By Ezra Black
It is agreed that 2008 was a bad year for Britney Spears.
According to a CBS News timeline of her widely publicized meltdown, she was about to lose her children to ex-husband Kevin Federline, she was ordered to undergo random drug and alcohol testing twice a week, she was charged with misdemeanour counts of hit-and-run, one time she slept in a parking lot and there was the whole head-shaving thing.
She was also drinking way too much Starbucks, was in and out of psychiatric hospitals and then she accidentally flashed her crotch.
In the midst of an apparent mental breakdown, she was put under the conservatorship of her father, Jamie Spears, and a lawyer, Andrew M. Wallet, after a court ruled that she did not have the capability to manage her own life.
A conservatorship is typically used to protect the old, the mentally disabled or the extremely ill.
Under the conditions of the agreement, Spears can’t take money out of the bank or make any financial decisions without the permission of her conservators. It’s been reported that the courts track all her purchases.
My question is why should our girl Britney get a pass from real-life when the rest of us have to weather the slings and arrows of responsibility?
I look around and see so many enfranchised adults, who are no more capable than Spears, forced to make decisions all on their own.
Nobody steps in and stops them from committing to bad relationships, buying stuff they don’t need or picking an unmarketable degree. Where’s the justice in that? I want the right for benign conservators to swoop in and seize my inalienable rights for my own good.
I acknowledge that in Spears’ case, her managers, family and hangers were in a spot. Her behavior was putting her massive wealth and fame in jeopardy with all those scandals. She was a mouseketeer after all, not Courtney Love, and her career was their bread and butter.
They had to make a move, so they took many of her rights away and she’s no worse for wear. She now gets to concentrate on her family and her music. Though stripped of her adulthood, the 35-year-old is still one of the most highly paid musicians in the world, she’s still selling records and she’s apparently the happiest she’s been in years.