Britney Spears “Cried For Two Weeks” Over Framing Britney Spears
Britney Spears has finally answered the question taking up the comments sections of her Instagrams for well over a month: Has she watched the New York Times-produced documentary Framing Britney Spears? On Tuesday night, the 39-year-old singer shared that she’s only seen snatches of the doc about how the media (and ex Justin Timberlake) dismantled her career, leading to a complicated legal conservatorship and serious harm to her mental health. But they were enough to make her cry for her two weeks straight. In fact, she “still [cries] sometimes !!!!.”
“My life has always been very speculated ... watched ... and judged really my whole life !!!,” Spears continued in the caption accompanying a video of her dancing to Aerosmith. “I have been exposed my whole life performing in front of people 😳😳😳 !!! It takes a lot of strength to TRUST the universe with your real vulnerability cause I've always been so judged... insulted... and embarrassed by the media... and I still am till this day 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼 !!!!”
Spears is doing her best to stay optimistic. “I do what I can in my own spirituality with myself to try and keep my own joy ... love ... and happiness ✨🙏🏼 ☀️ !!!!,” she said. “Every day dancing brings me joy !!! I'm not here to be perfect ... perfect is boring ... I'm here to pass on kindness 💋💋💋 !!!!”
An interview with Oprah Winfrey no doubt would have offered more insight, but Spears’s comments still offer some rare insight into where things stand with the singer. She reportedly doesn’t have any plans for a tell-all any time soon.
Overall, Framing Britney Spears has been met with acclaim. But it’s also drawn criticism from viewers like Tavi Gevinson. “The doc wants the viewer to believe that Spears’s performance of sexuality liberated her and the masses and that it was this bravery plus her talent that resonated with and scared people,” the Gossip Girl actor wrote in an essay for The Cut. “I can see why a viewer would find relief in concluding that Spears was always in complete control. But it is absurd to discuss her image from that time as though there was not an apparatus behind it, as though she existed in a vacuum where she was figuring out her sexuality on her own terms, rather than in an economy where young women’s sexuality is rapidly commodified until they are old enough to be discarded.”
Meanwhile, celebrities continue to weigh in. On Wednesday, the actor Sharon Stone told Kelly Clarkson that in 2007, around the time Spears shaved her head, the singer wrote her “a very long and important, poignant letter” asking for help. “The true fact of it is, it's very hard to be a very successful woman and not have everyone controlling you, taking your finances and handling you. I’m sure all of the young stars get handled,” Stone said. “There is a huge breaking point, and there's a point where you get broken. The thing with Britney Spears is so out of control and so awful. And certainly, I can say it's been very out of control and very awful more than once in my life, and I have certainly had it. And it's very complicated to take control of your life.”
As for where things stand in the legal battle over Spears’s conservatorship, she has requested that the temporary conservator appointed amid the health issues of Spears’s father be made permanent in lieu of her father’s continued involvement. The next hearing is set to take place sometime in April.
