I don’t believe in shaming women for their natural figures at all, but for the love of God, why did Elle Magazine do this to poor Taylor Swift? She’s a tall, lanky girl and this jumpsuit – with vertical stripes!!! – is just ten kinds of wrong on her. It does terrible things to her figure. The rest of the editorial is like this too – like Swifty is trying to exploit some of the worst parts of ‘70s fashion. You can see Elle’s cover package here. In the interview, Swifty is mostly talking about music and boys and predictably, she’s pretty full of it at times. Some highlights:
A not-so-veiled reference to Harry Styles: “Shake It Off” and “Clean” were the last two things we wrote for the record, so it shows you where I ended up mentally. “Clean” I wrote as I was walking out of Liberty in London. Someone I used to date—it hit me that I’d been in the same city as him for two weeks and I hadn’t thought about it. When it did hit me, it was like, Oh, I hope he’s doing well. And nothing else. And you know how it is when you’re going through heartbreak. A heartbroken person is unlike any other person. Their time moves at a completely different pace than ours. It’s this mental, physical, emotional ache and feeling so conflicted. Nothing distracts you from it. Then time passes, and the more you live your life and create new habits, you get used to not having a text message every morning saying, “Hello, beautiful. Good morning.” You get used to not calling someone at night to tell them how your day was. You replace these old habits with new habits, like texting your friends in a group chat all day and planning fun dinner parties and going out on adventures with your girlfriends, and then all of a sudden one day you’re in London and you realize you’ve been in the same place as your ex for two weeks and you’re fine. And you hope he’s fine. The first thought that came to my mind was, I’m finally clean. I’d been in this media hailstorm of people having a very misconstrued perception of who I was. There were really insensitive jokes being made at awards shows by hosts; there were snarky headlines in the press—”Taylor Goes Through a Breakup: Well, That Was Swift!”—focusing on all the wrong things.
Writing songs about love: “I’d never been in a relationship when I wrote my first couple of albums, so these were all projections of what I thought they might be like. They were based on movies and books and songs and literature that tell us that a relationship is the most magical thing that can ever happen to you. And then once I fell in love, or thought I was in love, and then experienced disappointment or it just not working out a few times, I realized there’s this idea of happily ever after which in real life doesn’t happen. There’s no riding off into the sunset, because the camera always keeps rolling in real life. It’s magical if you ask anyone who has ever fallen in love—it’s the greatest. Now I have more of a grasp on the fact that when you’re in a state of infatuation and you think everything that person does is perfect, it then—if you’re lucky—morphs into a real relationship when you see that that person is not in fact perfect, but you still want to see them every day.”
She’s not going to rebel against her image: “As far as the need to rebel against the idea of you, or the image of you: Like, I feel no need to burn down the house I built by hand. I can make additions to it. I can redecorate. But I built this. And so I’m not going to sit there and say, “Oh, I wish I hadn’t had corkscrew-curly hair and worn cowboy boots and sundresses to awards shows when I was 17; I wish I hadn’t gone through that fairy-tale phase where I just wanted to wear princess dresses to awards shows every single time.” Because I made those choices. I did that. It was part of me growing up. It wasn’t some committee going, “You know what Taylor needs to be this year?” And so with 1989, I feel like we gave the entire metaphorical house I built a complete renovation and it made me love the house even more—but still keeping the foundation of what I’ve always been.
I actually like what she says about not being made by a committee, so there’s nothing to really “rebel” against. It’s true, she was never a Disney girl and she wasn’t stage-managed into oblivion by overzealous parents. Her transition from girl to woman has been messy at times, but it’s been her own journey. Which is why I wish she would stop complaining about the “really insensitive jokes” made at her expense. She owns so much of her life, good and bad. Why is she incapable of laughing at herself? Why can’t she acknowledge that parts of her life were and are messy and complicated and funny? I mean, she’s mad hundreds of millions of dollars writing blind –item burn songs. It IS funny. And she should be happy to get the last laugh.
Photos courtesy of Michael Thompson for ELLE.
I mean, she’s right. Literally no other celebrity but poor, victimized Taylor has ever been bashed in the media. And she hasn’t benefitted from her perpetual victim status AT ALL.
You guise, why is her life so unfair?
For someone so minimally talented you would think she would thank her lucky stars on a minute by minute basis for her success.
Yet when someone made a stupid joke about Zendaya’s hair, everyone wanted to get the torches and pitchforks.
I personally believe both ladies should be able to deal with a little derision, as should male celebrities. That’s what happens when you put yourself in the public eye.
God I don’t even know why I’m taking the bait here – I mean what on earth has Zendaya got to do with this? But seriously there’s a difference between someone making ‘a stupid joke’ and a racist one. Zendaya was totally right and amazing for not just laughing that off.
But aaaaaaaaaaaanyway back to the matter at hand yeah I wish she would just stop, like I thought with Blank Space etc. she’d gotten to a point where she was having fun with and laughing at her own image which made her instantly so much more likeable and yeah *sigh*
Pip
Z has been attacked outside of racist comments (eyeborws/nails/acting/singing). How she gets defended comes from how she presents herself and handles these moments. With complete class and intelligence.
Swifty could have this too. She just has to learn to take a joke or how to not comment. Sooner she learns this the better.
Minimally talented? Haha!
She’s very, very successful and awarded, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s the most talented. It means that she was in the right place at the right time – she came around at a time when there was a desire for wholesome ‘authenticity’ in pop. But realistically, her songwriting lacks maturity and depth. She did an excellent job for a teenager, but you can tell it’s the work of a teenager.
Yes Liz. Minimally talented. Weak voice, basic grasp of a few instruments. No dance skills whatsoever. Childish lyrics from a woman pushing 30 in the next few years. Appalling actress.
Minimally. Talented. Ha. Ha. Ha.
@BritaBae I’m just gonna go ahead co-sign.
On another note is anyone else curious about what’s gonna happen when she hits 35 and her voice has changed and her blind item teen songs stop selling.
Will she have a sense of humor then ?
Will she launch a lifestyle brand?
Do I even care?
Hmm no..
Also that jumpsuit.. why?
THANK. YOU.
That’s exactly what keeps me from really liking her. She’s just unable to take a joke. Humorless people must have a terrible time getting through life.
we forget she is still young. I can remember not always being so very mature at her age. I was an idiot in my twenties too,
Me, too, but I could always laugh at myself.
Exactly what I thought. I think she’s kind of darling. Earnest is the adjective that jumps to mind. She understands exactly what she’s doing (whether it’s the boys she dates or anything else that I don’t have the wherewithall to consider more deeply) and is kind of blindsided to discover that not everyone else gets it. It’s not the kind of malicious self-absorption of, say, (insert Kardashian/Jennerof your choice here), it’s a form of myopia that I think is peculiar to creative types.
She might be young but she’s been in the biz for a long time, and I find it a bit strange that she would still get upset over things that most of us would laugh at. Mind you, I’ve always had a self-deprecating sense of humor, so maybe I can’t see where she’s coming from?
Still, I find it strange that she can’t laugh at herself, because she doesn’t seem to be totally humorless (her IG posts about her cats are often really funny).
she isnt young in the sense of being unable to take a joke, if she was 14 fine, she is 25! And in this business for a looong time. she is a grown up by all factors expect for her behaviour.
GNAT: If someone had mocked me publicly when I was 20 about dating too many boys, I’d be embarrassed and devastated. Seriously.
Liv, she wrote songs about the guys and coyly alluded to who they might be. If she is that embarrassed maybe she should pull all CDs and music from that period.
This is not a case where someone uncovered some secret and posted it on youtube.
True, and I’m not saying that she’s not whiny sometimes – but I totally get that she was hurt about the joke. GNAT said she would laugh about it, but I remember being her age and I think you’re not that self-onfident then. At least I wasn’t. Talking about boyfriends in songs is one thing, being mocked because of the people you dated another.
I don’t agree with everything she does, but she’s right about Tina’s and Amy’s joke in my opinion. We want women to do and date what and who they want, but what you think teenage girls feel when people make fun of her because she dated around?
I agree though that she should let it go now. She pointed it out in recent interviews, no need to do that over and over again.
@Liv: If you don’t want your love life to be public fodder, don’t be the one to make it public fodder in the first place. Problem solved.
Liv and goofpuff,
I hear you about her being young. I’m not saying she shouldn’t be temporarily stung by criticism. Most of us are, at any age. But she should, by 25, be able to let it go. She keeps whining about it over and over, as Liv pointed out. She really, seriously thinks she has been treated harshly because a few people made jokes about her. I think for her OWN sake, she should learn to see the humor, or at least brush it off.
Did you not participate in my Taylor Swift 25th birthday pledge? You were supposed to raise your right hand and say “I do solemnly swear that I will never again dismiss any stupid words and/or behavior from Taylor Swift ever again on the basis of her pseudo-perpetual and undying youth” while setting a unicorn puppet on fire.
Jesus, people will excuse her behavior forever because she’s “only”…TWENTY-FIVE!!! Twenty-five people, not twelve!
@Bridget- Stop using common sense on Taylor Swift posts!
@We Are All Made Of Stars
Can I have a unicorn puppet?
You can’t have it both ways, you can’t write songs about your relationships and then say the topic is off limits and don’t you dare make jokes at my expense. She has nothing to complain about but she refuses to drop it. Tina and Amy made many jokes that night, why is Taylor the only one still whining?
Someone who wrote “Shake it off” should take their own advice. Otherwise, next album should be “Grudge Girl”. That said, she sounds emotionally very, very young. Like some of her epiphanies might have come from a person in their mid/ late teens.
ETA: AnnE Hathaway isn’t being so AnnE Hathaway, these days, so someone* needed to pick up the slack (and AnnE got much more than one snarky comment aimed at her).
*footnote: see Taylor Swift and RDJ.
“she sounds emotionally very, very young. Like some of her epiphanies might have come from a person in their mid/ late teens”
100% THIS. I think her intellectual/business self may have grown – but her emotional self seems so stunted. Even the stuff about “I’m all about my girlfriends now” sounds like it’s not coming from a strong actionalized young woman, but more like a high-school cheerleader who broke up with the quarterback.
Yes! EXACTLY. I Think you find that a lot with celebrities, especially ones that have been in the biz since they were young. They have the luxury of not having to toughen up and hear the word “no”
@mia:
“high-school cheerleader who broke up with the quarterback. ”
THAT is Taylor Swift. it reflects in everything she does from what she says and who she dates. she cant just date a decent guy, it has to be a famous heartthrob.
By that logic, Max Martin should be the one shaking things off 🙂
Exactly Me GNAT, I can’t stomach This chick and it’s precisely because of this, you are driving a certain narrative/look and then when it doesn’t land or people mock the transparency and ridiculousness of it all it’s all pouty-stomping about ” This Ain’t Feminist you guyssss! – Shut Up Girl
As has been said by many before, sometimes I almost feel like I want to maybe possibly like her. Then she puts on her victim dress and she loses me every time. She’s such a baby, my god. It’s been multiple years since the ONE incident when Amy and Tina made a good natured joke at her expense. But princess snowflake Taylor just couldn’t stand being the butt of the joke, so she’s STILL whining about it. What does she want them to do, write a formal apology in their own blood so she can finally get over it? I have no sympathy for her, none whatsoever. I mean, she literally complained about snark in the same interview in which she alluded to “an ex.” Still playing that same game, yet whining about being called out for her little blind items at the same time. She says the media was focusing on all the wrong things, but she was the author of her own image. Grow up Tay Tay.
Preach!
Agree.
Amy and Tina were even very gracious about it, and it was such a mild joke!
Ding, ding, ding! I so want to like this girl and there have been times when I almost do and then she starts whining again and I just can’t.
Well said.
Gurl, you’re in the wrong profession unless you have a sense of humor. I have lost a lot of people to early deaths. Had I not been able to laugh at the absurdities of it all, I wouldn’t have survived. Grow up.
She desperately needs to attain a sense of humour.
Also most people live in the same place as their ex’s and manage not be be consumed with thoughts of them. It’s weird that she’d think that not getting in a tizzy over the fact that you’re in the same city as a guy you dated for a few weeks a while ago is some sort of accomplishment. That kind of thing is why she got a rep for being a bit unhinged when it comes to her romantic entanglements.
Well before 25 I think you realize people you date for a few months aren’t exes. I do like her I just think she still needs to mature.
It’s a little irritating how she seems to think that despite her writing negative songs about people (which aren’t even jokes), nobody can dare say a thing about her even in pure jest. Lighten up lady. You’re young, hot, successful. All celebrities get made fun of.
Her looking bad in the vertical stripe is still a dream for most women. No lumps and bumps! In real life a tall lanky person would most likely never do it bc it goes against dressing for body type. But still, she’s blessed!
Well, most women don’t have the luxury of 20 hours of photoshop being applied to their pictures either…
I question this. As a tall person, it’s really, REALLY hard to find a jumpsuit that fits properly without being too short waisted, camel toe inducing, or flood pant making.
Poor styling – and Taylor really needs to relax and have a laugh at all the relationship jokes, she’s at the crest of a PR wave at the moment but her control freak tendencies keep breaking out! I empathise – I’m a bit like that as well – but she needs to let it go…
“Good morning beautiful” text?? Ick, I’d hate that. I just cannot take her talking about her old relationships like they were these long lasting love affairs. She dated harry styles for a couple months, for the love of God. He was 18 and she was in her 20’s. Let’s not pretend it would be difficult to be in London, one of the world’s largest cities, because he might have also been there. This is why people mock her. And if I hear her pouting one more time about that Tina Fey/Amy Poehler joke…
Good Lord. The cricism isn’t even that bad. Its a couple jokes. Lighten up.
Being famous does not remove having your feelings hurt… by being mocked. By the world wide media. Or on a awards show.
Especially about men. When you never dated, before you were 20.
Then add to it, being wealthy and with a lot fame. Does not make you mature enough to deal with grown men… using you. Then dumping you. Then shagging your very famous friends. I have to say, I believe that would have to suck, to see that all over the tabloids.
What so many of us go through in our mid to late teens. With those evil ass high school girls – allege friends – sh*t talking about you. Is never a positive thing to deal with…
Taylor got to experience in the glare of the tabloids. And I suspect she is still maybe all of 17 years old, in maturity. But she seems to be learning more, about keeping her dating life a little more private.
So y’all keep on sh*t talking Taylor. I am still going to like her. And her lack of awareness. 🙂
Doesn’t she have anyone close to her who isn’t a sycophant, who might encourage her not to repeat the victim mantra based on a couple of jokes?
I completely agree with this assessment! I think she will get to a place where she can laugh at herself eventually.
I can’t be the only one that wishes she would talk more about her cats and less about her exes.
Look, I like her too and I understand that her feelings were hurt but it’s bizarre to me that she’s STILL complaining about one relatively harmless joke from a couple years ago. It just makes her seem ridiculously self-conscious and fragile.
I really hope for her own sake that she learns to toughen up.
i wish those cats had a vlog
Does it work both ways?
What about Taylor who date Conor Kennedy when he was 17 right after his mother died. She basically used Conor then dumping him, then mocked him and wrote an album about it for world to hear.
This. She basically used grieving 17-year old Connor when Harry Styles dared to kiss an ex-girlfriend he had a drink with while on tour after he and Taylor had met and flirted by text a few times and had one dinner together. She flipped out, dated Connor, while still taking Harry’s texts and calls, then dumped Connor when Harry started pursuing her hard core and said he’d be all in on a relationship. She’s done the same thing to others that she claims to have been so hurt over.
I want to like her because she’s a rather brilliant business woman killing it in a completely male dominated field but her complete lack of self-awareness and inability to laugh at herself prevent me from getting there. Her victim routine gets tiring, especially when she has zero issues doling out the mean girl in her songs for anyone who she perceives wronged her, not just exes.
Frankly I never bought into the 60 Minutes Roll Model Rollout and I also don’t buy into the Girl Wunderkind Businesswoman Extraordinnaire routine either. She has the maturity level of a fried egg and essentially left school after 10th grade, but we’re expected to believe that she knows enough about business and finance to helm a pop empire. Riiight. Daddy and Mommy and an enormous team of professionals stage manage her in every way.
I also can’t believe that anybody seriously believes that she isn’t manufactured and stage managed to the hilt just because she didn’t come off of Disney. Neither did Justin Beiber, Harry Styles, or Ariana Grande. I rest my case.
Don’t enable and encourage her nonsense, she’s 25, not 17. Yes, it’s rough to be bullied, I know, but part of the experience is coping with it and learning how to deal with it. I’m not saying it’s okay to bash Taylor, I’m saying she needs to drop the “poor me”, “Tina and Amy were mean to me” narrative. It’s BS, she has no concept of what it means to be a victim and she needs to stop pretending she has cause to complain. There are people in the world going through real problems, not making them up like she is doing.
You really need a funny bone and a backbone living a celebrity life especially when you add to the energy in putting yourself out there on instragram, etc…. c’mon Taylor. You can do it!
It’s tiring to read the same thing in every interview. But maybe she has a point. She got hurt by those jokes and comments, that’s why she keeps taking about it. Maybe it’s her therapy. She has a very controlled image and has to know about the reaction to her interviews. Comments often get ott, people think it’s funny. We are all human and have emotions, no matter how much money we have.
Yes, but she’s a public persona, and acknowledges this as far as the face she puts before the public, in her dress etc. Just stop talking about it to the press. Annoy your friends with this business. People her age are contending with much more; their own heartbreak, sometimes meanness, coupled with student debt, lack of good paying jobs, paying the rent, etc. She needs to put this in perspective. If a few jokes about your dating is the worst thing that ever happens to you, you have it pretty damned good.
In fact, some real adversity might do Taylor some good.
I see your point but I disagree about the public figures. If they are hurting they should be able to tell so. Wouldn’t it be lying otherwise? I don’t think they should pretend/ put on face just for my entertainment. Hurt is hurt. She is talking about herself/ her problems in her interview. She’s not trying to diminish my problems or anyone’s by doing so.
But of course it’s not very entertaining to talk about it in every interview. I just think they have the right to say what they feel or think, makes sense to me.
mädchen, she’s done it a million times. One time would have sufficed. The joke wasn’t extreme. If she has mental/emotional issues, she should resolve them with a psychologist. If something THAT innocuous causes so much colossal damage to your psyche, that you have to continue to repeat it in a public way, over and over, there comes a point where you should assess your response versus whatever you consider the assault. Look up ‘narcissistic injury’. There is cognitive dissonance here in that Taylor made a living out of her relationships, and songs about them.
It is unhealthy to be this emotionally damaged by such a tiny slight.
She keeps talking about it because it gets her the poor Taylor attention that she build part of her career on. She can’t promote an album with out it, in the past it was about her Ex’s, then Katy Perry “mean girling her” now this.
It’s also consistent with her self-made image of the unpopular but sweet and innocent good girl.
I am actually looking forward to a more recent interview. This one was made the morning of the Grammys. I want something post Brits, including Calvin Harris.
I doubt she would talk directly about him, but I want to read her thoughts about love & relationships now that she cant keep talking about being single.
So it’s okay for her to write songs about every Tom, Dick and Harry she dates for a month but no one is allowed to write anything negative about her. Got it.
All these whining celebrities need to find another line of work.
First off, if you can’t handle the (mild for her really) criticism that comes with being a celeb, go be something else. Secondly if that jumpsuit makes her look so awful, it won’t work on any human in existence.
She may be a lot of things but dumb she is not. I don’t know, I’m still holding to the hope that time and growth will help her develop a sense of humor. What she says about her image, making her own decisions and not being a comitee is absolutely on point, though. Not many celebs can say that about themselves (esp not the youngest ones).
If you believe that.
Yeah, I believe it. She hasn’t proven me wrong so far.
P.R. rule #1: Never, ever complain about your press.
Spot on, a “normal” celeb would be thrilled to have Tina and Amy make a joke about them on National TV, only our precious little snowflake gets permanently bent out of shape, it’s not an attractive look.
She is becoming really over exposed. I think these celebs surround themselves with such yes men, that hearing anything negative or joking becomes a hyper big deal to them.
It’s not her whining that keeps me from liking her, if she wants to wail, let her wail (as I imagine that having jokes made at your expense probably sucks), but everything about her seems so calculated and forced, that’s why I can’t get behind her. She’s wants so badly to be loved and adored by everyone that I don’t believe anything she does is genuine.
Waaaaa. Maybe stop acting like a crazy cat lady in training desperately trying to manipulate public perception by “concentrating on girlfriends”, dropping that schtick without comment, then moving on to the next cat purchase. That might help.
Doesn’t anyone want to talk about the spangled jumpsuit and red stilettos? Or her love of her own armpits? According to the internet, [Swift’s] armpits = feminism. I’ll remember to strike that pose next time I’m asking for a raise.
It’s amazingly awful, what were they thinking? She can wear so many things and they pick this disco reject, very odd. And then shiny red shoes because it just wasn’t an ugly enough look. At least she has nice armpits.
Bob Dylan wrote the masterpiece Like a Rolling Stone by her age, considered by Rolling Stone Magazine as the greatest song of all time and in its influence at that time musically. She writes country-lite/pop-lite music about her love life, which while catchy, is not game-changing, and she is making a fortune. Stop whining.
That’s all I’ve got.
“The most stunning thing about “Like a Rolling Stone” is how unprecedented it was: the impressionist voltage of Dylan’s language, the intensely personal accusation in his voice (“Ho-o-o-ow does it fe-e-e-el?”), the apocalyptic charge of Kooper’s garage-gospel organ and Mike Bloomfield’s stiletto-sharp spirals of Telecaster guitar, the defiant six-minute length of the June 16th master take. No other pop song has so thoroughly challenged and transformed the commercial laws and artistic conventions of its time, for all time.”
This one needs to shut up. Talk about LOVING to be the victim. Heavens to Betsy, she is annoying as her songs / voice.
Taylor has a classic case of dishing it out but not being able to take it.
She built a financial empire and has had great success on acting out teenage angst in music. The problem is, she burned everyone (nearly) who got close to her and there are repercussions for that unfortunately. She’s not happy but she made a ton of money hurting, pointing at and laughing at and PUBLICLY shaming other people who she said hurt her. That kind of thing is going to pile up eventually and burn you in return.
The Katy Perry thing was revealing. The dancers thing – that was never on Katy. Katy made an offer, it was the dancers who broke their contract with Swift because, as they said themselves, they had more fun with and liked working with Katy Perry instead. People get competing offers when they’re good in their field. There’s an entire profession called head hunting for this reason. Taylor being hurt and projecting it onto Katy said to me she has poor business skills and poor understanding of business. This extends to her personal relationships too it seems. It is Swift’s parents who finesse her career, not Swift. Her parents are very successful finance and business people.
Girl needs a great therapist. It’s overdue. I wish her well and hope she pursues that avenue because she needs it. Building success on something that ends up making you unhappy is a recipe to disaster.
What a humorless human being…
Also, I think she’d benefit from being alone for awhile. She sounds like she’s incapable of that. That she replaced her boyfriend with her girlfriends and “planning dinner parties with them”… Just be alone for awhile.
She comes across very humourless!!
Maybe I’m wrong…but if I had her financial situation I wouldn’t be upset about what people thought of my dating life. CHILL!
I like Taylor but she does seem to take herself too seriously sometimes. The criticism she gets from the public is NOTHING compared to what the Kardashians or even Anne Hathaway or say Guilliana Rancic get. Taylor is generally well received by the public imo. A few haters are part of the territory with great success in any field and are to be expected.
And about that jumpsuit – it adds lbs even to Taylor, so I think it’s safe to say nobody should wear it!
I agree that her hangups about being mocked are probably the one part of her personality that really still needs to mature. I do think she takes a fair bit of flak that does have a sexist undertone – the girl didn’t date any more than your average young person, and I find it really glaring that Sam Smith has built his career on a similar theme without the backlash – but it should feel more empowering than anything else. People make fun of her love life, undermine her accomplishments, and then try to knock her down, and she’s still killing it at the Billboard 100 well past the age where a lot of teen phenomena fade out. Own it, girl, and then laugh all the way to the bank.
Taylor, I’m actually a fan of yours. BUT PLEASE STOP WHINING! These articles are not doing you any favors.