Until I downloaded “1989” I really didn’t appreciate Taylor Swift. My brain had stored her as “the really tall country singer girl who started making pop music and I think it pissed everyone off.” I am ashamed to say I pigeon-holed her.
But one day I got Shake it Off stuck in my head, so I listened to the rest of the album and realised that Shake if Off was literally the worst song on there. I loved the rest of the album so much. If you want to know how to write a pure gold pop song she is the fucking bees knees and I admire her for that. I listened to that album until it died. And I still pull it out now and listen from front to back.
So, as is the norm in my world, now you’re stuck with me Tay Tay. I will now check out everything you release and consume it. I tried to back catalogue, but it didn’t take so meh – I will probably try again one day.
Anyhoo – then there was some Kanye related shit and I guess I kind of rode the ride of Reputation. Unlike other hard-core Taylor fans, I probably didn’t really get it or appreciate it because I hadn’t really processed the Kanye incident.
In any case, I watched Miss Americana last week. And I had some feelings. First of all, I finally kind of got hold of the whole Kanye thing and good Goddess. Her absolute devastation at that time I felt that. I get that now. I will probably go back and try Reputation again.
I speak here only of the raw hurt I saw in this young lady talking about what happened. I make no comment about Kanye or his motivations. I saw a young lady who had strived her entire life to be GOOD. To be LIKED. Nobody writes pop songs like that without putting a lot of thought into how it will sell and whether it will be GOOD. I realised this subconsciously I suppose but seeing her pain and angst at being UNLIKED, well I really got it.
It wasn’t just Kanye. She had a sexual assault case going on. Her Mum had cancer. She wasn’t eating because – image guys – image image image. It was a fucking shit show. Aside from all that, there were some political things going on that were starting to really get up Taylor’s arse. And rightfully so. Female representatives from her state (Pennsylvania) were voting against rights for women to access safe abortions and against LGBTQI rights.
Taylor would later even say herself something like she didn’t realise she could advocate for communities she wasn’t part of. I would guess a good girl just isn’t raised that way. That would be “mouthy” right? She was also just emotionally exhausted by the way, but nobody seemed to care when they were giving her lashings in the media for not being mouthy enough. I think my anxiety got triggered.
At one point in this documentary she has a meeting with her family and managers and so forth to literally tell them she is going to write a tweet about all this. You can read that again if you like. She has to virtually tell them she is not asking for permission to write a TWEET. It is a really BIG fucking deal cos she is about to get MOUTHY. I was like a deer in a headlight watching this. I was at once sad, horrified, angry, and mesmerised.
But watching her morph from wanting to be the good girl that everyone liked and into a woman who is like fuck you guys with your sexual assault and bullshit playing it to the boys political shit was just absolute joy. I wanted to reach through the TV, get a really big box and climb up on it, just so I could hug this 178cm mouthy willowy creature which thankfully has now been eating again.
As a side note she is like 15cm taller than me. I can’t even deal with this. She is a fucking gazelle. I love her.
Okay. Look I’m not sure what the point of this rant is other than, we do a lot of judging of these “starlets”. We really do write them off and ride the patriarchy train of judging their looks, and telling them they’re not doing enough, they’re not good enough, they’re not mouthy enough, oh, now they’re too mouthy and blah blah fucking blah.
And I just wanna say, I don’t really care how rich or beautiful Taylor Swift is, she is a fucking HUMAN who makes mistakes and doesn’t know stuff and she is a child trying to navigate some morphed out weird world that isn’t “normal” in any way aka the United States of Amerimedia. So, ya know, yay for the evolution of Taylor and here’s to the mouthy women out there not asking for permission anymore. Oh, and let’s stop pigeon holing people – this goes for me too. Please and thank you.
Also wow this woman just writes the shit out of amazing songs. Folklore is out now and once again I have an album that I can listen to from front to back and I love every track. Give it a listen and let me know what you think.
One Love
