Britney Spears simultaneously represents the best and worst of what pop stardom can offer: instant accolades, larger-than-life fame, and the loss of the kind of day-to-day freedom that most of us take for granted. Like many female stars, her life has been subject to the will of the most misogynistic elements of the media—and in her case, she’s also been subject, for nearly the last 14 years, to the will of her own father.
Today, Spears turns 40. Newly free, having finally escaped the conservatorship that controlled every aspect of her personal and professional life, the pop star is now at a crossroads (no pun intended): Will she retire early, grow her family, maybe even return to music? Now more than ever, her fandom—and the rest of the world—wants to know what will come next.
It’s impossible to define the impact of Britney Spears; of what she represented before and during the conservatorship, and what she represents after. You can start with the numbers, of course: nearly 100 million albums sold worldwide; six number-one albums; more than $100 million earned via a mega successful, sold-out Las Vegas residency; dozens of awards, including a Grammy. But maybe more memorable than her accolades are the pop culture moments she spearheaded: releasing one of the most instantly recognizable debut singles ever (“…Baby One More Time”) in 1998 at the age of 16, mesmerizing audiences at the MTV Video Music Awards with her performance of “Oops!… I Did It Again” in 2000, and then doing it again a year later with a yellow python draped over her shoulders for “Slave 4 U.” You could even mention that double-denim moment with Justin Timberlake, her then boyfriend.
It wasn’t always the popular choice to root for Spears, however. Even pre-conservatorship, the singer often found herself in public kerfuffles: appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone with a Teletubby, making out with Madonna, maybe entering a gas station sans flip-flops. While many of these moments seem frivolous now, it was easy to make fun of her then, and making fun of her is what the media loved to do. It didn’t matter that she had solidified herself as pop music’s shining star at that point, with flawless pop productions and back-to-back best-selling albums year after year. Celebrity media had a formula: Build people up to watch them fall, especially women. And Spears was no exception.
“Looking back at the time, 2006, 2007, Britney fans in general were these crusaders,” Jordan Miller, the founder of BreatheHeavy, the biggest Britney Spears fan website, tells BAZAAR.com. “One hundred percent, [the media made me feel] gaslit for so long. I honestly felt uncomfortable speaking out about Britney for years, though I continued to do so, because in my heart, I felt it was the right thing to do. All I knew was that it seemed she was in a controlling, abusive situation, from where I stood. Like everyone else, I always rooted for her, and when she was in a situation that seemed unjust, I knew I had to speak out for her. Looking back, I’m proud of that.”
Newsrooms at the time were male dominated with a view of the world that fit firmly in with the patriarchy. Even the new wave of super-popular celebrity blogs (like that of Perez Hilton) weren’t interested in challenging the status quo. As a reader, it was easy to be consumed by the narrative these outlets were pushing: that Britney was a hot mess.
At the height of her personal struggles, during her mass-documented “public breakdown,” I was in eighth grade. Every Thursday, in social studies class, we would discuss current events, such as the then-upcoming Democratic presidential primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But I always managed to bring up Britney Spears. When my classmates (usually boys) brought up her umbrella antics or Taco Bell runs with fellow “problematic” peers Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, I always pleaded for them to see the other side of the story. I remember shrugging my shoulders and saying, “I think she just really needs a friend right now,” while flicking my mechanical pencil back and forth between my fingers. “She’s going through a divorce, she has two babies, and paparazzi are following her every move—why are we expecting her to be perfect?”
Spears’s imperfections—and her refusal to fit the prototype for a pop diva of any sort—might be what made her so endearing to fans, and made her fans so protective of her. As easily as she could command a stage or drop a culture-shifting music video, she could remind the world she was still just a girl from Kentwood, Louisiana, who loved Cheetos, vanilla bean Frappuccinos, and the wrong men, just like the rest of us.
At the time, Spears was often dismissed by critics, because pop wasn’t respected as an art form. While artists like Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez (who openly credit Spears as a source of inspiration) are championed for their takes on the genre, Spears was often belittled for it. At the time, commercial success was synonymous with selling out, even though today, the singer is credited as one of the defining acts in pop music history.
But her relatability, too, probably inspired critics to downplay her musical and cultural impact, even today. There’s no denying that when it came to her performance persona, she took pointers from Madonna and Janet Jackson—but who personified their joint ethos of embracing sexuality and taking pride in being a woman more than Spears? Her unabashed sensuality in her music was a wake-up call for the industry and culture at large—young women were sexual beings, and there was nothing to be ashamed of because of it.
“Britney was expected to be the beacon of white girlhood. She was from the Deep South, a two-parent household, a down-home Christian, and most importantly virginal,” The Undefeated’s senior culture editor, Morgan Jerkins, told BAZAAR earlier this year. “There’s something to say about white mainstream culture and how it can be so restrictive to women who are trying to just simply grow up and know themselves.”
If anything, Spears’s lyrics, music videos, and fashion sense were all symbolic forms of armor against the negative press attention. Who cared if Page Six hated her sexy peekaboo Dolce & Gabbana lace minidress? Thousands of young women across the globe loved it and wanted it in every color. Culturally, Spears took a bullet for today’s generation of pop stars, who can wear plunging tops, sing about sex, or embrace their bodies without anyone batting an eye. (That’s what makes the silence from other celebrities—until this year—so disturbing: Where would any of “the pop girls” of today be without Britney?)
“In terms of her MTV Awards performances, in terms of the constant controversy surrounding her, in terms of her reach, her music—you couldn’t have asked for a bigger and better pop star at that time,” Jerkins says.
Spears’s legacy makes the uncertainty of her future feel daunting. Since the singer was released from the constraint of her conservatorship, contradictory rumors have swirled: She’s heading back to the stage; she will never perform again; she longs to return, but it won’t happen anytime soon. As someone who fell in love with the pop star first and foremost because of her music, it hurts to think about the possibility of her never recording a song or performing again. Not because she owes the world more work—because she doesn’t—but because of what her presence ultimately means to fans.
“Fans ultimately want Britney to choose what she wants to do. Britney is finally in a place where she’s legally able to call the shots and have more control over her life and her career and her personal life, and people, including myself, are hesitant to say, ‘I want to see her do this or that,'” Miller adds. “We can all agree that the world is a better place with new Britney Spears music and performances—but I think we can also agree it has to be one hundred percent her call [if it happens]. Period.”
If Spears does take a well-deserved break, that doesn’t mean she’s given up on music and performing altogether. According to Miller, Spears is still speaking to and performing for her audience in her own way via her quirky social media.
“If you look at her Instagram, in some ways, she’s still kind of performing—she’s dancing to whatever song she’s feeling in the moment, and she’s kind of giving fans an intimate performance on the Internet,” Miller says. “There’s still that part of her that wants to dance and wants to feel creative. People forget that she’s an artist too. She’s a creative person and finally able to express that without the restraints she’s had on her for so long. It’s time to sit in this moment and simply watch what she does, and allow her to express herself without the pressure of what’s going to be next. Let’s allow her to just be.”
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What Will Britney Spears Do Now?
Source: Filipino Journal Articles
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