Freebritney

Strategies of Counternarratives and Self-Regulation in Digital Feminist Counterpublics

Bibliographic Data

ID7154268
AuthorsAkhil Vaidya (University of Pennsylvania), Akhil Raghav Vaidya (California University of Pennsylvania), Jessa Lingel (University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume25
Issue8
Pages1771-1787
Publication date2025-11-17
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Media Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1468-0777 • E-ISSN: 1471-5902
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14680777.2024.2394514
OpenAlexW4401763372
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited30

The conservatorship of Britney Spears represented a legal arrangement that placed multiple restrictions on the celebrity’s autonomy. The conservatorship also became the center of an activist movement that demanded a restoration of her rights, commonly known as #FreeBritney. Since 2009, this primarily online group has worked to raise awareness of and bring an end to Spears’ conservatorship, an objective that was ultimately achieved in 2021. Through a thematic analysis of interviews with self-identified #FreeBritney activists, we analyze this movement as a digital feminist counterpublic through two key themes: 1) #FreeBritney’s central mechanism of generating counternarratives about Britney Spears’ conservatorship and 2) its self-regulating structure. Taken together, these themes surface #FreeBritney’s feminist values, specifically regarding its attention to representation, narrative, and non-hierarchical organization practices. We argue that #FreeBritney poses compelling questions about key tensions at the intersection of fandom, digital activism, and feminist media theory. By positioning #FreeBritney as a digital feminist counterpublic that achieved its main goals, we interrogate the multifaceted nature of digital engagements with feminism, building on important work in internet, media, and feminist studies

Political science · Sociology · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Studies and Communication · Social Media and Politics

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