American Gurls #2: The Book of Britney
The person who gave us "Toxic" does not owe us anything else.
Welcome to She Was an American Gurl, a five-part culture series for paid subscribers to Burbank Industries. Thank you for supporting my work! Wanna join us? You can do that here:
And now: Let’s get to the real reason we’re all here — the literary mind (and welcome weird-girl energy) of the Legendary Miss Britney Spears.
Britney Spears’ memoir explains a lot. Why’d she shave her head? She was sick of being ogled by strangers and saddled with the expectation that she never age or change. Where’s the British accent from? Her grandma, who was from London and who Spears has imitated since childhood. Why’d she choose this cover? Because a fashion photography legend, Herb Ritts, shot it. What happened in 2008? Her ex-husband kept her children from her while she was suffering from untreated postpartum depression with very little support. Why’d she hit that paparazzo’s car with an umbrella? Because he was mocking her for not being able to see her children. Why’d she put up with the conservatorship? So she could see her children. Why’d she finally fight back? Because the trauma of it had become so unbearable that she no longer recognized herself.
A lot of takes on Spears’ memoir treat it like it’s full of surprises—what celebrity outlets love to call “bombshells” in goofy magazine parlance. But as I read The Woman in Me (the title’s from one of her songs; do your research, New York Times), I found myself writing something else in the margins as I flagged pages and felt the deepest empathy a celebrity memoir has ever evoked for me: OF COURSE.
OF COURSE.
OF COURSE she did those things.