The Rise and Fallout of Britney Spears
⤏ How Spears became a martyr for American Culture and how #FreeBritney allows atonement for complicity
⤏ By Hannah Jackson
⤏ Graphic by LABYRINTH OF COLLAGES
Graphic by Labyrinth of Collages
It is impossible to recall the late nineties and early aughts without Britney Spears.
Every throwback playlist includes at least one of her many bops. Every list of trends pays homage to her trailblazing fashion sense. She practically invented the Juicy Couture tracksuit, and who could possibly forget the iconic denim dress, or the “Dump Him” shirt? But just as easily as we can reminisce on Spears in the prime of her life, we also summon the more insidious chapters of her very public life. We recall when she shaved her head, when she smashed a paparazzo’s car with an umbrella, and more recently her ongoing conservatorship battle. Spears’s image was manufactured in an era of ravenous tabloid journalism. The people who once built her up as a teen queen and pop legend also relentlessly sexualized and exploited her in moments of weakness. Spears was failed by the system that created her, and she is still publicly grappling with the fallout today.
Spears was catapulted into fame in the late 1990’s when her first studio album ...Baby One More Time debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album went double platinum, and quickly became the highest selling album by a teenager of all time. Before she became the peerless pop icon that the world knows her as today, she was just a girl with an exceptional voice. Britney was born in Kentwood, Louisiana and sang in her church choir. By eight-years-old, Spears began her upward trajectory into stardom as she started booking smaller roles in commercials and plays. By 1992, she was cast as a Mouseketeer in the revival of The Mickey Mouse Club alongside other soon-to-be industry heavyweights — including Christina Aguilera, Keri Russell, Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake. By 1997 she signed with Jive Records and went straight to work on ...Baby One More Time.
Spears’s music always possessed a preternatural quality of self-assuredness and sexuality well beyond her years. This is simply because she was not solely responsible for her public persona. In 1997, after signing with Jive, Spears was trained by producer Eric Foster White to evolve her voice from a younger Sheryl Crow-esque style to the unmistakable, poppy sound we associate with her today. “It made more sense to go pop, because I can dance to it — it’s more me,” she told Rolling Stone in 1999.
“what fifteen, sixteen, seventeen-year-old is so completely self-assured, that they can become the architects of their own image with zero regrets?”
Spears was the creative force behind the epochal music video for “...Baby One More Time,” in which she changed the direction from an animated video to the now-immortalized schoolgirl scene. “So I had this idea where we’re in school and bored out of our minds, and we have Catholic uniforms on,” she said of her process in Rolling Stone. “And I said, ‘Why don’t we have knee-highs and tie the shirts up to give it a little attitude?’ — so it wouldn’t be boring and cheesy.”
Remaining confident in her creative direction concerning the iconic schoolgirl outfits, Spears was quick to nix ideas that they were too sexual. Hyper-aware of her image, she asked pop hitmaker Max Martin to change the words to “Born To Make You Happy,” diverting it away from its original, more salacious, nature. “Because of the image thing, I don’t want to go over the top. If I come out being Miss Prima Donna, that wouldn’t be smart. I want to have a place to grow.”
But an exceptional level of fame as a child does not preclude one from the same growing pains as everyone else — in fact, it arguably amplifies them. Spears’s executive power should offer no relief to the morally conflicted, for what fifteen, sixteen, seventeen-year-old is so completely self-assured, that they can become the architects of their own image with zero regrets?
As inevitable as the sunrise, is the public hatred of any explicit display of teenage sexuality. The desire that young people feel to express sexual agency — even if it’s performed well before they are actually sexually active — is nothing new, and to see Spears serving as a model of that unapologetic sexiness engendered rage from grown adults. Rather than directing rage at the label, the songwriters, the marketers — those who made Britney Britney — people began to target the teenage Spears, who was left to fend for herself.
One of the most appalling of these incidents occurred during an interview with Diane Sawyer in 2003. Sawyer played a clip for Spears in which Kendel Erlich, wife of then-governor of Maryland Robert Erlich, said “...if I had an opportunity to shoot Britney Spears, I think I would.” Sawyer defended Erlich’s statement, which was made — horrifyingly — at a domestic violence conference, “because of the example for kids and how hard it is to be a parent and keep all of this away from your kids.” Despite efforts to remain composed, 22-year-old Spears broke down into tears. Erlich later apologized, but told CBS that “she stands by her message that sensational images in popular culture make it difficult to raise confident young women who will stand up against domestic violence.”
The notion of blaming a teenage girl for everything from her sexuality to domestic violence is a symptom of a deeply-rooted patriarchal problem within society. Spears, like scores of women, has time and time again been subjected to scrutiny that aligns with the Madonna-Whore Complex, which dictates that women fall into either good (chaste, pure) or bad (seductress, sexual) categories in the dichotomy of womanhood. Spears was far from the only woman who faced this lopsided scrutiny during the peak of exploitative tabloid journalism, but she is certainly emblematic of its insidious nature. Women who were categorically labeled “whores” by patriarchal structures — like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan — were also subjected to ridicule and shaming due to their perceived sexuality during the same era as Spears’s early stardom. The three, who were collectively referred to as the “Bimbo Summit” by the New York Post, were targets for different reasons, though all of them fell victim to speculations about their sex lives. Hilton spent much of the 2000s dealing with the fallout of her sex tape, which was released without her consent. The tape instantly became justification for Hilton to be publicly branded a whore, and denied her any compassion. Spears was able to maintain a virginal tabloid persona until her breakup with Justin Timberlake in 2002, eventually coming under fire for her parenting skills and mental health struggles.
“Patriarchy upholds the idea that women should be sexually available to men who desire them, without having been ‘used’ or ‘broken in’ by another man before them.”
The media portrayal of Spears was one of the most damning components of her celebrity. She was routinely put through the ringer by sensationalized tabloids and unrelenting paparazzi. Subjected to a completely public existence, nearly all of Britney’s movements were scrutinized and amplified for the world to judge. Spears’s treatment by the media served as permission for her treatment at large. No facet of her life went unexplored, and that, disturbingly, included her sex life.
Spears was the gold standard of what most subscribers to the Madonna-Whore Complex idealize: a woman who can emulate sexuality while still keeping her virginity intact. Patriarchy upholds the idea that women should be sexually available to men who desire them, without having been “used” or “broken in” by another man before them. Spears, who was a born and raised Southern Baptist, spoke candidly about her desire to remain chaste until marriage.
When she began dating NSYNC member and former Mickey Mouse Club co-star Justin Timberlake in 1999, their relationship became tabloid fodder. Spears faced increased speculation about the status of her virginity, which she was openly asked about on numerous occasions during interviews and press conferences.
Spears’s breakup with Timberlake led to a fallout in which Timberlake maintained a tight hold on his victimhood card. His claims that she had been unfaithful in their relationship instantly cast Spears as the villain of their breakup, which he continued to exploit to his benefit. At the time of their breakup, Timberlake was a former boybander struggling to prove his worth as a solo artist. His relationship (and breakup) with Spears — one of the biggest pop stars in the world — proved to be the PR rejuvenation he desperately needed. So, in lieu of talent, Timberlake threw his ex under the bus.
“While Timberlake has apologized for benefitting from and stoking a misogynistic and racist culture that allows for white men to succeed on the downfall of women and people of color, his decades-late apology reads insincere and forced.”
In response to their breakup, Timberlake penned “Cry Me A River,” a revenge anthem released by Jive Records. The now-infamous video, which features an unsubtle Spears doppelganger, became Timberlake’s first chart-topping single of his solo career. He didn’t stop there, though. Timberlake continued to air out the dirty laundry of their relationship, which prompted Diane Sawyer to inquire of Spears, "You did something that caused him so much pain, so much suffering — what did you do?"
While Timberlake’s incessant self-victimization at first may have seemed to be a case of heartbroken oversharing, he continued to cross boundaries, including multiple instances where he bragged about having sex with Spears. On the Star and Buc Wild Morning Show, Timberlake was asked, "Did you fuck Britney Spears, yes or no?" to which he giddily answered, "Okay, I did it!” He also went on New York's Hot 97 and confessed: "I did it. I'm dirty.” During an interview with Barbara Walters, Timberlake laughed and looked knowingly at the camera when asked if he and Spears had abstained from sex during their relationship. “Sure,” he responded derisively.
Timberlake told Walters that during their breakup he assured Spears he would always be there for her. “I remember when we decided we were going to go our separate ways, we sat down and I said to her, 'If there's ever a moment where you ever need me, you can rest assured that I will be there, because I love you as a person and I will always love you,’” he said. Yet his actions disparaged her time and time again.
For years following their breakup, Timberlake continued to drag Spears’s name through the mud. It is speculated that Timberlake’s 2006 song “What Goes Around...Comes Around,” which coincided with Spears’s ongoing personal struggles, served as a sequel to “Cry Me A River.” Timberlake continued to further the betrayal narrative for years to come. In 2021, following the release of the “Framing Britney Spears” documentary, he issued a statement in which he grouped her into an apology with Janet Jackson, whose breast he exposed during the 2004 SuperBowl Halftime Show, which caused her career downfall. While Timberlake has apologized for benefitting from and stoking a misogynistic and racist culture that allows for white men to succeed on the downfall of women and people of color, his decades-late apology reads insincere and forced.
Long before her virginity came into play, Spears was hypersexualized by the media. Her April 1999 cover of Rolling Stone, which she shot at 17-years-old, is disturbing to view today. Photographed by David LaChappelle in her childhood bedroom, Spears is pictured lying in a bra and shorts, clutching a Teletubby doll as she lounges on magenta satin sheets. The text is equally disturbing.
“But the comeback narrative is deeply ingrained in the American ethos, and Britney Spears is one of our favorite cases. Her triumphant return to the spotlight allowed us to atone for our guilt. Our cruelty will be expunged if she is able to overcome it all.”
Within the first paragraph of her Rolling Stone cover, journalist Steven Daly thoroughly described Spears’s body: her “honeyed thigh,” “ample chest,” and how her “silky white shorts — with dark blue piping — cling snugly to her hips.” He inquires, “Is Spears bubblegum jailbait, jaded crossover diva or malleable Stepford teen?” Daly is far from the only one to make such invasive comments about her body. During another interview when she was 17, an interviewer said, “Everyone’s talking about it.” “Talking about what?” she asked. “Your breasts,” he replied.
No matter her age, Spears was always a target due to the perception that surrounded her sexualized persona. She wound up in a vicious Catch-22 in which her sexuality informed her treatment by others. There was a willful disconnect between Britney Spears as an onstage persona and Britney Spears as a human being. The unending barrage of hatred spewed at Spears caused her to crumble under the pressure, which only created more vulturous frenzy. There was no way out.
The hypersexualization of teenage Spears was obviously not the end of her troubles. Today, she faces new battles for her autonomy. Now she is fighting to regain her financial freedom from under the oppressive conservatorship helmed by her father, Jamie Spears. Following the release of “Framing Britney Spears,”, a public reckoning about the unfair treatment Spears endured at the hands of the media and paparazzi overtook the internet, and many began to apologize for their past behavior. But what is an apology worth if she still is suffering the consequences today?
Society places exorbitant value on celebrity. We gleefully watch as stars fail to live up to expectations. We poison them with our sharp tongues and venomous words. We say, “I knew she was trouble,” and “it was only a matter of time,” when they crumble. We, the very people who build them up, are ultimately responsible for their downfalls. We guiltlessly proclaim that the downfall is just the price to pay for fame.
But the comeback narrative is deeply ingrained in the American ethos, and Britney Spears is one of our favorite cases. Her triumphant return to the spotlight allowed us to atone for our guilt. Our cruelty will be expunged if she is able to overcome it all.
But we cannot wipe our hands of her suffering. From her hypersexualization as a teenager to her constricting conservatorship, Spears has spent most of her life as a walking target. She was abandoned by the very people who were supposed to care for her, and paid the price. Up until very recently, during the surge of the #FreeBritney movement and subsequent public reckoning, she served as an antiquated punchline. She has become a martyr of American culture — she has suffered so that, hopefully, those who follow in her footsteps will not. But what can martyrdom do for her now?