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PSA on Britney Spears and the #FreeBritney movement for anyone that needs or wants more information on what is going on with her. It’s a fucking rabbit hole, so buckle up.
A little backstory first. Britney was a child star starting at the age of 4 years old on Broadway, and then worked her way to the Mickey Mouse Club, and eventually the solo career we know today. Her career has been on autopilot her entire life. If you look back at her music, she’s been telling everyone for years she’s too controlled and treated as a product if you listen to the lyrics of most of her hits. Examples include: Lucky, Overprotected, My Perogative, Circus, Piece of Me and Gimme More. Her music videos, social media posts, tour props and photoshoots regularly show her in a cage or in chains. If anyone has ever seen videos of her when she was younger, you’d know her REAL singing voice is very similar to Christina Aguilera’s. Her record label didn’t like it, as they were both on the Mickey Mouse Club and about to release their debut albums at the same time. So they had her voice retrained to sing in the baby voice we all know today because they believed it to be more iconic and would create a brand and career for her instead of her real voice. It’s unhealthy, and it’s been destroying her voice over the years, thus why she is known for lip syncing. She wanted to make an acoustic type pop album in 2006 titled Original Doll and reinvent herself using her real voice. The album was shelved and cancelled once her label realized she would be singing in her real voice. She isn’t allowed to sing live because she will either fail terribly, or she’ll have to sing in her deep voice that she isn’t known for. Her entire career she has been treated like a product meant to sell.
Now, for the real tea.
Everyone remembers the 2007 meltdown. Everyone. Leading up the meltdown Britney was going thru a public divorce, had two children under the age of 2 at the time and was VERY much the focus of the public. We all saw her on every magazine cover. We all also saw the photo of her with one of her kids on her lap while driving. Go on YouTube once and look up ‘Britney Spears paparazzi’. You’ll watch her be chased and followed by hundreds of them, even trying to get into a public restroom to photograph her, videotaping her in tears asking them to leave her alone, and even filming her thru the windows of an ambulance while she was naked being taken away for her final mental health hold.
After the public meltdown, shaving her head, locking herself in her home with her children, speaking in a british accent on regular basis, wearing the imfamous pink wig everywhere, and shopping naked, she was hospitalized twice. After the hospitalization, her father petitioned the courts to be a TEMPORARY conservator to her until she was mentally stable and for only one years time. 2 months after her hospitalization she did a guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother. 6 months after her hospitalization, she drops the Womanizer video and starts to promote her new album Circus with its worldwide tour that grossed $131.8 million. If she’s so unwell, why did she start working right away?
Her father after one year petitioned the courts for the conservatorship to become permanent due to her ALLEGEDLY having EARLY ONSET DEMENTIA in her TWENTIES. It passed and has been that way ever since. For 12 years to be exact.
Now for everyone that doesn’t understand what that means let me break it down for you.
Britney Spears is a now 38 year old woman who is not allowed to do the following without her fathers permission or he can legally lock her up in a mental health facility:
• drive a car
• vote
• get married
• have children
• spend HER OWN MONEY
• see how her money is being spent
• see her children (she has 30% custody of both of her boys due to her dad assaulting one of her sons)
• leave her home
• hire her own lawyer
• have any control over her career
• speak about the conservatorship publicly
• do interviews that aren’t scripted and all final cuts are approved by her father as well
• use a cell phone without being monitored
• use social media unmonitored
• contact ANYONE without being monitored or having them extremely vetted. (Iggy Azalea allegedly had her house searched for drugs top to bottom when they collaborated on a song together)
• go shopping
• go for a walk
• get Starbucks
A conservatorship is meant for people with mental health issues or decaying health. Most likely grandparents or people with actual dementia etc. They are meant for people who literally cannot take care of themselves. If she is so unwell that she isn’t mentally capable of doing anything for herself, why is she still working? Since the conservatorship began 12 years ago she has:
• released 4 albums
• done 3 worldwide tours
• did a FOUR-year Vegas residency
• was a full time judge on X-Factor
• released multiple perfumes and a lingerie line
• made $138 MILLION DOLLARS or so A YEAR
In January of last year, Britney was placed in a mental health facility for 3 months after being seen driving her car to In-N-Out with her boyfriend without permission and for refusing to take the sedating medications her father has doctors prescribing her to keep her under control. She testified to a judge in documents that she was held there against her will by her father. After it was leaked to the press that she was there against her will, the Free Britney movement picked up speed causing a judge to open an investigation into the impact and legality her conservatorship has on her life. Britney’s mother Lynn was also liking and commenting on Free Britney posts saying she agrees that Britney is trapped by her father. Britney’s team had Twitter disable the Free Britney hashtag, and regularly threatens any celebrity that speaks out using the hashtag with a lawsuit if they don’t remove their support for the movement. She was seen shortly after leaving a hotel thru the front door (99% of celebrities park underground to avoid paparazzi unless they WANT to be photographed) stumbling while carrying her shoes, and out of it. Her team used that moment to justify to the public that she needs this conservatorship. She is not allowed to have any say in the hiring or firing of anyone on her team. Every year she pays $1.1 million dollars in fees for the conservatorship to continue, including paying her father a solid $100k+ salary and paying a lawyer she isn’t allowed to choose. She is allowed an allowance of around $1,500 a week for bills, shopping and essentials. Her net worth is $250 million.
So, when everyone sees her on Instagram walking up and down her hallways like it’s a fashion show. That’s all she is allowed to do. She has NEVER had control over her life. I don’t care if you personally like her or her music, NO ONE DESERVES THIS. All this woman wants is to see her children, make the music she wants to make, and go get a frappuccino in her car. She is a light of sunshine in this world, and we must protect her at all costs. So please, do not make fun of her, support the Free Britney movement, and send good vibes her way. She has a court date this month to review the conservatorship and decide if it is abusive or will continue to be in place. There are so many details to this that i left out that would make this post entirely much longer than it is, but a simple search will show you what else is out there. Spread this far and wide. ❤️ Free Britney
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The difference between my summer skin tone and my winter skin tone makes me hesitant to believe any skin bleaching rumors about celebrities tbh
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keep those hands SPARKLING
(and wear a mask!)
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Bisexuals be like…please bore someone else with your ridiculous questions, we’re tired #ProgressIsPride
______
Jay Jurden, your patience tho 🙏🏾
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Attanya: #WeNeedDiverseBooks because I love science fiction and fantasy books, but I’m tired of authors treating dragons and robots and magic as more plausible than black and brown characters
Jennifer: #WeNeedDiverseBooks because… when I was 13 a white girl told me it was selfishthat all of the protagonists in my stories were Latina because she “just can’t relate to nonwhite characters.” She made me feel guilty for writing about people like me.
Aiesha: #WeNeedDiverseBooks because…Black Girls are more than sidekicks or “sassy, ghetto friend”
Facts and Figures About Race/Ethnicity in YA and Children’s Lit:
88% of the books on the 2013 Publisher’s Weekly YA Bestsellers were about white protagonists
93% of the authors on the 2013 Publisher’s Weekly YA Bestsellers were white authors
85% of the books on the 2014 Young Adult Library Services Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list were about white protagonists
90% of the authors on the 2014 Young Adult Library Services Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list were white authors
91% of the authors on the 2013 New York Times’s Bestseller Lists for YA and Children’s Lit were white authors.
According to the 2012 Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 3.3% of books were about African-American protagonists; only 2.1% were about Asian and Pacific Islander protagonists; only 1.5% were about Latinx protagonists; and only 0.6% were about Native American protagonists. That means over 90% of children’s books surveyed were about white protagonists.
#WENEEDDIVERSEBOOKS
Posting this a little late, but followers please take the time out to check out this post explaining the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign and more events to come over the next few days!
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I hate that I’m annoyed
I wish I could get over it
But I can’t seem to
And that makes more annoyed
😒😒😒
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(Head to the link above for bigger versions of these photos!)
^Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie, a post-graduate student in education at Stellenbosch University, wears a dress that resembles the white blanket typically worn at a male circumcision. Her headpiece and beaded stick, both handmade, are traditionally part of a bride’s ensemble. The 24-year-old designs her dresses, often choosing local fabrics. (photo by Lee-Ann Olwage)
When Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie dresses in drag, she doesn’t typically go for on the sequins and feather boas worn by performers on RuPaul’s Drag Race. A post-graduate student of education at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa, Ka-Fassie might put on a dress that resembles the white blanket typically worn by boys at a traditional male circumcision ritual, called ulwaluko, and she might add a multi-colored headpiece and beaded stick, both handmade and used by brides.
It’s a very deliberate choice made by black drag queens from townships who are celebrating their roots and challenging dress codes for men and women through their traditional apparel. “We cannot separate our queerness from our Xhosaness,” says Ka-Fassie, a drag queen and activist.
^Mthulic Vee Vuma, a 21-year-old studying public management at West Coast College, wears traditional Xhosa clothing and jewelry in front of a shack in Khayelitsha. “The meaning of the clothing I am wearing is to love and accept our culture,” Vuma says. Her family initially struggled to accept her as a trans woman, believing it was a curse, but she says they now give her total support. (phoo by Lee-Ann Olwage)
Yet even as they embrace their culture, township drag queens outside of Cape Town, as in other parts of the world, face grave risks. They must often suppress their queer identity in their communities for their safety — traveling into the city for pageants and parties, then de-dragging before they go home.
The limbo they live exists even in the terminology for their identity. There is no word to describe queerness in Xhosa, the indigenous language widely spoken in South Africa. The words that do exist are often insulting to the queer community, describing sexual behavior and denying queer people dignity. “When I came out to my family, I couldn’t find the appropriate word in Xhosa to explain my queerness,” Ka-Fassie says.
^Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie poses at a community space where women cook and sell meat. She started drag as an escape from oppression she felt at Stellenbosch University for being “black, Xhosa, poor, queer and effeminate.” “It is through pageantry and performance that I became more inclined with my queerness and how boundless expression should be,” she says. “Drag became the therapist I never had.” (phoo by Lee-Ann Olwage)
#BlackDragMagic is the name of a photo project in collaboration with Ka-Fassie – a series of portraits showing how drag can be an art form in Africa that differs from mainstream aesthetics in the West.
All of the portraits were taken on a single afternoon in August, with a pickup truck serving as a makeup station and changing room. The subjects — queer, black, gender-nonconforming and trans — were photographed throughout the township of Khayelitsha, which means “new home” in Xhosa. The township is located on the Cape Flats, about 15 miles southeast of Cape Town.
^Shakira Mabika, 24, emigrated to South Africa from Zimbabwe, where the former president “has referred to people like me as ‘pigs’ and un-African.” She asked to be photographed by dilapidated shacks where pigs were kept behind a fence. “I moved to Cape Town in search for a space where I could live my truth,” she says. But she says she has faced transphobia and still hasn’t found a job. (photo by Lee-Ann Olwage)
The girls walked down the streets that day in a group, proudly and unapologetically. “I carry my African-ness and my queerness on my sleeve because it is who I am,” says Mandisi Dolle Phika, one of the photo subjects.
^Mandisi Dolle Phika, 27, asked to be photographed by a church, an important place to her family but a place where she says she has faced anti-queer bias. At Catholic school, she remembers, “I once overheard a conversation where it was said I have a ‘gay-demon.’” Now studying LGBTQI political leadership, she believes in “a colorful God” that “celebrates diversity in all its manifestations.” (photo by Lee-Ann Olwage)
Discrimination is a part of everyday life for queer people in the townships, especially at taxi stands, churches and schools. In the Western Cape alone, a 2016 survey of 112 LGBT participants age 16 to 24 by Love Not Hate, a national campaign addressing anti-gay hate crimes, found that about two-thirds of LGBT people between the ages of 16 to 24 reported experiencing discrimination at school. Reliable statistics are rare, because queer people in townships often choose not to report harassment or violence out of fears for their safety and distrust of local law enforcement.
^ Unathi Ferguson, left, was outed by a teacher in 11th grade but eventually saw the moment as a chance to “embark on a journey to sanity and complete acceptance [about] who I was.” Shakira Mabika, right, emigrated from Zimbabwe to South Africa in 2013. Olwage says the women told her they had forged “a newfound sisterhood.” (photo by Lee-Ann Olwage)
Black queer people here, as in many other parts of the world, also struggle to be understood by their health care system. Some studies have found that LGBT patients have been subjected to discrimination, with health care providers refusing them care or doling out moral judgment. Long lines of people waiting for free treatment at clinics or state hospitals in impoverished areas can lead to a lack of privacy for patients. As a result, many avoid medical care or receive poor care.
But the picture doesn’t have to be bleak. “Living in a township has taught me to be strong and strive. I have dealt with the stigma and hate, and now am stronger,” said Liyana Arianna Madikizela, a 17-year-old who posed for photographs.
^Liyana Arianna Madikizela, 17, is a drag artist from the township of Kayamandi. She poses near a string of drying clothes to challenge traditional gender roles. “I realized I was different when I didn’t want to do the stereotypical manly duties,” she says. “I was always keen to do house duties such as washing dishes, doing the laundry, cleaning the house and cooking.” (photo by Lee-Ann Olwage)
Madikizela embodies the strength and resilience the drag queens have shown in the face of injustice and oppression. “I want to become the role model I never saw in the streets of Kayamandi,” she said. “Someone who is unapologetically gender non-conforming and who navigates their lives against all the hostile odds of living in the township.”
Lee-Ann Olwage is a South Africa-based photographer. Sasha Ingber is a Washington, D.C., freelance writer. Belinda Qaqamba Ka-Fassie, a drag artist and advocate, collaborated with Olwage on this project.
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Some ways non-Mexicans can be respectful this Día de los Muertos, presented by your local trans Mexican:
Don’t base and assume everything about this tradition from popular media like Coco, as great as it is, it was still ultimately produced by a white multi-billionaire company that exploits its workers that tried to take the audience’s attention from actual Mexican cartoonists that wanted to make a movie about our tradition (yuppp, that’s Disney for you)
If you’re not Mexican and you want to do Mexican sugar skull makeup, I really really encourage you to do just a regular skull instead. Although I am okay with people using this as long as they are respectful and understand the roots and culture behind it, I know a lot of Mexicans that are not and I support their stance since I am very wary of non-Mexicans using them.
Don’t make jokes about this day, as someone that actually has deceased family from Mexico and plans to celebrate this, I cannot stress enough how disrespectful this
Educate yourself about our traditions if you want to, but don’t pretend to know more than actual Mexicans please
Don’t mess with our ofrendas please. Again, super disrespectful.
Actually don’t mess with anything related to this day, not even flowers of cempasúchil or sugar skull. Period.
Don’t dismiss our tradition as a dumb superstition or anything like that. For many of us this day is really important, including myself, and that is entirely disrespectful towards us and our cultures (you shouldn’t dismiss any holidays/special days for other cultures either!)
Above all, educate yourself and instead of making this about you, use this day to highlight Mexican voices rather than your own.
Thank you! Gracias! Feliz día de los muertos!!!
Non-Mexicans are encouraged to reblog, without comments
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Black aesthetic: Flowers🌼🌺🌸 (I do not claim ownership of any of the above photos.)
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And yet people suffer bullies, abuse, are poor and never become batshit mass murderers. Yet white guys not only are given a pass, they are lionized for it.
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146 years ago today Susan B. Anthony was arrested for attempting to vote. She died before she was able to cast her ballot legally.
Don’t disrespect her memory on November 8th.
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