#FreeBritney!

 JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: We don’t usually do celebrity gossip here on JRW, but I’ve been following the #FreeBritney movement since it burst the banks and spilled over into public protests and a new hearing for Ms. Spears. I’m curious as to everyone’s take on it. It seems unbelievable to me that a woman can have a mental health issue (brought on by enormous pressure, stress, and a crappy personal life) and 14 years later STILL have her money, body and actions controlled by men appointed by a judge (another man, I might add.) It sounds like something out of the Victorian age, when men could put their wives/mothers/daughters away in asylums just by writing the order. 

 

 

 

Many people have pointed out that many male celebrities have displayed behavior far more alarming than Britney Spears’ flailing and head shaving back in 2008: Charlie Sheen, Michael Jackson and Kanye West come to mind. Nonetheless, both in Hollywood and on Main Street, women bear the brunt of conservatorships, in part because they’re most frequently used for the elderly. 

From 2008 until 2019, Britney Spears' co-conservators were her father and the perhaps appropriately-named Andrew Wallet. Ms. Spears was given no say in who ran her massive business and financial dealings, or in decisions made about her own body - she has said in court she was forced to diet, perform, and have an IUD implanted, all against her will. 

 

In 2019, Britney announced she was taking a hiatus from performing. Mr Wallet stepped down from his $426,000 a year job (he got a $100,000 bonus upon “retirement.”) At the same time, her father handed the role of co-conservator to Jodi Montgomery, a professional fiduciary conservator who seems to have her client’s support in the role (she was previously Britney’s “care manager,” an undefined term that may have included informal counseling, as Montgomery has a degree in social welfare.) Needless to say, Spear’s father has retained control of her multi-million dollar estate.

This past Wednesday. Britney was finally granted the motion to be represented by an attorney she selected, after the longtime court-appointed lawyer withdrew. Bessemer Trust, the recently-appointed co-financial conservator, has also withdrawn, publicly stating the company will not proceed in its role since Spears has made it obvious she doesn't want to be in a conservatorship. The ACLU has filed a request to weigh in on her case in an amicus brief. This may be the beginning of the end of Britney Spears’ long, legal, incarceration.

Thoughts, Reds?

RHYS BOWEN: she wouldn’t be the first celeb to have been taken advantage of by controlling and greedy relatives. My feeling is that if she is not harming herself or her children ( does she have custody of children?) then it is her right to do what she wants with her assets. It does remind me of my Molly Murphy books when a husband and doctor could sign a woman into an asylum for life!

 

I’m not a fan of any decision for a woman being made by men!

JULIA: Rhys, apparently her ex got full custody of her kids during her 2008 breakdown, and it was later readjusted to 50/50. Despite making a career of nibbling the edges of B-list reality TV, Kevin Federline has by all accounts been an excellent father to the boys.

 

JENN McKINLAY: I watched the documentary Framing Britney Spears in horrified fascination. That a person can be that talented, work that hard, and have someone else decide they’re unfit and take all of her autonomy away. Bloody terrifying! And it’s a system that is so easily manipulated and corrupt. I’m with Rhys! I’m not a fan of any decision being made for a woman by a bunch of men, especially men who are making a stinking fortune keeping her under their collective thumb. #FreeBritney

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m in with #FreeBritney! Should we get together and storm the castle?

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I haven’t watched the documentary yet, but I am beyond horrified at the idea of these men controlling her life--and raking in her money!!! Unbelievable!

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: (We don't do celebrity gossip? Aw.) And yes, this is tragic, and the CLOTHES she wears, I've got to hope those aren't her idea either. (I know, I'm a fogey.) But have you read the amazing and powerful book THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE by Kate Moore? It's incredible (non-fiction), about how the laws have been used for centuries to shut women up and control their money. And when they complain or fight back, that just made them deemed crazier. I haven't seen the doc--should I watch it?

HALLIE EPHRON: I haven’t seen the documentary either, only read about it. Having grown up in a truly dysfunctional household, I keep thinking about her children and what an ordeal all the publicity and controversy must be for them. And while I’m outraged on Britney’s behalf, I wonder if the documentary-makers are ‘using’ her in their own way. Shades of Princess Diana. Marilyn. Judy Garland. 

 

JULIA: I agree with Hallie - while the documentary has been hugely important in bringing awareness to her cause, there's also an aspect of "yet another group of people making money off of Britney Spears." I wonder if it's inevitable when an entire business centers around a single person, or if it's more likely to happen when that person is a woman instead of a man. (Perhaps contrast the new documentary by and about Val Kilmer, which gives him a chance to tell his story his way.)

 

What do you think, dear readers? 

 

Uppity women

HALLIE EPHRON: Some NYU researchers have concluded that by the age of 6, girls are less likely to view girls than boys as brilliant. On top of this comes the news that American parents Googled “Is my son a genius?” more than twice as often as they Googled “Is my daughter a genius?” They also Googled “Is my daughter overweight?” about 70 percent more often than “Is my son overweight?” (Which got me wondering if it's parents who are more likely to be overweight and less likely to be geniuses.)

I have never had a problem calling myself a feminist. I’m the third of four sisters, daughter of one of Hollywood’s first female screenwriters, a mouthy broad, and I have never doubted women can be brilliant. My daughters, just for example, are brilliant. And it took me a very long time to find a man I thought was smarter than me (and interested enough) to marry. A physicist, he still can’t find the butter in a half-empty refrigerator or fry an egg while sorting laundry.

Now I have two grandchildren, a 11-month old boy and a 3 1/2 year old girl, and you can believe me when I tell you they are both brilliant. However, I find myself questioning my feminist credentials as I bestow upon my grandson a virtual fleet of trucks and cars, while to my granddaughter I search out the fanciest mermaid princess costume and ballerina dolls. It’s what they want, I say.

Or is it what I want to give them?

So where are you in the gender wars? And does hearing that it requires “brilliance” to do something put you off from trying?

LUCY BURDETTE: This is tricky Hallie, because I believe so much sexism and racism is embedded deep below our consciousness, both individually and as a country. I learned about sexism in the women's movement in the late 70s when I went to graduate school in Tennessee. I bought my copy of OUR BODIES, OURSELVES, my own plastic speculum (lol), and joined a consciousness raising group. And I have no doubt that women are as smart as men. But I have many old roots telling me (for one example) that the home is the purview of the woman.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I am so baffled by this. And have no idea. I have two grandsons, 7 and 14. They want trucks, Legos, fighting stuff, wars, superheroes, Pokemon, videogames, competition, silly jokes.

The little girls next door, 7 and 14, are totally different. The are semi-tomboys--hmmm, probably can't say that now?--soccer and horseback riding and running around and skateboards. But they never saw sparkly stuff they didn't like. And would never turn down a tiara.

BUT--if you asked me who was "smarter"? Ah. They are all equally brilliant.

And. As I was deplaning yesterday, the man across the aisle gestured me to go first. He said "Ladies should always go first." And I said "Yes. Very true! Especially in dangerous situations."

I was very proud of myself.


HALLIE: Ha ha ha! Mango, anyone? This reminds me of the hilarious song from FREE TO BE YOU AND ME, Marlo Thomas singing "Ladies First."



INGRID THOFT: I'm the youngest of four daughters raised by parents who always taught us that we were strong, smart, and capable.  Given that as a society we choose to paint newborns' rooms based on their gender (let's remember that newborns don't even see that well,) I would say that humans are still socialized along very strict gender lines. 

It drives me crazy when people talk about a kid being "such a boy" because he's energetic or likes to play with trucks.  I'm an aunt to 14, (eight girls and six boys,) and I can tell you that we have energetic girls and low-key boys, girls who like building things and boys who like stuffed animals.  Their interests and strength run the gamut, but they're all brilliant, of course. ;) 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: My parents never gave me the least idea that there was anything I couldn't do because I was a girl, or that I wasn't as smart as boys. And I was a tomboy (what do we say now, for girls who don't play with dolls and girly things?) as was my daughter.

It's too early to say about my granddaughter, but I wonder how much girls' preference for girly things and boys' for boy stuff is due to the expectations of parents? I do strongly feel, however, that there is still a strong cultural gender bias, and that it is on the uptick with the current social climate. 

JENN MCKINLAY: Gender wars. It's difficult for me to accept that we still have to fight, that we haven't evolved as a society enough to see individuals beyond their gender.

I am a feminist but mostly I'm a humanist -- I guess that would be the word. I believe in the power of the individual to defy the odds, to make their own way, to be better than the people who came before, no matter their gender, race, religion, or socio-economic status.

My brother and I are only eleven months apart with him being older. He was my first best friend and the person I admired above all others (still do). As the youngest of six, we were always together. Always. Even our name became one word: JedandJenny! We were allowed to run wild and we did. Mischief and shenanigans abounded and it would never have occurred to either of us that there was anything from skateboarding to sewing that my brother could do that I couldn't or vice versa because of our gender.

I am ever grateful for my childhood and have strived to teach my boys to view the world the same way.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My mother was a feminist in the sixties and seventies (I mean, of course, she still is, but that's when she got her consciousness raised.) She raised my sister and me to expect to work, to value ourselves outside any relationship with a man, and to require respect. She was also adamant about a woman's right to choose - parenthood or not, stay-at-home or career, dresses or jeans and a T shirt. That upbringing has stood us in good stead as Barb and I have been single career girls, working mothers, stay at home mothers and work-at-home mothers.

I worry much less about the girl-toy versus boy-toy divide since I actually had kids. The Smithie and The Sailor are only 15 months apart, so they shared most of their toys and activities. They both took dance, they both took karate. The both swam, the both did gymnastics. Their equality carried on into high school, where they both ran X-C and track, and were both involved in theater.


True, she would spend hours dressing up her Barbies and playacting with them; while he never saw a toy truck he didn't like. And as young adults? They're both "woke," as the kids say today, both very aware of feminism, privilege, intersectionality, etc. The Smithie is a take-charge, aggressive person and The Sailor has a soft heart. And she still likes to dress very "girly" and his first car was a pick-up truck!

RHYS BOWEN: I was quite an adventurous girl, always getting knees skinned when I jumped out one of our apple trees. I went to a highly academic girls school and my classmates all expected to go into the professions. When I worked at the BBC I was treated with the same respect as my male colleages. 

I had four children, three girls and then a boy. I was interested to note in what ways he would be different. My girls all liked to play tea parties, to dress up in my clothes and shoes. When Dominic was two months old he was lying in his crib with a cradle gym above him. In his hand was a rattle. For about twenty minutes he looked at the rattle, then at the cradle gym. Rattle. Gym. Then suddenly he gave the gym an almighty swipe with the rattle.

That's a boy, I thought. Although he had all the girly stuff at his disposal he played with cars, trucks, balls, taking things to pieces. And my girls were all in the gifted program, as was my son.

But I think we do unconsciously stereotype. My daughter has twins. When they were babies people would say "Hi, handsome!" in a big voice to the boy, and "Hello, princess" in a gentle voice to the girl. She has turned out to be as physical and tough as her brother: a black belt in karate and absolutely terrifying on a skate board!

And I have to add there are certain males in the USA who still want to think of us as the little women, knowing their place in the kitchen!!!!

HALLIE: Guilty! If my husband tried to take over MY place in the kitchen, I'd drop kick him into the den. This is not because I think women's place is in the kitchen, it's because I'm a much better cook and he'll make stuff I don't feel like eating. Control freak? Yes. Sexist? In effect but not by intent.

It's... complicated. Or is it?

Tammy Kaehler: What Dolly Parton Taught Me About Being A Feminist

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Happy Friday, everyone! Today I'm thrilled to introduce novelist Tammy Kaehler, the author of the Kate Reilly Racing Mystery Series. I was lucky enough to meet Tammy in person at the Literary Guild of Orange County at Long Beach's Festival of Women authors last year, and we've been buddies every since.

I love Tammy's series, because her protagonist, Kate Reilly, is such a strong and brave heroine — and also because I know absolutely nothing about the world of car racing. It's such a fun glimpse into this specialized world.

Welcome, Tammy!

Tammy Kaehler: Let me start by saying that Dolly Parton was a fixture in my childhood, in that sort of “odd celebrity who’s always there” kind of way—not to mention as the woman with the biggest chest and the most fringe and rhinestones. I was a child of the 80s, so I watched the movie 9 to 5 over and over, knew all the words to Islands in the Stream, and knew her song “I Will Always Love You” long before Whitney Houston recorded it. I just didn’t know how much common sense lurked behind all of that big hair.

From a combination of factors, not the least of which was being raised (mostly) by a single mother who attended UC Berkeley in the 1960s, I grew up believing women should reach for anything they want and not be satisfied with the constraints of traditional female occupations. I attended a liberal arts college, and that’s when I became more aware of language use and gender roles, and all the stuff that “political correctness” (which I think is unfairly maligned) teaches you to recognize.

That’s when I excised the word “girl” from my vocabulary for any female over the age of 16. I learned to say “first-year student” instead of “freshman.” And I developed my habit of always carrying a whistle and never walking alone at night. (Yes, the awakening was the good with the bad.) By then, to me, feminism meant no stereotyping, eschewing historical societal expectations, and doing everything men could. I’d never been a particularly girly girl, and at that point in my life, you wouldn’t have caught me dead in ruffles, bows, pink, or hearts. Somehow, those were marks against feminism or symbols of a need to be protected that would then diminish my strength or power.

Ironically, it was when I went to work for a women’s college that I became more flexible in my idea of what women could be. As I think back, that’s when I started to realize—as I looked around every day at hundreds of women leading or following, excelling or goofing off, and generally filling every role, traditional or otherwise—that just being a woman and doing what I wanted to do was a form of feminism. It’s a sentiment that took a while to gel, and one that I finally articulated in Red Flags when Kate, the racecar driver, is questioned by the media about not doing enough as a role model: “I make a case for women every day I’m behind the wheel,” she says.

A large part of my interest in the racing world stems from meeting women in it who aren’t the beauty-queen trophy girls. The women who don’t trade on their looks for exposure or success. And then someone like Danica Patrick comes along. Whether or not you think she belongs in NASCAR’s highest tier or in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issue, she’s in both (or has been). She’s talked about the technical craft of racing, she’s led and won races, and she’s used her sexuality to promote her brand. For a long time I was really conflicted about my opinions of her actions.

And then I started writing Red Flags, creating a character who’s your typical Real Housewife of Beverly Hills, but with a twist: there’s a smart, strategic brain behind the glitz, glam, and pocket dogs. I came to understand that the best thing we as women can do today is be who the hell we want and own it. And who’s the patron saint of that? Dolly Parton.

Because, let me tell you, the woman is no dummy. The first quote of hers I heard and loved was about being called a “dumb blonde.” Her answer: “I’m not offended at all by dumb blonde jokes because I know I’m not dumb, and I also know I’m not blonde.” Another that stuck with me—talk about owning it—is one I let my character quote: “It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.” You be you, Dolly.

So while there’s still a part of me that’s still conflicted, I’ve embraced hearts, polka dots, full skirts, and pink. Even pink on a racecar, if it’s driven by a woman and is supporting the fight against breast cancer. (That, by the way, is true of Kate Reilly in my books and Pippa Mann in real life.)

And I’m going to embrace being who I am, on purpose. With kudos to Dolly.

What I want to know is am I the only one with this kind of confusion about what feminism means? Worried, like me, that you’re not doing it right? And be honest, who else out there is a secret Dolly fan?

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Love, love, love Dolly. But it wasn't until the film The Bodyguard and the Whiney Houson version of "I Will Always Love You" that I realized she was also a songwriter and producer. Talk about your triple threat!

Confusion about being a feminist? Reds and lovely readers, what do you think? Do you ever feel like you're "not doing it right"? What about this "lean in" stuff? (And why so much judgment, both from others and our own inner critics?) Please tell us (and meet Tammy) in the comments. 

(And now I can't get "I Will Always Love You" out of my head. THANKS, TAMMY!)

Tammy Kaehler discovered the racing world via a stint in corporate marketing, and she was hooked by the contrast between its top-dollar, high-drama competition and friendly, family atmosphere. Mystery fans and racing insiders alike have praised her award-winning Kate Reilly Racing Mystery Series (Dead Man’s Switch, Braking Points, and Avoidable Contact), and Tammy takes readers back behind the wheel in her fourth entry, Red Flags. She works as a freelance writer in the Los Angeles area, where she lives with her husband and many cars. www.tammykaehler.com

Hilary Davidson's Love-Hate Relationship with HBO's True Detective

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Remember when all the Jungle Reds were sick and I was the one with pneumonia? 

Well, one of the good things to come out of the experience is that I  was able to binge-watch TV in a way I never have time to do. And one of the shows I devoured was HBO's True Detective. It premiered last January and you've probably heard of it — an Emmy-winning crime drama starring Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. It uses multiple timelines and unreliable narrators (one of my favorite plot devices) as two detectives in Louisiana hunt down a serial killer.

It was fantastic. 

And it was awful. 

I was talking with Hilary about it — and she had the exact same reaction. (So did plenty of television critics as well, including Emily Nussbaum in The New Yorker.) 

Online debate proved problematic as women (me, for one) voiced concerns about the misogyny of the series — that all the female characters were there for sex and/or killing. (And that's really it. Few of them even have names.)

Several men took it on themselves to explain to me "how noir works" — basically women are victims. (I called it "mansplaining" — especially because there was a certain patronizing tone involved). None of them seemed to even notice how the female characters were treated — let alone consider it problematic.

But I wasn't convinced. And so I went to Anthony Award-winning novelist Hilary Davidson, who certainly knows her way around noir, to get her take on True Detective.

And here it is.

HILARY DAVIDSON: I’m shameless about my addiction to certain TV shows. I love The Americans, Sleepy Hollow, Justified, Orphan Black, Scandal, and Game of Thrones, and I’ve recommended each one to people in person and online, at parties and on planes. I’m also quick to make up my mind about shows I don’t want to watch, jettisoning them after one or two episodes.

But HBO’s True Detective, which aired earlier this year, fell somewhere in-between. Watching the first of the series’ eight episodes, I was lured in by the fine performances of the two leads, Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey as police detectives Marty Hart and Rust Cohle. The landscape of backwoods Louisiana was deftly captured in both its lushness and its loneliness. The music that played in the background was a pitch-perfect accompaniment to what was on the screen. I also liked the structure of the show, which cut between a present-day investigation of ritualistic serial murders and a past investigation that estranged the detectives.

Other parts of the episode left me uneasy, starting with the first murder victim the audience encounters. Her name is Dora Lange, and she’s notable for the antlers attached to her head and the designs imprinted on her body. As a crime writer, I’ve got no problem with gory, even graphic, depictions of violence; what I object to are dehumanized victims whose suffering is only so much window dressing. Dora Lange’s body was presented as a fetish object, and what mattered was the ritualistic nature of her death, not the woman herself.

Still, I kept watching. It was impossible to overlook the show’s cartoonish, cardboard depictions of women — including Hart’s wife and mistress — but I had an explanation for that: True Detective was fully aware of how it objectified and exploited women, and I thought it was offering commentary on how stoic men — like detectives Hart and Cohle — could grow obsessive in their hunt for a killer so they could save women, while abusing the women right in front of them.

If you’ve already watched all eight episodes of True Detective’s first season, you know how stupid I feel about this theory in retrospect. (Spoiler alert: I WAS WRONG. SO WRONG.) But, just as many viewers went down the rabbit hole with their Caracosa and Yellow King theories, I clung to mine. Sometimes, I thought the show was winking at me, such as when Hart gives a teenage prostitute some money and Cohle accuses him of making a down payment, and Hart has sex with the girl an episode later. To me, this suggested an arch self-awareness on the part of the show’s writers, a hint that they had some dark tricks up their sleeves. (Spoiler alert: They did not.)

There was no incisive commentary. I know you can’t sue a TV show for false advertising, but there should be an exception for True Detective. “Spread the darkness” urged the show’s clever social-media campaign. “Something deep and dark,” boasted the show’s Facebook page. Here’s the thing: ultimately, the show had the depth of a cellophane wrapper, and what darkness it contained was dispersed in its weirdly feel-good finale. It was, for all intents and purposes, a Hardy Boys adventure that happened to involve a serial killer and philosophical ramblings that wouldn’t be out of place in a college dorm between rounds of beer pong.

What the show did — and did very well — was represent two men and the demons that drove them. Their relationship was the beating heart of the show, and it was fun to watch. Hart’s expressions while Cohle spouted nihilist philosophy were priceless, as were their verbal jousts. I could (and did) watch Cohle make beer-can dolls for hours. As a buddy show about two misanthropes who can’t have relationships with other humans, it gets an A+. 

But it was a letdown on so many other fronts. Strip away the stylish storytelling, and it was hollow at the core. The show hinted at so many intriguing elements (including the possible abuse of one of Hart’s daughters), then pulled away and never mentioned them again. It was frustrating to see so many intriguing layers of the story cast aside without explanation. The truth was that they didn’t matter. It was always about Hart and Cohle. It was only about Hart and Cohle.

That said, I’m curious about Season 2. The show’s creator, Nic Pizzolatto, has stated that it will have a new cast. There are rumors that one of the leads will be played by a female actor. If that happens to be true, I’ll be tuning in again. A female lead won’t erase the missteps of Season 1, but since the show’s strength was strong writing for its leads, I’d be curious to see when it’s going. 

Otherwise, count me out. 

Time may be a “flat circle,” as Cohle claimed while cutting up beer cans, and we may be doomed to do things over and over again, but I reserve the right to make better TV choices in the future.


Hilary Davidson won the 2011 Anthony
Award for Best First Novel for THE DAMAGE DONE. The book also earned a Crimespree Award and was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis and Macavity awards. The sequel, THE NEXT ONE TO FALL, a mystery set in Peru, was published by Forge in February 2012; the third novel in the series, EVIL IN ALL ITS DISGUISES, was published in March 2013. Hilary's first standalone novel, BLOOD ALWAYS TELLS, will be published by Forge in April 2014.Hilary's widely acclaimed short stories have been featured in publications from Ellery Queen to Thuglit, and in many anthologies. She has won a Spinetingler Award for best short story and an Ellery Queen Reader's Choice Award, and she's been a finalist for a Derringer Award. A Toronto-born travel journalist and the author of 18 nonfiction books, she has lived in New York City since October 2001. Visit her online at www.hilarydavidson.com. She also writes the Gluten-Free Guidebook blog: www.glutenfreeguidebook.com.