Time magazine ‘Person of the Year’ has been awarded to individuals such as Charles Lindbergh, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King and Volodymyr Zelensky. Joining that rarified air of previous winners is the 2023 recipient Taylor Swift. Really?
Previous winners made significant contributions to society- whether it be scientific innovations or politics. They certainly have made more of an impact than the repetitive, generic love and heartbreak songs produced by Swift.
Such statements will likely place me on the target list for many of her loyal, borderline cult-ish, fanatical followers also known as “Swifties’. To dislike Swift, even casually, can vilify anyone, no matter their gender, as an anti-feminist and misogynist.
Swift’s hypocritical feminist facade can be tracked through multiple instances of her authoritarian attitude towards feminism as a whole. She uses her loyal following to shame other women- simply for cracking a joke at Swift’s expense or dating one of her ex boyfriends. Back in 2013, comedians Tina Fey and Amy Poehler fell victim to Taylor’s wrath after delivering a seemingly harmless joke during the Golden Globes. Swift went on to tell Vanity Fair, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” Swift contorts feminism to cater to her own agenda, almost as if she is using women as pawns in her game…hmm sounds pretty antifeminist to me.
Even her lyrics have been utilized to shame women. In one particular case, Camilla Belle started dating Joe Jonas after Swift, and in Taylor’s song “Better Than Revenge”, she says, “She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress.” A downright rude and shameful lyric made to put women down- the very thing Taylor preaches so intently against. Even though she corrected the lyric in her re-release of the album- the damage is done, and I don’t think correcting her egregious mistake should be giving her the praise she received from the change.
I am not an avid ‘Taylor Swift hater’, but her fanbase forces everyone into a black and white world where people either worship her every move or despise her entirely. Such narrow-mindedness is not nearly as prevalent for other artists and genres as most music fans can account for personal taste instead of throwing their glittery agenda over every poor person not interested in hearing about Swift’s newest heartbreak.
She has her failsafe formula for her song inspiration: breaks up with Joe Jonas, boom “Forever and Always” comes out in her newest album, starts dating Taylor Lautner, a few months later “Back to December” is released. She has been known for this formula, and although it has been effective in gaining her expansive fanbase, she is not writing newfound concepts. Taylor isn’t the only woman who has experienced heartbreak and certainly not the only one to write a good breakup song after the fact.
Credit must be given to her PR team, though, who has managed to make Swift the face of feminism.. Such conditions are disadvantages for multiple reasons. When Swift goes under fire for a poorly thought out comment, suddenly it’s all about women as a whole- not just Swift. Her weaponization of her fanbase to harm the reputations of women who speak poorly of Taylor only hurts the feminist movement.
