What Britney Spears has endured would not have happened to a male star

In 24 minutes of devastating courtroom testimony this week, Spears described in graphic detail a rigidly circumscribed existence, the result of a conservatorship that’s been in place since 2008, after her infamous breakdown. The conservatorship, led by her father — and which Spears has for years been seeking to end, according to a report in the New York Times — has since then controlled nearly every aspect of her life — a life in which she, at least at times, couldn’t carry her own credit card, phone or passport without permission, even as she was forced to perform in lucrative Las Vegas entertainment residencies, sometimes against her will.