Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

58 reviews

marysunburn's review

dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad fast-paced

4.75

A harrowing, painful, yet sweet and chipper dive into the mind of one of this generation's great pop queens. The story we needed to have told all these years of controversy and gossip, an inside glance at her career and adventures – and yes, Blackout IS her greatest album, I'm glad I agree with the author – which determines a definite skip forward in the cultural moment and the way we look at celebrities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Addiction, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Drug use, Eating disorder, Medical content, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Abortion, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, and Toxic relationship

The book is a first-person account of Britney Spears' real-life journey through her conservatorship, which granted her father complete and total control on everything she did: what she ate, what she wore, how she did her job and how, or if, she was allowed to see her family. The singer is institutionalized and forced to take prescription drugs.

sweetmusic22's review

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

GOOD FOR HER!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Bullying, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Grief, Misogyny, Abortion, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Torture, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy

If you're not in the right head space, don't read this!

aseel_reads's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Wow, some people are actual garbage and I can't believe the actual brainwashing power the media and paparazzi had to make us all feel negative thoughts about Brittany during the 00s. Absolutely disgusting and I hope only good things for Brittany in the future (and a lot of bad karma for her family and the media people, and her awful exs) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, and Stalking

Minor: Physical abuse

chrisljm's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad fast-paced

4.0

Reading the experiences that Britney Spears went through left me with so much anger, sadness, and frustration for her. It is disgusting how the institutions we have in place, that are supposed to help and keep us safe, are constantly and consistently failing us. There are many heartless people in this world who should die, but death is a kind mercy they do not deserve. 

There are many complaints on the writing in this memoir, which is just focusing on the wrong thing imo, but the narrative tone of voice just sounded very young to me. I found this to be very fitting given the trauma she experienced, specifically in the sense of how trauma effects you neurologically, and it helps you understand just how young she was going through all this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Abortion, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Stalking, Sexual harassment, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Cannibalism, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Sexual content

natalie75's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Dysphoria, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Suicide

zydecovivo's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Brittney Spears’s The Woman in Me is her chance to tell her story. As a very young fan when her star was rising, I didn't understand what she was going through in the early 2000s or what her conservatorship meant. Listening to her story, in her own words, brings a perspective to both her experiences and women's treatment within the music industry that we've all been missing for a long time. It is not a perfect book. Some memories don’t seem fully relevant to her reflections and some especially emotional situations seem to literally be indescribable by the author. I think there are also some instances glanced over that may reveal more trauma than the author wants to focus on in this text. But I can tell Spears wrote from the heart and her ability to discuss the horrors she was subjected to should be commended. This is a must-read for anyone thinking of entering the entertainment industry and will probably be a gateway used to move the industry forward to avoid such blatant abuse again in the future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Panic attacks/disorders

camartin1015's review against another edition

emotional sad fast-paced

4.0

I was excited about the release of this memoire, if a little hesitant because the audiobook isn't narrated by the author (which I tend to prefer). That said, Michelle Williams does an absolutely phenomenal job and, in some ways, sounded more like how I remember Britney Spears than Spears did herself in the opening that she recorded.

I'd learned some of Spears's life through the media and (unauthorized?) biographies that released during the height of her popularity, but this book provides a lot more information and context to her rise to fame, her role in her early choices, and the complicated way her family has seemed both incredibly well-off and incredibly poor. There is so much sadness and heartbreak (and anger) in the book and Spears's life. On the one hand, she is such an incredibly strong person to have endured media bullying, sexism and sexualization, and the paternalism and exploitation of a conservatorship--and to have fought for her freedom throughout it. At the same time, it's clear that there is no magical, pure happy ending for Spears (or, maybe anyone), and it left me wondering how we create a society where people are able to seek care and support in empowering ways, on their terms, rather than in belittling and demeaning ways. This book was also a great reminder of the ways the public has consumed celebrity content and how social media has changed that but also how US culture is inherently misogynist, holds women to explicitly different standards by making a spectacle of their experiences when they deviate from specific norms or expectations, and how many women have and continue to be exploited and traumatized by it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting, Bullying, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Grief, Abortion, and Medical trauma

chris_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Stalking

Moderate: Mental illness, Car accident, Alcohol, Body shaming, Drug use, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage, Addiction, and Death

bergamot_breeze's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

An actual horror novel. My heart goes out to Britney and everything she experienced.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Alcoholism, Confinement, Fatphobia, Infidelity, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, and Miscarriage

ribbenkast's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

3.5

If there's one person Who deserves a collective apology it's Britney.  That poor woman has been through so much. The trials and tribulation of being a female popstar in the late 90-2000's are already countless. 
Ad to that how her family was horribly controling and a failing courtsystem and you've got the perfect foundation for a case of extreme abuse. 
This memoir should be seen as a cautionary tale and this case will hopefully be used for some serious law reforms. If not a sociatal shift in how we treat woman in media. Therefore I would really recommend this book.

That being said, I don't think Britney is a good writer. She struggles a bit to find the right tone of voice. I read the Dutch translation because that version was the one that became available to me first. I don't think it's a very good translation thay captured the essence of what she was trying to say, so that couldn't have helped. 

Even though it's a true story, it is heavy. Please read the trigger warnings before commencing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Bullying, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Classism, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Grief, Medical content, Miscarriage, Ableism, and Alcoholism