The Woman In Me, Britney Spears

November 2023

Britney’s life was supposed to be a fairytale, but she ended up locked away in a castle for real.

Her story, snippets of which we’ve heard in the press since she escaped her father’s inconceivable and cruel conservatorship a few years ago, is desperately sad. Maybe I had heard too much of it before, but I didn’t find this book moving in the way I expected given the tragic details. The language is simple and straightforward, no bullshit or much space given over for Britney to lick her wounds or really lean into the misery. This is her voice, I suppose, and she needs to cast a wide net for readers, but it didn’t do the empathetic job I wanted it to for me.

I still think it’s worth a listen for the sheer extraordinariness of what happened to Britney, a child star turned international superstar then imprisoned adult - essentially an indentured worker - under a bizarre court order in which her abusive alcoholic father was given control of her every move, including when she performed and how much she was paid, to her access to birth control, therapy, and her own children. Truly a tragedy of modern day misogyny and greed.