The interview ended when the star began to cry. But the cameras kept rolling to capture her breakdown after she asked to stop the interview.
A media history of shaming women
From the 1960s through the 1990s it was all about audience share. And in the early 2000s, it became about clicks and pics with the new wave 24-hour journalism.
Long before the MeToo Movement went public, media misogyny was on full display. And body shaming, invalidating, and belittling primarily women were tools of the trade. Britney Spears was a focal point.
Before and after the Sawyer interview there was innuendo directed at Britney Spears.
There were a few examples in the documentary. A male “shock-jock” radio host asked Timberlake about sleeping with Spears. He was direct “Did you fuck Britney Spears?” to which Timberlake laughed and said, “OK, I did it.”
Timberlake finally apologized to both Britney and Janet Jackson after the documentary was released. “I failed,” he claimed.
A male journalist asked a teenage Spears about her breasts. Jay Leno often made Britney the punchline in his late-night jokes. And during her infamous 2008 breakdown, Britney was hounded by the paparazzi.
