At Liberty Podcast
photo dated 29/08/16 of Britney Spears who has name dropped Sir Elton John and Paris Hilton in her new memoir published on Tuesday.
At Liberty Podcast

We All Pathologized Britney Spears

November 2, 2023

All episodes

On October 24, Britney Spears released her tell-all memoir, 鈥淭he Woman in Me.鈥 In the book, she traces her journey from childhood stardom to living 13 years under the control of a conservatorship, a court-sanctioned arrangement that strips people with disabilities of their civil liberties.

In Spears鈥 case, her dad, who she characterizes in the book as abusive and an addict, was able to gain legal rights over her life and her business when Britney was 26-years-old. This included forcing her to work, surveilling and controlling her daily life habits, and making all of her healthcare choices.

Spears鈥 conservatorship initially made global headlines in 2021, catapulting conservatorship as a legal construct into public dialogue and calling into question its use in the lives of more than one million other Americans with disabilities. Britney鈥檚 success in terminating her conservatorship propelled the state of California to sign meaningful legislation into law, requiring courts to consider alternatives to conservatorship, and making it easier for others to terminate their own.

Today, we are checking in with Zoe Brennan-Krohn, who we originally spoke to in 2021 when this case first made headlines. Zoe is a staff attorney with the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Disability Rights Project who has worked on conservatorship for many years, including filing amicus briefs in support of Britney. We鈥檝e read the memoir and we鈥檙e ready to discuss.

In this episode

Listen to this episode on

This Episode Covers the Following Issues