A more Indepth review is on my Goodreads but I really liked this one. It reminded me of something you'd read if you were taking a class about the celebrity culture of the 2000s to study.

Toxic was a really interesting deep dive into 2000s tabloid culture and how various female celebrities were treated. I appreciated the various essays and think this author is part of a larger conversation about how we talk about and represent women in the media.

An interesting dive into the early 2000s and how life was toxic for some of the famous females of that time. I did a lot of frowning and head shaking throughout this story. The double standards are just unreal sometimes.
I’m glad that for most of these women life has gotten better and that for the others they are at rest now.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy to review. Going through the late 1990s to mid 2000s, Ditum uses high profile celebrity women to share the ways publicity, misogyny, and racism shaped how culture treated these women. A mix of darned if you do darned if you don't, she highlights the tightrope women have had to walk in the public sphere and the beginnings of this being to be examined. I was disappointed she only had one black woman (she briefly mentions the trouble of labeling someone as white in another chapter) and she also at times went of topic in later chapters. All in all a good read.

Oh wow, a book that brings you back to all the terrible times of the 2000s. Toxic is a perfect title for that decade. This was a deep dive into the nine most prominent female celebrities of that decade and how the media failed them. Some of the chapters were messy and all over the place.

I will preface this review by saying I would not consider myself a non-fiction fan, so my words should be taken with that bias. However, I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one! I found it to be a quick read for being non-fiction and incredibly well-researched and supported. As a millennial who grew up in the late 90s and early aughts, the women written about in this book were the women in the posters on my bedroom door and always on my radio and/or television. It was nice to see them given a redemptive arc as they certainly did not deserve the vilification the media gave them throughout my youth.

Unfortunately, I found the author to be a bit repetitive and I think the book could've been organized in a better way to draw parallels and highlight common themes in the stories of these celebrities. If Ditum had a better editor, I think this book could've been cut down by a third. I also felt like Ditum's stance on how these women were portrayed and victimized wavered far too often and it was hard to understand the point the author was trying to get across. Most of the time it felt like Ditum was a staunch feminist but then she'd write something that felt riddled with shame and judgment. As a result, it made it difficult to take her seriously and worked to delegitimize her point of view.

All in all, I'd give this one 3.5 stars - it was interesting and engaging but perhaps a hair too long!

This book had an interesting premise but ultimately it didn't hold my interest. Would still be interested to see what other nonfiction titles this author will produce in the future though.

Would recommend for fans of…
💫 Britney’s memoir
💫 The Kardashians
💫 Paris in Love

I’ve been interested in celebrity culture and gossip for as long as I can remember. I was the child that would absorb ALL of the tabloid headlines in line at the grocery store, and I even used to check out People and US Weekly from the library. But as the years have passed, I (along with much of society) have started to reflect on the tabloid culture of the early 2000s and how so much of it was just wrong.

That is where Toxic comes in, looking at how nine different women — ranging from Janet Jackson to Lindsay Lohan — were portrayed and mistreated by the media in that era.

I think this book was well intentioned, but in execution it missed the mark. The chapters are unfocused and tangential, and often choose to focus on the people and institutions that brought these women down, rather than keeping the focus on the women themselves. There’s also not a lot of new information introduced, which would be fine if the essays themselves offered interesting reflections (which unfortunately, they don’t).

My opinion would be to skip this book, unless you missed the early 2000s and are looking for a recap. Otherwise, your time is better spent reading and watching the stories of these women in their own words.

Toxic is out now. Thanks to Abrams and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It seems like books exploring the culture of the early aughts are having a moment. Ditum explores the trials of female celebrity through nine household names: Britney, Paris, Lindsay, Aaliyah, Janet, Amy, Kim, Chyna, and Jen. Even though I was on the younger side, I was still part of the public that was judging the "party girls" and talking about the Super Bowl "wardrobe malfunction" and constantly picking sides in any celebrity feud that pitted women against one another. Ditum traces the general treatment of women during this time by the media and the public, in the years where the Internet came in and changed everything and before there was a Me Too movement to protest the release of sex tapes and leaked photos. While each woman's story was not the same, it's interesting to see how, when put together, the patterns of toxicity emerge, leaving me wishing we had all been just a little bit better and a little bit kinder.

There were a few points where the chapters veered to focus on the men in these stories and though the stories couldn't be told without including them, I could have done with a little less time spent on R. Kelly and Justin Timberlake, etc., but overall this is a solid read for anyone interested in a critical look back at a time in the not too distant history of celebrity.

Toxic media culture in the early 2000s has been a popular topic of late, and it’s an interesting one if you’re bringing something new to the discussion with what you write.

If you haven’t read a lot of recent criticism of the topic then this book is a fine catch-all, but if you’ve delved into the subject before, this book doesn’t really express anything new, and it doesn’t necessarily do a better job of expressing what’s already out there.

It’s also a bit of a one-dimensional look at the issue, and though the author says this is what she’s trying not to do, she retroactively applies that values of the current era to a past era without a lot of nuance.

The subjects here are interestingly selected lot, some more sympathetic than others and some a better fit for the topic than others. I’ll give the author credit for including Chyna, who comes up less often than the others in these conversations and whose story was less familiar to me because I don’t follow wrestling. I’m not sure Aaliyah made sense as a subject here, and the inclusion of Kim Kardashian is a problem in a number of different ways.

But the rest, at least, are great examples of what happened during this era, and if you haven’t done a lot of examination of the subject, this is an adequate place to start, though I would encourage readers to seek out content from creators with a more nuanced perspective on the topic. Kate Kennedy’s book and podcast come to mind, as does Natasha Lasky’s 33 1/3 book on Britney Spears’ Blackout.

In "Toxic," Ditum invites readers to revisit a time before the era of second chances and redemption arcs, providing a thought-provoking examination of how the cultural events of that decade continue to influence our present-day understanding of ourselves and our place in the world. A compelling read that offers both insight and reflection on the enduring effects of a truly toxic period in celebrity culture.

I was really excited to read this book when it came up as an option on NetGalley. The topic seemed interesting and I am not ashamed to say that I enjoy following current events in Hollywood. That being said, I really struggled to engage with the book. I skipped around a bit to read things that I was interested in, but as a whole work, I was not the biggest fan.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/2797227/toxic-media-of-early-2000s-hasnt-changed/

I loved this so much. I was pretty young during the 2000s and sometimes either was very confused why these women were being treated the way they did, and other times joined the hatred/misogynistic bandwagon. As I’ve aged and come to realize just how poorly the media handled these women’s lives, I’ve found myself wanting to know more. Ditum provides so much context and information and really places you in this 2000s world. Highly recommend.

Coming off the heels of reading Britney’s memoir, I really enjoyed the way this book analyzed celebrity women in the 2000s and the things that the media (and the public) did to them. There were one or two of them whose stories I didn’t know, so I enjoyed getting a deeper dive into their histories and honestly am so grateful that I was young in the 2000s and wasn’t a public figure.

📚: Toxic: Women, Fame, and the Tabloid 2000s by Sarah Ditum
⭐️: 3/5

In another life, had I become some sort of sociology teacher, I would use Toxic: Women, Fame, and the Tabloid 2000s as a textbook to show the time that I came of age to those that didn't have the blessing (curse?) of living through it.

So does that mean I spent a day or so reading essentially a textbook about my high school and college years? Yes. 

It's hard to rate this one, as from living during it, I found myself yelling (silently, mentally) corrections as I read. (How does one cover Brad & Jen's divorce and miss the correct "sensitivity chip" quote? How does one not tie Abercrombie & Fitch as a key player in early aughts American culture? So much was packed in here, but also so much was missed - a little less biographical detail about some (the Britney chapter felt like a biography with redundant information that simply sets the scene of her life at a superficial level) could have been done to plug in more nuanced cultural bits from this era.  

Thanks to @abramsbooks via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Toxic: Women, Fame, and the Tabloid 2000s is out later this month on January 23rd.

This was a fascinating look at six women and how they were treated during the early aughts. The author looks at these women through the lens of tabloids and paparazzi and how the limelight either broke them or how they managed to not be broken.

Sarah Ditum brings us a provocative deep dive into the lives of nine women across various pop culture dimensions who's names flooded the headlines of the 2000s. A few were musicians, a couple reality TV stars, actresses, and even a WWE star. While it can be read in any order, the chapters do build on each other, almost like episodes in a series. Ditum touches on important aspects of sexism, racism, classicism, as well the impact of modern technology to the start and 'end' of the so-called Upskirt Decade.

For a book focused about women in the tabloid 2000s, I feel that Ditum frequently sidestepped their stories with a focus on the roles other famous males had on their lives. This is seen in the Aaliyah chapter (heavy focus on R. Kelly), the Britney chapter (we get a whole career background on Justin), Jen Aniston (another career background on her partner at the time, Brad), and so on. I'm not sure if the male focus was particularly on topic, but it was interesting enough that it didn't bother me too much.

Speaking of strange contextual information, I felt like drawing connections between tabloid 2000s, the Upskirt Decade, and 9/11 was too much of a reach for me personally.

All in all, I did enjoy this book and give it a solid 4/5. Quick, easy read that provides some interesting facts about a traumatic period in pop culture. Thank you NetGalley and Abrams Press for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a new look at 9 celebrities in the 2000s. They are part of how women are seen today, the good an the bad. Sarah Ditnum writes a great look into how things are shaped by celebrities and their lives and how we all look at things through the lens of celebrity.

I’m so glad this era is being reexamined! This was done so well and I think it would be so great as a documentary or docuseries. Incredible that we tolerate the treatment of anyone like that and called it entertainment. As a millennial woman, it was also fascinating to think of how much these stories and portrayals shaped the way we thought of ourselves as well. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!