The Woman in Me – Britney Spears

After appearing in The Mickey Mouse Club as a young child, Britney Spears made her initial splash in the music world at 17 when her debut studio album, …Baby One More Time, was released.  Portrayed as the perpetual virgin, Spears dated former castmate Justin Timberlake while maintaining her hold on the top of the pop charts.  Following her breakup with Timberlake, Spears married twice in 2004, the second of which resulted in two sons born over the following two years.  After divorce proceedings led to a acrimonious custody battle, Spears appeared to spin out of control, attending rehab for a day before shaving her head in public the following night.  These antics led to her being placed under a conservatorship, where her life and estate would be controlled by her father, in January of 2008.  Fast forward to 2021, when she is finally able to break free from the conservatorship and regain control of her life and her career.

In The Woman In Me, stripped of all PR flaks and under her father’s thumb for the first time in over a decade, Britney Spears is finally able to reveal her side of the story.  She tells the tale of her upbringing in Louisiana, with parents who seemingly hated each other and vacillating between middle class and poor, depending on how much her father was drinking at the time.  How despite losing her virginity at 14 to a friend of her brothers, she was portrayed in the media as a cloying virgin, leading to press speculation about her teenage body and sex life.  How a combination of post-partum depression and a nasty custody battle led to her family turning against her and taking over her life, putting her to work to fuel their own largesse.  One can’t help but feel sympathy for the now 42-year-old. who is trying to find her way back after a decade of abuse at the hands of the people who should have been protecting her.