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Throughout Britney Spears’ professional journey, she faced numerous attempts to weaken her through fabricated stories. As a young pop star, she was portrayed as a pure and innocent figure, but was later criticized for embracing a sexualized image encouraged by the same entities. Following her split from Justin Timberlake, Spears was harshly condemned and even subjected to a harsh interrogation by Diane Sawyer, as if she were a war criminal instead of simply a singer in a denim outfit.
In her highly anticipated memoir, she reveals that she became wary of the double standard present in the entertainment industry. However, this was just a small obstacle compared to the legal restrictions she faced later on. She was advised to divorce her husband Kevin Federline in order to avoid the humiliation of him initiating the process first. Yet, she still faced criticism for breaking up their young family. When she experienced a breakdown in 2008, it was portrayed as a result of madness rather than a reasonable reaction to being exploited and losing custody of her children. After being placed under a conservatorship for 13 years, she felt even more trapped. Any signs of distress were seen as evidence that she was not improving, and if she tried to assert herself, she was labelled as out of control and crazy.
In her book The Woman in Me, Spears reflects on the contradiction between her fame and the expectations placed upon her, comparing it to medieval witch trials. Despite being the most well-known young woman, she confesses to never fully understanding how to navigate the industry. However, at 41 years old, she now has a keen awareness of these societal archetypes and their ties to larger structures of authority, seeing through the superficial narratives that have wronged her.
The theme of the mentally unstable woman is revisited by Spears, who reflects on her grandfather’s decision to institutionalize two of his wives. One of them was consumed by sorrow after the loss of a child and was prescribed lithium before taking her own life. Spears’ father was only 13 when his mother passed away, and she writes with understanding about how this event led him down a path of alcoholism that plagued their family. This intergenerational trauma adds a touch of Southern gothic to the story of the small-town Louisiana celebrity – a part of her past that is often overlooked due to her rise to fame at the age of 16, where she was portrayed as a blank canvas for people’s fantasies. Spears brings back this history with poignant details, such as mothers dressing their children in matching outfits for church, which inspired her and Timberlake to attend an awards ceremony in head-to-toe stonewash blue, and the solace she found in the woods amidst her tumultuous home life.
Her talent leads her to success as she quickly rises from off-Broadway to Disney and eventually becomes a overnight sensation in the pop world. However, once the fame and fortune start pouring in, neither her record label nor her family allow her to step off the train, despite her increasing distress. When she becomes pregnant with Timberlake’s child, she reveals that he convinced her to have an abortion. In the midst of her suffering, Timberlake tries to comfort her by playing his guitar beside her. Timberlake has not responded to this claim mentioned in the book.
In 2007, Spears publicly shaved her head as a way to rebel against societal expectations for her to be attractive, perfect, a fantasy, an object of desire, and a role model. She describes this intense moment as almost spiritual, living purely in the moment. However, this feeling is short-lived as her family forces her into a conservatorship. Spears expresses her frustration and anger towards them for limiting her freedom while also profiting off of her.
According to her writing, she tolerates the situation because it allows her to stay in touch with her sons, even enduring seemingly random stints in rehab. The second incident occurs in 2019 when Spears voices an objection during a rehearsal and is subsequently isolated, monitored, and put on lithium – similar to her grandmother’s experience, as she points out. Her account of this two-month period is alarming: it marks the transformation of the girl-next-door into the final girl in a real-life American horror story, orchestrated by her father and, as she emphasizes, the state of California. A nurse informs her about the #FreeBritney movement, which aims to raise awareness of her situation; this reignites Spears’ passion and two years later, she calls 911. In November 2021, she is released from the conservatorship. While Jamie Spears has not commented on the book, he has previously defended the arrangement as a necessary measure for protecting her.
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Source: theguardian.com
