The Readirect Podcast
Book Club: The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
For today's episode we're deep-diving the newest celeb memoir release - The Woman in Me by Britney Spears.
Join us as we discuss the things you've already read from the headlines about this book, and the parts that haven't made as big of a splash. We surprisingly really loved this book, and found it heartbreaking, devastating and insightful.
Read Britney's memoir, or just listen to us talk about it.
Follow us on instagram @readirectpodcast!
For today's episode we're deep-diving the newest celeb memoir release - The Woman in Me by Britney Spears.
Join us as we discuss the things you've already read from the headlines about this book, and the parts that haven't made as big of a splash. We surprisingly really loved this book, and found it heartbreaking, devastating and insightful.
Read Britney's memoir, or just listen to us talk about it.
Follow us on instagram @readirectpodcast!
Welcome to the redirect podcast. My name is Abigail Fuenz and I'm Emily Rojas.
Speaker 2:The redirect podcast is a show where we shift the conversation back to books. We discuss themes from some of our favorite books and how those themes show up in real lived experiences.
Speaker 1:On today's episode it's Britney b**ch. We're discussing Britney Spears new memoir, the Woman and Me.
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Speaker 2:All right, it's time, the moment you've all been waiting for. Probably not, but we're here to talk about Britney Spears' memoir. The Woman and Me and are you ready, abigail, are you excited? How do you feel?
Speaker 1:You know what? This is obviously like a much anticipated memoir, I mean, at least for us, oh, absolutely, and for many people it was really sad.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was.
Speaker 1:it was really sad and I'm like I knew it would be sad yeah.
Speaker 2:I did I expect but this was like really sad.
Speaker 2:It was definitely worse than I thought. Obviously, I think the free Britney movement has been kind of well documented and so I think a lot of people were aware of the stuff she's gone through. But kind of her, I think what was sadder not even I don't think she honestly even revealed anything that was that devastating that we didn't already know. Maybe a couple of things that have definitely already been in the media, but I think it was more just. Her thought process was more sad to me, like the thing she was feeling during all of this and I don't know. I think I expected, honestly, preparing for this episode before I read the book. I was expecting to have more of a conversation of she's clearly unwell. We probably can't take all this as fact. You know, that's where I was expecting to have a conversation from. But I want to shout out to her ghostwriter. His name is Sam Lansky.
Speaker 2:I thought he really captured her voice so well and it was like believable that maybe she did actually write this, but at the same time, it was very devastating because I think, if you just go off what you've seen on Instagram, she's clearly struggling, and I kind of expected it to be more chaotic or more like okay, I don't know if I can believe all this or I don't know like more like her Instagram captions, honestly, but I think he did such a good job of making her sound like herself and like she might have actually written this, but also really clarifying her experiences in a way that was very different than what I expected, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree. So Brittany has a. I don't know if you've followed that girl on TikTok who, like interprets Brittany's. Instagram captions in a Southern way Because people are like it's okay, I know, it's just Southern. Brittany is from Louisiana, she's Southern.
Speaker 2:She probably. I mean, how much education did she really have before? You know, her life was kind of sprung into this. You know what I mean. Like she's not, it's not she has a that probably not even the equivalent of a college or high school diploma, you know, in reality. So that's also part of it.
Speaker 1:So the fact that he was able to write this book with her I mean, obviously it's her story to write it and to keep her voice while also writing it in like a clear way was pretty amazing. I made a note in our outline that it occurred to me like the way that it's written and the so many people who listen to serial have agreed and like reflected that.
Speaker 1:Adnan kind of talks like somebody who is still in high school. He's frozen at the age that he was when he went into prison because at that point he stopped kind of the world stopped.
Speaker 1:A new life started in this different place. And so to me, like when I, when I listened to serial, I kind of like, wow, he kind of, he kind of talks like a high schooler, kind of like the things he's talking about kind of feels frozen. And to me Brittany seemed the same way and I think a lot to do with her conservatorship, that she's also was in prison. Basically her life was totally cut off. And so I and she even acknowledges this I don't have the exact quote, but in the book she acknowledges the fact that she feels stunted in her growth and her development. She's still trying to like live the life that she wants, trying to get her life back and live, live the life that she could have lived when her conservatorship started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually have that quote.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, what is that? There was no way to behave like an adult, since they wouldn't treat me like an adult. So I would regress and act like a little girl, but then my adult self would step back in. Only my world didn't allow me to be an adult. The woman in me was pushed down for a long time. They wanted me to be wild on stage, the way they told me to be, and to be a robot. The rest of the time I was, I felt like I was being deprived of those good secrets of life, those fundamental supposed sins of indulgence and adventure that make us human. They wanted to take that specialness and keep everything as raw as possible. It was death to my creativity as an artist.
Speaker 1:Yes, she wasn't allowed to be a woman, because part of being a woman or a man or an adult, is that you have agency over yourself and you have along with that agency is the responsibility to make critical decisions, and she that was robbed from her. So her development is stunted and I think that's something we also have to consider Absolutely. She has this crazy trauma response to all of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess I didn't realize. I mean art. I don't know what your relationship to Brittany was prior to reading this. I think I was. We're probably I don't know, maybe it's just me and my only-.
Speaker 1:A little too young.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was gonna say I don't know if we're young or if I just only listened to 104.7 the Fish for too long of my life, but I do Safe for the whole family. I do remember I really loved the song Peace of Me, so I remember, as I was like in middle and high school, listening to her a little more, but I don't necessarily remember absorbing in real time her shaving her head. I remember that it happened, of course, but some of those he moments, her and Justin Timberlake I don't remember any of that. You know really.
Speaker 1:Oh see, I remember reading that in People, or Star at the nail salon with my mom, oh, classic, yeah, getting pedicures and like I remember being like oh my God she shaved her head and like I vividly remember a spread in People magazine I think that was showed like her with the umbrella and her, and just it's so sad now to think about it that you, that we would just couldn't have compassion for a mental health crisis, but consumed that as entertainment, which is not great, so tough.
Speaker 2:I just didn't realize how long she was in the conservatorship, for I guess, just because it has I don't know, I feel like for a while she was kind of just coasting along.
Speaker 2:Obviously she does talk about in the book of just kind of accepting it and going along with her shows and tours and whatever. So I didn't really realize how long she was in it and it makes perfect, I mean not only I think people who become child stars and child actors and actresses and whatever. I think they have a hard time growing up beyond the age that they become famous. I think that's already very difficult and you obviously see those consequences play out a lot. But then to also be in kind of a young point in your life, be put into I mean she wasn't that old to be put into a conservatorship, to have your children basically taken away from you, I mean it makes perfect sense that you would to cope with that kind of just revert to being a child. And also, yeah, like you said, she couldn't choose what to eat for dinner, she couldn't choose to leave her house. She talks about wanting to treat her backup dancers to a meal after you know they're on tour and her humanizing her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, her allowances to clump, like she doesn't have enough in her allowance to pay for their dinner, even though she's she's Britney Spears.
Speaker 1:She is, she's like multi multi-living, basically like she's making money for her dad and for these people who are controlling her life and she doesn't get to decide what to do with that money. Like her dad pays her from the money that she earns. It's just, the whole thing is so messed up. Yeah, I think we should probably step back a little bit. She tells a story chronologically. Yes, this, I mean it's a short book. Yeah, it's kind of like this is not like a one of those books where we go chapter by chapter but to tell to make sure we don't miss anything. Speaking of her dad, yeah, the worst this is. This is yet another mentally ill dad memoir, as are they all. They're all mentally ill. Anyone who has a good memoir has a mentally ill dad Period.
Speaker 2:Yes, exception that proves the role is Jeanette McCurdy. She just had a mentally ill mom, yeah, but, but most of the time it is a mentally ill dad, for sure.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, mentally ill parent 90% of the time. Dad, yes, 10% mom, yes, he abuses alcohol. There is fighting, it is just, and there's a lot of generational abuse as well.
Speaker 2:She talks about, you know, her grandparents and I believe, yeah, her grandmother was kind of locked up by her husband, which is kind of forked out, yeah. It's just there's a lot in her family, for sure that nobody's gone to therapy.
Speaker 1:No, I mean for sure, no one's breaking any cycles here, no, and she, from a young age, just is a performer. She, just, she loves to sing, she loves to dance, she loves to perform and that's where she finds a lot of joy. You know, she also grows up very religious and that's another thing.
Speaker 1:Throughout the book, to this day, she's a really faithful person who really put places a lot of importance on her faith which is just, it's just heartbreaking and it's beautiful to me, because she has had a very hard life, yeah, and the fact that she's like she finds some kind of solace for herself and that she's so bullied in this greater good.
Speaker 1:It's just, it's really, yeah, it's really beautiful, but you know, when she becomes a teen star, she starts bringing in money for the family and she buys a house for her family and she buys a condo for them and she starts bankrolling her family. Yes, which you know. I would argue that the story of this book is that that starts this toxic cycle of control. Absolutely. When she starts bringing money to the table. Her family starts taking her for granted and controlling her.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I thought that was really. I mean, it's so sad. I think that's a story of a lot of child stars yeah, some are, I think you know to compare to another, a very excellent memoir which we just talked about, genet McCordies she almost didn't even like the acting Like she didn't really want to do that. So I think there's some like that.
Speaker 2:But I think it's so sad too when you have someone like Brittany, who just love to dance and love to sing that is what she loved to do more than anything and then to have it kind of commodified like this and then also her feel like she has to keep it up to keep her family out of poverty and all that pressure, and that she is the breadwinner for her family, that they're counting on her. Then they have a younger child, jamie Lynn, who we all know that she's counting on her. Like that's just sad that she doesn't have the ability to even enjoy this thing that she loved, when her parents could have just maybe like put her in community theater or allowed her to take dance classes like a normal kid and she would probably still have loved it. It's like you don't have to be famous to continue to do these things that you love as a child. So it's just sad to me when they lose that thing that they love so much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and through her time as a mouse catier as part of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, she meets Justin Timberlake and they get really close.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, yeah, he's not coming out. Well for this one?
Speaker 1:Oh, he is not. So they have, you know, their young love. Whatever, fast forward a few years and they're really young living together. They have a house together in LA, yeah, which is crazy, and she's like 20. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean she was late teens, early 20s, peak of her power, and he's just cheating on her a lot, yeah a lot.
Speaker 2:And like kind of blatantly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and she's like deeply in love with him.
Speaker 2:So sad and she talks a lot too in the book about that she's naive or innocent, and I thought that was coming across a lot in her relationship with Justin. He was bragging about, you know, hooking up with other girls and she just kind of loved him, kind of in a really sad way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's like again the trauma thing. Yeah Also, yeah, yeah, same thing comes up later on in her life when she gets with Kevin Federline. He just was a nice guy at the right time when she needed somebody. But one thing that I thought not good, I wanted to pull out from the time with Justin was that you know, she is this young teen star late, you know, late teens, early 20s who is being highly sexualized but isn't allowed to be sexual.
Speaker 2:This was so weird and interesting to me.
Speaker 1:And is angering. So you know she's talking about how it comes out in the press that she has like at the end of their relationship that she and Justin lived together and they had a sexual relationship, yeah, and the press is all scandalized by that. It's like so bad, because she's supposed to be this like a virginal, you know, young girl, and it's like what. You can't have it both ways. You cannot expect her to like shake her ass and like, oh, bang, bang, bang, you know, and all that stuff, and also be like, oh my God, what do you want women to do? Please give me a freaking break. I cannot. That would be so mad, I think that is a real.
Speaker 2:That was so fascinating to me because I definitely see how we keep doing that, obviously with child stars, like people view as a kid, especially women, though Especially women. But what doesn't make sense to me about Brittany is she was very sexualized, I feel like from day one. It's not like she was Hannah Montana, you know what I mean. Like I feel like there's a difference with her and so that kind of really did it again exactly. I'm just like hello From who's she's 15.
Speaker 1:Well, it's Emily. Yeah, it's a culture of pedophilia because we want our little like. This is what it is and it's gross, but this is what we need to confront. It's big, powerful men wanting young women and to look like little girls but act sexual, but be virgins. Yeah, and it's so gross and messed up. Honestly, that's what it is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree so. So yeah, she mentioned like interesting plot, side plot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she mentions when she after they break up and she has an interview I think with was an Oprah. It was a big interview, but they asked her did you know they talked about having a sexual relationship? Yeah, with Justin. Oh, he said that they had had a sexual relationship and she was like, honestly I was so glad he said that because I'm a woman.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so that's what we had. We had a sexual relationship and like we lived together, we were, we had a soul tie. This was love. Yeah, I don't want to like downplay what we had and also like I shouldn't be apologetic about that. Right, I can make my decisions about my body. So, anyways, that sucked and I kind of. It also made me ask a question. You know that was early 2000s when she was going through all of that.
Speaker 1:That's the reason where she was dating, just a Tipper Lake, and they had the matching denim outfits and all that stuff. And I wonder, in your opinion, how did it pave the way or knock down barriers or kind of beat a path for female pop stars that came after her Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus or you know a whole host of others Selena Gomez, ariana Grande, are they? Do you think there's more of a permission structure for them to be sexual?
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Because they're still talking about it, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:I think again, I think Miley is the clearest parallel with Britney's experience. Obviously not to the extent of being put in a conservatorship, but I think she was someone who was a child star, obviously grew up in the public eye and then you think I mean, clearly had also I wouldn't say a mental breakdown in the same way, but I think she has gone through publicly a lot of struggles and I think about her with the wrecking ball and the scandal that was, and it's not even that scandalous at this point. I think things are different. I think the things we find scandalous are different now than maybe they were in the early 2000s.
Speaker 2:I think we were definitely harsher back then and to an extent, but I don't think it's changed, I think any kind of. I think if you come to fame as an adult, it's different. I really think for a child star to overcome that and and make their own decisions and you know something Britney talks about a lot too is I she wanted the freedom to make bad decisions. Yeah, even if it was a bad idea for her to go, you know, get drunk and embarrass herself or whatever date the wrong people or, you know, do something wrong.
Speaker 1:That's life.
Speaker 2:That's part of life and she didn't even have that option. And I think we don't give any freedom, especially to child stars, especially to women, to grow up and make mistakes and still, you know, be supported.
Speaker 1:I think we're really quick to turn on them, so I don't think it's gotten any really any better honestly, yeah, like we're recording this on the week that Taylor Swift released her 1989 ball tracks, including Slut, which is about her relationship around the time that she was dating Harry Styles, and it's like, yeah, hey, if they're going to call me a slit, it might as well be worth it for once.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what am I supposed to do? They're going to say this about me anyways. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You date a bunch of girls and no one calls you a slut, but like I do and I am and whatever, hey might as well be worth it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, yeah, definitely for women, definitely for child stars. I think it's very difficult. So yeah.
Speaker 2:And this is the time where she becomes pregnant with Justin's child and he not. Okay, and I know this has been wildly covered in the press that he, you know, made her had an abortion. But I think the horrific part about it is he also him, and I believe I don't know if it was her, I don't remember her management or her family they wouldn't let her go to the doctor, so she kind of had to like go through this alone at home, was in a tremendous amount of pain. They just didn't want the story to get out. So I thought that that needs to be highlighted just as much as him kind of insisting, because obviously maybe she had some agency in that. But then to not even be like you can't go to the doctor is just doubly horrifying, you know.
Speaker 1:Then to grab your guitar? No, and sit next to her on the bathroom floor while she's going through a medication abortion, yeah and say I think music might help no, this was like the extreme version that we blew up and then Barbie movie as like a huge joke. Sit here and listen to me play my guitar at you.
Speaker 2:Yes, but then you literally did in the worst possible timing, and then to go on and really drag her name through the mud, drag her in the press, frame her as the one who was cheating on you, and I'm sure I mean she says I, she did some bad things too, but to make it so, I am such a victim of this. She even said I don't think Justin realized the power he had in shaming me. I don't think he understands to this day. And then a few pages later she said Justin framed our time together with me as the bad guy and I believed it.
Speaker 2:So ever since then I felt like I'm under a sort of a curse. And yet I also started to hope that if it were true, if I had so much bad karma, it might be up to me as an adult, as a woman, to reverse my luck, to bring myself good fortune. But I mean, yeah, it's like to not only put her through such like terrible things, but then to go and kind of on the offensive and just drag her name through the mud and and talk horribly about her in the press. I mean that, to me, is the part that kind of pushes over the edge, because I think everyone makes mistakes, you're young, you're 20, whatever. But then to just continue to put her down in so many ways, I find that to be very difficult to get over.
Speaker 1:Especially when you did the same things and worse. And I mean, look, especially during this time, people don't need more like it's. So people don't really need a reason to hate women, they just do especially with me and then to give them more ammunition like so unnecessary like bro, you were already so many steps ahead, like yeah, that you could just let it go.
Speaker 1:Things were already going to be easy for you because you were like this hot male singer in a boy band and like at the top of your game as well. Nobody like you don't need an excuse, but like then, to punch down. I think that's what it is. It's punching down Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think, something I wanted to say during this part to circle back to a previous conversation we found on the pod about the book, once more with feeling, which is clearly somewhat, very much based off of this relationship. Oh yeah, I actually, as I was reading this, I didn't really know that much about Justin and Brittany prior to reading this, to be honest, besides just a few things I had grasped from the world. But you know, what was missing from that book was what was her name? Katie. Katie actually being in love with the Justin Timberlake character, because this was so much more interesting to read, because she really loved him and you could understand why, like they had grown up together, they had this chemistry, similar trauma.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, I'll share Trama from the trip, the roof in the south.
Speaker 2:Yes, had had really built something, whereas I felt like in that book it was like, why is she even with this tool? So I just wanted to say, but that is a good chaser, you know, go read that book after you read Britney's memoir. But I just thought this was a lot more interesting because it was. It was so much more devastating because it was like she really loved him and was kind of willing to put up with a lot of bad things, which I don't think is great, but she's willing to put up with a lot too. Continued to be with him. So I thought that was sad.
Speaker 1:So yeah, after that dissolves she has a Covegas wedding to somebody.
Speaker 2:Really quick mistake the force her to annul it the next day.
Speaker 1:That's the first exercise of her parents' control, specifically Jamie Spears' control over her. Yes, because that's another thing she says.
Speaker 2:She writes I don't know the exact quote, but she kind of said I knew it was a bad idea. I didn't feel like I was gonna be with him forever. It's just why am I not allowed to do something stupid like get married in Vegas? It's just a stupid thing to do and I'm a adult and I should be allowed to do that, even if I divorce him later. But they were like no, you have to annul this the next day. This can't be a real marriage, you know, and it's just yeah, it's so sad. It's like, yeah, everyone should be allowed to make their own dumb decisions. I'm sorry. I mean, if they're not hurting anyone like this, what is this Vegas wedding gonna hurt?
Speaker 2:It's gonna hurt their bottom line, if this guy takes money from her or whatever, if they divorce. But that's it, you know. So she should be allowed to make that decision.
Speaker 1:And then she meets Kevin Federline, who just by all accounts is a trash bag.
Speaker 2:It's like a torch as well.
Speaker 1:Honestly, he just seemed to kind of be like nice to her at a time where she was desperate for someone to be nice to her and he was just there and she was particularly susceptible and vulnerable to a trash bag. She was vulnerable to somebody who would woo her but then leave her.
Speaker 1:And she mentions after they had already gotten together she found out that his ex-girlfriend was eight months pregnant and he had another kid already and people were telling her like, oh, he's just gonna leave you, like he left the other women with the kids that he gave them and she didn't listen, and that's similar thing that happened to her and that kind of began the worst part of her mental health crisis, because she dealt with postpartum depression and two pregnancies in very close proximity and then stress around co-parenting with somebody who was erratic and unhelpful and the stress of then being away from her babies. I mean, the frustrating thing of reading this is there's so many points where, if an intervention was made, something could have like there's so many opportunities, but instead of an intervention being made, it was just like, okay, now work harder.
Speaker 1:Okay, now do this Produce for me put on a show for me, perform for me, and she wasn't allowed a chance to just be a mother who needs help.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and even I just can't imagine you're suffering from postpartum depression. I mean she talks about being anxious, even letting her mom hold her babies for more than a few minutes and just not wanting to let them out of her sight, not let them away from her, and then to not be able to leave your house without being absolutely hounded by paparazzi, by press. I just can't imagine any human being would not be able to cope with that and to not have any kind of support or being out of control of your own life in so many ways. I just think I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think a lot about it made me think a lot about Princess Diana's death and how now, looking back, you feel like it was just inevitable. This is what was always gonna happen, because the way she was being treated, the way she was being hounded, the lack of privacy, the complete obsession that the press had with her, how they just drove her to that point almost I felt the same way about Brittany's mental health crisis. It's like, looking back and in her telling of events it seems like nothing else was ever gonna happen and it makes perfect sense that she would have a breakdown. I mean, I don't think anyone wouldn't in these set of circumstances.
Speaker 1:So it's just inevitable, almost yeah, because we're treating I mean we as in culture, but the paparazzi are treating her like a paycheck and not human being and you're like oh, let's exploit this woman's mental health crisis because of love of money. And same thing with Princess Diana. We talked about it when we book clubbed Spare like that led to somewhat of a mental health crisis with Prince Harry too.
Speaker 1:And obviously with Meghan, like it's not great, so you're right, it just felt inevitable. And then her family comes in and says, instead of getting you help for the mental health crisis, like hello, you're on a conservatorship now. And the chilling thing which I'm thinking this is, I'm gonna believe that this is a real story and not just like hyperbole that the ghost writer put in. But when her dad sits down after the conservatorship is granted and he's like I'm Britney Spears now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was haunting. I got chills reading that and I hope that is true because I mean it makes perfect sense. Like he said, I'm gonna make all your decisions, I'm gonna control your money, I'm going to control your entire. I mean, literally she had to give two hours notice to leave her hotel room on tour and even then it could be denied. She could not eat the food she wanted.
Speaker 1:She couldn't eat French. She couldn't make a decision to just have a French fry?
Speaker 2:No, because she was too fat, and I mean it's horrible. And on top of that, kevin Federline takes her children away or is given full custody and she has to battle back for like just visitation.
Speaker 2:Yes, and she wrote. Everyone thought it was hilarious. Look how crazy she is. Even my parents acted embarrassed by me, but nobody seemed to understand that I was simply out of my mind with grief my children had been taken away from me. I mean, it's just so sad I mean any mother and then to, like it's, paint her as a bad mother maybe I mean obviously we don't know the exact circumstances at the time of what she was going through behind the scenes right, like maybe it was good for her kids to be taken away at that time, but then to paint her as this bad mother when it's so clear how much she loves her children and wanted what was best for them, wanted to provide everything for them, that she didn't have any kind of stability and then for them to just be taken away.
Speaker 1:It's so clear that she loves her kids. Yes, more than like that is her reason for living, and honestly she eludes many times that, like through the darkness of her conservatorship, her kids were what kept her alive and just like yeah, like, okay, I can make it through this just to see them for a few minutes, or she's just about napping with them.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it's just like. That is just. I mean it was really heartbreaking to her. It really was. It was just to love them. She said. I laid down my life for my children, so I thought, why not my freedom? Like? She was willing to go along with it for so long because she didn't want to risk losing them again or, you know, permanently losing them in any kind of way. So it was very devastating how they were used as a weapon against her. I think was difficult to read.
Speaker 1:And yeah, just another example of like when someone's having a mental health crisis, the answer isn't to put them in jail, which is like what we do in our society. Like a lot of times, we don't have mental health care right you know like to get political Like, so we put people having mental health crises in jail and that doesn't help anybody, and that was essentially what happened to her. But her jail was her house and she didn't have any freedom, right.
Speaker 2:She didn't have free speech. Yeah, something else that was really sad to me was how often I mean this is kind of going through the years, but how often she was sent to rehab for no reason.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, oh yeah, her energy supplements. Literally.
Speaker 2:And, like she wasn't allowed to drink alcohol, didn't have any alcohol, didn't have any drugs, but was taking like over the counter energy supplements that you get, like CVS.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Just for like pre-workout or something is what it sounded like to me, you know, and they're like you have to go to rehab now. Yeah, for months, for months and not even nice rehabs not even like a nice celebrity rehab Like I've seen Scott Disick go to with a spa, you know, and like treatments in the mountains. This was like a mental hospital.
Speaker 1:you know they would send her to a mental hospital and all the while, her dad is an alcoholic.
Speaker 2:Yes, An inactive addiction. I mean that to me was like, oh my gosh. I just honestly and again we're taking with grain of salt, maybe she was using something and didn't want to admit it in this memoir. But just taking her at her word for this conversation, I mean, I think so many people assumed she was abusing some kind of drugs or alcohol and that's why she was in and out of rehab, and for the reality to be like energy supplements was wild and just. I mean it's like you don't even want to believe that some people could be so evil. I mean, of course, like Free Brittany, the movement has really bought into this and I believe her that she didn't need to be in a conservatorship, obviously, especially not for this long and especially not under the control of her very abusive alcoholic father, for sure. But then for it to be so unfounded, according to her you know, telling of it was just unbelievable.
Speaker 1:It really is. And I mean, yeah, effectively she really was like put in a prison.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I mean that's just, and you know to not be people I mean most of the most people who enter into rehab either do so after something extreme happens, obviously, and they're maybe involuntary committed, but again, they can only hold you for so long in those circumstances, right, or they willingly are entering treatment and she was her dad, as Brittany Spears Just put her in there for months, voluntarily entered her, hit her into treatment, as acting as her it is horrifying.
Speaker 2:It is horrifying, yes, and throughout this whole time she was also told she wasn't allowed to hire her own attorney. Her lawyer was hired for her by her dad. I think a lot of people know that part at least, because obviously this has been more publicized over the years, and so the her attorney was like, well, nothing we can do about that. It's just like, oh my gosh, this is just unbelievable. Like the amount of people who failed her is very difficult to stomach.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, so the ending is pretty happy, though I mean obviously she's so she finds out about free Brittany. Yes, the movement is in rehab yeah, while she's effectively in prison yes, and she's like, oh my God, I didn't know, like I didn't realize that people cared about me.
Speaker 2:That was, that was actually I almost cried reading that part, because she just talks about she's like she's just been going along with it for so long and she didn't even know that there was a way out. And then she talks about her fans and how I mean in her mind she's like we have always had this bond and my fans could tell that something was wrong and they saved me, and like I don't even know that they realized how much they saved me and that was very like lovely, because I think you know, you think I mean, obviously there are a lot of causes in the world, right, but especially something like this with the celebrity. You're like in my mind, when I saw free Brittany, I'm like, well, this is great, but this isn't really going to make a difference. You know, like in the big scheme of things, this has to go through the legal system or you know whatever, like the court of public opinion doesn't matter. But then it really did matter, because that is really what set her on this journey to trying to free herself, because for so long she was just going along with it. And then she saw this like free Brittany t-shirt and it was like, oh, people care about me and they believe it. They believe me like nobody's ever has believed me. Now people are believing me, so that was very like.
Speaker 2:I love that that part. Yeah, so, yeah, she, she. I think she called 911 and reported conservatorship abuse and then she works on getting herself her own legal representation that's not this like idiot lawyer. That was appointed by her dad and eventually, eventually, her dad is taken off of her conservatorship and then the conservatorship is dissolved shortly after that. And she said I felt relief sweep over me. The man who had scared me as a child and ruled over me as an adult, who had done more than anyone to undermine my self confidence, was no longer in control of my life. Yes, queen, yes.
Speaker 1:Go off.
Speaker 2:Yes. So I mean, it was very. I did not expect to like it this much. I didn't expect for it to be as coherent as it was and I didn't expect to feel as sad as I did. I mean I knew it was going to be a sad book, but I guess I thought you know the ghost writer or whoever would probably hype up more like salaciousness, and obviously everyone's talking about the Justin Timberlake stuff, the Kevin Vageline stuff, but I think way more interesting and more substance of the book was just her thoughts and her feelings and how she's been changed by this experience. And I really liked her explanation of her Instagram content at the end, how she just is free and she's like I know it seems weird, but I'm like allowed to be weird on Instagram now and like I don't care what you guys think. You know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she's like yeah, I know it's a goofy, whatever Right.
Speaker 2:And it's like that's. I wasn't allowed to do my own dancing, I wasn't allowed to wear what I wanted, I wasn't allowed to post what I wanted. And now I can, and it's weird and I'm an adult for the first time in my life and I think that makes a lot of sense, you know.
Speaker 1:Do you know what, though? I'm looking at her Instagram right now and I'm just thinking like, sure, some of it is weird, but also like this looks a lot like an elder millennial. I'm thinking that too, just like not knowing the trends.
Speaker 2:Yes, you know what I mean, and just like doing weird shit, like put like over filtering photos, like you know, like, like people you might know who are in an LMS and where they copy and paste all their captions. That's what this kind of reminds me of, and I mean no disrespect, but the ones where they copy and paste all you know and everyone's posting the same things and there's a million emojis and that's what it reads like to me, Like that is Brittany and she's yeah, she's she's been.
Speaker 1:I heard she's spanking her ass with prop knives. It's just whatever you know what is? Hurting anyone.
Speaker 2:No, let you guys want to free Brittany.
Speaker 1:So let her be free, listen. Look, I know plenty of people that are in her age range that I'm personally friends with on social media who post filters, that are post photos that are like fried with like the amount of editing, and so I'm like this doesn't seem that far off.
Speaker 2:I know, you know what I'm saying. Certain people in her age Long super long cryptic like passive aggressive no spacing yes.
Speaker 1:Like with a quote.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just that.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's just that Maybe go get your grandpa who's like posting on Facebook. Like you know, the problem is we've muted those people.
Speaker 2:You guys have muted those people. You've muted your like great uncle who posts the wildest stuff, or like that lady you knew from church back in the day and she's posting crazy stuff on on on Facebook but you muted her a long time ago and if you go back and look at those mutes they read a lot like Brittany, but you know what. Hers are probably more entertaining. So leave her alone and again, I really do think she's probably locked in at about 14 and it's going to take time. It's going to take time to grow up a little Like. It's obviously going to take time. So you know for Brittany.
Speaker 1:But in conclusion, she's posting this weird stuff on Instagram. Is she hurting anyone?
Speaker 2:No, she is not exactly, let her live.
Speaker 1:Let her live and expense herself and honestly, I read this book my drone business.
Speaker 2:I would recommend this book. It's very short. It will be a very easy read, I think, if you want to read more. But I think it's very devastating, so read at your own risk. But it was quite enjoyable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. Great conversation on the book. I mean, I'm glad we read it.
Speaker 2:Me too.
Speaker 1:That'll be our last book club of the year, so you're right.
Speaker 2:So I hope you guys enjoyed it and thank you for all the support. These book club episodes are honestly our most popular, so we thank you guys for tuning in and go listen to our other episodes.
Speaker 1:We're not just like that, we're not just celebrity memoir book club.
Speaker 2:But you guys seem to love them, so we're going to keep doing them in 2023 or 2024. God, I don't even know what year it is.
Speaker 1:I don't know what year it is either. What?
Speaker 2:are any like juicy ones coming up in the new year? We thought Jill Duggers was coming out in January so she moved it up a little, but I don't know what we'll have to see. I guess Let us know if you have any juicy celeb memoirs that you know of coming out in 2024.
Speaker 1:Or just interesting ones. Yeah, but Taylor Swift is never going to write a memoir. She might one day, we never know, maybe. I doubt it, though.
Speaker 2:It will be a long time from now, but she will, I believe, maybe right before she dies, and we'll still be here broadcasting about it. So, yeah, anyway, have you read any good books lately, abigail?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have. I'm looking here at my list of books so I read this book that I rated a four. It's called Wallace, said by Anne Griffin. I will say it is Okay. Here's the interesting thing about it. So I've read two books recently that are written in second person POV, which is weird, but the thing is the book can't be too long. So this book is not super long and I listened to it on audio fully. Well, actually, I've read a tiny little bit, but I mostly listen to it on audio.
Speaker 1:This is the story of an Irish guy named Morris who is at a hotel bar and he's basically like saying this story to his son. His son isn't there, but he's basically like telling this story to his son, like as in the letter form, let's say, and he's giving five toasts to people through his life and basically he's telling the story of his life through these five toasts. And it's the story of his life growing up in Ireland and his family, his wife, the love of his life and his childhood arrival and his unlikely relationship with his granddaughter. And it is lovely, it's funny at times. The narrator is Irish, which is great. It's because it really adds to, like the Irish isms, I guess, and like the cadence of. Like you know, it's hard to read in a different accent, I guess, but with Irish you kind of need that.
Speaker 1:And I would say, similar to that other book we read that was Irish. Was that book we read? The Hearts and Visible Furies? The Hearts and Visible Furies yes, so good. I would say it feels super Irish, just like that. So if you enjoyed that part of that book, you would like this. I will say at the end of the book. So I mostly listen to on audio. But like I had like one chapter left and I was like couldn't fall asleep. I had gotten into bed, I got home late, zach was already sleeping and I was like reading the end of it on my phone and I cried so hard at the end I had to wake Zach up to comfort me. I was like I was literally sobbing and I was like because he told me to read this book and I was like I woke him up.
Speaker 2:Fair enough, if he told you to read it, then he deserves to be woken up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he recommended it to me. I will come up and I was like I finished it, so I mean I will. I warn you you will cry, okay, but it was, it was good, it was really sweet and I think that if it had been longer I probably wouldn't have liked it, but it's not super long and I recommend it.
Speaker 2:It sounds like a good winter book which we're getting into yeah. It's cozy. Yeah, perfect, okay, what about you? I finished finally Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, which I believed you, you did, you like it. I loved it. Okay, I think you talked a little bit about it.
Speaker 1:It's a banger right.
Speaker 2:It is a banger and I'll say okay. So just for some historical context, go listen to our episode Love on the Brain Book Club. That was one of our first book clubs. We both were meh about Love on the Brain, which I'm looking, and it is her lowest rated book, um full length novel.
Speaker 1:She hit with Love Hypothesis and then dipped.
Speaker 2:Then dipped a little, which is hard. It's really. I think it's very difficult if you have a successful first debut novel and then you try to follow that up. When you're so successful off the bat. I think it's really hard. So shout out to her she did the best she could but it was all worth it. For Love, theoretically, which I, I loved it. I loved it.
Speaker 1:It's like drugs, right.
Speaker 2:It's like drugs. I couldn't stop reading it Um, yeah, it was your recommendation because I was like, okay, I'll just get this from Libby because I don't care. But then you recommended it and I'm like, okay, so I bought it at the bookstore. And so this follows.
Speaker 2:Elsie, who is um, she is a adjunct professor. She really wants to get into research and be like a tenure track research professor, but, um, she hasn't been successful, hasn't really had the opportunities and she's like mega people pleaser, um energy. She has this thing where she's like what version of myself do they want me to be, which I thought was very relatable because, um, who among us isn't, um, us people pleasers, I guess I should say Hasn't, hasn't changed who they are in different scenarios or for different people, with our family at work, whatever. And so she is also, because of her type 1 diabetes, has to kind of take a side job because her job doesn't have health insurance and she has to live, obviously, um, just survive, and so she has a side job as a fake girlfriend. So there you go. You already have fake dating, but it's not what you think.
Speaker 1:It's not what you think. Exactly that's why I thought it was going to be a fake dating book. Exactly that's why I told you it is not.
Speaker 2:It is not still lovers, yes, but in the best way, because I don't even like enemies still lovers. So this is drugs.
Speaker 1:It's drugs. I'm telling you this is a meth and set of me it is.
Speaker 2:So she is a fake date. She normally doesn't multi date guys on this fake dating app, but she has this one guy who she's like.
Speaker 1:How to become friends with Greg and multi date meaning going on multiple dates. Yes, sorry, I'm not dating multiple guys at a time.
Speaker 2:No, she normally does not repeat her services. It's normally like a one-off thing. But she's kind of become like the long-term fake girlfriend of Greg, who is asexual but he doesn't want his family to know, so they're kind of annoying. And he has this half brother named Jack.
Speaker 1:Which is also kind of why it works for him to have like keep going out with him Because there's no feelings like. It's not. It's not turning into like a weird sexual thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, because he's not interested in that he just wants his family off his back. So he has this half brother named Jack Smith and she tries to avoid him because she thinks he hates her classic of the genre. But plot twist, she goes for this interview for a 10-year job at this other MIT and he is on the hiring committee. But he thinks that she is a librarian because that's her cover story and she doesn't even. She thought he was a PE teacher because one day she's like, hey, Greg, what does your brother do? And he's like, oh, he's teaches Fizz, and then he starts coughing or something, he chokes on something. So she thinks physical education, but it's actually physics, which is her same field. But plot twist, he is like the most evil physician physicist not physician physicist she could imagine, because he wrote at the age of 17, this like takedown article of her mentor and it kind of ruined her mentor's career forever. And he was just a kid. But she hates him.
Speaker 2:But she didn't know it was the same Jack because he has a different. He's Jonathan, but then he's Jack. You know how that goes and of course you can see where this is going. It's enemies for lovers. It was so good, I thought. Obviously a lot of plot twists just right off the bat, Like that's the intro to the plot, which I enjoyed. But I thought, compared to Love on the Brain, Elsie, and even to Love Hypothesis, to an extent which you get a little shout out to them in this book as well, which was really fun, yeah, but it's like a little universe.
Speaker 1:Yes, it's a universe.
Speaker 2:But even compared to that one, not as much as Love on the Brain. But Elsie was like such a real woman person to me she was not that manic pixie dream girl, she was a person. She was so real. And even Jack like he is honestly the ideal book boyfriend, but he was, which I actually think she writes men a lot better than she has written women in the past. I think all the boyfriends were really interesting and complex and lovable, but Jack was like the next level. She even wrote I read the acknowledgments or whatever.
Speaker 2:And Ally Hazelwood wrote like maybe this is too academic of a book but I loved the academics, like the tension of the academia world and the setups and I don't know, I don't want to say like nepotism it's not nepotism, but like favoritism or like you think you have a chance at a job and then you don't even have a chance at all. Like it was so good, I loved it. So I think if you were kind of put off, like me, by Love on the Brain, you didn't Love on the Brain, you didn't love it as much. Love theoretically is so good. So go read it, highly recommend. And it's just what I needed right now because I'm going through a stressful time in my life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really hit, it really hit. This is like only good feelings. Like absolutely, and Twilight is featured in this book. That's what made her.
Speaker 2:I was going to say that Thank you for bringing it up. That's what made her a real woman to me, because you know what she does not like Twilight ironically. She genuinely loves Twilight and that, to me, is the mark of a real woman. Not that people can't hate Twilight and be a woman Obviously I'm not saying that or you can't like it ironically, but it's like everyone who says I like Twilight ironically. Stop lying to yourself. There is a part of you that just likes it. They just likes Twilight.
Speaker 2:It's not a Twilight hate podcast, it was eggs obviously, if we haven't made that clear right now, but anyways, I loved it. I loved that she was trying to explain, like in a serious way, the plot of Twilight to this physicist and it was so funny and it was so real. It's so real. So, anyways, I really love it.
Speaker 1:This is for the girls. This is for the girls.
Speaker 2:This book is for the girls.
Speaker 1:So shout out Okay, that's a girl. I'm so glad you read it. I'm so glad you liked it. I was hoping that you would give it a chance after, like kind of a medium second book. Yes, um, so she's got me back.
Speaker 2:I'm back, I'm back and I'm in. I'm in, yeah, so 10 out of 10.
Speaker 1:So our next episode is very exciting, so you'll want to tune in. Yeah, come back, we'll see you next episode, see you in two weeks. Bye.