Scott Rhee's Reviews > The Woman in Me

Full disclosure: I’ve never been what one would call a fan of Britney Spears. Like most Americans, I was aware of her significance in the pop music scene, and I was even familiar with some of her songs. I’ll put it this way: I never changed the channel when one of her songs was on the radio, but I never liked her enough to buy any of her albums.

That said, I became intrigued by her life when hearing a story on NPR about her conservatorship, set up by her parents. It sounded weird that a grown woman—-with two children—-was basically being treated almost like an indentured servant by her own family. Accusations of mental illness were bandied about, along with insinuations of her alleged promiscuousness and party lifestyle, but a lot of these accusations seemed to come from her father, who controlled the conservatorship. One didn’t need to be a lawyer to understand that the man who was benefitting the most, financially, from the situation was also wielding the guardianship like a Sword of Damocles over his daughter’s head.

In October 2023, Spears published a memoir, “The Woman In Me”, which was an opportunity to tell her side of the story.

It tells a very moving, sordid story of the dark side of fame and celebrityhood, one that most celebrities probably wouldn’t have the courage to write. With self-deprecation and a wisdom beyond her age borne of some pretty heavy tragedies in her life, Spears manages to give a vivid account of a young girl from a lower-income family in Louisiana who made it big with her two passions: singing and dancing.

It was a success story with almost a not-so-happy ending. A whirlwind romance with Justin Timberlake ended in an abortion and a very public break-up, one in which Timberlake made some rather hurtful statements about Britney. Hounded mercilessly by paparazzi, treated unfairly by a sexist media, and enduring a short-lived marriage with Kevin Federline, Spears became stuck in a life that seemed exotic when the cameras were on but was a hellish nightmare behind closed doors.

Her only bright spot was the birth of her two sons, whom she doted on. So, it was only inevitable that her money-hungry father would use the boys as leverage when he started the conservatorship. He would control every aspect of Britney’s life—-what she ate, how often she would perform, who she could date—-while constantly dangling her sons’ lives and her shared custody with their father, Federline, as carrots on a short stick.

Thankfully, in 2021, Britney was able to speak out in a courtroom about her years of practically being a prisoner of her family. The judge ended the conservatorship, and Britney was finally free from her family’s hold.

It’s hard to believe that an experience like Spear’s still happens in this day and age. Conservatorships seem so draconian and belonging to a more primitive era, but they are actually quite prevalent.

“The Woman in Me” is an eye-opening and engaging memoir about the freedom to make, and learn from, one’s own mistakes and failures.

This was an Audiobook, read by Michelle Williams.