Conservatorship is defined as an agreement or order under which one person or entity controls the personal and financial affairs of another, such as a minor or someone who is considered legally incapable of managing their own affairs.
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People around the world are more familiar with this term than ever before since the commencement of #FreeBritney, a movement to release 1990’s Pop sensation Britney Spears from the legal conservatorship of her father.
Since her highly publicized mental health struggles in 2008, Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, has acted as the Pop star’s conservator, handling all aspects of her finances, business affairs and personal life. While the original intent of the conservatorship was to protect Spears, concern started to grow when Spears’ reality under the conservatorship of her father began to surface.
Spears first shared her truth in a 2008 documentary via MTV titled Britney: For the Record. The project focused on Spears’ personal life after her highly-publicized mental breakdown and was the first time she shared her views regarding her conservatorship publicly.
“If I wasn't under the restraints I'm under right now, with all the lawyers and doctors and people analyzing me every day, if that wasn't there, I'd feel so liberated,” she said in the documentary. “When I tell them the way I feel, it's like they hear, but they're really not listening.”
Spears’ struggles and surrounding speculations pierced the hearts of some of her most loyal fans, like Megan Radford, who felt obligated to help the muted Pop star. In 2009, Radford started the #FreeBritney movement, solo, at a show outside Dallas.
"I was all alone,” Radford told CNN. “I think some people definitely thought I was a nut, [but] when you really care about a human, it's not that much bigger of a step to start advocating for her rights."
Radford’s efforts would be the beginning of the widely popular #FreeBritney movement, which many support today. The movement caught the attention of millions after the release of a New York Times documentary earlier this year titled, Framing Britney Spears. The documentary rattled fans and fellow celebrities alike as their eyes were opened to the restraint Britney has endured for the past 13 years.
“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 wrote on an Instagram post referring to the most-recent documentary surrounding her life. “I didn't watch the [whole] documentary but from what I did see of it, I was embarrassed by the light they put me in... I cried for two weeks and well....I still cry sometimes !!!!”
While Britney has continued to keep a low profile surrounding the topic, her fans have remained relentless in fighting what they believe is “the good fight,” and won’t stop until the day she has a voice, and that day is almost here.
Spears is expected to speak at a court hearing in Los Angeles, California on June 23, which would break her many years of silence on the matter. While there is a chance Spears may not speak in court, fans remain hopeful she will seize opportunity to use her voice.
"It's nerve-racking, because finally we're going to have some answers and some insight," super fan and #FreeBritney leader, Junior Olivas, told CNN. "We've been hearing from everyone around Britney, but not Britney herself."
Fans are in good spirits for tomorrow’s hearing and plan to show out in support of Britney and the voice they fought so hard for her to have with organized protests scheduled to take place in Germany, London and Norma and Paris.
"I've played out like 50 different scenarios in my head," said Radford. “I’m nervous, but I'm trying to set those nerves aside... I hope that she feels, for the first time ever, possibly, the support that she has behind her."
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