The Nuanceletter: May Edition
What you need to know
Britney Spears’ Conservatorship is a Disability Justice Issue
TL;DR:
What’s going on?
On November 12th 2021, Britney Spears’ almost 14-year long conservatorship came to an end. For over a decade, Spears had no control over her medical decisions, finances, her lawyers…she lost almost all autonomy and personal independence. When she was finally able to take the stand on June 23rd 2021, Spears’ spoke about how she was not permitted to remove her IUD, she was surveilled, and confined against her will. Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, was given guardianship of his daughter after she had struggles with her mental health.
For over a decade, Spears had no control over her medical decisions, finances, her lawyers…she lost almost all autonomy and personal independence. When she was finally able to take the stand on June 23rd 2021, Spears’ spoke about how she was not permitted to remove her IUD, she was surveilled, and confined against her will. Spears’ father, Jamie Spears, was given guardianship of his daughter after she had struggles with her mental health.
Why is this a disability issue?
Over 1.3 million Americans are currently under conservatorships, and it's thought that there could be even more. Conservatorships, by their very nature, strip disabled people of autonomy and put them in situations where abuse is rife.
In order for conservatorships to be granted, courts have to deem the person being placed under conservatorship as disabled.
Due to her fame and large fanbase, Spears’ conservatorship ended and she was granted her freedom. For most disabled people, this is not the case - most conservatorships are lifelong, and disabled people are rarely given back their autonomy. into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Something to learn.
Let’s talk about what conservatorships are, how conservatorships stem from systemic ableism and implicit bias; and how the infantilization of disabled people leads to systems and laws like these ones.
Something to do.
The 2020 Election was the first time that disability rights was a major campaign issue for any candidates. While Obama and Hillary Clinton both touched on the importance of disability rights and had committees, it was never seen as a campaign issue that they were willing to engage with. In 2020 Julian Castro, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg all had strategic plans on their campaign websites.
This shows us that when public pressure is put on political leaders, they realize they have to address them. Be sure to support candidates that have disabled people at the forefront of their campaign, and if your ideal candidate doesn't here is a script to write them and tell them why it matters to you.
Something to share.
Obviously this is a sample, but it would give basic posting instructions with hashtags to use, accounts to tag, etc to get the most attention on social media.
Something to say.
Sometimes the hardest part about learning stuff like this when others don’t, is not knowing what to say when people say ableist comments around us. We’ve created some kind but firm rebuttals for you to use.
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If someone says something like “Oh isn’t that so precious, they gave that special needs person a job!”
Your talking points should include:
disability is a harmful term and disabled people have been requesting we stop use that term for a very long time
Disabled people are absolutely capable of participating in society like non disabled people, and the fact that it is shocking or inspiring that they do is due to ableism
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There is no situation that ever excuses conservatorship abuse. Ever.
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I know you meant well by sending me this post, but this type of content is harmful for the disabled community. This content is only going viral because non disabled people view disabled adults as children and therefore believe this to be cute. I’d love to share more resources and information about this - are you interested in learning more?
There you go - you just learned about a social justice + disability rights issue, you learned about how it connects to stigmas and implicit bias that disabled people deal with on a regular basis, and you saw how easily that implicit bias gets turned into systemic ableism, AND you were given the tools you needed to use your voice and make a difference for the disabled community.
This would have taken you hours of research and learning to do on your own and our team was able to make it all digestible and actionable in less than 10 minutes in total. If this is the kind of work you want to support please consider joining us for $5 a month to make sure this kind of information gets into the world.