Over the past week, media attention worldwide has been focused on singer Britney Spears' attempts to free herself from the conservatorship that limits her financial, professional and personal autonomy.
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Fiona Gregory
Lecturer, Literary Studies, Faculty of Arts
The idea that an internationally successful pop superstar "isn't even allowed to choose the colour of her kitchen cabinets", let alone maintain control over her medical and reproductive decisions, has proven deeply unsettling.
There's been justifiable outrage over the past week at Spears' treatment, and yet the singer has lived with the conservatorship since 2008, and the #FreeBritney campaign has been striving to draw attention to her plight for more than a decade. A recent New York Times documentary, Framing Britney Spears, brought a new audience to the case.
However, the factor that has really turned the tide in Spears' favour is that we've been able to hear her own voice on the matter.
Performers forcibly committed
Over the past century, many successful female performers have been forcibly committed to psychiatric treatment, frequently by members of their family, and compelled to remain in care for years, if not decades.
Some, such as Lily Elsie
