Framing Britney Spears

Framing Britney Spears is a documentary surrounding the Free Britney movement produced by the New York Times.

It details her early rise to fame and shows how the media from an early age exploited her and treated her harshly. At the time, I never realized the level of harassment and the inappropriate questions that she had to navigate, especially very early in her life when she was on Star Search, later on during her break up with Justin Timberlake, where he weaponized potentially false allegations against her to sky rocket his career and after she shaved her head. You really do feel bad for her after seeing what she had to go through. I know people say it’s the tradeoff for frame, but is it, if men are not subjected to the same type of treatment? You can really see the deeply rooted sexism of our culture throughout this documentary.

It shows how quickly the media would turn on her, by poking fun at her mental health, or accusing her of being a bad mother and unfortunately she was a punchline for many years. The dangers of the paparazzi and how they could have been a detriment to her mental health, were also prevalent throughout.

The relationship between Britney and her father was presented in detail and showed what an opportunist he was, from the beginning, and how he could have been looking for a way to slide in as a conservator by exaggerating her health issues. There was also a case to be made that perhaps she never needed a conservatorship to begin with and that she was sound of mind enough to express her displeasure with the entire thing from the beginning.

If nothing else, the documentary does bring to light that some shady stuff may have gone on in regard to how her conservatorship was granted and also how her conservators have taken financial advantage of her for over 10 years. It also showcases the unfair treatment of women in the industry vs their male counterparts.