Katherine Warner-Frey

Britney Spears released her memoir “The Woman In Me” on Oct. 24. It follows her rise to fame and details her personal life and relationships.

“The Woman In Me” is a quick, page-turning book that leaves you engaged, evokes intense emotions and delivers perspectives that are essential for everyone to hear.

Singer Britney Spears released her memoir “The Woman In Me,” the title referring to her song “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” from 2001, where she sings “I’m just tryin’ to find the woman in me.” 

Spears’ memoir details her journey from being a young girl living in rural Louisiana to one of the biggest pop stars of the 21st century. She provides details about her experience as a woman growing to fame at a young age, as well as new and intimate details about her relationships and family that the media had not previously heard.

Spears was subject to a 13-year long conservatorship under her father, Jamie Spears, due to the media portraying her as a heavy partier and as a crazy woman after having her two children. She had been silenced and infantilized during this time period, and it’s important that she is finally able to speak out against all of the hardships she has endured throughout her career.

A recurring theme throughout the memoir is her oversexualisation by the media. Spears describes how the media has fixated on her sexuality and virginity since she was a young girl. From being judged for wearing “skimpy” outfits at 16, to the media and her manager’s obsession with her virginity and their investment in perpetuating her virginal reputation, she describes how her managers and the press, instead of focusing on her talent and accomplishments, made her an object of desire and female sexualization.

“I worked so hard on my music and on my stage shows, but all some reporters could think of to ask me was whether or not my breasts were real […] and whether or not my hymen was intact,” Spears writes. 

In addition to her sexualization, the subject that I thought was the most interesting was her conservatorship and how inhumane her situation was. A conservatorship is appointed by a judge in which a guardian controls the financial and personal affairs of a person who is mentally incapable to do so. Spears writes about how her children, her boyfriend, her finances and all of her bodily autonomy were taken away from her during this time period by her father and his lawyer.

It is truly astonishing how a woman can be one of the most famous and successful pop stars in the world, and still be stripped of every last freedom and deemed incapable to be a mother for reasons that would be invalid in any other context. The theme of the conservatorship was one that was compelling and fascinating to read and yet made me feel so much heartache and frustration for her situation. 

Every person should read this memoir. It is a fast-paced and easy read and yet Spears’ clear writing powerfully delivers important messages about the price of fame and the inequities in the music industry.