The Feminist Speaks

I am a feminist.  Now, I know what you’re thinking.  Oh boy, here’s a crazy girl who dresses in baggy clothing and goes in front of crowds of people smearing lipstick all over her face and screaming “Is this what you men want?” at the top of her lungs.  I am not a feminist because I believe the media is creating unhealthy images for girls by picturing thin women wearing makeup.  I am a feminist because as long as misogyny exists, so will I.  I am a feminist because I refuse to tolerate women being degraded into words such as “slut” and “bitch.”  I am a feminist because I believe in creating equal opportunity for women.  The true meaning of feminism has been corrupted throughout the years, giving it a negative connotation that causes people to roll their eyes at the mere sight of the word. 

Perhaps my introduction into this broad topic of feminism will start with this simple sentence: I hate Taylor Swift.

I’ve listed and read all of Taylor Swift’s songs and lyrics once and only once.  Whenever her songs come up on the radio, my blood starts to involuntary boil with anger.  Swift lyrics repeatedly feed into patriarchy by looking down upon girls who are not virgins as having poor morals while paying no attention to the behaviors of men.  She plays herself up to be an innocent, pure girl which somehow makes her special and superior to others.  Perhaps the most profound example of this is in the song “Better than Revenge” where she sings “She’s not a saint, and she’s not what you think / She’s an actress, whoa, She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress, whoa.”  The song is about the end of her relationship with teen heart-throb Joe Jonas when he started to date Camille Belle.  Taylor Swift childishly attacks Belle and implies that she is obviously the better one out of the two because of her pureness.

Swift gives into this sexual double standard, implying that women should follow strict abstinence while showing that there is no social judgment for men’s sexual behavior or promiscuity.  Another example of the degradation of girls is in one of her most famous songs, “You Belong With Me” where she deliberately implies that girls who dress “provocatively” in “short skirts” are some sort of sinful witches who try to entice boys whereas her conservative ways wearing “t-shirts” are clearly higher and more wholesome.

In no way am I implying that girls should go wild and crazy and have a bunch of sex.  I am trying to stress that there is a choice involved with choosing to have sex or remain abstinent, and no girl should be looked down upon for her decision as not being ethnically or religiously moral - particularly when women are consistently called “sluts” for their behavior whereas it is seen as natural, human behavior for men to frequently have sex.  Swift gives into the idea of the "virgin/whore dichotomy," suggesting that women can only be viewed in two ways based on their decision to have premarital sex.  She devalues girls who choose otherwise and makes them feel worthless by generalizing them into the "whore" category.

Another reason Taylor Swift is a bad influence on not just girls, but all people in general, is because of her homophobic lyrics where she implies that being gay is wrong.  In the album version of the song “Picture to Burn,” she states “So go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy / That’s fine I’ll tell mine that you’re gay!”  Her childish and immature lyrics suggest that being gay would be a terrible thing.  What’s even more surprising is that she participated in the No H8 campaign, an organization that pictures celebrities with duct tape on their mouth in an effort to increase acceptance of gay members among the community. 

Instead of teaching girls to get back up and move on after a failed relationship, she teaches them to dwell on their emotions and become vengeful against any new girlfriends.  Swift sends the wrong message to girls – they should care about more than just boys after all.

Finally, Swift lives in the past.  When Kanye West interrupted her at the 2009 VMAs, her career exploded.  She kept bringing it up to fuel her fame and score pity points.  Although it was clearly not a nice thing to do, it does not mean that she can’t move on from it like everyone else has.

So news flash Taylor – We will never, ever, ever, find your music clever.