{"id":18493,"date":"2023-10-24T08:04:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T08:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/leadership\/britney-spears-new-memoir-changes-the-conversation-on-mental-health\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T08:04:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T08:04:15","slug":"britney-spears-new-memoir-changes-the-conversation-on-mental-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysourcefunding.com\/?p=18493","title":{"rendered":"Britney Spears\u2019 New Memoir Changes The Conversation On Mental Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When Britney Spears shaved her head in 2007, she instantly became the butt of jokes and casual cruelty. Late-night talk show hosts excoriated her. People on then-nascent social media platforms laughed at her. Even respected journalists used her as a punchline.<\/p>\n

Spears never provided a real explanation for her choice (not that she owed one to anyone). But with her much-anticipated memoir The Woman in Me<\/em>, which comes out Tuesday, Spears finally seizes back her own narrative\u2014and also takes control of a troubling narrative about mental health that has plagued women like Spears who rose to fame early and were punished by the media when they stepped outside predetermined boundaries.<\/p>\n

A Chance To Speak On Her Terms<\/h2>\n

Woman<\/em> contains many revelations about Spears\u2019 personal life, including the biggest headline so far, that she got an abortion while she was dating Justin Timberlake, who told her he didn\u2019t want to be a father.<\/p>\n

But one of the most interesting passages deals with the shaved head. At the time, Spears was in the middle of a divorce. Paparazzi hounded her constantly, and she was a staple in the weekly celebrity gossip magazines, which reached their circulation zenith on the backs of popular young female performers like Spears and Lindsay Lohan.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

These magazines suggested Spears, Lohan and the like should behave and be thankful for their popularity. They didn\u2019t treat them like people but more like playthings for the public.<\/p>\n

In her memoir, Spears reveals that shaving her head represented a bid to regain control over her own body, which had been controlled by others (and ogled by many) since she began performing on a national stage as a teenager. Other girls had the chance to try out different looks and personas as they navigated adolescence; Spears, already in the spotlight on The Mickey Mouse Club<\/em> at the age of 11 and quickly shooting to further fame with the release of \u2026 Baby One More Time<\/em>, did not enjoy such an opportunity.<\/p>\n

In fact, just a year after shaving her head, she was forced into a strict conservatorship by her father, Jamie, who used her decision about her hair as one of the reasons to take over everything from her finances to her diet to how often she could see her children.<\/p>\n

Yes, Spears made public appearances since the head shaving. But under her father\u2019s thumb, she didn\u2019t have the chance to speak out as she would like. And talk show hosts and journalists never really gave her a fair chance, infantilizing her with their questions or dismissing her answers as if to say, \u201cjust stay in the role of pretty little thing, and it\u2019ll be better for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one took Spears seriously in the early to mid 2000s, and the memoir makes it clear that wasn\u2019t her fault. Instead, blame a culture that can\u2019t reckon a child star\u2019s early adorableness with a grown woman capable of making her own decisions.<\/p>\n

Taking Back Her Mental Health<\/h2>\n

Offering women like Spears and Lohan, whom the media unfairly gave just as hard a time during her formative years, a platform to address these media ills is important. Spears\u2019 book is impressive in its messiness\u2014she does not claim to have all the answers or to have solved mental health issues that undoubtedly stem partly from the way she\u2019s been treated.<\/p>\n

By confronting those issues on her terms, Spears wins a victory nearly as important as the one she achieved two years ago, when a judge ended her father\u2019s smothering conservatorship following years-long demands from her fans to \u201cFree Britney.\u201d<\/p>\n

She gains control of her story, which is necessary to move forward. No one could come away from this memoir thinking Spears has fully healed. She gamely admits she still has work to do, a refreshing change from the celebrity bios that present the protagonist as a fairy princess whose growth is all done, thank you.<\/p>\n

With her book, Spears reminds us we have never fully reckoned, as a society, with the damage that can be done through child stardom and how it impacts mental health. The evidence keeps smacking us in the face, but the media continually turns a blind eye. This memoir demands better.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Britney Spears shaved her head in 2007, she instantly became the butt of jokes and casual cruelty. Late-night talk show hosts excoriated her. People on then-nascent social media platforms laughed at her. Even respected journalists used her as a punchline. Spears never provided a real explanation for her choice (not that she owed one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leadership"},"yoast_head":"\nBritney Spears\u2019 New Memoir Changes The Conversation On Mental Health | Brandiary<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Britney Spears shaved her head in 2007, she instantly became the butt of jokes and casual cruelty. 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