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jolandbooks · 7 months

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"The Woman In Me" by Britney Spears

*Warning: These are just my thoughts on the work. I would not discourage anyone from reading a book please form your own oppinions.

Growing up I knew who Britney Spears was, I mean who did not? She was an amazing pop singer, known for being wild and having a drug problem. I remember seeing pictures of her shaved head, people said she shaved it to avoid giving a hair sample for a drug test. I am old enough to recall the #FreeBritney movement. A core memory for me was the "Leave Britney Alone" video from the early YouTube days. When the news of her conservatorship ending broke I recall friends celebrating online and much fan fair. As a casual enjoyer of her music I was vaguely aware of her situation but I never knew the extend of her plight.

When "The Woman In Me" came out the internet was a buzz, I recalled seeing this work everywhere and people saying how powerful of a read it was. I finally got my hands on it and over the last two weeks I read "The Woman In Me" and here are some of my thoughts.

The book starts out with a family history focusing on the women in the family. From violent emotional outbursts to self deletion, there is clearly a history of mental illness which is an overarching theme. Growing up her family was poor, her father was abusive, and her mother was erratic. This is a difficult situation for any child and Britney found her solace in creativity, specifically writing, music, and dancing. Her passion for singing and dancing got her on Broadway before the age of 10 and on mickey mouse club after. After a brief stent in her home town during middle school where she played basketball she sang for a record company and became a huge celebrity. From then on her private life was over, she was scrutinized by the public and the paparazzo was all over her.

No one can prepare you for fame, you life changes in ways that you cannot imagine. When she talks about her relationship with Justin, how his family was so stable her her family was so abusive and cold it highlights the disparity between the rich and poor. This concept does not only refer to monetary security but also emotional security. Britney was raised monetarily and emotionally poor, the lack of a solid foundation of caring encouraging people in her life is the greatest tragedy of this whole story. She was not prepared to be ogled by grown men as a teenager, she was not prepared to be hounded by paparazzo, she was not prepared to be put under a societal microscope and be blamed for corrupting the youth. The lack of an emotional foundation and people to confide in, in my opinion, contributed heavily to depression and sparling. Before I move on I wanna make it clear that Justin did cheat first and he did not receive the cultural backlash that should have followed. Also I'm insinuating that Justin has a much more stable home and family life than Britney which, in my opinion, contributed to his success.

Fathers protect your children, is a phrase I often heard growing up. To children the father is a protector and a shield against the world. Britney did not have a shield, her father was abused by his father and he intern abused his children. He inflicted emotional, verbal, phycological, legal, and financial abuse on Britney. Abuse by a parent/guardian is such a betrayal of trust. As a child you want to trust your parents, as an adult you want to believe that even if the whole world is against you your parents have your back. But not for Britney, her father used her like a work horse to enrich himself through a conservatorship that should not have existed in the first place. Also, warning tangent, the abuse of the legal and medical system accounted here is atrocious. Based on what I have been reading a conservatorship of Britney should have had shaky legal ground to proceed. Did they drug test her? Was her fathers history of abuse and financial situation taken into account when appointing him? The system seems ripe for abuse and I hope its changed soon.

Ok rant done back to the work, now under these conditions of restricted freedom and being controlled more than a toddler the next logical step would be to get out as soon as possible. But remember this person is being held captive by their abuser who removes access to the outside world and anyone who would be willing to assist the abused person. To add to this Britney has children who were used as leverage over her to make her comply with their demands. The extend to which her children were used to control and manipulate her echo the tactics of the past employed by men to control women.

I read this work and it reminds me of so many instances in the past. Here we have a wonderful, kind, talented, and beautify woman forced to bow and bend to the will of a man who exploits her body for his own gain. If this is not a pimp I don't know what is. This book made me mad, it was emotionally taxing, I know alot more about conservatorships now and I pray this happens to no one else.

I give this work 5 kittens out of 7.

#book review #booklr #books & libraries #book blog #the woman in me #conservatorship #britney spears #free britney #britney bitch #essay writing #celebrity memoir #celebrities

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