While many of us have known that Britney Spears was living under a conservatorship for several years now, I don’t think many of us had realized the extent of it, and the extent of the abuse she has suffered and continues to suffer until last week, when she gave a 24-minute statement in which she stated outright, “I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized.”
Her powerful statement opens up questions not just about the specific conservatorship upon her and the ways in which her rights have been impinged upon, but about the rights of disabled people across the world.
“I’ve been in shock. I am traumatized.”
Britney was placed under the conservatorship in January 2008, after she refused to relinquish custody of her children to her ex, Kevin Federline. According to police, she “appeared” to be under the influence of something.
She was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric ward in LA, where she spent just five days. On release, she was under the conservatorship, which is led by her father, Jamie Spears. He and a lawyer took control all of her assets, and this continues more than thirteen years later.
Conservatorships are not generally used in this way; they don’t often last for this long. It’s true that Britney did have a well-publicized breakdown, but it’s also true that she is medicated, seems aware that she needs therapy and is willing to continue to receive it, and is petitioning to be reevaluated so that she can be again in charge of her own life. She spoke about feeling like “they’re making me live in a rehab program”.
It seems absolutely bizarre to me that someone who had a breakdown in 2008 can still be treated as if she is as unwell as she was then, when she clearly isn’t. She has worked very hard for years since then – if she’s well enough to work and earn money, I would argue she’s well enough to make decisions about how her own money is spent.
Or are the people in charge just more concerned about her making money for them than they are about her wellbeing?
Financial abuse of disabled people happens constantly. A report into financial abuse of people with learning disabilities states that people “have the right to choose how to spend their money if they have the capacity to do so, and that if they lack the capacity to do so then their money should be used in their best interests.” Britney would appear to be capable to make her own choices, but if she isn’t, it still appears that an allowance paid to her dad and extortionate legal fees are not in her best interest. That she has been able to speak out speaks not only for her but for anyone else damaged by this kind of abuse.
Britney told the court that “right now in the conservatorship, I am not able to get married or have a baby”. That means someone else has made those fundamental decisions about her life. She detailed that she has an IUD and that she wanted to take it out so she could start to try for another baby. She wasn’t allowed.
“I deserve to have a life”
Britney will be forty years old in December – her fertile years are numbered, and she has spent thirteen years under this abusive conservatorship has robbed her of thirteen years in which she could have been having children. It seems inhumane that one person can make that decision for another – and like others I don’t think it’s too far to call it abuse. And again, while she may not realize it, she has highlighted here something that happens to millions of disabled people – involuntary sterilization. This is a human rights abuse. Disabled people deserve the right to have children just the same as anyone else. A 2011 paper on sterilization of women and girls with disabilities states that “Women with disabilities are particularly vulnerable to forced sterilizations performed under the auspices of legitimate medical care or the consent of others in their name”.
Britney’s line in her statement “I deserve to have a life” is an extremely powerful one, and one that speaks for not only her but for millions of disabled people around the world who have had their rights stripped away. Hopefully soon she will be free, and I hope that lessons are learnt from her case. Britney deserves to have a life and to live it how she sees fit – and so do millions of others.
Image credits: Rhys Adams and Drew de F Fawkes
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