For a story titled The Woman in Me, Britney Spears’ biography is really more of a story about men. Or more specifically, it’s a story about a woman whose entire life trajectory has been defined by being surrounded by men, and for the most part being spectacularly screwed over by men, most of all her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake, and her father, Jamie Spears.
Justin and Britney met as kids, when they were both Disney stars, and compounded their fame by becoming the couple everyone wanted to be. Obviously because it was the 90s, we couldn’t just quietly allow them to get on with their relationship. If they were going to date, they were going to have to become the smiling face of chastity, even donning purity rings.
How Justin treated Britney – with no fall out or serious repercussion – is startling when you read it written down. In 2002 Justin appeared on the Star and Buc Morning Show and said, despite years of leaning into the virginity marketing, that he’d had sex with Britney, implying that he had taken her virginity. Britney was lambasted as a liar (for telling the same lie they’d both told) and Justin was the stud who deflowered the most famous woman in the Western World.
After the early parts of the book leaked, including Britney’s detailing of having a medical abortion and being unable to attend hospital in case the press found out what was happening, Entertainment Tonight spoke to “a source close to Justin and his wife Jessica Biel”. The source said: “Justin has been focusing on his own family and trying not to concern himself with Britney’s memoir.
“In recent years, Justin has tried to be supportive of Britney from a distance. They dated so long ago, but he still has respect for her. Justin and Jessica just want everyone to grow and evolve instead of continuing to bring up the past.”
Which feels like rather an insensitive way to respond to Britney’s claims that she was denied essential medical attention lest she bring the Timberlake/Spears brand into disrepute.
The other villain of the piece is, unsurprisingly, Britney’s father. She rather generously spends the early chapters of the book exploring how her father became the way he was – a heavy drinking alcoholic with anger issues, explaining that his father, her grandfather, was much the same. She claims that her grandfather’s temper and the punishing sports regime he forced Jamie Spears through were why he in turn became “mean”.
Allegedly when the conservatorship was processed, shortly after Britney shaved her head in public, he told her. “I’m Britney Spears now.” Her father had not, at time of writing, commented on any of the accusations leveled at him in the book (although he has always maintained that the conservatorship was done with Britney’s best interests in mind).
Justin has come under fire previously for his treatment of women – Janet Jackson was hideously treated in the wake of her wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl in 2004 while performing with Justin (whose career was mysteriously unaffected by this mutual mishap). After he started to catch a lot of flack following the Framing Britney Spears documentary in 2021, Justin wrote an apology, which read: “I am deeply sorry for the times in my life where my actions contributed to the problem, where I spoke out of turn, or did not speak up for what was right.”
Timberlake continued: “I understand that I fell short in these moments and in many others and benefited from a system that condones misogyny and racism.”
There have been people on the internet – particularly devotees of Justin – who’ve asked why Britney is doing this now, why she’s restocking the hatred towards Justin who was a very young man when he treated Britney so badly, or towards her father who became a villain in the eyes of the Free Britney movement. But if she hadn’t put them in the book, what closure could she ever have expected to have?
The pushback that Justin and Jamie Spears get for this book is probably the only accountability they’ll ever have to take. Britney’s life – her custody of her children, her career, her ability to do the work she loves, literally everything, was affected by the way that she was painted by her father, by Timberlake and by everyone else around her. And while we can point fingers at society at large, and acknowledge that sure, it was a different time, the point still stands.
Timberlake has worked, consistently, in the music industry. He’s got a wife and children and a calm, private life. Britney, by contrast, spent much of her life functionally as a prisoner. There are plenty of good arguments against cancel culture. But in instances like this one, where silence and putting on a brave face have been used to oppress a woman for decades, an element of public shaming is perhaps entirely necessary.
Putting it lightly, Justin and Jamie benefitted from Britney. You could easily argue that they exploited her, although I am sure that they would deny that. However much of a “different time” it was, that was never acceptable, and the only retribution they’ll ever experience is a book which paints them in a slightly unflattering light. I can’t help thinking they might have got off quite lightly.
