Does Britney's social media look...familiar?

I don’t mean to raise the proverbial red flag, but are we all comfortable with what’s happening on Britney’s social media these days? Do you feel confident in her stability? Re-look at her last dozen posts, and then sit with that question, and a sip of Cab-Sauv, for a minute.

If you grew up with Britney Spears as your role model, favourite pop star, sexual empowerment icon, and one-day best friend…you know why this question is of utmost gravity. Girls and guys that grew up in the 90’s, we are responsible for her. We need to make sure she’s her best self. We feel a deep sense of inherent guardianship, don’t we? I most certainly do, and I’m not alone.

I need you to remember how we all felt in 2007. I’ll help you. You were listening to “Hey There Delilah” on (shameful) repeat after a breakup. You were watching CSI religiously every week (and re-thinking your major, “Maybe I should do Forensics?”). You were spoiling the final Harry Potter book to anyone who would listen (don’t ask me which one that was, I was beyond uninterested. Sorry, don’t throw shit.) And, you watched TMZ as Britney spoke in a British accent, spent a few days here and there in Rehab centres, dated a paparazzo, and decided to shave her own head. People always use the metaphor “it was like a car crash”. In this case, I think that’s a perfect way to describe it. I can’t think of much better. It was like in slow motion, the epic and seemingly irreversible erosion of Pop Culture’s princess. We saw it coming, and we couldn’t do anything within our power to stop it. In a perverted way, we were the cause of it, and yet, also the ones with the most to lose if she ever succumbed to her mental illness.

I know it’s hard to believe, but in 2007 there wasn’t really social media. Go ahead, look it up. Facebook became “a thing” around 2007, but it was still very much a cool kids College/University photo album, and not how your Nana sees your vacation photos. I say this because I want you to think about what kind of exposure we would have had to her suffering if there existed social platforms like Twitter, Facebook (as it lives and breathes today), Instagram, etc etc etc. Would there have been pre-warning to her slope downwards, mentally? Would we have been able to spot it earlier? Would we have tried to step in as pop culture purveyors, or would we wait (in our grimy pop culture perversion) for something really bad to happen to our Britney?

I can’t help but bring up that her father took conservatorship of her estate (and, let’s be real, her life) in 2008 after two involuntary psychiatric holds, and giving full custody to her (sigh) ex-husband Kevin Federline. That shit was hard for her to do. We know this because she contested this court ruling, twice. Fellow Popworms, that’s over 10 years. She is well into her 30’s, and her most stable self, is under the conservatorship of her father. He is now ailing. She cancelled her Vegas commitments, and spent a respectable stint in Rehab as a result. Her manager has outright stated she may never do another show.

Pause. Holy shit. This should have been the only headline for WEEKS, and yet, I think you forgot about that soundbite, didn’t you?

So now, we have a Britney that has no real “purpose”. She’s dating an admittedly smokin’ hot model (or something…who cares) and spending her excess of time making Insta-stories twirling around in tight dresses. I go back to my original question: are we good? Do you sleep soundly at night with the blind assurance that Britney isn’t having 2007 flashbacks?

The answer is no. Straight up, we are concerned. But what can we possibly do to help Britney right this ship, stay the course, avoid a lather, rinse, repeat situation? Well, the first thing y’all can stop perpetuating is the #FreeBritney movement. The last thing anyone suffering from chronic mental illness needs is freedom. Before you spew venom at me for saying that, let me give you some context. If you are an extraordinarily artistic and creative person, the most paralyzing directive is “do anything you want”. I tell you this as a former Arts major with an imbalanced right side to left side of the brain ratio. A blank page without any set guidelines is like a full body local anesthetic; you’re left numb or riddled with anxiety.

The conservatorship has been her life blood, allowing her to continue performing, be a mom, and focus on her health. Now, it may have to change hands in lieu of her father’s recent health issues, but I believe she still very much needs it…perhaps now more than ever. She and her parents have been to court recently (sometime in May of this year), to re-assess the scope of the conservatorship, where the judge ordered her to undergo a 730 day expert evaluation (or a competence examination).

That’s a two year assessment folks. Whether her mother steps up to take on more of the conservatorship duties, or the “fear” of the two year court-ordered evaluation keeps Britney on the straight and narrow, she needs it.

We need to be the best friend we always assumed we were and support every decision that is made in the spirit of well being. If she needs to spend another few months in Rehab, or she needs to stop performing, or even if she needs to be left the fuck alone… we’re over here, cheering her on.