What Britney Spears' book taught me about resilience and self love
It became hard for me to talk about Britney Spears around the time the #FreeBritney movement started. The mega-superstar's life — synonymous with fame, always under bad faith criticism — seemed to be hitting another peak. Her conservatorship of 13 years was ending, and her newfound freedom from her abusers became another aspect of her life for people to pick apart. But I've been following her life just as I've lived my own. I'm a Britney fan forever, finding her at some of my happiest times, and at some of the worst.
The release of her memoir this year, The Woman in Me, means she gets to reclaim her story after it has been told for her for too long. She writes in her book that fans share a connection with her, and I've never been able to comfortably talk about her until I finished it. My relationship goes deeper than the average reader of the eye-roll-worthy headlines the media has plagued her with. Many gay men have a popstar intrinsically tied to their identity — mine will always be Britney Spears.
Unlocking creativity and queer joy
Around 5 years old I became a stan when "...Baby One More Time" came out. That's all there is to it — she was just there in my life. (I was already expressingIt's upsetting to read the traumas Britney was immediately born into, making sense why she seemed like such a once her first song debuted. But when Britney talks about childhood, she paints the picture of such innocence, such that I relate to my own especially when it comes to defining queer joy.
