The Empowerment of Britney Spears

Why Britney’s court testimony in July was her true moment of empowerment

“I’ve really come to hate the term ‘empowerment,’ said my friend F., who works in the nonprofit sector. “It’s treated like empowerment is a trend, and gets thrown around promising change, without ever empowering anyone at all.”

We were talking about economic empowerment, but the frustration that the term has become as commercialized as “self care” can apply to any sphere where promises of “empowerment” are being made.

So what is empowerment, really? What does it mean, and what does it look like in real life, for real people? The curious case of Britney Spears’ draconian conservatorship can give us a clue.

On Friday, November 12th, the probate conservatorship over Britney Spears’ finances, career and body was fully terminated. After 13 years of all aspects of her life and person being under the total control of her father and his cronies, the 39-year is finally now able to exercise the same rights and freedoms most of us take for granted: she can drive her car, she can marry her boyfriend, she can remove her IUD and have more children, she can fire employees and make her…