Latest / Pop Culture Junkie® / PCJ Book Club: Britney Spears' "The Woman in Me' Vol. 1

Transcript

PCJ Book Club: Britney Spears' "The Woman in Me' Vol. 1 · Pop Culture Junkie®

• 0:00
  [Music]
• 0:27
  Welcome to the Pop Culture Junkie Podcast. I am Nicole, here with my other junkies.
• 0:34
  Olivia and Shauna. And I have missed talking to you guys. It's been quite some time, I feel like.
• 0:42
  I know. Every day apart is just sadness in my life. I know. It's good to see your faces again. I'm
• 0:50
  excited for our topic today. It's gonna be my night. It's batny bat. It's gonna be my night.
• 1:00
  I have something I have to show you guys before we really get into the Britney T. So I have this.
• 1:07
  And I guess anybody who's not watching on video can't see. But I have this Britney Spears doll
• 1:14
  that I've had since I was a child from her hit me baby one more time video.
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  Is it she's so perfect? She's so cute. She's so cute.
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  Oh my god. Whoever bought this for me left the price tag on. It was $20 in 1999.
• 1:31
  It's still have you ever taken it out of the box? Oh yeah, she's been played with for sure.
• 1:37
  Okay. She sits up on my shop with my spice girl dolls. Oh she's been played with. We're
• 1:41
  gonna get to it. People playing with our whole life. We were making Britney and the spice girl
• 1:47
  sister in Barbie land all day. Oh my god. I know. I probably made her sister at least baby
• 1:53
  spice because they both had the pig tail. They both had the blonde hair. It just felt right.
• 1:58
  You're just creating. It just worked. But yeah. So she is here in spirit with us today
• 2:05
  watching over our class. I live here aren't you wearing a shirt? Yes. I'm literally wearing my
• 2:12
  Britney t-shirt. I'm wearing the tighter the two Britney's t-shirts that I own. It may not
• 2:18
  because I couldn't find the loose one. But it's all gray. I was younger. I went to the dream
• 2:28
  within a dream tour. I was in like second grade. Yeah. And I remember getting birch. And my mom used to
• 2:35
  like save sentimental things. And I'm like, how did you not save that? Like, come on. Come on,
• 2:40
  girlie. I think back and like I know I got a shirt at the spice girl's concert that I went to.
• 2:45
  And I don't have that anymore. And I just wish I would have held on to stuff like that because I
• 2:50
  don't really like, I don't know. I know that I could fit into it anymore. But yeah. Well,
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  that was my first concert ever. What's Britney Spears? And that is just amazing. Yeah. It was in
• 3:03
  Chicago when I lived there. And yeah, just so like so many memories of Britney Spears. I mean,
• 3:10
  like when you were younger, like what's your core Britney memory? Like when you think about Britney
• 3:16
  Spears, what is that? I remember like seeing Britney on TRL. I mean, I was always a huge Britney
• 3:23
  fan. I would get every single CD. The minute it came out, have my parents take me to like
• 3:28
  circuit city. Yeah. And anytime I would see Britney on TV, it almost felt like I was seeing my friend
• 3:36
  on TV. It felt like, you know, you have those celebrities and they kind of feel like your buddies.
• 3:41
  Like she felt like somebody I could hang out with, even though she was, you know, older than me.
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  She was like the cool teenager. But gosh, just dancing so much dancing. Me and my friend,
• 3:52
  Stephanie would put on like disco balls in her living room. And I remember your choreographic,
• 3:57
  some routine to I can't get no satisfaction. Oh my god. Oh, I got so good. And I crossroads on
• 4:04
  VHS. Then I watched that so much. I found my crossroads like DVD when I was like cleaning out my
• 4:13
  closet the other day. And I was just like, how did this just pop up? I love that. So
• 4:18
  I think it went back into theaters. I saw something about it was going to maybe limited edition or
• 4:26
  something for the release of the book. So anyone hasn't watched crossroads. I highly recommend it.
• 4:31
  Yes. Oh my gosh. So good. And I don't know if it's like Shonda Rhymes first movie necessarily,
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  but it definitely like pushed her into the zeitgeist and like, I like to think of Britney as like
• 4:44
  a catalyst to starting Gray's Anatomy. Like she wouldn't have had like those like like a Butterfly
• 4:51
  five, five, Dets wings Britney starred in the movie. And now we have like Gray's Anatomy. I agree.
• 4:57
  And she launched she said we sell Donna's career obviously. I'm sure she was out of their step before
• 5:04
  that too, but she was trying to move me. Yeah. Yeah. So what about you guys? What are your first
• 5:10
  core Britney memories? I mean, I guess you said you went to that concert. That was your first
• 5:13
  one, right? Well, I think I think this is like a common female child experience where you would have
• 5:21
  to like choreograph your own moves. Like you would look at the music video, but then you would be like,
• 5:26
  well, I can't really do that. Not that talented. She's one of the best dancers in the world. So you
• 5:32
  would like come up with these other ones. But yeah, I just remember like her with the beaded curtain
• 5:38
  in that like brown vest with the leather like I had that was my bedroom for sure. Literally,
• 5:45
  it was my dream to have a beaded curtain forever. And I ended up making one and I had it like in my
• 5:51
  post college apartment. And it is so inconvenient to have in a doorway. You get stuck on it. You
• 5:57
  get tangled in it. I had one too. And my parents made me take it down because they would be like,
• 6:02
  anytime my mom tried to come in my room, she'd like, what the fuck? And they'll get like nodded around you.
• 6:08
  Yeah. No, it was like really like feeding my inner child to like have that. But I think she was just so
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  like you mentioned, like she seems so friendly. And like she was like a down to earth southern girl
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  who was also a pop star. And like I think she's really like that last like person that we saw
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  that was like, oh, fame is amazing. You know, like I would love to be famous. And then really as we'll
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  get into and as well, the book is about like famous actually quite bad and can be really really
• 6:43
  destructive. But I think when I was the biggest Britney fan, like I was like, oh, I want to be her,
• 6:50
  you know, because I took dance classes all growing up. Like I was a competitive dancer. I can't sing for
• 6:55
  shit. You know, Britney's not the best singer. She's the former. Yeah. She's the whole package. And
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  you know, I'm not going to shit on Britney's voice. I don't think she's some bad singer. But you know,
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  she's can't she's enough the vocals of like Christina. But she has the personality and the dancing
• 7:16
  and just like the charisma. She got that riz. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, oh, it seems so fun to be famous.
• 7:23
  I want to be a dancer to singer like Britney, but not anymore. Jesus.
• 7:29
  You know, you saying that I don't know if you ever saw the star search episode of Britney Spears
• 7:35
  when she was like really little. So she had a very deep, deep voice and a lot of like lung power. But
• 7:42
  they actually like when they were doing the hippie, baby, one more time stuff, they trained her and
• 7:48
  forced her to sing in the album. Yeah. And so like her voice is so much deeper. She's messed up like
• 7:56
  her vocal cords almost where like, you know, that that deepness that she had is gone because she's
• 8:02
  bangin' like they is. You know. One song that you can really hear like her original deep vocals on
• 8:09
  was on the Pokemon, the first movie soundtrack. It was a song called I, I had that CD too. My brother and I
• 8:16
  listed that CD non-stop. That just unlocked a chord memory for me. I never when listening just went
• 8:23
  every millennial. Oh god. And it was called Soda Pop. And like it didn't have anything to do with the
• 8:30
  movie. A soda pop bunch of pizzeria pop. Listen to that song again and you can hear how deep her
• 8:37
  vocals are and it's really just. Yeah. That's an underrated pop. I love that. So really funny fact. So
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  when Britney Spears first got started as a pop star, like all the other record labels and companies
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  were essentially trying to recreate a Britney. And so that's really where Christina Aguilera was
• 8:58
  birthed from. But I think this is the funniest thing in the world. So Christina Aguilera with her first
• 9:05
  album was marketed as Arabian Britney. Arabian. She's like Arabian. And that's why she was like belly dancing. She need a bottle.
• 9:16
  But it's like this is a woman from Pennsylvania. And if it's like she's like Latina, right? Like isn't she?
• 9:23
  I think her parents are. Yeah. One of her dad I think is. But like in all fairness, like
• 9:32
  aside from when she was doing blackface in her dirty era, like Christina Aguilera is like a blonde white
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  woman. Yeah. She's absolutely like a white woman or white ass thing. Yeah. And so it's really,
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  really funny. Jessica Simpson was like the Christian Britney. Yeah. They were all trying to recreate it.
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  But and just more her little pop career. Yeah. So good. And I loved all of them. But Britney was always
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  the queen, right? Like I had posters here and there in my room. Okay. Let me rephrase that. My room
• 10:04
  looked like the inside of a teen bomb magazine. It was posters everywhere, which I mean if you see
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  my office now, like it makes sense. And I would go get my dad. And he'd be in the middle of watching
• 10:15
  a good diamond backs game. And I'd be like, can you come hang this new poster for me? And he's like,
• 10:20
  oh, right now. I'm like, yeah. I'm dead. Bless is already always dead. But there was so many
• 10:27
  Britney's posters in sync, Hanson, TLC, Destiny's Child, Backstreet Boys. Like those were my go-toes.
• 10:35
  Yeah. What they used to call it like J4. Yeah. Would they give you? Oh, yeah. I think J4 was one of
• 10:42
  them team B team bot J 14. That's it. Oh my god. And they had like the big fold out ones. I got one
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  issue once and it had a six foot long poster in it. It was like a mega poster and it had nice
• 10:56
  everybody. It had Britney in sync, Backstreet Boys, Jennifer Lopez, 98 degrees beyond
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  all of everybody. And I hung it over my bed like my shrine. And on my favorite people,
• 11:09
  bunch of people. She's got a name. And then eventually my parents slowly watched as all those
• 11:14
  got taken down and my chemical romance and the use. Got a really like, we lost her baby girl.
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  I know they're like, we missed the other ones. We missed. We take it back. We take it back. These are
• 11:28
  two sad. Yeah. Right. I love that. What's your first memory than Nicole of Britney or Britney?
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  I wasn't like a huge fan of her. Yeah. I feel like you just missed it. Yeah. So my sister who is
• 11:43
  29 should be 30 next year. She was like prime Britney. So she was a huge fan. But I guess my memories
• 11:50
  of her is probably her main iconic moments, which were the snake performance. The BMA performances.
• 11:59
  Yeah. And then her, unfortunately, I mean, it's not unfortunate if you read this, her,
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  which we will get into. And why she did it and everything. Her shaving her head. And then the
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  jeans and iconic Britney moment. It is. And then the jean outfit with Justin on the red carpet.
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  Oh, yeah. Those are just the memories I have of her is her iconic moments. Like you're like,
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  oh, I saw that in the grocery store line. Yeah. That's crazy. Oh my God. Or the BMA performance
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  where she takes off the tux and has that nude or suit underneath it. Oh my God. The Madonna.
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  Because all of these Britney Spears for a long time too was like for better or worse,
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  my body goals like as a child. Like I remember being like, oh my God, I want to look like Britney
• 12:44
  Spears when I grow up. Like I wanted. I mean, you probably did for a period of time. I know. Yeah.
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  You were just young and have tight abs, you know. Yeah. Oh my God. My abs looked like that and they
• 12:57
  haven't. And you use. Yeah. I don't think they ever will again on a side. But like you're not like
• 13:03
  freshly in puberty. So your body looks different. Unfortunately, where are we age? The passage of time.
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  But I wanted my belly button pierced so bad because Britney Spears had her spirit. Yes. And I remember
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  begging my mom, like, can I get it when I'm 16? And she's, because Britney has it. She's like,
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  Britney's a pop star. You can get it when you're 18. And then I didn't do it until I was like 22.
• 13:28
  I think. Yeah. Yeah. I only had mine for like a year. I got over it quickly. I take my
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  out sense. It got really infected. Do you have your belly button pierced at all? Yeah. I got my
• 13:41
  when I was 17. I'm 26 now. It's almost 10 years. It's probably like permanently there. Yeah.
• 13:46
  My body just started for injecting it. It's like the day I turned 33, my body was like,
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  too old for this shit now. And it started like pushing my belly button right now.
• 13:55
  Yeah. I had to have kidney surgery and they were like, yeah, you can't keep that in. And by the time
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  I got out, it was like close. I was like, I'm not meant to be. I wonder if Britney still has her.
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  I haven't noticed in her videos. I think she does. She's still has belly button pierced.
• 14:10
  I think she does. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. She's she's nothing. If not a consistent queen, this is from.
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  Yeah. I think one thing we were we were talking about Jessica Simpson and like Christina and all
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  them. I think one heart of Britney Spears that couldn't be replicated was just like her off
• 14:29
  intensity. Like all the outfits that we look at that were like recreating now in 2000 style. Yeah.
• 14:36
  Y2K is was just Britney putting on a random outfit. And like she liked it. So it was cool. You
• 14:44
  know, like she was like picking up like a gas station sunglasses and then like wearing it to a red carpet.
• 14:50
  Yes. Her little like noise. Her voice hats and that dump him shirt and the Starbucks like. Oh my
• 14:57
  iconic. You know, right now. You know, get this married woman to dump him T shirt. Yeah.
• 15:04
  I mean, if you know anything about me, that's always going to be my advice to you. It's just
• 15:10
  right. Andrew left the toilet seat up. Dump him. Dump. Jesus.
• 15:15
  It's ununfutable. It's unforgivable. We can't move on from this one. We can.
• 15:24
  I just get it tattooed on my fingers. Like, dump it instead of the mustache. It just says dump him.
• 15:30
  I mean, you have two fingers for a reason. It would be good to do the mustache and then dump him on the
• 15:34
  other one. Dump him. Dump him mustache. I'll be your boyfriend. Look at my mustache.
• 15:39
  Okay. Let's get into Britney's new book, The Woman in Me. Let's break down from the beginning kind of
• 15:54
  her life journey. Where are we starting? Yeah. So we are starting in the lovely place of Kentwood,
• 16:01
  Louisiana. I don't know if everyone would call it lovely, but it is a place that gave us a Britney
• 16:09
  Spears. So it exists. We're going to run with that. Really, like, we kind of mentioned this in
• 16:15
  the beginning. Britney Spears was first initially found on a star search show. I think she was
• 16:23
  about six or seven at this time. And she did not win. She actually got second place on that. But
• 16:31
  that really kind of started her off on getting a taste of fame or the limelight exposure. Yeah.
• 16:37
  Yeah. And so, you know, at the start of the Britney book, we do kind of like get a little bit of
• 16:43
  history about who her parents are and the story behind them. But really where Britney Spears'
• 16:50
  early career started is at the Mickey Mouse Club. Like so many of her peers. Yes. Which like you,
• 16:58
  most people are familiar with who comes out of this, but just in case you're younger, like the
• 17:04
  cool or anything like that. When you read this Nicole and you heard that like Ryan Gosling was in
• 17:09
  the Mickey Mouse Club, did you know already? Or was that like a surprising one? I knew like Christina
• 17:13
  was, Justin was. Yeah. Christina, Justin, Ryan Gosling. I can't remember.
• 17:19
  Carrie Russell. Okay.
• 17:20
  -Carrie Russell. -Carrie Russell. Yeah. Yeah. And so there's a ton of talent that was coming out
• 17:26
  of that. And Britney originally had auditioned, but she was two years too young to actually go on
• 17:33
  to the Mickey Mouse Club. So they wanted her to come back and audition whatever she did meet that
• 17:39
  age criteria. So in this time between like star search and really getting started on Mickey Mouse,
• 17:46
  it's kind of like where she spends the time with her parents. Like after she makes it big,
• 17:53
  after Mickey Mouse Club, like she's really not ever living with her parents again. She's not actually
• 17:58
  even taking care of by her parents. And she's taking care of by woman named Felicity. That's her name.
• 18:04
  What was really interesting to me and I'm kind of interested to hear Y'all's point of view is in the book,
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  she goes into a lot about her father's side of the family and their issues with mental health.
• 18:17
  And so I thought that was a really interesting juxtaposition. And we're going to talk a lot about
• 18:23
  Jamie Spears because he is the main villain in this story. But in the book, they talk about how his
• 18:30
  mother is Jean, right? Yeah, I think so about how she was struggling with mental health and ultimately
• 18:38
  ended up taking her own life before we get into anything further. Major trigger warning.
• 18:43
  Like if you came into this and it's all episode, unfortunately. Yeah. At the beginning, we were a little
• 18:49
  like a sunshine rainbows, but we're getting into the book now. So, you know, obviously the Britney
• 18:55
  story is so inspiring to a lot of us, but it's also steeped in turmoil and trauma. Yeah.
• 19:04
  Yeah. No, I think it is interesting that she talked about her family history with mental health.
• 19:09
  And just kind of trauma forms trauma, right? I mean, the abused abuse. And that's just what they know.
• 19:16
  And I'm not making excuses at all. I mean, it's up to people to break the cycle at some point. But
• 19:21
  it's just it makes so much more sense how she gives the insight into how her father was raised.
• 19:27
  And even as much as he hurt her, her whole family hurt her, you can see little hints throughout
• 19:33
  the book of her still trying to make little not excuses, but rationalize it. It's like, you know,
• 19:40
  when you go through trauma like that, you have to rationalize it in your own mind, especially because
• 19:45
  you don't want to accept that the people that are supposed to love you and protect you are actually
• 19:50
  the ones that are going to abuse you, right? So many people whose spouses abuse them, they'll be like,
• 19:57
  oh, he won't do it again or like it was just a one-time thing. Like, you know, you try to rationalize
• 20:02
  it. And so I could see hints that are trying to do that throughout the book. Yeah. And it's so
• 20:08
  interesting. I can't remember she talks about this in the actual book or not, but like they were so
• 20:13
  incredibly dirt poor that her dad was going outside and like hunting rabbits. Like they were eating
• 20:22
  like possum, like just to be able to feed their family. So they do come from rough backgrounds. They
• 20:29
  were really kind of working their way out of poverty. And I think for me, it's like, oh, how could you
• 20:35
  see your mother go through that and then do that, like not be there for someone? Like, you know,
• 20:42
  the gravity of that situation. Right. I think as we go through this timeline and our review of the book,
• 20:48
  like Jamie Spears is just how can you even put breeze in to someone treating their daughter like that?
• 20:54
  Absolutely. Just so exploitative. And you know, and she talks about how her family was poor too. And
• 20:59
  like she first was, you know, the only child. And then how different Jamie Lynn Spears upbringing
• 21:06
  was because there was money in the family all of the sudden. So it's like she didn't have to experience
• 21:12
  the scraping by that Brittany did because by the time Jamie Lynn was born, there was money coming in.
• 21:19
  So she had to deal with her parents being divorced or anything, you know, which is
• 21:22
  not like enough. But it's just the two different upbringing of these girls.
• 21:27
  Yeah. Right. And so she did the Mickey Mouse Club in 1992. So she pretty much after 1992
• 21:39
  goes back to Kent Road, Louisiana and has like her only time as like a normal middle schooler, high schooler.
• 21:47
  And you know, I thought her candidness and this was so interesting. I was taking some notes as I was
• 21:54
  like going through and reading the woman in me. I read it in a day. So I was going for it. But,
• 22:02
  you know, she's talking about how her mother would give her alcohol at 12 years old.
• 22:09
  Yeah. And they were drinking white Russians. They were having dacaries like and it was really like
• 22:16
  Lynn would parentify Brittany when Jamie was acting bad or being abusive or being an alcoholic.
• 22:24
  She would take Brittany and give her alcohol and like go on these like girls trips. And I just
• 22:31
  thought it was so interesting that you know, how could you be giving your child white Russians
• 22:36
  and then letting them drive your car without a license? It's insane. And you know, and it's funny because
• 22:43
  Brittany writes about it that these were great memories for her. Like when she talks about drinking
• 22:48
  with her mom, it was like that was the one time that her mom got to like really bond and spend time
• 22:55
  together and get away from her dad. Like she talks about it like, oh, I loved those girls trips.
• 22:59
  I loved those dacaries and spending time with my mom, which is really sad. Like that's your bonding
• 23:04
  memory with your parent. But yeah, it's like the last best stage of like the mother daughter
• 23:11
  relationship, I think for them. Yeah. So last time she was in their home, the last time like,
• 23:16
  Lynn was ever there. Yeah, absolutely. So after Mickey Mouse Club and after high schools,
• 23:22
  when she gets her record deal, right, or she goes to audition, gets the record deal.
• 23:26
  Yeah. So there's like a two or three year period where she is living in Kentwood. She's like
• 23:33
  trying to make stuff happen. And in 1997, she meets with Lou Perlman, which if you know anything,
• 23:41
  suspected child abuser confirmed to have stolen a ton of money from Nsync. Yeah. A ton of money
• 23:48
  from the back shirt boys. They actually both won their cases suing Lou Perlman for money. But he
• 23:55
  subsequently ended up dying. What I wanted to kind of make note of that thing that stuck out to me
• 24:00
  in the book is before we ever were reintroduced to Britney Spears, she had lost her virginity at that time.
• 24:09
  That's right. She said she lost it. What it 14 13 13 queen twins twins. And
• 24:16
  the oh, sorry mom, don't listen to that one. She she heard nothing. I said 18. She said she's
• 24:24
  still a virgin right now. Yes. Yes. I am saving myself for marriage, brother. One thing that I
• 24:30
  thought was really interesting is she actually has an 18 year old boy sneaks in to her house when she's
• 24:37
  13 and hooks up with her. It doesn't necessarily say that it was that guy because she just mentions
• 24:44
  that she lost her virginity in going into the ninth grade. She was 13 and she had sex of an 18 year old.
• 24:50
  I didn't catch those ages in the book. Yeah. So she tells the story about an 18 year old. I don't know
• 24:56
  if it was the 18 year old that took her. It was her best friend's brother though. Jesus. So that
• 25:04
  that was really, really interesting. And it just shows like how crafted and like from the beginning
• 25:12
  when we first met Britney, like she was being controlled and told what to do.
• 25:16
  How is this this virgin? I mean so many pop stars. Isn't that weird to think back in that time and
• 25:21
  history where they were trying so hard to convince all of us that all of these singers were versions.
• 25:26
  Like why the fuck did that matter? Even with the Jonas Brothers and all their like purity rings
• 25:32
  and stuff. Right. Her, her, her, her, her, it's fucking pervert. It's like why does it matter that these
• 25:37
  teenagers or virgins are not why are we talking about them having sex? Like I don't that's no one's
• 25:43
  business. And I couldn't even imagine now like when Billie Eilish came out as a teenager, not that
• 25:49
  she didn't face rampant sexism and like the patriarchy because that's still strong. But like I'm glad
• 25:55
  that we tone down the like, well, are you a virgin? Cause like fuck you. Like that's under your business.
• 26:00
  I don't know. It's, it's such a weird kind of thing to think back on. We were all so into
• 26:06
  virginity pledges and. Oh man. Yeah, I'm so different for women where I was like men nobody cared.
• 26:14
  Yeah, exactly. Yep. I mean, I think Billie Eilish like tried to really avoid that by wearing like
• 26:20
  giant clothes on stage and then like a picture of her and a tank top got out and she was like, I know.
• 26:27
  Just walking around and every boy thinks that she has breasts. Yeah. And like sexualized over like,
• 26:32
  oh my god, that's what that what's under all those clothes. It's like she's 16 years old. Yeah.
• 26:37
  Clowns disgusting. Like and looking back at the video clips from Britney's past. And I know there's
• 26:42
  one that's been going around the internet lately. Just kind of like. Yeah, it's in this compilation of
• 26:48
  why do millennials have such like bad relationships with food and their bodies and it's all these clips
• 26:54
  that we were exposed to growing up. And it's this interviewer just like, everyone's talking about it.
• 27:00
  You know, your breasts. And she's just like, my breasts. Like why on earth are people talking
• 27:07
  about it to need girls breasts is feeling me. It's just it's so disgusting. But there you go. And yeah.
• 27:14
  Yeah. No, I completely agree. And you know, there's there's a lot of moments that stuck out to me in
• 27:20
  the early life. Like Britney is driving Lynn's car and Jamie Lynn's on the car and she almost crashes.
• 27:26
  I'm like, oh yeah. Kills all of them. But like what's not said in in those early chapters is like,
• 27:33
  how is Lynn so messed up that she wasn't able to drive and she has a 13 year old and she like
• 27:40
  holds the wheel away like it's just really irresponsible and you kind of see the beginnings of
• 27:45
  how like things could go so wrong for her. And like how her family life is going to impact her for
• 27:52
  the rest of her life and her future. Like the signs were always there. Yeah. So she signs with
• 27:58
  Lou Pearlman. She goes on to record baby one more time, right? Lou Pearlman tries to sign her to
• 28:04
  innocence, which is a girl group that he was starting and she decides not to do it. And so she
• 28:10
  decides to go off on her own and she actually goes to have a meeting with Larry Rudolph.
• 28:18
  Satan number one in our story. Or many of Satan. So she signs with Larry Rudolph and they kind of
• 28:25
  immediately get her started. So they send her to Germany to start recording and kind of test her
• 28:32
  out on that side. And so this is where that image is really created. And she kind of talks about how
• 28:40
  she was just so excited as a new musician to be able to perform so bad. Like that's something
• 28:48
  that stuck out to me too not to cut you off. Which is how excited she was the dance and saying, right?
• 28:53
  Like that was just her passion is performing and like she was so innocent. She talks about it.
• 28:59
  She mentions it over and over in the book. Like I was so naive. I was so innocent. I just wanted to
• 29:04
  dance and saying like I don't know. So I think that's yeah. Well she even like came up.
• 29:09
  She signed how excited she was. Yeah. She even like came up with a music video and like changed it
• 29:14
  and was like this isn't how people would react in high school. Yeah. And like had a lot of that
• 29:19
  creative control and an it factor that just made her what she was. Like even though there's a machine
• 29:25
  behind her you couldn't recreate what Brittany was doing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so she does a really
• 29:32
  fun thing called mall tours. Oh my god. And then 90s and 2000s like how are you going to get in
• 29:40
  front of the youths other than going to the mall and performing. So she really kind of gets her
• 29:47
  start there and starts opening for and sing I think. I think that was the first group that she
• 29:54
  opened for. And I know she already knew Justin from the Mickey Mouse Club. So they become
• 29:59
  fast friends. Yeah. And with that you know her and Justin start becoming a lot closer. And you know
• 30:08
  one thing that I'll say just by all the headlines that we've seen about like the crazy things in the
• 30:14
  book like I I think Brittany is very kind in this entire book. Yeah. And gives consideration to people
• 30:22
  that maybe don't necessarily deserve it. She gives a lot of grace to Justin and to Christina. Yeah.
• 30:28
  Like I think she's she never calls anyone you know bad names. She just kind of lays out like exactly
• 30:34
  this is what I experienced. This is what happened to me. I was sad in this moment. He did this and
• 30:40
  he said this and it made me upset you know it was never I don't know she she handled it with a lot
• 30:47
  of maturity which you know in grace that these people might not really deserve. Yeah for me like
• 30:54
  what just broke my heart is like the woman's name is Alicia that's what it is. So like she never
• 30:58
  really had a family right. And so she saw like a lot of home and family in Justin's family. And so
• 31:08
  a lot of the time when you come from a background like that like your boyfriend isn't just that.
• 31:14
  It's like his family, his mother that whole support system as well. I remember that with my teenage
• 31:19
  boyfriend like my family was going through crisis. My mom was really ill and I was dating this guy
• 31:25
  and his family would have me over you know almost every night for dinner and I really wanted to
• 31:30
  break up with him. There was a part of me that was like oh man. I wonder if I could still hang out
• 31:34
  with his mom. It's like the big ex in the city episode. Oh yeah I know I was like oh I remember
• 31:40
  Mrs. Mom so much like she was so. Shout out to a I want to say her name. Don't say her name.
• 31:47
  No shout out to Mrs. Exboyfriends mom. They're doing real good right now.
• 31:52
  Shout out to Janice. It's still think of it. Oh that's just like it. Oh yeah.
• 32:01
  Shout out to Janice. She listens. She listens. Yeah. Stop home me.
• 32:04
  But no I you know Justin was her family during that time and they grew so close and just I mean as
• 32:12
  her career went off and as baby one more time her first album came out and her I mean she shot
• 32:17
  this thing so fast. It was just like the minute hit me baby one more time dropped it was just
• 32:23
  disguised the limit. I feel like it was so fast. That music video was all over TRL which she was
• 32:30
  on all the time. For Justin kind of became that like cute pop culture it couple. Oh they're so sweet
• 32:38
  and innocent. These original teenagers you know. And then as we mentioned the other pop star singers
• 32:44
  come out. Christina drops her album. The way she talks about Christina and the book is interesting too
• 32:50
  because I know what before it came out people are like oh my god Christina how are you going to react?
• 32:56
  She really doesn't say anything or against Christina Aguilar. She does not like she mentions that later
• 33:02
  Christina and Justin do a photo shoot together that kind of hurt her feelings. Yeah. And they all
• 33:08
  know they're re-althing that she says other than like Christina said they should get back together
• 33:14
  and I think that's like all she mentions and then later in the book when she's in Vegas she talks
• 33:20
  about how Christina employed a lot of the same dancers that Christina did and so they met up with
• 33:25
  her and she was like she was messed up. Yeah but even that part I kind of saw as Britney being like
• 33:33
  jealous of Christina. Yes. Because Britney wasn't allowed to drink in Vegas with her dancers.
• 33:39
  And here's Christina having like the time of her life in Vegas drunk being just a young woman you know
• 33:45
  and so Britney is like. A rich woman. Yeah. Exactly. And Britney is like she was messed up and I couldn't
• 33:50
  even have a sip of rum and coke as she would later put it you know. I'm trying to think of the
• 33:56
  Justin timeline here. I know they're together for a couple years and then he breaks up with her
• 34:02
  over text message. I also feel like we're missing a huge thing which in the book she mentions I
• 34:11
  didn't even know about that he made her get an abortion. Oh god we didn't cover that part.
• 34:17
  Let's go back. This shit and reverse. So yes so Britney mentions that her and Justin she gets
• 34:25
  pregnant. Justin's the father. He vocalizes that he's not ready to have a baby yet which you know
• 34:34
  that's fine. I understand that you are very young you're in the public eye. Maybe you really aren't
• 34:40
  ready to have a baby. So that is his choice and absolutely his right to vocalize right.
• 34:46
  He encourages Britney to get an abortion which she does and she makes it seem like in the book
• 34:51
  it was now what she wanted to do. She wouldn't have made the choice if it was just herself. So
• 34:57
  it's really sad and you know she talks about it sounds like she got the abortion pill as somebody who
• 35:03
  works in the industry outing myself. She took the abortion pill sounds like she had her abortion
• 35:09
  at home. It would just have you know the cramping and stuff that she mentioned and
• 35:15
  yeah but that would have been so sad. That would have been like 2003 and you might know better than
• 35:21
  me. And like wasn't the abortion pill like just invented them as well. Yeah so it's definitely come
• 35:27
  a long way. I mean it I don't think it was invented you know that late time because it wasn't like a
• 35:34
  common. Yeah abortion has been around for as long as people have been able to give birth
• 35:39
  just by various methods but you know I can see it absolutely being traumatizing to a teenager
• 35:47
  to somebody who claims that they're you know so innocent and just like naive of the world which
• 35:53
  she says herself about herself and it does physically hurt like she's gonna have cramping and go
• 35:59
  through it. And if you want this baby and it's your boyfriend who's really telling you I don't want
• 36:04
  this and encouraging you to do it. She felt like in that moment I love him. He's the love of my life.
• 36:10
  I have to do this where he's gonna break up with me right. Yeah. But it's just it's also
• 36:16
  awful and traumatic and you know like there's something as part was him singing the fricking guitar
• 36:24
  at him. Oh my god I know. I was thinking you imagine you're having an abortion and just in
• 36:30
  timber like is she singing I want to push you around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can you leave the
• 36:39
  bathroom please. I was saying that you're not safe from the strumma guitar at any moment of her
• 36:46
  life. We're having. I'm doing this for you and you did this to me. Get out of the bathroom bro.
• 36:51
  So no shame at all the Britney Spears are having an abortion. I hope anybody who read this book
• 36:58
  did never think that in the slightest. Yeah. She much just in timber like for encouraging her if
• 37:04
  this isn't what she wanted. But I just think back then it's like God we didn't even have like that
• 37:11
  level of understanding of like how to talk to people about it and like now I feel like most
• 37:16
  men are like oh okay well it's your choice I'll do whatever but that took a lot of education.
• 37:22
  Exactly. Like you know like I think at that time abortion was was very much hidden and the viral
• 37:29
  sound clip is like of Michelle Williams reading the part where she's. Oh she's. Oh she's. Oh my god.
• 37:39
  He was immature and you know what he wasn't ready to be a father. Absolutely not. You want
• 37:44
  to be a baby daddy. No. I know. And also me for Preston was developed in the 1980s.
• 37:51
  Okay. Good. In France in 1988. Okay. So definitely 80s 90s abortion pill access. But you know
• 37:59
  needless to say if you want to get an abortion absolutely hell yeah call me I'll hook you up.
• 38:05
  But if you were a man and a woman tells you she's pregnant that is her choice. One of the
• 38:10
  most emotional stuff. Yeah. Yeah. I think that language just wasn't there at that time but yeah.
• 38:16
  What have been the most iconic baby ever? Oh my god that baby would have been adorable.
• 38:20
  So iconic just like pop royalty. Uh huh. Yeah. We would have saved that baby in the
• 38:29
  little baby car. We all would have had it in the car. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh yeah. She talks
• 38:36
  about like the rise of in sync during this too. And like you said push his pushes. Genuine.
• 38:42
  And just Justin's cultural appropriation starting with the god yeah. In sync wanted to be black
• 38:49
  and hip-hop so bad which she mentions in the book like they hung out with black artists and
• 38:55
  Justin started be boxing to you guys remember that. Yes. How can I forget? How can I forget?
• 39:01
  He let go. He let it go well into sex future music love sounds. I thought he was the hottest thing ever.
• 39:11
  But the real question is were you an n-sync or backstreet boy girl? I was back trade all day.
• 39:17
  I was both you know I think a little more backstreet boys but I had posters of them side by side
• 39:23
  in my bedroom. I saw the backstreet boys in concert. They were my second concert spice girls.
• 39:29
  First time. Oh also iconic. I know. I never saw in sync live. But yeah I was I was obsessed with
• 39:36
  both of them both of them. I'm sure. I'm going to act as my favorite though. That's why you're bisexual.
• 39:42
  If you like if Lance was your favorite in sync member you're bisexual now. Or a lesbian. I think
• 39:48
  it's more likely that you're a lesbian but like bisexual will fall back. I don't make the rules.
• 39:53
  Those are the rules. 100% 100% if you if you found yourself as a child attracted to the men who
• 40:00
  would later come out as gay you were also gay. Like I just I don't make the rules. Your gay. My favorite
• 40:06
  backstreet boy was AJ. I liked the bad boy. I think he's straight. Okay. That's okay. Oh I didn't
• 40:15
  expect that. Those are the two sides of Shauna though right? Like Jay McLean and fucking Lance
• 40:20
  bass. I liked him both. I liked that blonde thing cut boy but then I also liked that bad boy.
• 40:27
  You were trying to be a contrarian. You're like everybody loves neck and Justin and I'm different.
• 40:32
  I'm a different. I'm not like those other girls. Yeah. I love that. That's amazing.
• 40:40
  So in sync it's mega famous too. Britney and Justin have that iconic dinner moment on the red carpet
• 40:49
  when they're a couple like Nicole mentioned. They both look incredible. Amazing.
• 40:54
  And as I mentioned earlier Justin eventually breaks up with her over text message while she's on
• 41:01
  the set of the overprotected remix video I think. I think so. Yeah. And he's about to go on his solo
• 41:10
  career. And really Britney says like I think that he broke up with me to get fuel for this album.
• 41:17
  Because it gained a lot of traction like everybody. Oh Britney cheated on Justin. She mentions
• 41:24
  yeah she kissed another guy once. Basically because Justin she knew he was cheating on her.
• 41:30
  Wait, Robtson yeah. Yeah. Like which a fun fact about Wade Robtson. He is very cute. He was also
• 41:41
  allegedly molested by Michael Jackson. Oh, I did know that. Yeah. Like he was like groomed by
• 41:50
  Michael Jackson. But right. Sorry. And he was Joey Fattone's body double in the dance portion of
• 41:57
  the pop music video for in sync. Anyway. We should squirrel. We'll pop culture knowledge.
• 42:08
  It's amazing. It's amazing out of me. I can't help it. But yeah, the famous crimey river music video
• 42:16
  comes out. It's with a Britney double look alike. Yeah. And one of the things is he kind of like
• 42:22
  strings her along up until this music video to think she has a chance of getting back with the text
• 42:29
  and stuff. Social like a prove it. Yeah. And all that stuff. And this really kind of begins
• 42:36
  her spiral and her breakdown. It eventually takes time. And because of how sad she is and like
• 42:43
  losing Justin and then losing the love of this family. Yeah. This was the defining breakup for
• 42:49
  her life. For sure. This is that moment that I caught two in the book. Like this is the catalyst
• 42:54
  when even more than like the abortion, you know, and obviously her family. I think it was all
• 42:59
  building to a head of just like her family's issues and her dad's alcoholism and then her
• 43:05
  relationship and the abortion and then all of a sudden being dumped like that and being publicly
• 43:11
  dragged through the mud. Right? Like she went on that Diane Sawyer interview and she's like,
• 43:15
  what did you do to him? Oh, fuck Diane Sawyer. Crazy. But yeah, she makes it seem like this breakup
• 43:23
  was really like a defining moment in her life. Yeah. And what this moment kind of leads us into is
• 43:30
  which I wrote in here. I think it's so freaking funny what I wrote. And I was trying to remember what
• 43:36
  it was. So she's with that they won in only Jason Alexander, you know, Maga's, Maga's newest
• 43:45
  representative. Anytime I hear his name, I think of the guy from Seinfeld. No. And I'm like,
• 43:52
  why was she hanging out? She's fucking because Stan's I wouldn't have shipped it. But here we are.
• 44:00
  Yeah, it probably would have worked out better. Honestly, they might have made a great couple.
• 44:05
  So Jason Alexander, AKA the infamous 48 hour marriage. She starts talking about it and they're
• 44:15
  watching Mona Lisa smile. And then they watch Texas chainsaw massacre. And then they end up in a
• 44:22
  wedding chapel in Vegas. Like I was like, what does? What a progression? Mona Lisa smile.
• 44:30
  To Texas chainsaw massacre. To all getting married. Okay, real quick, real quick. What two movies
• 44:36
  for each of you would lead up to your elopement with your ex-boyfriend from high school?
• 44:41
  Oh my god, non. Okay, which is anyone with like a dumb elopement like Rachel Ross going to the
• 44:48
  chapel. What two movies are you watching first? Oh, fuck. It had to be like the sweetest rom-com of all time.
• 44:55
  Yeah, maybe maybe like a how to lose a guy in 10 days. That's good. I've felt that I feel like it
• 45:02
  needs to be paired with a horror movie. It's absolutely. Stan, he can hold you too. Yeah, then we feel
• 45:10
  all close and intimate. Yeah, maybe I'll go Texas chainsaw massacre, you know reminds me of a childhood
• 45:15
  in a group there. All right, what are you aloping to, Nicole? Maybe 51 states.
• 45:24
  Why? Because you're going to forget the marriage in 48 hours. Well, you know, if I was
• 45:28
  ever in that situation, I would like someone to do that for me. Yeah, that's sweet. That's sweet.
• 45:35
  And then if we have to be scary, I guess I'll go with my iconic Halloween.
• 45:38
  Hmm, no, that's good. That's good. You think you could like jiggle the keys and open the door quickly?
• 45:44
  Yeah. He could jiggle his key into her. That was so dumb. I already married. But what would
• 45:52
  you be trying to do? If I was going to alope, let's think. Okay, so yeah, we would go with rom-com first.
• 45:58
  And I think I would go with oh my god, I can't think of any rom-coms right now.
• 46:05
  Name a rom-com. She's all that now. Oh, that is a good movie. Okay. We'll do she's all that then.
• 46:13
  Okay. And then we'll follow it up with we will follow it up.
• 46:22
  With. Oh my god, I'm like, her red it's her. This was your first movie ever. I know what I didn't even
• 46:28
  have the answer to it. I think okay, evil dead. We'll fill it up with evil dead and then we'll go get married.
• 46:34
  Okay, so now we're all a horror. Yes, now we're all married. And our this is going to be the first of
• 46:40
  like Britney's family seeing someone maybe coming in and taking like their throne, so to speak,
• 46:50
  where they don't like an action that she's taken and they essentially like force her out of it and
• 46:56
  kind of like strong arm her with people are freaking out. You have to get this one known. I love
• 47:02
  the she was like, I didn't see what the big deal was. I thought it was kind of funny. Literally,
• 47:06
  literally I had a friend who would literally always try to fly to Vegas with her boyfriend.
• 47:12
  Like they'd just be like, we literally ended up at Phoenix Sky Harbor last night because we're
• 47:17
  going to go get married. Thank God they didn't, but yeah, I never lived that. I'm getting married.
• 47:22
  She thought it was the funniest thing ever whenever we were like, girl, what? She's a libra.
• 47:27
  She is a libra. So they believe in energy. Big libra energy. Yeah. Oh yeah. You're going to get a
• 47:35
  loke down one of these flights. You're going to go like fly somewhere romantic and have too many
• 47:39
  daiquiris and be like, careful with that movie combo. You know, don't put up the movie. Or do put them
• 47:49
  on if you want. Yeah. That's the sign. Real real mental note that that's the signal. Yeah. Oh my God.
• 47:57
  Just like we heard from Nicole in a few days. Check her Instagram. I'm married. She's in flip flops
• 48:02
  and blue jeans getting married. He made an honest woman out of her car. Something blue. I love that.
• 48:11
  I love that. All right. So this is going to be a two-part episode. So with that being said, baby,
• 48:16
  we will hit you one more time with part two. So where can the people find you? You can find me
• 48:22
  Olivia on Instagram @livimariez L-I-V-I-M-A-R-I-E-Z or on TikTok @livyolife420.
• 48:34
  You can find me, Shauna on Instagram, Threads and TikTok @shaunatrinidad S-H-A-U-N-A-T-R-I-N-I-D-A-D.
• 48:45
  And you can find me Nicole on Instagram and TikTok @nicole_eldridge. You can find all of our links
• 48:52
  and everything else over at our website www.popculturejunkie.com. And don't forget to rate, subscribe,
• 48:59
  leave reviews, download. Download! Give us a five-star. Yes.
• 49:04
  Because it does really help us. And also join our support group over on Facebook and join the
• 49:12
  Britney conversation. And if you read the book, leave us your reviews on the book. And if you
• 49:18
  love to and we will continue to the discussion over there as well because we can definitely go on
• 49:23
  about Brittany for sure. If the two-parter didn't give it, we'd love it. And come back next week for another
• 49:30
  hit of Britney-based pop culture. Pop Culture Junkie is part of the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
• 49:38
  So entertain me, entertain me right now.
• 49:41
  I need it bad, I need it bad.
• 49:45
  I need it bad, I need it bad.
• 49:49
  [MUSIC]