A pop star's raw and stinging honesty

Much is known about the tortuous life of the award-winning pop icon, but her tale of fighting to take control of her life back from patriarchal exploitation deserves to be read. Hers is a story of motherhood, freedom, and hope. Cursed with a disturbed childhood, Britney was a little girl with big dreams who only wanted her dad to stop drinking, and her mom to stop yelling. Instead, she took to drinking, smoking and boys herself. Losing control over oneself at such an early age instilled a sense of guilt and shame in her and made her believe that anything bad that happened to her was ‘karma’ catching up. 

The Woman In Me tells a focused story of a teenager who learnt too quickly that the music industry, or for that matter the whole world, is set up more for the benefit of men. Britney’s career was not spared; she was subjected to disempowering narratives. Conservatorship was legally thrust on her, which is usually served on people who lack the mental capacity to do anything for themselves. Considered to be a teenager who was corrupting the youth, she was perceived as dangerous for society. To get her back on track, her father was entrusted with conservatorship to control Britney and her resources. She was literally treated as if she was a criminal or a predator by her own parents.

What made the state of California thrust the conservatorship upon Britney? Why did the court-appointed lawyer not help her? And why a man like her father — an alcoholic, a failed businessman, and an abusive parent — was allowed to be her legal guardian to control everything she had? Britney’s freedom was curtailed while her earnings were siphoned to help their cash flow. Neither could she contact her kids nor was she allowed access to her mobile phone. Such ill-treatment persisted for no less than 13 years.

Anyone in such a situation would have been pushed to breaking point. But not Britney, who reflects in the book on the enduring power of music and singing. “Singing takes me to a mystical place where anything is possible.” As a teenage pop star, she was eyeballed as a pretty sex object, a double denim-wearing singer. On top, the conservatorship tenure left her with a mix of shock and sadness. She was exiled from herself for over a decade. Having come out of this ordeal, she writes that she is now on a journey to find herself.

The memoir is an honest reflection on what others thought about the pop star, and how she was subjected to constant bullying and relentless abuse for not conforming to the template. Her enormous success was a cross to bear; perhaps, the reason for her to turn more rebellious and shave her head in public in 2007. 

Written with remarkable candour and humour, Britney reveals all that she went through in her momentous but disturbing career. Several Grammy awards and more than 100 million records sold worldwide bear testimony to her fledgling singing career. What comes out clearly is that the world is rarely kind to successful women.

It is hard to imagine what an ostensibly carefree pop star had to endure. It is harder to fathom how someone who could perform for thousands at a time could backstage be gripped with mind-numbing panic. However, it is to her credit that she has come out stronger to tell her story, an inspiring tale ultimately.