherings after the pandemic like….
The Amanda Show
Seemingly above the 2007 chaos was child star Amanda Bynes. She had a wholesome reputation for staying out of trouble, at least until 2012.
Bynes had long struggled with seeing herself on camera. After watching She's The Man she fell into a 6-month-long depression because she didn't like the way she looked as a boy. Bynes hated her appearance in Easy A so much that she convinced herself to quit acting entirely.
So she did. Bynes informally retired from acting by posting on Twitter.
Bynes didn’t handle retirement well. She’d been pursuing acting since childhood and now her days felt aimless. She took to weed and adderall, but eventually the drugs caused an extreme reaction. Suddenly tweets calling other celebrities “fugly” became common place on her account. In one infamous tweet, she posted "I want @Drake to murder my vagina."
Bynes was charged with a DUI in 2012. By the end of the year she had had 7 car accidents and was charged with reckless endangerment and marijuana possession in 2013. At one point she was arrested for throwing a bong out the window of her apartment and set a fire on a stranger’s driveway. In 2013 she was put under an involuntary psychiatric hold (a 5150).
Just like in Britney’s case, Amanda's parents filed for temporary conservatorship while she was in the hospital. It was granted by August 2013, though the family was in and out of court figuring out the details until 2016. Bynes was put under multiple psychiatric holds while she continued erratic behaviour like rampant spending sprees and buying jewelry for strangers.
In 2014 she announced her bipolar diagnosis on Twitter.
Ultimately the conservatorship of her person (not her estate) was extended until August 2020.
Since then Bynes has made positive changes in her life. She’s sober, studying fashion, and is interested in getting back to acting. In 2020 she even got engaged, though her parents reportedly refused to let them get married. Moreover, her Instagram account was deactivated shortly after their relationship was announced.
Though her access to social media is heavily restricted, Bynes took to instagram in February 2020 to share details of her case:
”I have been going to a treatment center that charges $5,200 a month. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t go to a therapist who takes my insurance for $5,000 less a month. This is why I’ve asked to see the judge next week regarding this conservatorship issue.”
More recently fans believe she’s been exposing truths of the conservatorship through a private Twitter account. In February 2021 her alias alleged that her mother is refusing to relinquish control and causing Amanda to miss court appointments as a way to make her look unfit to take care of herself. She also claims she has not received her bi-weekly court-mandated payments since 2019.
I also couldn't find any reports to indicate that her conservatorship ended on time.
Like Britney’s case, Bynes blames the media for portraying her in such a way that a conservatorship seemed necessary. For example, think about how the world felt about her face tattoo compared to Post Malone's... Bynes even goes so far as to claim that the media conspired with her parents to help them gain control.
While her Twitter meltdown was shocking, Bynes told Paper Magazine in 2018:
"Everything I worked my whole life to achieve, I kind of ruined it all through Twitter.…Truly, for me, [my behavior] was drug-induced, and whenever I got off of [drugs], I was always back to normal.”
Considering she's been sober for 4 years, does she still need a guardian?
Cold as Fire, Baby
There was a time when I wasn’t sure where I stood on Britney’s conservatorship. I think most of the early #FreeBritney supporters had doubts at some point. Hearing her speak on June 23rd confirmed our worst suspicions...And then some.
Similarly Bynes' case hasn't fully convinced me of anything. Her outburst came with a public diagnosis, and there are moments in her meltdown that warrant heavy-handed support. Setting fires, for example, is scary behaviour. Bynes also hasn’t been forced to work the same way that Britney has. Her conservatorship has been *slightly* more transparent, and time away from the screen is an implicit part of her recovery.
There also appears to be more cheques and balances in how Amanda’s conservatorship case came to be. As The New Yorker outlines, Britney’s fate was sealed in a matter of hours - an unreasonably quick timeline for the severity of her situation. Of the psychiatrists asked to provide a declaration of Britney’s lack of mental capacity in 2008, at least one has spoken out to say he’s not sure why she’s still in a conservatorship.
That said, it's unclear how Bynes' case will end. She was set to be free as of last Summer, but fans are adamant that she's still being held against her will.
If either of these women needed a guardian at any point in their lives, it's clear that they don't need one now. Conservatorships create almost as many problems as they solve. They are designed to protect the vulnerable from abuse by removing rights that can increase the opportunity for that same abuse at the hands of a guardian.
Moreover, The National Council on Disability points out that "when a person loses the right to make his or her own decisions, there will likely be a negative impact on the person’s functional abilities, physical and mental health, and general well-being.” In short, being told you can't take care of yourself often makes you believe that you can't.
If there's one thing we did learn in Britney's case, it's to listen to the fans. We gambled on what we knew felt wrong, and I believe the perseverance of her fans helped her speak publicly. We proved that we were ready to hear her.
After the July 14th hearing, Britney posted a video of herself doing cartwheels with the #FreeBritney hashtag and this caption: "You have no idea what it means to be supported by such awesome fans!!!! God Bless you all!!!!!"
And yes, I did cry when I read it.
So, while we free Britney, let’s line up to #FreeAmanda too. We're beginning a season of justice for my childhood icons.
Now bring in the dancing lobsters.
