Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - The Woman in Me

The way this is written sounds so genuinely the way that Britney speaks. It's so endearing. As someone who grew up in the late 90s/early 2000's it was so nostalgic to read her perspective of that era. So glad I read this.

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allisonsmith120's review against another edition

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dark emotional inspiring reflective

5.0

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

5.0

I was not fond of a few comments Britney Spears (or her ghostwriter) made in regards to the fellow attendees of several of the groups and institutions she was forced to attend. It is reasonable to harbor a grudge against those groups, institutions, and her family. It is not really reasonable to write about the other attendees like they were all dangerous animals. However this does encapsulate the fear she talks about having during this time and maybe she meant to show the reader and listener that fear with those comments.
Michelle Williams does a fantastic job showing the dry wit in the narritive as well as the turbulent emotions. The introduction being read by Britney herself was a very special touch. Fans of Britney throughout her career will be very engaged with this and also horrified. The casual reader may not feel quite so fondly and want to hold their judgment but they will still have an engaging read.

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fractalis's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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david_slack110507's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

3.75

It feels weird to give this a rating considering that this is actually based off of Britney's life in the same way that it was weird to give a rating to I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, but I feel like while this memoir from one of pop's most influential figures did have the insight that was promised, it wasn't the best structured which is what brought it down for me.

Before reading this, I had previously known very little about Britney's life other than being one of the most successful artists in the past few decades as well as being in an abusive conservatorship that was eventually exposed to the mass media through the #FreeBritney movement (which Britney acknowledges in this book as being one of the things that kept her going in the fight for full control over her life) so this memoir was very insightful into the tumultuous life of Spears and how it all started from a very young age. Ranging from her family life being unsafe and toxic to using music, dancing, and acting to escape that home life only for those escapes to be poisoned with issues too.

The early and later years in Spears' music career and spotlight in the media really showed how cruel the media can be to those in the spotlight and how this can take various methods from asking deeply personal questions, to sexualising Britney, to harassing her when she was obviously not in the mental space and state to actually deal with everything and much more. Memoirs in particular are very good at exposing how much the media got away with (and continues to do so in some instances) in their treatment of celebrities, particularly women and other minorities, in the earlier years of modern media and I hope that like many other memoirs that spotlight and criticise these issues, Britney's story will help lessen the likelihood for more stories like hers for future stars.

My main issue with this memoir is how it was structured, some parts felt fully explained and in detail while others were less detailed and so there was often a sporadic movement between years that threw me off slightly and made me a little confused as to when a certain event was happening or what family member Spears was referring to due to having only mentioned them at the beginning of the book or a brief description in the midst of a big and important event in her life.

Overall, I'm so glad that Britney is free of her conservatorship and can actually live her life rather than having her life dictated for her like how it was for so long and I wish her all the best when it comes to rebuilding herself slowly from the insurmountable damage caused by her family's control over her. This was such an important story to tell and one that deserved to be told and so I'm glad that Britney finally felt ready to share her story.

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