Episode 22: Free Britney! Conservatorship and Disability
Released March 30, 2021
In this episode of Overthink, Ellie and David discuss the new Britney Spears documentary exposing her legal conservatorship. After bonding over their tween obsession with Britney, they dive into the laws around conservatorship and cultural narratives around mental health. The two argue that disability has been largely ignored in the conversation around Britney Spears, even though people with disabilities and the elderly are most affected by conservatorships. They show how disability studies and feminist theories of care illuminate the conversation. Also mentioned: translating toxic to Spanish, early 2000's choreographed dances, Grace and Frankie, and more.
Interested in the works discussed? You can find them here:
Aristotle, Politics
Erica F. Wood, “State Level Adult Guardianship Data: An Exploratory Survey”
Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception
Grace and Frankie (TV series)
Jan Baars, Aging and the Art of Living
Joe Coscarelli, “What is a Conservatorship?”
John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
Jonathan Blakeson, I Care a Lot (Film)
Sara Luterman, “The Darker Story Just Outside the Lens of “Framing Britney Spears””
Seneca, “On Old Age”
Simone de Beauvoir, The Coming of Age
The New York Times, Framing Britney Spears (Documentary)
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
