In 2007, amid a barrage of personal struggles including the death of her aunt, divorce from Kevin Federline and losing custody of her children after committing to having two of K-Fed’s spawn, Britney went a little off the rails. Particularly by the standards of 2007, a time when “good ol’ American” conservatism was still taken somewhat seriously as opposed to viewed like a complete caricature. Thus, for a pop princess to do something so egregious as to mangle her image by shaving her head and expressing anything other than a plucky, sugary sweet attitude was one of the most radical moments in pop culture history (and still remains so).
To add to the forever immortalized image of Britney snapping the night of the shaved head incident–of something within her screaming, “I can’t do this anymore!”–there are the photos of her hitting a car with a green umbrella (which has since been auctioned as a souvenir of history) after leaving the Tarzana hair salon. While she wasn’t forcibly admitted into psychiatric care until January of ’08, it is always ’07 that will be remembered as the year of Britney’s breakdown, the year that all of her personal failures and professional pressures culminated in this manifestation of rage and sadness. For Britney didn’t even have her own music as an outlet for coping, her own ideas being quashed by the suits in charge. So in all respects, her “breakdown” was a rebellion, a way of saying “enough,” I can’t be the American or teen dream right now, or maybe ever again.
As it was the first time something of such a nature had occurred in pop music, everyone had assumed Britney would fade out of the spotlight. But her return to it was swift, coming back with her sixth album, Circus, in December of 2008, the same month she would turn twenty-seven. Having been placed under the conservatorship of her father, Jamie Spears, and attorney, Andrew Wallet, after the 5150 involuntary psychiatric hold, Britney has “relied” on the management of her assets and counsel of her father for many years since that first very public indication of mental illness. To be faced with his mortality (the reason behind her recent check-in to an “all-encompassing treatment venue”) is understandably setting her nerves on edge (even if the Britney Army does, indeed, want her father dead). And she was right to both cancel a second Vegas residency called Britney: Domination (which her father had to sign off on) and take enough stock of her emotional state to seek some sort of help, or, as she puts it, “Me time.” Something about her combat with depression, in this case, feels very “I’m Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman” in terms of coming to grips with the notion that her dad will no longer be around.
The conservatorship’s dissipation could very well, in Spears’ mind, represent the dissipation once more of having a sense of control over herself (despite that sense coming from ironically surrendering it to someone else). And what with times having changed in 2019, as opposed to letting everything mount into one uncontrollable Atlas-like burden, it appears as though Britney has learned from her past, and preemptively taken the action to check herself into a wellness facility for thirty days–for that is the new chic term and setup of a “mental institution.” So yes, when you think about it, it’s primarily thanks to Britney that pop stars like Kesha, Demi Lovato and Ariana Grande can so freely announce they’re going to take some “me time”–Britney having suffered for that “sin” long ago to Make Fame Bearable Again.
While it was once kosher to joke about a girl who lost her mind, or who is “crazy” (a word used all too liberally to describe pretty much any woman), society has come a long way in not immediately going for the jugular when it comes to condemning someone for admitting they have a mental health issue and that they want help for it. Conversely, in the past, we (i.e. stars) were told to suck it up and pop a fucking benzo. Now, however, you can get talk therapy and have your benzo too–all with just a little less judgment thanks to the diminishment of tabloid culture (though, don’t get it twisted, headlines like “Why it’s no surprise her dad’s illness sent Britney Spears reeling” are still clearly getting off on watching her fall from a pedestal).
*update: we now know all of this was a charade, Jamie Spears, et al is a monster and that Britney’s 2019 mental health “check-in” wasn’t voluntary either. But that doesn’t change the fact that the media treated the notion of her needing some “me time” much differently than they did in 2007.
