Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Britney Spears in 2019
Axelle/Bauer-Griffin / FilmMagic
Between the artistic infantilization of her beginnings and her placement under guardianship, Britney Spears is still in search of emancipation.
CELEBRITY – Not a girl, not yet a woman ? These words from Britney Spears from 2001 particularly resonate with her life over the past twenty years. This Tuesday, October 24, the singer comes out The Woman in me, his autobiography published in France by Lattès. And as she says in the book, this “woman in her” a “been repressed for a long time”between the schoolgirl image of her beginnings and the guardianship she suffered for 13 years as an adult.
When American justice finally frees the star from her father’s guardianship in 2021, she is 39 years old. At the time, his lawyer rejoiced: “What awaits Britney, and this is the first time we can say this in a decade, depends on only one person: Britney. »
But this emancipated Britney that we have seen since does not always correspond to the public’s expectations. To the point of worrying certain fans, who after having worked for years within the “Free Britney” movement, today monitor the slightest actions of their idol. When, last September, she posted a video of herself dancing with knives, the police arrived at her house, alerted by several of her followers.
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Cocktail of eroticism and innocence
In fact, on Instagram, Britney Spears is far from the polished image of other celebrities her age. She shows herself dancing alone in her living room, her poses are lascivious, often clumsy. Her smoky eyes and wardrobe of super-low-rise shorts and frilly mini-tops seem straight out of her teenage music videos. As for its captions, they are sometimes difficult to decipher and almost always punctuated with numerous emojis.
The star’s editorial line on Instagram ultimately reflects her image quite well, both infantile and sexual. From his solo debut at 17 – after a stint, as a child, at Mickey Mouse Club –, Britney Spears serves a clever cocktail of eroticism and innocence. In her legendary first music video, “Baby One More Time,” she dons the trappings of a schoolgirl, little braids with pompoms, knee-high socks and a pleated skirt included. But the skirt is mini, the tied shirt reveals both her belly and her bra, and the ingénue sways her hips while singing lyrics like: “ Show me how you want it to be, tell me baby, ’cause I need to know…”
This sexist, hypersexualizing recipe will be a key element of the star’s success. In another flagship single from this era, “Oops!… I did it again”, the singer is surprised to have once again manipulated in spite of herself a man who fell under her spell, but concludes the chorus by warning: “I’m not that innocent”. The same year, she appeared on the cover of the magazine Rolling Stonein his underwear with a Teletubbies stuffed animal under his arm.
Rolling Stone Brtiney Spears en Une de Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
A transition to adulthood scrutinized by the media
In 2001, a new era opened for the star with the release of her eponymous album and the single “I’m a Slave 4 U”, in which she tried to free herself of his image of ” little girl “as she describes it in the lyrics, while still preserving her signature youthful voice.
This transition to adulthood, Britney Spears did not only do it in her songs but also in front of the press cameras. The tension between innocence and sex, childhood and adulthood, fueled the interest of celebrity magazines in its intimacy. In a pre-MeToo era, the question of his virginity fascinates the media, who do not hesitate to ask him questions on this subject at press conferences. After her breakup with Justin Timberlake, le magazines Details puts the singer on the cover with the hook: “Can we forgive him for all this crazy music? At least he managed to bang Britney”.
It is in this context that Britney will try to emancipate herself with albums where she proclaims her independence and denounces the attention of the press, but also through her private life, always highly publicized. In 2005 and 2006, she gave birth to her two sons. The documentary Framing Britney Spearsproduced by the New York Times, offers a chilling portrait of this period. Harassed by the paparazzi, constantly judged by the press and public opinion, and undoubtedly going through postpartum depression, Britney Spears appears more and more unstable. Until the famous sequence of his head shaving.
“Guardianship transformed me into a child”
The rest, we know: Britney Spears will be placed under guardianship for 13 years – an official infantilization which leaves her father free to control her decisions, her body and her finances. She returns to this period in her book, some extracts of which were published by People : “Guardianship stripped me of my identity as a woman and transformed me into a child”.
“That’s what’s hard to explain: how quickly I could go back and forth between being a little girl, a teenager, and a woman, because they took away my freedom, she explains. I couldn’t behave like an adult, since they didn’t treat me like an adult, so I regressed and behaved like a little girl; but then my adult side came back – except my world wouldn’t let me be an adult. »
The star also looks back on the two years following the lifting of his guardianship. “Since I’ve been free, I’ve had to build a whole new identity”, she explains. This new identity may not fit society’s idea of a 41-year-old woman, but perhaps it’s time for the media and fans alike to let Britney Spears live her life. And this, even when she decides to dance in panties with knives in her hands.
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2023-10-22 08:00:28
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