Britney Spears and Dylan Farrow’s Stories Are Public Lessons in Respect

Spring has barely arrived and already we’ve been asked to reexamine a commonly believed story about a famous woman — not once, but twice. The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears took a hard look at the pop legend and her legacy, making a strong case that we, the public, were responsible for her spiraling. Though it’s not quite as accusatory when it comes to the public, Allen v. Farrow makes a similar claim, portraying Dylan Farrow as a woman who has rarely been allowed to tell her side of the story that’s transformed her into a household name. When it comes to these two cases in the court of public opinion, we’ve already made grave mistakes. Yet as we’re on the eve of Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil, another documentary about a vulnerable woman in the public eye, it’s vital to remember what we’ve done wrong when it comes to consuming famous women’s stories.

On a surface level there is little in common between Britney Spears and Dylan Farrow. Spears has long been been viewed as the pinnacle of the fallen starlet, a young woman with great talent, fame, and potential who was driven to drugs and later a breakdown by the machine that is the music industry. Farrow has been known as the little girl who accused Woody Allen of sexually assaulting her as a child, an allegation that would forever paint a black mark on Allen’s film career. But both women share one vital similarity when it comes to the way the media has covered them: neither Spears, nor Farrow have been allowed to stand at the center of their own stories. For decades it wasn’t simply that we wouldn’t listen these women. It’s that we would rarely allow them to talk.

Framing Britney Spears doesn’t remedy that long-held sin. As the documentary notes, filmmakers Liz Day and Samantha Stark were unable to get in contact with Britney Spears, and due to the intensity of her conservatorship it’s unknown if Spears received their requests. But even without this vital voice, Framing Britney Spears does everything in its power to recontextualize the story around this pop icon. In the documentary’s hands, Spears’ breakdown and stay at a mental health facility isn’t portrayed as another crazy chapter in a celebrity’s life. It’s treated as an inevitable and human collapse caused by a world that expected too much of her and was too quick to judge. Framing Britney Spears takes great care to back up its claims, showing footage of paparazzi chasing down Spears and journalists — adult men and women at the height of their careers — asking this near child invasive questions about her sex life, the way she dresses, and her mental health. It’s not only Jamie Spears who’s on trial when it comes to the #FreeBritney movement. It’s us as well.

For the most part, Allen v. Farrow focuses more on the personal, than the public. The four-part docuseries offers exclusive interviews and expert testimonies as it discusses Dylan Farrow’s allegations against her father, Woody Allen. But what it truly offers the world is Farrow herself. Until the op-ed she published for the New York Times in 2014, Farrow has largely been publicly silent about her sexual abuse. In a world where Woody Allen has been allowed to tell his side of what happened through every major publication for decades, Allen v. Farrow dedicates itself to making case for Dylan Farrow.

But even in the midst of this grander mission, there’s an acknowledgement of public guilt. Episodes 3 and 4 dive into it the most, interviewing multiple film and entertainment journalists who have covered Woody Allen’s career for years. Peter Marks, a former reporter for the New York Times, refers to Woody Allen as “a home-grown hero to a whole generation of artists and intellectuals, journalists.” PJ Grisar, a culture for The Forward, calls the filmmaker a “philosopher” and points out that when someone who shaped our values does something wrong, “we’re not going to want to believe it.” Ronan Farrow, a renowned journalists as well as Woody Allen’s son and Dylan Farrow’s brother, gets to the point best, stating that many people have built their identities around loving Woody Allen and his work.

All of these interview subjects beat around the bush, but the grand point they’re making remains the same. The reason Woody Allen has been able to get away with these allegations for so long is because we, the public, refuse to turn on him. At this point in history the U.S. court system has already failed Dylan Farrow. Woody Allen cannot be tried for these allegations again, though, the docuseries argues, there was enough evidence to warrant a criminal trial. The only system left is us, the court of public opinion, the mass of people who give Woody Allen his power by buying tickets and streaming his movies. If that support ends, so does his career. People have fallen out of public favor for far less. And though cries of “Believe women” have become commonplace, Allen still continues to work.

That’s what these two documentaries share. Both tell stories about women who were ignored and judged by the public, women whose voices were not allowed to be heard. As history has shown, we have already failed Britney Spears and Dylan Farrow when they were on the brink of one of the biggest moments in their lives. But that doesn’t mean we have to make the same mistakes.

This week will mark the premiere of Demi Lovato’s Dancing with the Devil, the singer and songwriter’s docuseries about her near fatal overdose. Lovato has been largely quiet since she was admitted to the hospital in 2018. And yet in the week before Dancing with the Devil‘s premiere, salacious details from the docuseries have been leaked. It’s something we’ve seen time and time again. Yet it’s also this mistake that can help us grow.

We can learn from the public mistakes of the past by listening to Lovato’s story as a whole, instead of picking out the most scandalous parts and making rapid-fire judgements. We can enact what we’re learning through our responses to Meghan Markle’s break from the Royal Family. We can do it by listening to Chrissy Teigen’s account of the loss of her pregnancy.

It’s about listening. It’s about paying these famous women the same respect and sincerity that’s so often extended to famous men in the world without a second thought. It’s about making an active choice to hear what they have to say first and withholding judgement until they’ve told their stories in their own words. We are so much better than the crazed photographers in Framing Britney Spears or the dismissive journalists in Allen v. Farrow. It’s about time we started acting like it.

Watch The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears on FX on Hulu

Watch Allen v. Farrow on HBO NOW and HBO Max

Where to stream Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil