For everyone viewing #FreeBritney from the lens of “this isn’t right— she’s not (Disabled, incapacitated, incompetent, mentally ill) because she can (work, communicate effectively about her abuse, make decisions, be a mother, post on social media)” — that is NOT the point:
Even if Britney Spears IS Disabled, mentally ill, or neurodivergent, she wouldn’t deserve a conservatorship. And whether or not she politically identifies that way or prescribes to medicalized understandings of her experience, Britney has mentioned anxiety + bipolar disorder.
What is happening is only possible if are considered Disabled by law— then you can have your autonomy, self-determination, + freedom taken away from you. That is why this was so easy. Once you are declared incompetent, or not of sound mind, you are no longer considered a person.
Let’s not frame this as “Britney is not Disabled or mentally ill *enough* to require conservatorship. That should be reserved for *those other* Disabled people.” NO. Conservatorships are violent, abusive, and dehumanizing. Full stop.
Yes, this happened to Britney because she has money (which is appealing in the eyes of abusers), and because people wanted to control her and take advantage of her wealth. But they were able to do this so precisely because she is considered to be Disabled.
This is getting attention because it’s Britney Spears. Let’s remember and work towards liberation for all of the Disabled, mentally ill, and neurodivergent folks who are not white, wealthy, famous, icons.
The ones who experience this dehumanization daily, but can’t fight back or don’t have the means to. The ones we don’t know about. The ones we forgot about. The ones who live in cages and open air prisons (like Britney).
Reproductive rights & Disability rights are also very intertwined. There is a long history of eugenics that perpetuates the ideology (and puts it in practice) that Disabled folks should not or cannot give birth or raise kids.
The Supreme Court case of Buck v. Bell (1927) legalized forced sterilization of Disabled/mentally ill folks — with Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes saying “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”
Britney may not be allowed to remove her IUD because her abusers view more kids as a burden on Britney or themselves. They might be afraid that she would pass down mental illness to other kids.
They might think Britney would need to stop taking certain psychiatric medications if she became pregnant, which they want to avoid. But we know that freedom for Disabled people includes reproductive freedom.
The bottom line: #FreeBritney is a Disability Rights issue. It’s about who we see as human enough to be granted the rights of personhood.
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