Comrade Britney Spears

March 26, 2020 8:34 PM

Britney Spears has an uncanny ability to get swaths of the world talking when she says anything vaguely political. Comrade Britney is trending after she reposted a statement by artist Mimi Zhu calling us to use "the waves of the web" to connect, love, kiss, hold, feed each other, redistribute the wealth, strike, and be together. Jacobin felt obligated to weigh in. Her songs are being re-evaluated for socialist messages, though there's plenty of argument about which ones are most or least Marxist. Mimi Zhu talk about the experience and her socialist convictions.
posted by clawsoon (30 comments total)

I feel William Maranci's version of Britney's version of the U.S.S.R. National Anthem has to be her most appropriate song, here.
posted by CrystalDave at 9:16 PM on March 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

I you had lived her life, what sort of philosophy would you have learned?
posted by hippybear at 10:08 PM on March 26, 2020 [17 favorites]

o7
posted by Pyrogenesis at 10:48 PM on March 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Fawning over millionaire celebrities who give the teeny tiniest recognition to Rose Twitter is a very Rose Twitter thing to do.
posted by Skwirl at 11:09 PM on March 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

Spears also said today that she beat the world record for the 100m dash by four seconds (There is no other human achievement that would come close. Someone jumping from sea level to the surface of the freaking moon is probably easier), so perhaps people shouldn’t look to hard into other things she says.
posted by sideshow at 12:06 AM on March 27, 2020

bill gates too [fake]

If you had lived her life, what sort of philosophy would you have learned?

Intra-elite competition is intense: "Cultural elites. Hollywood, universities, media. They push wokeness & redistribution."

SMG #leavebritneyalone
posted by kliuless at 12:57 AM on March 27, 2020

Fawning over millionaire celebrities who give the teeny tiniest recognition to Rose Twitter is a very Rose Twitter thing to do.

Being that the people around her used (and are still using) various legal mechanisms to redistribute her wealth without her consent, maybe she actually has an opinion on this.

Or, to be blunt: leave Britney alone!
posted by Literaryhero at 1:14 AM on March 27, 2020 [49 favorites]

quarantine is getting weird
posted by Bwentman at 1:33 AM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

so perhaps people shouldn’t look to hard into other things she says.

woman: *makes an incredibly obvious joke*
all of humanity: look at this moron and the stupid thing she seriously believes, let's burn her
posted by poffin boffin at 1:34 AM on March 27, 2020 [44 favorites]

like maybe look into expressing that reflexive misogyny gland before it gets inflamed
posted by poffin boffin at 1:35 AM on March 27, 2020 [34 favorites]

i love her!
posted by gaybobbie at 5:25 AM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I love Britney too, she is a super impressive person and artist.

Blackout is an easy top 10 album pick for the 2000s. I’ll have to give it a re-listen with the socialist framing in mind.
posted by soy bean at 5:46 AM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I will continue to look as hard into anything she says as I want, she rules, Team Britney. Also? as an emergency room RN at this moment I'm way more here for this Britney content and way less here for any and all humorless misogynist tomfoolery.
posted by emirenic at 6:13 AM on March 27, 2020 [21 favorites]

Britney hasn't had legal control over her fortune for 12 years due to abuse of the legal system for ableist and probably also sexist reasons, so 1) I don't think we can actually call her a millionaire, and 2) that casts some light on her interest in e.g. worker's rights.
posted by brook horse at 6:31 AM on March 27, 2020 [19 favorites]

Go them! I don't like their music. I don't follow celebs. I don't count their money. Still: go them.

In an infinite multiverse, there's a place that Chomsky sold as many records...
posted by pompomtom at 6:48 AM on March 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

#FreeComradeBritney
posted by a power-tie-wearing she-capitalist at 8:13 AM on March 27, 2020

Since she was 8 years old, Britney's been being exploited by capitalists like she was made out crude oil. What she has to show for it is some very public nervous breakdowns and a seemingly-interminable struggle just to have access to her kids, her fortune, and her freedom.

I don't know if Britney Spears is actually far-left politically or if it was just a joke, or a stunt, or or just a person reposting something that they liked right in that moment without taking the time to deeply consider the full political implications. But I do know, if there's any celebrity out there who ought to be far left, it's her.
posted by mstokes650 at 8:51 AM on March 27, 2020 [19 favorites]

Britney Spears as different editions of The Communist Manifesto: A Thread.

posted by sjswitzer at 9:43 AM on March 27, 2020

Spears may have skimmed past the part about redistributing the wealth and going on strike, too, and posted it for its otherwise sweet sentiments. We'll probably never know because she's learned that trying to explain herself just leads to being torn apart even more cruelly in the media.
posted by clawsoon at 10:24 AM on March 27, 2020 [6 favorites]

she's learned that trying to explain herself just leads to being torn apart even more cruelly in the media.

And on Metafilter.

This thread is a perfect example of how internet Marxists can be as blindly misogynistic as any conservative.
posted by happyroach at 9:12 PM on March 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

>” Fawning over millionaire celebrities who give the teeny tiniest recognition to Rose Twitter is a very Rose Twitter thing to do.”

My comment wasn’t about Spears in as much as it was about celebrity worship. Britney The Brand is the most capitalist exploitive and anti-feminist piece of pop culture of my youth. I don’t see how being twee about that is doing Britney Spears the human any favors, but I wish her well and find some of her songs really fun.
posted by Skwirl at 8:47 AM on March 29, 2020

Spears may have skimmed past the part about redistributing the wealth and going on strike, too, and posted it for its otherwise sweet sentiments.

Quite possible, but that she posted it with rose emojis makes that less likely. There's nothing in the text itself that suggests roses without making the political link.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 12:06 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

vibratory manner of working: There's nothing in the text itself that suggests roses without making the political link.

As the Slate article puts it:

Or we might note that Spears also posted an apparently self-shot Instagram video this week with a more innocuous message—“During this time of quarantine, I hope you are all being strong and lifting each other up. My prayer is with you”—and included four rose emojis in the caption. It’s almost like she thinks it’s a flower.

Sometimes a rose is just a rose?
posted by clawsoon at 12:20 PM on March 29, 2020

Britney The Brand is the most capitalist exploitive and anti-feminist piece of pop culture of my youth
It's almost like any cruelty can be excused so long as one is clear they're talking about the Legal Person and not the Natural Person.
Woe be it to any listener who might be so confused.
posted by CrystalDave at 12:36 PM on March 29, 2020

Never met Britney but I did meet one of her boyfriends outside a bar once when he asked my buddy for a lighter. He wasn't one of the famous ones, just some schmo who was super paranoid of the paparazzi, wouldn't say why or who but said his gf was famous and he had to be careful for the sake of her and her 2 kids, and I looked it up later and there were hundreds of paparazzi photos of them together.

If some dude who had only been involved with her for a few months was acting like that, I can only imagine what she's been through. Dude was on edge.

Idk to what degree Britney herself supports the cause but there's room in the tent and she's welcome.
posted by JauntyFedora at 2:18 PM on March 29, 2020

Sometimes a rose is just a rose?

That's true, but I don't understand the emphasis on "four" in the quoted passage. Is that supposed to be unlikely if it's used in a political fashion? That doesn't really jibe with my understanding of it's usage.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:28 PM on March 29, 2020

But I do agree that this is largely reading tea leaves, so to speak.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 3:28 PM on March 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

@crystaldave How is it cruel to point out that, say, “Hit me baby one more time,” is a deeply misogynist piece of work but to wish the person well? Reading ill intent where there is none is also a very big part of Rose Twitter culture.
posted by Skwirl at 10:24 PM on March 29, 2020

I have nothing to do with "Rose Twitter" nor its culture, so perhaps reflect on why you're so set on painting a sharpshooters target there.

And, I mean, I'm sure you aren't intending cruelty as you see it but you're comfortable with very charged phrasing in service of what you see as an acceptable target, in a space I don't think it's warranted.

If you want to highlight your problems with her discography, you can do so in a topical thread without including as much collateral targeting as you've been doing. Or, to wit, everyone needs a hug.
posted by CrystalDave at 9:48 AM on March 30, 2020

Free Comrade Britney

Others on social media were more critical, pointing out that Britney Spears has a net worth of $59 million and continues to make millions through her music, performances, and celebrity endorsement deals. If Spears wants to redistribute the wealth, why doesn’t she start with herself?

But Spears couldn’t give away her money even if she wanted to. The 38-year-old singer has very little control over her own life in almost every respect. She cannot legally make her own financial decisions. She cannot choose where to live, who to marry, or who she can spend time with. Depending on a judge’s decision, she may not be able to vote. And Spears can still refuse medications or hospitalizations—but, the control over every other aspect of her life makes that small freedom a technicality. Every purchase she makes must be tracked and logged in annual court reports. She hasn’t been allowed to make the most basic decisions about her own life since 2008, when a court put her under conservatorship after her very public struggle with mental illness.

posted by the man of twists and turns at 11:21 AM on March 31, 2020 [1 favorite]