Let me just start by saying: I AM NOT HERE TO MAKE EXC– USES FOR TAYLOR SWIFT.
We good? We good. As a feminist, Taylor is pretty bad but, she’s not the worst. Sure her passing Bad Blood off as a feminist anthem was pretty low and the fact that her initial response to Nicki Minaj’s tweets about the way awards are given was to claim Nicki was being anti-feminist was kind of strange but overall she’s not a bad person.
Again, let me be clear– not here to make excuses for this white girl. She might procure the occasional bop, date some attractive people, and have one of the coolest (and whitest) group of friends– excluding Lena Dunham– but…. I just don’t consider myself a fan. However, I am a feminist and as a feminist I do find myself defending her a lot. For example, I’ve heard people trying to discredit her career and pass her success off as something her boyfriends gave to her. That pisses me off. Her career is her career and obviously, just like any male artists have worked for their careers– Taylor worked for hers.
She’s mediocre, I get that, but who’s to say she doesn’t work hard at it? I mean, the poor girl gets so much crap from artists who would prefer to look down on her and claim responsibility for the fact that she’s worth a crazy ton of money (Kanye) that it’s amazing she finds time to handle her business. But, she does.
With the Kanye situation, she handled it in a way she felt it should be handled. Everybody is allowed to deal with stuff like that the way they want and she chose to handle it her way. And when she made the mistake of ticking dear old Nicki off, she fixed it. She understood her mistake and apologized. The only people who made it a big deal were the thousands of media that were posting about it. Nobody else, just them.
And look, her concerts might be super expensive but they’re not the only ones! And though I’ve never been, if the fact that Mick Jagger randomly pops up at a few of them means anything to you, I’d say they might be worth the money if you can afford it. Taylor’s done things like host parties for fans, given out free tickets and meet & greets, replied to fans dealing with bullies, and made sure that the people who support her also feel supported. I can get behind that. Still, I can’t get behind the appropriation in her videos and how she doesn’t talk much about other movements within feminism. But I understand that just saying you’re a feminist doesn’t mean you really understand what it means. Taylor is young so we should give her the chance to learn. Why do we expect so much from her? We allow ourselves to grow but not her? It doesn’t seem fair.
I support any artist and woman who manages to come out on top of all the naysayers and wrong doers. I support Taylor for making sure she has a good career and that she has fun achieving her dreams. I wouldn’t buy her albums or anything but I’ll still support her in other ways, like defending her against sexist trash bags. Oh, and for anyone still confused about her hesitance to work with Apple, she basically had the same reasons as Prince (they both wanted to be paid for their music and to keep control of their music and images alike). So instead of always jumping on the “We Hate Taylor Boat” think about why you hate her. Maybe you’ll join the “Taylor’s Okay But I Don’t Really Like Her” train.
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