decipher her every utterance dance move or shared meme have increasingly coalesced into a movement after becoming convinced she was being controlled unfairly key were two women who in 2017 turned their hobby of picking apart spears instagram posts into a podcast britneys gram it would help birth the hashtag freebritney hearings can bring dozens of protesters to the courthouse carrying signs like conservatorship is slavery and this is toxicjames spears has called the group conspiracy theorists and says those who shout freebritney dont understand the totality of the situation fans said after the most recent hearing that they felt vindicated by britney spears confirming much of what they have said why was it imposed in the first placein 2007 and 2008 shortly after she became a mother she began to have very public mental struggles with media outlets obsessed over each moment hordes of paparazzi aggressively followed her every time she left her house and she no longer seemed able to handle it she attacked one cameramans car with an umbrella she shaved her head at a salon she lost custody of her children when she refused to turn over her boys after a visit she was hospitalised and put on a psychiatric hold the conservatorship was put in place within days why has it gone on so long a conservatorship can always be dissolved by the court though its rare that a person successfully asks to be released the burden is on them to prove their competence spears told the judge wednesday that she would like to be released without further evaluation but there is virtually no chance of that happening they can last decades because the circumstances that lead to them like traumatic brain injury alzheimers or dementia are not things people just bounce back from the mandatory secrecy of medical records has kept murky the reasons why britney spears must remain in hers but its clear that it involves psychiatric issues a recent filing said that she wasnt capable of giving consent for medical treatment spears father and his attorneys have emphasized that she is especially susceptible to people who seek to take advantage of her money and fame how does spears feel about all of this before wednesday it was largely a mystery but she revealed more in her 20 minute address to the judge than she has in the 13 previous years she called the conservatorship abusive and stupid she said it does me way more harm than good she said she wanted control of her own money and to do simple everyday things like ride in a car with her boyfriend she said she wanted power over her psychotherapy and that she wants her life back its been 13 years and its enough she said she did acknowledge in a court filing last year that it did have some value when it was first established saying it rescued her from a collapse exploitation by predatory individuals and financial ruin and made her