Those who have seen the 2002 masterpiece, Crossroads, know that the film contains a crucial element missing from most critically acclaimed movies:
Britney Spears.
Britney is reflecting upon the film, and the emotional trials experienced by her character, Lucy.
She is also using that reference to put her real life mother, Lynne Spears, on blast.
“Scene in a movie I did a ways back!!!” Britney Spears captioned on Instagram.
“When I realized my whole journey to find my mom … and she doesn’t want to see me!!!” she explained of her character’s story.
Britney expressed: “I know … PRETTY F–KING SAD !!!”
“I mean …” Britney wrote, expressing how miserable her character’s experience was.
That was not all that she had to say, however.
“Psss I mean it’s actually less worse than what my mom did to me in real life so,” she concluded.
To be clear, the teen coming-of-age road trip film shows Lucy facing rejection from a parent.
Some would naively suggest that no parent could do anything worse.
However, some people know all too well that a parent can do worse than simply reject their child.
Britney is one such person.
In early 2008, she was stripped of her freedoms and many of her fundamental human rights.
That conservatorship continued until late 2021. It would never have happened without her parents.
Right now, Britney is enjoying her newfound freedom.
After spending most of her adult life in a gilded cage, she is making up for lost time.
But that does not mean that she has forgotten what happened, or who put her there.
It’s true that the primary antagonist of Britney’s story has been her father, Jamie Spears.
He was, for years, the face of the conservatorship.
And even when other individuals and institutions had cut all ties with the conservatorship, Jamie remained part of it.
Even beyond the conservatorship that granted him absolute control over Britney’s life, Jamie has been widely reviled.
He was disliked early in Britney’s career for his actions as her parent.
In 2019, he was accused of attacking one of Britney’s sons — resulting in a restraining order barring him from contact with them.
But just because Jamie was the primary villain of the story does not mean that he was alone.
Infamously, Lou Taylor was involved, particularly in the early years surrounding the conservatorship.
So, too, was Britney’s mother, Lynne Spears.
In 2019, Lynne began to become increasingly outspoken about wanting her daughter’s situation to change.
Britney could not control her own medical decisions — and was of course confined to a mental health facility against her will, forced to take a medication that she did not want.
Lynne interacted with #FreeBritney fans, echoing many of their concerns.
That all sounds very good … but we have to remember that no one knows better than Britney the role that her mother played.
And no amount of regret or second thoughts on Lynne’s part can change the past.
Britney is more than entitled to call out her mother and push to hold her, and the others who wronged her, accountable.