At first glance, it is a little strange that the New York Times documentary “Framing Britney Spears”, which aired for the first time on FX and Hulu, did so much to capture the national imagination. The program does a good job of presenting the case, championed by the #FreeBritney movement, that Jamie Spears, Britney’s father, exploited the misogynistic and exaggerated coverage of the star’s treatable mental health issues to falsely portray her as permanently inadequate, thus gaining control over your life and money. But it is also true that this is a unique situation that affects a person worldwide, and not, at least superficially, a generalized social problem that affects people not called “Spears”. So, why did it inspire so much fascination and so many pieces of reflection and conversations on social networks?
The easy answer is that we live in a celebrity culture where ordinary people relate openly to famous people, a phenomenon that so common psychologists have created for this: “parasocial relationships”.
I think it goes much deeper than that, however. People identify with Spears, not because they are also under tutelage by controlling and greedy parents, but because their history is a profound symbol of what has been done, in general, for their generation – especially the queer women and people who make up the Movement. #FreeBritney. The voyeuristic, sexist, controlling and critical abuse that was launched on Spears by the press during the first decade of the 21st century was clearly the first shot in what was a total sexist attack on the millennial generation. It started with “just abstinence” and lasted until the election of a scary old boomer who boasted of how he grabbed women of Spears’ age “by the pussy”.
I was 21 when Spears’ first album, “…. Baby One More Time” was released, and my memory of the whole Britney phenomenon was basically that it was Weird. The 90s were hardly perfect, but it was a time of great progress for women in music. Tori Amos, TLC, PJ Harvey, Bjork, Missy Elliott, Hole, Salt-N-Pepa, Liz Phair and Lauryn Hill made a big impact, often with songs that told stories of women from their own positive sexual perspective.
Then, at the end of the decade, there is a sudden interest in the virginity of this sexy young actress. Britney Virginity Watch – which was soon joined by Jessica Simpson Virginity Watch and Olsen Twins 18th Birthday Countdown – has become a national obsession. This was not just a strange thing in pop culture. The hymen status of the emerging millennial generation soon became a political fixation.
After the election of George W. Bush in 2000, the newly acquired religious right went to war against young people. Abstinence-based education, which preached against the use of contraceptives and told children to “wait” until marriage, was enforced in public schools. Rings of purity and promises of virginity have become trends, especially in red America. Myths of sexual shame – that sexually active women cannot fall in love, that women are “naturally” modest, that contraception controlled by women is “abortion” – have spread wildly. Hysterical and often false stories about youth sexuality have caused a national panic about the “sex culture”. The Bush administration continued to block the legalization of emergency contraception.
It may have started with the religious right, but sexual panic swept the country at the beginning of the 21st century.
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In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense, because everything was happening while the millennium generation was maturing. Unlike the relatively small generation X, millennials had the numbers – there are more of them than boomers! – and therefore were expected to have real social power. Furthermore, girls were brought up in an era of “female power” and there was real reason to believe that this generation could grow up to be more egalitarian and feminist than any other. Remember, the average age of marriage and first delivery was increasing rapidly in the 21st century. Women outnumbered men on college campuses.
Unfortunately, this social progress often leads to an ugly reaction – and Spears’ abuse in the public eye foreshadowed what was to come for generation Y women on a large scale.
The virginity fixation and the shame of premarital sex were a big part of that. It was clearly about arresting Generation Y women with unplanned pregnancies and early marriage, as well as discouraging the use of contraceptive methods, an important tool that young women need to finish college and start their careers well. The perfect encapsulation of this, at least until Trump ran on his platform of hatred for women, was the way that Rush Limbaugh – the personification of the worst type of right-wing boomer – waged war against Sandra Fluke, a millennial law student who spoke out for birth control insurance coverage. Even by her usual standards, Limbaugh’s malicious sexism was outstanding, triggering 46 separate personal attacks against the young activist, calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” and demanding that she make sex videos for her personal delight. All because she spoke for birth control, a service that 99% of women who have sex with men will use at some point.
But, although sex was a centerpiece in this war against the millennial generation, it was hardly the only battle front for which it was taking place.
The first two decades witnessed the emergence of an entire anti-feminist industrial complex that was primarily aimed at preventing women of the millennium generation from having access to the gains that were promised in their young “girl power”. Antifeminists – who were often older women exploiting sexist fears – like Christina Hoff Somners and Caitlin Flanagan wrote well-publicized books declaring that boys were the “real” victims of sexist oppression, as “female power” was ruining young women, and how women are secretly happier being housewives. This era also saw the rise of the “men’s rights” movement, which quickly expanded into all forms of sexist hate communities, from the incels to Jordan Peterson fans and the Proud Boys.
To a large extent, this reaction worked, at least for many men of the millennium generation. Research shows that millennials, especially white men, are more likely than generation X to agree that husbands should be the primary authority in the family. Generation Y men tend to see women as being less intelligent than men and still expect their wives to do most of the household chores. And while Generation Y men and women are less conservative than older generations, there is a persistent gender gap, with 44% of Generation Y men voting for Republicans, compared with just 31% of Generation Y’s of the year. It is no wonder that, when the coronavirus hit, it was the working mothers and not the fathers who suffered most of the economic blow from looking for daycare centers.
It is not surprising, then, that the treatment given by the press to Spears established a model that is used to abuse women who are much less famous than she is, especially in the age of social media. Gamergate, in which a rabid and mostly male group of social media users sparked ruthless abuse against anyone considered “feminist” in gaming circles, is the most prominent example, but the problem goes far beyond that. Women, for example, are twice as likely to experience harassment on a dating app than men.
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The good news is that, just as Spears is resisting her father’s tutelage over her, millennial women have not given in to two decades of pressure to abandon feminism. The vast majority of Generation Y women say they are feminists, and they were the ones who led the anti-rape movement and now the #MeToo movement, which defined a lot of feminism in the first two decades of the 21st century. And it was Generation Y women who were instrumental in getting the pussy grabber out of office, with 65% of them supporting Joe Biden in the 2020 pre-election polls, against just 45% of men of the generation of the year.
So, in the end, it makes a lot of sense for Britney’s story to resonate. Her situation is extreme, but it reflects a lot of pressure on Generation Y women. Like her, they grew up to be hardworking and ambitious, only to discover that society was much more interested in policing their sexualities and demeaning them than celebrating their lives. talents. Yes, the #FreeBritney movement aims to help a woman whose music clearly means a lot to people. But it is also a symbol for those in your generation who are fed up and ready to start claiming the equality and independence that they were promised as their birthright.