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Friday, November 2, 2012
Tournament The Taylor Swift Feminist Debate
Posted by Bree McKenna on Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 3:22 PM
Taylor Swift was already everywhere. She's been clogging up music blogs and magazine covers at grocery stores forever... but this week she released her fourth album and is now completely inescapable. (Nordstrom even has a limited edition Taylor Swift Keds in honor of her new record "Red.") Normally, I would never put that much thought into her since I can't stand her music (and I certainly love myself some mindless pop garbage; Miley, Carly Rae, even Katy), but this week she has sparked a debate: when asked if she considers herself a feminist by Newsweek, she replied:
I don’t really think about things as guys versus girls. I never have. I was raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life.Sigh. That is certainly not what feminism is all about, and it's a bummer to get that view perpetuated to her 10-18 year old female demographic (a Jezebel writer once labelled her as a "feminist's worst nightmare") However, some are saying she is an ambitious, classy hardworking woman who writes her own songs and has accomplished amazing things for a 22 year old, and it's ridiculous to call her a "feminist's nightmare".
Like I said, I just can't get over how much her music sucks (whenever I hear it I feel like I'm in a department store dressing room waiting for someone I'm dating to finish trying on business casual clothing or something—boring and awful.) But she is undeniably a strong female presence in music whether I like her or not. So I will reduce this question to a cheap online poll:
2
oh that's been the problem this whole time- women haven't been working hard enough!
it all makes so much sense
it all makes so much sense
3
I fucking hate the "she writes her own songs" defense when people try to commend Taylor Swift for being this rare gem in the music industry who's somehow more respectable or, at least, not as vapid as other pop stars.
A) No she doesn't. She co-writes shit, like so many other pop stars.
B) WHO CARES if she writes them all by herself when they're BORING.
Hundreds and thousands and bajillions of songwriters write their own songs. THAT IS WHAT A SONGWRITER IS.
No one is like, "Oh man, John Mayer, dude. That guy plays his own guitar parts and writes his own lyrics! So impressive. So refreshing. He's different than other pop stars who work with a team of songwriters and image consultants."
But for whatever reason, when a young, pretty blonde woman, does it, it's treated as this totally amazing, rare, and precious thing.
GAWD. Rant over.
A) No she doesn't. She co-writes shit, like so many other pop stars.
B) WHO CARES if she writes them all by herself when they're BORING.
Hundreds and thousands and bajillions of songwriters write their own songs. THAT IS WHAT A SONGWRITER IS.
No one is like, "Oh man, John Mayer, dude. That guy plays his own guitar parts and writes his own lyrics! So impressive. So refreshing. He's different than other pop stars who work with a team of songwriters and image consultants."
But for whatever reason, when a young, pretty blonde woman, does it, it's treated as this totally amazing, rare, and precious thing.
GAWD. Rant over.
6
Taylor Swift appears to be yet another Dahlia.
The sort of serial female who attracts, then subdues her male prey.
In her wake, as with many psychopaths, a trail of blame, in words and song, all pointed to the other person.
See also, Carrie Underwood.
8
Hey go easy - she had a song about Romeo and Juliet where they walked off into the sunset (with a horse) at the end.
9
Equal parts B and C. True, she's just getting paid, and it's not her fault she's cute as a bug in a rug, cute enough that people will pay to hear her awful music. But unlike, say, Zooey Deschanel, who seems to get a laugh out of embodying a semi-repulsive female archetype for money, Taylor Swift takes herself a little too seriously. She might actually believe she got where she is all by herself thanks to talent and pure gumption.
10
She is not cute. She is not charming or adorable. What she is is image-conscious and FAKE. She is fame-hungry and prestige-hungry. At the same time, she knows that labels want to sell a ton of CDs, and so the two can help each other. Taylor Swift can dive headfirst into the fame machine and the machine can feed off of her. It's a very symbiotic relationship.
I don't mind people playing the game and making a ton of money. I like a lot of big-name stars. However, what's off-putting about Taylor Swift is that she steps off the stage and onto television and magazines and sells us this totally fake (again) sweet-prom-princess image. It's bad enough we can't get away from her music, but we also have to suffer through her little act, and I think it's generating a backlash. I know I'm not the only person who's sick to death of Taylor Swift.
But this wouldn't be such a problem if her songs were good, however they're not. She has trite lyrics and forgettable music. (I do like "Safe and Sound", though. I'll give her that.) Songwriting is hard. Either you have the talent or you don't, and talent isn't like a fancy dress that you can buy. Ten years from now, nobody will remember Taylor Swift. (Durability is the true test of greatness.) Some of her lyrics suggest to me that she knows this deep down (her line about "some indie record much cooler than mine"), so she probably had to make her peace with it. She'll always have the money.
I don't mind people playing the game and making a ton of money. I like a lot of big-name stars. However, what's off-putting about Taylor Swift is that she steps off the stage and onto television and magazines and sells us this totally fake (again) sweet-prom-princess image. It's bad enough we can't get away from her music, but we also have to suffer through her little act, and I think it's generating a backlash. I know I'm not the only person who's sick to death of Taylor Swift.
But this wouldn't be such a problem if her songs were good, however they're not. She has trite lyrics and forgettable music. (I do like "Safe and Sound", though. I'll give her that.) Songwriting is hard. Either you have the talent or you don't, and talent isn't like a fancy dress that you can buy. Ten years from now, nobody will remember Taylor Swift. (Durability is the true test of greatness.) Some of her lyrics suggest to me that she knows this deep down (her line about "some indie record much cooler than mine"), so she probably had to make her peace with it. She'll always have the money.
11
Taylor Swift is buying vacation homes by playing women (and girls) against each other: every song is her vs. "the other woman", who is OBVIOUSLY a slut, whether it's her best friend who has sex in high school or that bitch cheer captain. Maybe TSwift is actually a lovely human being, but she's wholly bought into the idea that the only way to get the guy is to throw every other woman in the world under a fucking bus, and that sucks.
13
I'm getting really impatient for her to leak a sex tape. It's way overdue by this point in her career.
14
So, she was asked if she considered herself a feminist and in response, she abstained from calling herself a feminist (it appears, since you didn't link to the actual interview), and now you'd like to make clear that what she did say about herself is not what feminism is all about?
Thanks for an article about nothing.
Also, please clear something up for me... is feminism about seeking the wisdom of
crowds to determine whether you should consider someone a feminist or not?
Thanks for an article about nothing.
Also, please clear something up for me... is feminism about seeking the wisdom of
crowds to determine whether you should consider someone a feminist or not?
15
No option for "Who is Taylor Swift?"? And what do the rules of punctuation say about those two question marks I just used there?
16
Z: Vapid slutball who thinks that gyrating in a miniskirt before Sunday Night Football qualifies her to talk about feminism how??
17
I bet someone at the record studio told her to drop the F bomb and see where it goes. NExt thing you know hot topic will start selling feminist clothing. Your move fashion gods.
18
@10, don't know if you were referring to my comment, but where I said she was cute I should have used scare quotes because I meant "a suckup getting paid to tell the patriarchy what it wants to hear", and as @11 says, throwing other women under the bus in the process.
19
taylors swift is a GEM...however her current smash hit "we are never ever getting back together" is cowritten by the one and only max martin. yes..a MAN! the same man who created "since u been gone" by kelly clarkson, "i kissed a girl" and nearly every hit by katy perry, "hit me baby one more time" by britney...the list goes on! the message here is that not behind every women is a great man..but that men and women can work together in peace to create TIMELESS COMMERCIAL POP GEMS.
20
I don't think I've ever heard an entire song by Taylor Swift. Where are you hearing/hating so much of her music?
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