Recently, Britney Spears released a book called “The Woman in Me”–a memoir that sold 1.1 million copies in the first week of its release in the United States. As a child who grew up watching Britney Spears’ content with her mom, it was hard to finish each chapter and read what she’s been being put through behind the screen.
In the beginning, Spears talks about how she was raised to respect her parents, which included her being not able to disagree with them which is probably the reason why she was unable to go against her parents’ horrible decisions later on. She then talks about how the men in her family were known to be abusive. As her grandfather, June Spears, was a man that was always described as ‘ungrateful’ because no matter how hard his wife and kids tried to be enough, they never were. June Spears was a horrible father to his son, Jamie Spears, who is now Britney’s father. As Jamie was abused and traumatized in his childhood, he became an alcoholic and passed on his trauma to his kids–especially Britney. Though, in the midst of all this chaos there was only one thing that relieved her from stress as a child: music.
Britney loved singing, and in her words: “singing bridged reality and fantasy.” She enjoyed performing in front of an audience, big or small, as long as they enjoyed it in the end. As her mother, Lynne Spears, recognized Britney’s passion for performing, she started sending out videos of her singing and dancing to any competitions or TV production companies that would accept her. This is where her career started at 11, at “The Mickey Mouse Club,” along with other famous stars such as Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. You would predict that her life would be a dream from this point on, thinking that her parents would be proud of her, and she wouldn’t have to worry about anything else, right? Unfortunately, her childhood didn’t get any better. Britney started the habit of smoking and drinking at the ripe age of 13, she even started driving without a license as her mom sat in the passenger seat. She even started dating a 17-year-old while she was 14 (yikes). This is a real shock to me because loads of people would complement how ‘innocent’ she looked when she started her career. I would’ve never expected someone who looked so sweet to be forced to grow up at such a young age.
Though all of these facts were horrible enough, there was one part of the book that changed my perspective the most was where she talked about her relationship with Justin Timberlake. They had a three-year relationship and through those years, fans saw them as the ‘IT’ couple of the music industry. However, the reality of their relationship was far from being a perfect one. When Britney got pregnant with Justin as the father, his immediate reaction was to abort it because they were too young and unready. This would’ve been okay if both of them agreed to this decision, but they weren’t. Deep inside, Britney wanted to keep the baby but since she loved Justin, she just agreed with him in order for their relationship to last a little longer.
The other chapters were about her 13 years of conservatorship, where she wasn’t being treated like a regular human. She wasn’t given the right amount of food, she was given odd medication that didn’t help her, and she didn’t get any rest. I respect her so much for this because in these years, she still went on tour to give her best performance for everyone, she was polite in interviews even when they asked questions that sometimes sexualized her, she even handled the paparazzi well where they crowded her everywhere she went.
But in the last chapter, she talks about how happy she is now that she’s free due to her fans spreading the #FreeBritney tag in 2021.
Despite this book’s tragic true story, it’s a very tear-jerking book to read whether you’ve read it twice like me or are just starting it for the first time. The fame this book is getting is a well-deserved unlike the fame that all the men she dated in the past received.
