IHer navel piercing wobbles, she moves rhythmically to music that you can’t hear, keeps jerking her chest out – and looks from below into the camera with black-rimmed eyes, challenging. Britney Spears’ Instagram account is teeming with these videos. She loves to dance, as she always emphasizes, and to express herself through it. And: She loves it, at least that’s what it seems, to present herself scantily dressed, to pose with little more than her own hands in front of the crucial parts of the body on the beach or in the shower. Britney Spears is a woman who likes to be sexy in her pictures.
Britney Spears is also a woman who hasn’t been free for years. Who lived under guardianship, oppressed by her own father, who couldn’t decide for herself whether to accept or decline gigs (her father always agreed), who couldn’t decide to marry, who couldn’t even decide to marry another to have a child. Instead, she had to work for 13 years to increase a fortune that she was not allowed to dispose of herself.
Spears owes it to her fans and the Free Britney movement that this guardianship was lifted, which she had repeatedly pleaded for in recent years. However, the application was only taken seriously when public pressure increased. A New York Times documentary, which Spears himself found horrifying, added to that pressure. From that time stems the habit of many fans reading Britney Spears’ social media posts for a lot that isn’t actually there. It was a search for a prisoner’s calls for help.
In any case, the 41-year-old is free, officially, and can do whatever she wants on social media. She can get as nude as she pleases (and as Instagram’s nipple guidelines allow), and comment on all sorts of feuds and non-feuds that she used to just dance to, silent and smiling, looking up from below.
Much criticism of “Britney”
But her new self-expression does not suit many people. Spears, who by the way is still called “Britney” by the whole world, as if she is not old enough for a full name, is too much and too often naked, it is now said everywhere. Spears is still not doing well, they say. Her father defends his tough regime in the guardianship, without him his daughter might not be alive anymore, he said in an interview. Her ex-partner and father of her two sons, Kevin Federline, said Spears’ many half-naked pictures were bad for their sons. He even posted videos documenting arguments between Spears and her sons. And even Spears’ 16-year-old son, Jayden, gave an interview in which he said he doesn’t want to have any contact with his mother at the moment. Her social media posts are a cry for attention and he hopes one day she will stop.
Now it’s always said: If the sons complain, Spears has to stop. Others doubt Spears’ sanity, also because her son described her as mentally unstable. If you are unstable, the logic goes, you don’t show yourself in the right way.
Spears has never been taken seriously in her life
Alone, Britney Spears still has to decide for herself. No son or ex-husband can tell her how to present herself in pictures, especially not in public interviews. It’s almost a truism that a 16-year-old doesn’t think it’s great when his mother presents herself as sexy. And that a person who has not been able to make a purchase without supervision for 13 years and who has had to perform for hours against their will and earn money against their will may be mentally ill can actually not be new to anyone. So why the fuss over Spears’ nudes?
Simply because Britney Spears has never been taken seriously in her life. Thousands of rumors circulated about the pop star’s hidden messages at the time of the guardianship. But now that Spears is free, those rumors are still going around. Does she really decide for herself how naked she wants to be? Is it really stable enough to operate Instagram independently? And is this all the real Britney? There is a fairly large bubble on Tiktok that is certain that Spears is long dead. And collecting evidence for this crude myth. Spears will be incapacitated even if she is of age. Her statements, some of which could not be more direct (for example, she accuses her sons and ex-husband of not respecting them, although she undoubtedly finances her life alone), are broken down into individual parts and analyzed for secret statements.
And what does that even say about us as a society if women are only allowed to show themselves sexy without having children? Mothers, this assumption suggests, are no longer desirable women. Mothers are no longer allowed to feel comfortable in their bodies – whereas in Spears’ days as a pop star it was perfectly normal and good for everyone if she was sexy, the sexier the better actually. That was of course because Spears didn’t dress like that for himself, didn’t dance like that for himself, didn’t look lecherous for himself – but for the audience, for the mostly male gaze. And for her fortune, which was managed by men. But now that she’s doing it of her own free will, she’s suddenly said to be insane, no longer sane. Now that Spears is finally free, no one trusts her to decide about herself and her body and its presentation. This is their final incapacitation.