Toxic
Women, Fame and the Noughties
A thrilling reappraisal of pre-MeToo era, The Noughties, told through the stories of some the decade's greatest female stars.
Synopsis
Nine iconic women whose fame in the noughties came at a price. Through their stories, journalist Sarah Ditum describes how each of the women changed ‘celebrity’ forever, despite often falling victim to it, during one of the most hostile eras in which to be female: a time of voracious paparazzi, nihilistic bloggers and aggressive gossip culture.
During this access-all-areas ‘upskirt decade’, many of these celebrities were at the centre of the first moments to go viral on social media. Some became victims of new technology – but they also shaped the way that technology would be used. They were presented with all the riches and market opportunities that the noughties had to offer, as long as they adhered to the new rules of engagement. Toxic: Women, Fame and the Noughties is a fascinating portrait of the early millennium and its cultural impact on women – celebrities or not.
Praise
‘a bracing feminist reappraisal of the pre-#MeToo Noughties’
The Bookseller
‘Living through the 00s, I never realised how casually cruel they were – how cruel we were – to famous women. Toxic is an incendiary page-turner that will make you reconsider the price of fame…and your opinion of Kim Kardashian. It’s a Molotov cocktail hurled at the feet of celebrity culture’
Helen Lewis, author of Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights
‘A Necessary and incisive feminist reckoning with the noughties. Insightful, exhilarating – and horrifying. What were we thinking?
Caroline Criado-Perez, author of Invisible Women
‘Brilliant…really made me realise how no one has pulled back and given an overall story to the last twenty years…It’s clever because it makes me think about now’
Adam Curtis, filmmaker
“Reading Sarah Ditum always brings the world into sharper focus for me, and nowhere more than in this witty yet damning chronicle of a defining decade in the history of fame. TOXIC will make you see with fresh eyes what the attention economy has done to celebrity culture, to nine of the women at its epicenter, and ultimately to all of us”
Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks
‘Top-notch pop-culture commentary—a smart and entertaining look at female celebrity during a decade of immense change.’
Kirkus starred review
‘Ditum’s hotly anticipated book brilliantly captures the prevailing millennial mood of anti-nostalgia, or looking back through newly appalled eyes on the past – in this case an era of prurient, tech-enabled misogyny she christens the “Upskirt Decade”…’
The Guardian
‘Readers will rethink what they thought they knew about some of the most publicized celebrity stories of the early 2000s.’
Publishers Weekly
‘Ditum’s prose is never overwrought, and she treats pop culture with a rare seriousness. She is right to do so. The women who came of age in the noughties are entering middle age, with all the agency that brings. The Woman in Me, Spears’s memoir, published on Tuesday this week, with much-trailed revelations that include her mental decline following the height of her fame.’
Financial Times
‘…Critically engaged, well-researched, colourful without seeming exploitative… a book of serious reportage…For readers interested in real celebrity journalism, which is to say, a broad-minded and incisive take on what it meant to be famous and female in a time where “the more she hurt, the greater the entertainment,” then get off the internet and into a bookshop and ask for Toxic.’
The Irish Times
‘Ditum details the manifold ways in which the public revelled in the downfall of women who had been lauded for their talent, beauty or wealth…While a worthwhile and thoughtful read in its own right, Toxic also serves as a useful companion to Spears’s memoir, The Woman in Me’
The Times
‘a broader account of this febrile period in 21st-century culture, which looks ever more baffling the further we travel from it, has felt long overdue. With the variously disturbing and illuminating Toxic, Ditum has risen to the challenge.’
The Guardian
‘Ditum holds a mirror up to the media world’s misogyny, examining how blogging, social media, and traditional news coverage all played a role in destroying the lives of several famous women. If you’re curious about pop culture or 21st- century feminism, don’t miss Toxic’
Apple Books, Best Books of the Month for January 2024
‘Each of Ditum’s profiles undoes the harsh vilification these starlets suffered while also diving into the cultural factors that contributed to their public denigration’
Booklist
‘This meticulously researched title devotes all of its attentions to the sleazy ways in which women celebrities have been treated throughout contemporary history.’
Library Journal
Toxic ‘digs deep into the particularities of the decade that made public recognition so excruciating for the women who dominated headlines and the collective consciousness at the time. Ditum largely remixes and reframes pre-existing narrative in her book, but the insights she brings to the forefront are startling in their starkness.’
Daily Beast
‘Worthwhile, thoughtful read’
The Sunday Times, Paperbacks Of The Week