free amanda bynes
this woman is the reason we have magic mike / blogmas day 9 / we too often mourn the celebrities we lose so young or at all yet we do not have that same tender love and grace for the ones we do have
when britney spears spoke in court this past july, many people were unable to continue excusing away her past behaviour as a reason for extending her conservatorship. when she was finally freed from hers (something jamie spears’s lawyer went on the record as saying that she had never seen happen before months before she had to1), conservatorships were the new it girl to talk about. over a million people in the united states are currently in a conservatorship and britney is far from the only celebrity that has been in one.
“here’s how the conservatorship of amanda bynes is different from britney’s” and various other news outlets rushed to report on….close to a decade after she had been in one. except that conservatorships, like happy families2, are all alike. conservatorships legally declare a person all but dead. and if you are in your 20s, you still have a very long life to live. in late 2016, amanda bynes’s mother/conservator lynn petitioned the court to end amanda’s conservatorship over her estate but keep the one for her personhood in tact. but even that is meaningless if amanda is unable to access the trust an unknown amount of her money is in. also last year she said she had only been sober for one year so what exactly did the conservatorship over her person do for the seven years before she went to rehab? (other than deny their daughter suffers from any mental illnesses because there is no such thing as mental illness….).
and this is where i go from bruce banner to the hulk and it gets harder to properly articulate!! conservatorships need to be illegal! you know who loves conservatorships? the lawyers and people that make millions from them. the national council on disability reports AT LEAST 50 billion dollars tied up in conservatorship cases in the united states. i am sure there are conservatorships that have actually helped people; a broken clock is right twice a day!!! but since 2009, the only thing i have ever learned and read about the individuals in conservatorships has been horrifying abuses committed. would you still eat from a loaf of bread that you knew was 90% rotten?????
much like the critically acclaimed new podcast like a virgin, in more recent years, we as a society have been re-examining “yesterday’s pop culture with today’s takes”. britney, lindsay lohan, and amanda were all subjected to the court of public opinion about their bAd bEhAviOuR and choices to not forever remain those darling little sixteen year old angels! to be on the side of something so sinister, michael lohan feels obligated to speak out against it (and lou taylor)…for him to be on the right side of herstory, a pause must be taken.
because bad choices or bad tweets or even tweets ahead of their time3 should not result in losing your basic human rights. not to strawman but kyle rittenhouse killed two people and he is a conservative media darling but light ONE little driveway on fire and you no longer get to ever make a choice for yourself for the rest of your life??? i am not belittling/condoning what amanda bynes has ever done or said but i think there needs to be something else in place before conservatorships are used!!!
conservatorships should be done away with entirely because their intended “last resort” is too often used as plan A. what if every petty crime resulted in the death penalty? jaywalking or breaking a promise putting you on death row is the equivalent of saying “i want drake to murder my vagina” being upheld as a reason for the courts to declare you legally dead.
after years of being abused by the jeffrey epsteins of nickelodeon/music industry/film industry, men sometimes double their age, and treated as an employee by their own parents from early childhood…..yeah i would throw on a party city wig on and/or call paris hilton a cunt. i would and have do that without all of that, as well! in hbo’s succession, we watch the roy family do unspeakable things to each other in order to secure the family business. but what if you are the family business? how many more child stars need to speak out about what they have endured or die before something changes? alyson stoner made a video last year called the toddler to trainwreck industry complex. in it, she detailed exactly how certain changes could be EASILY made that would save so many children from a lifetime of pain??? but it made about .05% traction as kimberly kardashian catching a ride on the trash barge to go see a movie in staten island.
i never wish to tell someone else’s story for them but amanda bynes has had a Hard life. her coworkers were romantically linked to her when she was still underage and they were Not, yet it was reported on like it was normal. the stuff that has not been widely reported it on is even more sinister and heartbreaking. celebrity blinds are hit or miss, but her personal relationship to the owner of crazy days and nights made this particular one as devastating as her undeniable online penmanship/comedic timing when she sent him her thoughts on what this dan schneider article began to domino.
the capitalised letters spell out “dan did it”. aside from her nickelodeon ties to him, he fashioned himself as a mentor and shoulder to lean on. amanda has frequently lamented online and publicly that she wishes jamie spears was her dad; that’s how dysfunctional her relationship with her parents is.
last year, her fiancé basically confirmed to page six what she told crazy days and nights in 2018.
amanda bynes was the first girl i ever panicked over whether i was in love with her or wanted to be her. having her already impressive natural talent made better by richard pryor’s guidance made her the perfect child star to carry not only nickelodeon shows, but her venture onto the silver screen. amanda bynes is one of the very few people who has a perfect4 filmography. so what “went wrong”? mila tequila made a great two part documentary on youtube about amanda’s life that i absolutely recommend. amanda has been very open about her struggles with adderall, drugs, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and mental illness all while under the too bright spotlight of fame. i think all of those things have made headlines individually but when you zoom out and look at it from outside of a vacuum, you will see a person who has certainly Lived A Life but has always been transparent about their struggles and their mistakes. i do not think there is a perfect cookie cutter solution for amanda bynes because no person is perfect. but i think she deserves the courts, her parents, her fans, and her fellow humans to at least give her the chance to try.
gotta get my anna karenina references in when i can!!!!!
i have tweeted worst things twice….today! if amanda bynes tweets happened today instead, she would be worshipped and be the number one trending topic on tiktok daily!
this is not debatable. ARGUE WITH YOUR MOTHER!