Update: Taylor Swift must have been feeling the heat, y’all. She just tweeted this:
I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke. I'm sorry, Nicki.
@NICKIMINAJ
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) July 23, 2015
Original post as follows:
Has the Taylor Swift backlash begun? Maybe. Following Swifty’s faux-feminist, tone-deaf tweets to Nicki Minaj on Tuesday night, many pop-culture professionals (yes, that’s a thing!) are giving The Swift Domination another look. Katy Perry’s very pointed and strategic tweets help with the analysis, because any discussion about Taylor Swift inevitably includes her ability to pick fights and slam other artists (not to mention ex-boyfriends) while still retaining her lily-white-perfect-princess image.
Salon wrote a think piece called “The inevitable Taylor Swift backlash begins: Watching the critical mad love crumble, right on schedule.” That view seems to be that this is all part of some kind of Tall Poppy Syndrome, that we simply want successful people (particularly women) to fail after they’ve reached a certain amount of success. I kind of feel like that argument – with regards to Swift in particular – is bullsh-t. Swifty has had major messaging/hypocrisy issues for years and it’s really nice to see her get called out for it at long last.
Gawker also did a lengthy analysis of The Problem With Swifty called “Taylor Swift Is Not Your Friend” – you can read it here. The TL;DR version: Swifty’s friendships are business and she’s not a feminist, she’s a capitalist. She’s selling a feminism-lite version of empowerment and professional “friendships” for profit.
And here’s an interesting piece of Swifty news – she’s partnering up with a Chinese retailer to sell Swifty-approved clothes to Chinese youths. She’s not doing out of a desire to see Chinese kids dressed in harnesses, plaid miniskirts and midriff-baring tops though – The Daily Beast’s sources say that Swifty was irritated that the Chinese site Alibaba had “hundreds and hundreds of pages of pirated merchandise of all kinds, none of which were authorized, none of which [Swift] was making money on, and none of which she was exercising creative control over.” Meaning Swifty wants her cut. But here’s what’s funny – she’s probably going to be selling her T.S. 1989 shirts/sweatshirts/whatever, because that’s her latest album. Tiananmen Square was in 1989 too. Chinese authorities really don’t want a lot of kids wearing “TS 1989” shirts!
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
I can’t believe people are hating on Taylor for what she tweeted. Nicki’s tweet WAS about her (she’s the only skinny white girl nominated in the category) and she didn’t even say anything mean about Nicki.
There’s valid reasons to dislike Taylor Swift, but this isn’t one of them.
Except:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/elliewoodward/nicki-minajs-faved-tweets-prove-her-vmas-comments-were-about#.feanY8Eppd
except it wasn’t about her until she MADE it about her. and the only artist Nicki actually referenced…was Miley
Agree to disagree. Taylor is a sheltered narcissists what needs to be taken down a peg. The tweet was phony and manipulative and got her press while another artist, again, getting attacked for having an opinion. If Nikki flat out said her name that would be a different conversation. Nikki was vague and did not say her name. Taylor does that crap all the time and, crickets.
Sigh! All of the coverage and analysis is on this site and many others @GlimmerBunny. It’s not just about poor Taylor and one little tweet.
No.
Except it wasn’t about Taylor until Taylor made it about Taylor. Nicki really wasn’t talking about or to Taylor at all. If she was referring to anyone specifically, she was referring to Miley and Wrecking Ball.
And Taylor’s tweet about inviting Nicki onstage and basically giving Nicki permission to share the stage with THE Taylor Swift was patronizing and condescending. And the height of narcissism. Not to mention totally tone deaf given the point Nicki was trying to make about racial dynamics and privilege in the entertainment industry.
^THIS x 100
Has Nikki ever spoke much of racial dynamics or spoken on anything about #blacklivesmatter? Because if not, then how convenient that now she cares when it’s all about her terrible song not getting nominated. Talk about narcissism.
@claire – http://www.bet.com/news/music/2014/12/30/nicki-minaj-speaks-on-eric-garner-in-rolling-stone.html
@Claire She has. I remember reading some heartbroken tweets from her about the verdict of the Trayvon Martin case (RIP). She also talks frequently about how education and such is important for her fanbase and other things that I’m blanking out on.
Claire, are you really suggesting that unless black people tweet about every issue related to the black experience than they have no right to ever bring up their own experiences? Are black people required to be a monolith of activism? Please correct me if I’m wrong, but that is what it sounds like you’re saying.
@teacakes: thanks for the info!
@Lynnie: thanks for the info! Yes, in some of her appearances I’ve seen, education is a huge focus. I remember the cute talk she gave to those little girls on The Ellen Show about education.
@canadaorbroke: nope. not even what I said or meant.
I agree. You see a post about “women with slim bodies” and its easy to assume that its about Taylor since she was the only one in that category this year who fits the description.
Sure, she jumped the gun. But, thats all she really should be faulted for imho.
Yep. I agree. I can’t believe this faux feud is even being talked about.
Welllllll….not so fast. Taylor gave a little ‘speech’ in those tweets, about building other women up, not tearing them down. What the hell was ‘Bad Blood’ if not a direct slam at another female artist, Katy Perry? Can’t have it both ways. I admire a lot of Taylor’s business sense, but she does strike me as quite immature for her numerical age….and a bit petty, to boot.
I really hope so.
Gah, I enjoy the band Haim, they rekindle the funk pop spirit of the 80s that resides in me.
How horrified was I to read on damn Wikipedia that they are good friends with T swizzle and have vacationed with her!
Ugggggghhhhhh.
There is something creepy about her trophy hunting of friends in the music industry.
I fear she will put her zombie zap on Haim and have them making bland boring music on their next album.
I swear that’s hwr master plan, get everyone making music morr boring than hers so hers stands out.
Meh.
Haim is also opening for her for a bunch of her shows, so they’re getting something out of it too.
A backlash is inevitable, and the only surprising thing is that it’s taken this long.
Backlash? What backlash? Yeah people will call her out for her narcissism and her version of feminism and writing songs about her fauxmances.. But this girl will still sell out stadiums and arenas, will continue to drop #1 albums. She is talented, has a very strong fan base and is very business savvy. Yes, this Twitter thing was a MAJOR mistake from her, you bet it won’t happen again. Girlfriend is a robot and the backlash will be minimal, if any.
Exactly. This was a misstep for her, but lol at people who think/hope her empire is about to crumble. I doubt the majority of her fans even care much about this. She may get some bad press for a short time, but she is a smart girl, and has too many powerful friends for this to affect her in any major way.
Hmm, I don’t know. I think a fair amount of negative sentiment has built up towards Taylor over the years. This is the first time it’s really being vented so we’ll see how widespread it is and what impact it has. I wouldn’t underestimate it.
Swift may have power and connections, but public goodwill is ultimately what she trades on. Her comments here were a serious misstep. She was smart to recognize that and apologize.
That tweet about inviting Nicki on stage if she won was quite condescending. It shows a mean streak that is really off-putting. . . I can tell you that changes my opinion of her.
Your comment doesn’t hold water because everything your talking about happen before the Twitter war with Niki what happens after is what really matters.
I agree. She’ll be fine. She’s young, white, cute, minimally talented, popular, well connected, will always be dating famous men to generate press (and more gossipy songs), yadda yadda. She’s the bestie of every fan, none of whom will choose to acknowledge the very problematic side of Taylor Swift and will instead deflect blame on Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, the ex-boyfriends, or the general group of “jellus haterz”.
I can’t wait to see Nicki Minaj join her on stage for a performance of Bad Blood. Or when she accepts the best video award for her Toxic-knockoff video. T Swift has got game…and power. She’ll make it happen somehow.
@ostone and LB: spot on.
I agree. Swifty has the type of fans that are way loyal. This is just a blip. I say this won’t affect her career at all.
Hahahahahahahahhahahah It’s Lit, the game has been peeped, I for one never have, and wont see it for the Pony Angel Curl Baby Love Princess, I’ve BEEN saying this for ..Uh at least 3 cds ago loud and clear, this corny grating ass narrative that she’s created for herself it’s finally starting to be for what it is
So you’re telling me unicorns aren’t real??
I feel so deceived.
‘Pony Angel Curl Baby Love Princess’
I just died and got brought back to life by Melisandre.
“I just died and got brought back by melisandre”
At the risk of sounding creepy I think I love you for this.
I think swift is going to have problems from here on out maintaining her princess image, simply because the passive aggressiveness has finally been exposed . It’s always been there, but now it’s apparent and it will be hard for her to get away with playing innocent.
She’s a wholesome-looking, seemingly non-threatening and bland young white woman. She’ll be fine.
Unfortunately, this just about sums it up. I’m pretty sure Swifty has a Teflon coating.
Nah, she has too many big name people on her side. Ed Sheeran has already defended her.
Katy might have been biding her time to ‘get back’ at her, but it won’t have the same impact when celebrities love her. Katy is just going to look stupid if she keeps up this ‘feud’. She’s 30 years old.
I saw that about Ed Sheeran. He sounded like a major dumdum, especially after his “out of context” backtrack. Also, the irony is strong when a white man tells a woman of colour that she is wrong about race.
Ed Sheeran is part of the Barbie collectible-friend-doll-set, isn’t he?
He had a relevant point, but he would just have been better off staying out of it but i guess he wanted to defend his friend.
Ya because 26 year old Taylor doesn’t look stupid feuding with everyone. 😆😆😆😆
Most of Taylor friendships are brought for publicity for both parties once Taylor is no long seen as cool these big names “friends” will go.
It doesn’t matter. Katy is seen as the older one. Taylor (25) still has a very young, innocent image and can get away with being bratty or immature. Katy has been married and divorced and just looks a lot older. It might not be fair, but it’s how it goes.
For me, the difference is more when they got famous. Taylor was huge by the age of sixteen. I can get her arrested development. Perry was in her twenties. Young but not SO young that she should playing to that level. The both need to grow up, but in the latter’s case it seems more egregious.
Ed Sheeran? Mr. Yes-Man Friendzone wouldn’t ever ever speak against Taylor. If it turned out she ran over puppies with her big ass SUVs during her daily pap strolls, he’d just say the puppies should know better and know when Taylor does her pap strolls and it all could’ve been avoided.
He will always find a way to make her a victim and perfect. I guess it’s easier for him to swoop in and play sir white knight of the friendzone if Taylor’s always the victim of everyone and everything.
well what he said was true – there is only one skinny white girl nominated and there is one curvy black woman whose video shows off all kinds of women. Nicki wanted to make a point, but she just chose a category where her argument was irrelevant.
Except what Nicki was talking about wasn’t just that specific award. It was an example that highlights an industry wide problem. And she wasn’t even talking about Taylor specifically. Ed and Taylor made it about Taylor.
So, no, he wasn’t right in what he said. And he really had no right as a privileged white man to tell a woman of color that her thoughts about race and discrimination are invalid.
THIS – “Mr.Yes-Man Friendzone” hahahahahaha
@G but Katy didn’t start this Taylor did, not to mention Taylor made how much money off a song and video aimed directly at KATY? What Katy said was spot on. I mean Come on really? Lmao. So she’s a couple years younger that gives her a reason to still act like an a$$hole? She’s still a grown woman so no she does not get a free pass. Especially when she cries one thing yet does the complete opposite. Fans are funny.
oh, please.
I have no patience for Katy Perry and her dumb shenanigans but being a few years older than Taylor (who btw is 26, not exactly super young herself) doesn’t mean she’s obliged to keep entirely silent while Swift disses her in song and makes a spectacle of it.
And this time, she was right to point out the hypocrisy of Tswift jumping to get offended at a tweet she thought was all about HER because how dare we not support all women, while it’s perfectly fine for HER to write entire songs dissing other women and perform them for profit.
Her friendships, which must include Instagrammable/Tumblr-ready moments — what a shallow, bizarre way to live. No authenticity at all. It must be a trip for the people invited into that world who aren’t models or actors.
I like her more after reading the Gawker piece about her. She’s a bussiness woman. Her friendships are not personal, they’re bussiness. She gets the right PR, they get exposure. Everyone wins. If they actually like eachother is just a bonus.
Her whole thing is not for me ( how are people my age listening to her music I do not understand), pop music in general is not my thing, but she is extraordinary at PR and she gets major props for that.
In this day and age is success isn’t about how talented you are, but about how well you can sell yourself.
you can be a business woman without lying to your audience about your super strong female friendships. She is actually PARADING them on stage to make a buck. THere are so many of them none of them will win only Taylor.
She’s arguably the biggest pop star in the world right now, and a huge chunk of that is PR. And lying is usually a part of a celebrities PR.
I think a lot of them will/ already have benefited from the friendship. Lorde, Haim and even Selena have broaded their fanbase, and Karlie and Martha became much more mainstream. Did anyone know Martha Hunt’s name before Swifty befriended her?
As I said, hats off to Swifty.
That’s just so sad. How well your doing at pr is what we measure success by nowadays? Well in that case the Kardashians are the cream of the crop since they’re everywhere, have a huge fanbase, hundreds of promotional deals, and have been in the game for 10+ years. 😒
I can’t wait till when the pendulum swings back to rewarding people with actual talent.
Well, yeah? Are the best selling artists these days the most talented ones? Of course not.
3 generations from now the Kardashians will be a respected family, mark my words. The Kennedys made their fortune in a shady shady way and look at them now. The worls is run by money and money is what counts at the end of the day.
I doubt the pendulum will ever swing back. It is what it is.
I think success has been about selling yourself for quite some time now, and I am not sure it’s making the world a better place.
*shrugs* To me, that’s how the industry has always worked. That’s just part of the compromise of being a celebrity – you get all the benefits of the wealth and fame, but you have to deal with the politics of it, as well. It’s not like the women associating with her aren’t benefitting in their own way. (I probably wouldn’t own HAIM’s album if I hadn’t discovered them by association to Swift, for example.)
The other way I look at it is, well…do you know any other way to live if you’ve been famous since adolescence?
1989 was an interesting year if you were a teen and just learning about the world. Also, New Order toured that year.
I was a Junior in High School it was a fabulous year
Yay! New Order!
That was a pretty damn good year!
Sigh. New Order ♥ ♥ ♥
Yes it was. Feeling all nostalgic now.
Pretty obvious she was talking about the structure as a whole and referencing Miley being ‘a twerking goddess’ who won an award for it but you know…
http://www.buzzfeed.com/elliewoodward/nicki-minajs-faved-tweets-prove-her-vmas-comments-were-about#.jqBrKQB881
The important thing is to focus on Taylor Swift and really make sure she doesn’t feel attacked or disenfranchised as an artist, she’s the real victim here.
I am too old for their music – all of them. BUT, I don’t like the turn this conversation has taken. Why can’t all these women represent themselves. Taylor is not evil because she is a slim white woman, is she? Why are they (and us) tearing her down? I get the point about the black female artists. I get that we might need to point out that Taylor gets a different kind of treatment. But we don’t need to beat her, do we? The system needs change. Yes. Attacking Taylor over and over is not going to do anything to achieve that.
That’s not what nicki was talking about at all. If Taylor hadn’t stuck her narcissistic nose into this, the points Nicki was making with her numerous tweets wouldn’t be lost. It’s annoying how people are making this into some type of war over skinny women, when it’s about the industry itself.
It wasn’t about Taylor until she made it about herself. She shifted the conversation from racism in the music industry to “OMG TAYTAY VS. NICKI”. Yes, a lot of POC are angry about that. Especially with the racial tension in the US, Taylor has suddenly become a spokeswoman for white, privileged, and oblivious.
Anyways, I find it odd people think this will lead to her downfall. Uh, no. I think there are just as many people that see her as the victim of mean old Nicki and all these other bullies.
People don’t think Taylor is evil because she’s slim and white. People are noticing that she’s always playing the victim. People are also noticing that she has a very narrow view of feminism and they’re calling her out on it.
While I agree that Taylor is selling a narrow, faulty view of feminism and her blind item song writing habits are wearing thin, I don’t think dog piling on her and trying to “take her down a peg” is going to solve anything. Why does it have to be a catfight? Why can’t we discuss the issue without feeling the need point triumphantly at the impending downfall of Taylor Swift? Why are people even hoping she has a downfall? Why can’t we point out that her message is incorrect and talk about it without the whole petty girlfight angle?
That’s the part I don’t like, it devalues the importance of the actual issue, which is that because of her privilege and status, Taylor is able to get away with things that others cannot. Instead of focusing on how we can “take her down”, we should be discussing how to bring others up and taking a close look at why this dichotomy exists in the first place. Making it personal just lets people ignore the real problem.
I think because it isn’t like this is the first or even second instance of this type of thing with her. People get sick of it and repeating the same points ad nauseam. Taylor uses this narrative to avoid criticism at all costs, believing she is beyond reproach, and defaults to victim of anti-feminists when she feels heat. It’s disingenuous and highly calculated. Taking her down a notch might actually mean treating her like EVERYONE else, who isn’t anointed the untouchable put upon princess.
AND Swift is controlling a lot of the narrative about others, like it or not.
This is how it always goes though. These two will duke it out, while the actual people they should be mad at, that have the power, will go ignored and unscathed. Meanwhile, two strong businesswomen will try to destroy each other. Something no one should want.
@Kiddo perfectly stated!
TS 1989? Hahahaha, no one caught that? No one? Idiots, all of them. If her team knows that little about the PRC, leave it alone. Definately don’t do business with it.
I love it when idiotic Westerners try to get into the PRC’s market, demonstrably know nothing, and then are left shocked when they are royally screwed by copycats and shady middlemen.
I’d looove to watch taylor & her team tryin to pull these evil “pirated merchandise” from taobao LOL good luck with that.
Right. She probably actually thinks that the PRC would give a damn about a court complaint. It doesn’t. No one who has done business in any capacity in the PRC would think that.
It is like when Alan Iverson got royally screwed by Chinese agents. It was completely unsurprising to any expat in China, because all the tactics used were typical, standard peacticed in that country.
Taylor has made a career out of taking shots at people and then screaming “Feminism” at the first hint of criticism. It’s about time people call her out even if it’s short-lived.
Plus her music is pretty sucky.
Her music is terrible! How is she considered talented by so many people?
It’s one of the great mysteries. I can’t answer. Marketing is a powerful force, I guess, as well as peer pressure?
She’s still the best selling artist of the year. She’ll be fine
Maybe, but she just gave 2 sold out concerts here in Chicago at Soldier Field. She broke the attendance record previously held by the Grateful Dead. That is a staggering number of tickets sold. She still has an enormous fan base.
Taylor will always land on her feet because her fan base sees this non-threatening whites girl they want to be because she acts like their best friend. When in reality, she’s self-absorbed, cunning and manipulative as hell. I will always give her props for her business savvy. I’m sure she’s sitting around trying to figure out how to work this pr gaffe to suit her needs.
She so over-schemed, what with all that pap walks, jam jars, and friend curating. And in a moment of what may have been genuine non-scheming she got into a Twitter fight, A fight that should never have happened, cause regardless of what you think of nicki, she had some valid points. Tay Tay must have been feeling titanium invicible and thought she could say anything, including that haggard “come onstage with me” crap. True Colors Barbie better think fast.
this!
Agree that it’s not so much backlash but people finally being unable to ignore that there is actually a lot to not like about her/her image. It just came to a head recently. Maybe pop culture should be changing the way stardom works, rather than blaming audiences/consumers for getting sick of a star. It’s not the audiences problem TS is a big hypocrite; don’t blame us for calling it out. If it’s a constant topic of discussion that’s because her promoters made her something to constantly talk about and you would think that they would have figured out they can’t control the internet. I really don’t understand why the pop culture experts haven’t figured out that the constant push of a star while they’re extremely popular doesn’t do anything but hurt them later.
She’s already at Iggy’s level on tumblr. That’s some fans she probably lose forever.
lol no
she’d have to fall a VERY long way including botched plastic surgery, to be on Itchy Areola’s level in the public eye. And this is not even close.
Her tweets come across as tone-deaf and missing the point, not actively racist like IA. And it helps she isn’t imitating any musical forms or accents associated with minority communities.
Agreed. Comparing Taylor to Iggy is inaccurate as they’re not even at the same level of influence. And the importance of Tumblr is highly overrated.
Yes, Teacakes and wrinkled. Let’s not get crazy now. Iggy is in a “class” of her own.
Tay-Tay is going strong. Backlash will come and go. She’s at her peak right now and nothing is taking her down during this stage of her career, not even a little backlash. She’s in the middle of a massive tour that is very successful and pretty much just all new songs off the new album. She doesn’t even have to rely on old hits. She’s a businesswoman and can make business decisions for her brand if she wants to.
Ultimately it’s not about adults dissecting her. It’s about the majority of her fanbase being very young and still going strong in support of her.
This will no doubt bother the hell out of her but it won’t effect her career.
No like most women in that industry she will go down when someone younger and cuter comes along. I mean she’s already 25! She’s already too old for DiCaprio! 😉
DiCaprio’s days is coming too. That man is Spent.
Nah she’ll be fine. Her fan base is huge. Plus she’s America’s Sweetheart, isn’t she?
As we’ve seen with Julia, Reese, Jennifer A, Goop and more her American sweetheart image will go when her true prersonality starts to show. Taylor is not lucky enough have a career before social media like the other ladies.
America is always on the look out for the next attractive caucasian “innocent” girl next door celebrity. Typically, it turns out that most of these women are extremely calculated, narcissistic, sheltered, and downright mean to other women. They did not get their A-list American sweetheart status by being naive and innocent. Any of these women are cut throat enough that if they had not gone into show business would have stepped on a lot of people to get to the top of another type of corporate ladder. All the women you listed are still A-list and have done very well for themselves, but they were all also knocked down a few pegs once their true selves became more apparent to the public. Taylor Swift is not immune to the cruelty of ageing and backlash. In a few years I’m sure there will be another up-and-coming baby-faced starlet looking to be the next Britney Spears or Taylor Swift of her generation who will capture the public’s attention. By then Taylor will be close to 30 and almost past her expiration date as a cute pop star. Just because she has a large fan base now doesn’t mean she won’t lose their attention in a few years. She needs to watch her step just like everyone else.
Neah23:
And yet Julia, Reese, Jennifer A and Goop still have no problems getting movie roles. They still have fans. They’re still making money. The same will happen with Taylor. She will keep selling records and she will keep having fans. This will pass.
I hope not. Personally I’m not a fan but Taylor is inoffensive. Yes, she sells a fake image (like everybody else) but at least she is not behaving badly in public, or being a drunken mess, or trying to be “so edgy”, dressing like a prostitute, etc. I prefer that my younger cousins listen to her music than to Bieber, Grande, Cyrus, Nicki, etc. I guess my point is that I consider Taylor’s public image a decent role model for her fans. She is full of herself and is quite ridiculous at times but she isn’t harming anyone.
About her friends, they are equally guilty of being part of her circle. They all benefit from the exposure.
Personally, I would have expected Katy to stay out of this, she is past 30 and its weird she still behaves like a teenager.
Taylor is nearly 26 and also acts like a teenage. Same difference.
So does JLaw who is just a year younger and everybody says its fine because she is young (I’m not attacking her, just using her as an example). 30 and 25 are not the same, Katy is supposed to be way beyond this
@saks are you for real with this 30 something thing? I mean is there some magical script that states women have to behave a certain way because they are now 30 and old apparently? So because she’s 30 she can’t call Taylor out after Taylor went for her in the public forum? Give me a break. Stop acting like Taylor is 15 years old and is just some cute kid trying to make it in the big bad cruel world. Katy didn’t name call , nothing she has said has been horrible and anyone else would have done the same – 30 or not. I am willing to bet when Taylor is 30 she will still be acting the exact way she is now and guess what she’s not far off…..
Taylor’s fans always give her a pass by claiming she’s young. Sorry she’s 25. She’s a full fledged adult. When will Taylor be expected to act like an one?
25 is the age when your pre-frontal cortex becomes fully grown/formed. So swift really is an adult now. If she behaves like a juvenile, from here on out, it’s all on her.
I do think there is a difference between being in your mid 20’s and your early 30’s, but I do see your point. I’m not giving Taylor a pass, she should have stayed quiet and she is the one to blame for this backlash, all I’m saying is that I’d expect Katy to stay away from this mess.
Totally agree with you, Saks. She made a public misstep. Nobody died.
/shrug
@Saks: I’d take 3 out of 4 of those oh-so-‘sinful behaviors’ (I don’t care if some celeb gets caught being a drunken mess as long as it’s extremely rare, they don’t get behind the wheel, and they don’t harm anyone or say racist crap while drunk) from a celebrity over being an asshole, meangirl, or intolerant type. A modest image doesn’t automatically make one a good role model or person, just like revealing clothes or trying to be edgy doesn’t automatically make one a bad role model. Not that I’m saying Taylor is evil incarnate, but people have placed too high a value on her having a wholesome/modest image as if that’s all that matters about a person, and I think that’s a small part of the problem.
Her crime is that she is a capitalist? The horror!
Lol. I like her and she will survive this, no big deal. It shows she is smart.
On this blog it is.
No, that’s just one writer’s take on her. For others, Taylor’s real “crime” is that she’s a hypocrite. She hides behind a very profitable and marketable good girl image, yet her behavior often contradicts that image. She espouses a fake form of feminism. She’s repeatedly talked about women supporting each other, but she doesn’t practice what she preaches.
The clearest example is her takedown of Katy Perry, first complaining about how KP tried to steal her dancers away before Taylor went on tour. This was in a Rolling Stone interview. Though she didn’t actually name KP, she certainly gave clues so people could figure out who it was. Then, to court more public interest, she tweeted: “Watch out for the Regina George in sheep’s clothing.” And now, with the lucrative Bad Blood song and the video with all her besties joining the mean girl group. Throwing shade, profiting from it, and rarely being called out by traditional media. She’s no innocent. She’s no feminist.
She dates high-profile men (whether for PR or actual romantic interest), then disses them when they break up. Predictably, she writes blind items about them in her songs, benefiting financially from the publicity generated. What song will she release after it’s over with Calvin Harris? When people do point out her bad behavior and calculating m.o., she plays the victim card. And she gets away with it because of her white privilege and fake goody gumdrops persona.
I think many people are tired of her shtick and that’s why there’s a backlash. This latest thing is just the final straw for some.
@Still Deciding: Celebitchy has a greater proportion of articulate and shrewd commenters compared to many other gossip blogs. One reason for this is that many of us are not teens, 20-somethings, or even 30-somethings. We have a bit more mileage when it comes to life experiences, so we are not as easily fooled by PR manipulation. We’re often better at perceiving true character and noticing hypocrisy. If you’re expecting a busload of sycophantic fanboys or fangirls over here, look elsewhere.
Ooops! It was Katy Perry who wrote the Regina George tweet. My bad. Nevertheless, it doesn’t change the fact that Taylor promotes women supporting each other while she publicly disses other women. Katy Perry has thrown shade, too, but at least she’s not pretending to have a wholesome image.
the whole backlash thing started on tumblr a while ago. it kinda reminds me of the downfall of lady gaga.
I think Niki Minaj is annoying and I can’t abide her music. I prefer Taylor’s (pre 1989 album) because its less annoying on my ears when playing in my car.
That being said, Taylor should have kept quiet on this whole drama. Nikki is fighting over an award that doesn’t matter from an award show past its prime. Remember when the VMAs were awesome in the 90s/early 2000s? maybe thats just because i was younger but there seemed to be a more varied type of music going around. the fact Lorde won best ROCK video just sealed the fate of this award show in my eyes.
Agree on all the analysis and even hate towards Taylor but one thing we can’t fault her on or get mad about really is her want to make money and be a part of the monetization of her image. That’s the one area no man is ever judged on. Judge everything else but her business sense I respect. Get your money swifty!
I agree about that.
So sad that #1 a song about ass and sex is considered instrumental to helping girls have body confidence and #2 a rich as hell very successful grown woman whining on social media because her work wasn’t chosen for an award is being heralded as sticking up for minorities in the music industry. Oh. My. Word. Grow up people and get some standards.
that “song about ass and sex” and the video for it got a LOT of people talking about body standards and body image, across races.
I’m not into Minaj’s music but she had a point there, an influential and widely-viewed video made by a black woman rapping about big asses isn’t less worthy of nomination for an award than a teenybopper star taking off her clothes for a video and singing about her last breakup.
you… totally missed the point, it’s unbelievable..
1. body standards..
2. she’s not whining, she’s pointing out something clearly wrong with the VMAs
Preach!
Can’t stand her. Can’t stand her music.
its also a generally interesting dicussion about how capitalism and feminism have often worked together. when you read about diversity its always “diverse teams make more money” or something like that, as if thats why diversity matters. or women in the workforce. you can also have the viewpoint that most women are not necesarrily working voluntarily. what i want to say is not that they dont want to ever work i want to say: most of us dont have a real choice. We HAVE to work. one income household meant that only the men brought home the money but it also meant that one income was enough to feed the family. so instead of breaking it open for women to be able to work and men stay at home as a choice women and men have to work. And increaslingly terrible hours with even being avaible after the work officially is done.
i think it was Mrs Greer who said “women shouldnt live the unfree lives of men”. i think its a valid point.
In Europe there is a bigger divide between feminism and capitalism, most feminism is socialist and women having big careers and making money for multinational corporations is not seen as the most aspiring thing.
Capitalistic endeavors do not have to be in direct conflict with socialistic goals, but it certainly has moved in that direction. Businesses can offer jobs at fair wages, in good environments, with healthcare and other amenities, in a culture with strong consideration of employees and customers, rather than the end goal being winner takes all. But how many actually do that? It’s about getting the cheapest labor, sometimes in the worst conditions, for lower quality items for the highest profit going to owners, CEOs and stockholders. The employees and customers are often left in the dust.
Agree. Also, it puzzles me that people consider women like beyoncé feminist, when all she does is perpetuate stereotypes, just because she makes money. Politics are really important in the gender role talk and how we percieved them
Just because someone likes cosmetics and doesn’t conform to modesty doesn’t mean they’re perpetuating a stereotype. I haven’t seen anyone argue that making money is the sole reason why Beyoncé or anyone else qualifies as a feminist.
The truth though is that both Beyoncé and the Fair, Innocent Little Maiden Taylor Swift have both perpetuated stereotypes in their careers. And it’s not because of anything they’ve chosen to do with their own bodies- respectability politics and eschewing make-up and extensions will not make or break global misogyny, so policing women’s choices with their bodies and blaming men’s behavior on those choices is not the feminist answer to patriarchy-. But both these artists have perpetuated stereotypes in their lyrics. Taylor probably a little bit more so than Beyoncé.
People have been waiting for her to misstep. A young woman reaching the heights of her successful should be brought down many ‘pegs’. And she’s skinny and white too….which is totally her fault. Now if it was a young, successful white man would people feel the same way? I’m so weary of women hating on women.
Yes, plenty of men are called out on hypocrisy and BS. She isn’t a victim, but she plays one on TV.
Yeah pretty much, Kiddo. I’ve been a TS fan for a long time (I’m from Texas and “Love Story” hit when I was in high school, so I feel like it was inevitable), but the utter hypocrisy of her image is getting harder and harder to stomach. Watching a nearly 26 year old woman- who is white, straight, normatively feminine, cisgender, and visibly able-bodied- play the underdog card is nauseating. This thing with Nicki is just the latest ideation of her “feminism means no criticism of Taylor Swift” schtick- not to mention the QUINTESSENTIAL example of white girl tears when confronted with a woman of color articulating the dynamics of white privilege. The point, dear Taylor, is that women of color are attacked for sexualizing their own bodies, by the very forces that would rather sexualize those bodies without the consent of their owners. In our society women of color don’t get to choose whether or not they’re sexualized by others- race and sexuality are linked, but people get pissed and uncomfortable when women of color try to do it on their terms. Nicki was making a larger point, not trying to tear anyone down.
And yes, Taylor is the epitome of neoliberal feminism at this point. All talk, no substance, all eyes on her bottom line, and nary a thought toward race or, like, how systemic oppression is a very layered thing.
@KatenotKatie: That was perfect.
“I’m so weary of women hating on women. ”
but Taylor Swift has written entire songs that were basically just her pouring hate on other women and letting the media know who those women are. And the more recent of those songs came out just last year.
Oh yeah, poor little Katy Perry. She takes dancers from Taylor’s team in the middle of her tour and she is expected to keep her mouth shut about it entirely? She wrote a song about how some unnamed person stabbed her in the back, which she did. She didn’t call Katy out by name. She didn’t call her anything ugly like wh0re or b*tch…but yeah let’s sit her and villanize Taylor for “pouring hate.” LOL
the dancers themselves came forward and clarified exactly what happened, and painted a very different picture from the one poor little victim Taylor had – they were free agents and agreed to work for Katy when they weren’t on tour with Taylor.
“She didn’t call Katy out by name”
no, she just dropped hint after hint at the identity of the woman she wrote Bad Blood about, IN A MAGAZINE INTERVIEW. She knew that was going out for public consumption, and made a choice to use Katy for publicity by painting her as the bad guy. She did exactly what she does to her exes, only this time to a woman.
and this bullshit mean girl behaviour is given a pass just because she didn’t call Katy a wh-re or b-tch? (which btw, she did call Camilla Belle in a song….poor victim Taylor strikes again)
Yesterday I overheard this conversation while driving, My 12 year old was saying how he doesn’t like TS because she writes about guys she’s broken up with and is a one trick pony. My 14 year old says that he should think for himself and not buy into what he hears. Taylor writes about heartbreak just like Adele and every other song writer since forever. She went on to say that the reason people hate on TS is because she is EVERYTHING. Rich, tall, skinny, famous, talented and smart. BTW My 14 year old loves Haim and Halsey, and indie bands; she’s not into TS music, but gives her her props as the pinnacle of teeny bop right now.
Like it or not TS will not suffer from this, she’ll learn a thing or two and get better at her game. Do not be surprised when there is no backlash. She’ll hold onto the sweetheart crown for a while yet.
Those comparisons with other artists writing about broken hearts dont hold any water. In Adeles case i think people identified that gyu but its not Adeles sole claim to fame. Adele does not date famous guy after famous guy (and ALL of them are super popular with young girls) and then writes songs about them. Neither does any guy. So its not comparable.
yeah, Swifty claims she’s only writing about her feelings but that’s just disingenuous since as far as I know, no other popular artist is quite as incapable of releasing a song without letting us know via interview, liner notes, pap pics and PR stories as to exactly which celebrity it’s about.
I never understood why writing about people who are not famous is somehow better. I’m sure Adele’s ex-boyfriend’s friends and relatives know the songs are about him, so it’s the same thing. And he deosn’t even have a voice to defend himself.
Didn’t Sam Smith thank his ex for the grammy, after saying he wrote the songs about the guy who broke his heart?
so the guy wasn’t famous (or is he?), so what? because we can put a face to a name, for taylor, that makes it worse?
meh.
Adele doesn’t exploit famous people she has dated, nor does she victimizes herself.
I also don’t think TS is going to “learn” anything because she’s clueless, she has an image of herself that says she’s perfect, does no wrong.
I agree with Nicki’s point all-around. Many women are under-represented in the entertainment industry. That said, if you take away nicki’s fake boobs/butt, she has a similar body type to TS. Strange.
http://modeandmakeup.com/en/nicki-minaj-before-and-after-plastic-surgery/
and when the dust clears, it’ll probably be another round of ‘poor victim Taylor’ and how could anyone say something mean to a young girl who’s just learning about feminism!!!!!!
never mind that Swifty is freaking 25 years old, Nicki’s tweet wasn’t even about her specifically, and Swifty’s feminism appears to be about as genuine as my ma’s LV purse from ebay i.e. NOT AT ALL.
and I despise Katy Perry but I have to give it to her, she rightfully pointed out Swifty’s hypocrisy there.
What I don’t understand is…the backlash isn’t new? There has always been some kind of backlash – and Taylor made it an artform to paint herself as a victim of these. First there was the general annoyance over her “What??? ME???” fake shocks when she won an award. Even if it was the third of the night. Then there’s the thing about the “famous boyfriend-get dumped-write a song” routine. In the last year she tried to get rid of that, and formed the “squad” (ugh that word…). People were intrigued by the new Taylor, and the music was different – until it all was too much. If you tell her “Oh, you have such an earnest way of accepting awards!”, she will be up in for face with her “WHAAAATTT? I don’t deserve this!” – she’s exhausting. She’s always over the top, me thinks.
its all buisness .. Katy needs some attention at the moment and Taylor will be just fine and Niki is just that Niki… lol… The media tabloids and blogs will play at this for a couple days I doubt anymore cones from Taylor and we move to another drama session from someone else.no biggey here .
Well I immediately thought that Nicky was talking about Taylor. It is the very first thing I thought of so I could see Taylor getting defensive. I don’t really understand Nicky’s point because well the video was awful that she expected to be nominated for. Laughable really. We all watched it because it was like a trainwreck not because it was good, hence the high amount of VEVO views. We also watched Bad Blood for a lot of the same reasons. And Nicky may be black but most of her ‘curvy’ parts are plastic, not natural so how she can claim to be curvy instead of ‘skinny’ is invalid but it’s likely that underneath all of that silicone and plastic she, too, is a skinny girl.
Katy’s tweet (only the first one) was perfect. I don’t have a side in this argument because it’s juvenile and it’s over a VMA not even a Grammy. Stupid.
I wish Taylor would be taken down a peg or two, but like others said she has that massive fanbase of youngins and people like her. Plus factor in the image she sells and it starts to look like a longshot. All I can hope is that the Katy Perry tweet opens someone’s eyes and makes them start thinking.
Out of the three women, Taylor’s concerts are the only ones I can take my kids to. So yes, I’d like her to still make music. Whatever else is going on with her is a very minor concern.
That would be great and all if your kids couldn’t see the other two on their phones, computer, through other friends, school etc.
And I would be aware of what people are saying about Taylor’s friend collecting and victim complex. That’s not a message I would want my sister and her friends receiving.
Re: apology tweet – wonder what the PR strategy meeting was like before she sent that tweet out.
Tweet. It’s all up to Niki. Hmmm what will she do. I was wrong I didn’t think Taylor would respond
I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke. I’m sorry, Nicki.
@NICKIMINAJ
Who will be the bigger woman and where will Katy insert herself next. I suspect Taylor has and will not comment anymore
My VMA prediction: TSwift performs Bad Blood ft Nicki for the rap part instead of the male rapper (this version is on the radio, not her album). The audience will freak. Twitter will freak. And they will hug it out on stage right after. And the camera pans over to Katy’s pissed face…oh wait. Katy’s not there bc she doesnt have any hits out right now..oops LOL ..done and done.
Nicki Minaj:*talks about racial inequality in music industry*
Taylor Swift:*misses the point. Later realizes her mistake and tries to smooth things over. Stops talking about it on Twitter and therefore stops providing the media with new material to further spin this as a “cat fight.”*
Katy Perry:*misses point entirely. Ignores Nicki. Jumps in a day late and makes a cheap jab at Taylor.*
Media:*forgets Nicki Minaj entirely and changes the discussion from prejudice and racism in the industry to about a fight between two white women*
Nicki Minaj:*stares at the camera like an episode of The Office*
pmsl, spot on!
LMAO,
I disagree on the Katy one though. Let’s be clear Swift has made quite a few enemies with her brand of success, she uses other people as fodder for her career and makes them known through ‘clues’. It’s not shocking that those people wouldn’t jump in when there’s suddenly such a clear example of her hypocrisy. No one to blame, no one to push the problem onto.
Nicki made a comment about an industry problem and Taylor pulled a ‘woe is me’ followed by ‘but you can be part of my super friends club and come on stage with me!’ it was (un)shockingly tone deaf and it finally put everything people have said about her in clear spotlight.
@ YeahBut – lol pretty much! Great (and funny) analysis!
I appreciate that Taylor doesn’t have explicit sex in her music and videos.
I don’t much care who wrote her apology, because it was one of the better ones a celebrity has posted. It owned what happened, her mistake, and she said the words “I’m sorry” and didn’t add an “but” or “however”. Props to whomever got that apology posted on her twitter.
I didn’t watch the other nominees videos. did they all have slim women featured?
why is Nicki even saying this? is it sour grapes that she didn’t get nominated? it does sound like that- it does not sound like she wanted to open a conversation about inequality in the music business. I say this because she seems to fight with EVERYONE, all the time.
If she does have a valid point, it’s not quite the platform for her to use- a nomination for video of the year? it’s all subjective, all awards are.
how did anaconda impact culture? I watched it, it was horrifying.
I must be old.
I think she’s talking about what the industry systemically favours, but that point got lost in the media talking about the feud.
Completely agree. No backtracking, no “sorry you were offended” just succinct and to-the-point.
Can’t fault the apology atall. She can still go kick rocks though.
I think I am just way to old to care about this little fight at this point. Taylor’s music is fun and that’s about it – nothing dangerous and deep there. I like some of Nicki songs but not all of them. They are all well-paid “performers” that are not starving on the streets. Katy, Taylor and Nicki have all said and done things that are hypocritical so I just can’t get to worked up about any of it.
Taylor Swift is annoying for always running her mouth and being immature. Nicki should be getting more hate for being a sore loser and egomaniac. Trying to make it a discrimination thing when really it’s about her ego and what she feels entitled to.
It’s nice that she put up the apology tweet, but I would love to see TSwift take a page from the Matt McGorry book and actually educate herself about intersectional feminism, since it’s clearly a topic with which she is not familiar. I doubt she will, since at the end of the day she’s just one more uneducated celebrity, and also someone who seems to be emotionally and mentally frozen at the age of 15 and surrounds herself with others likeminded. But we can hope?
God, I love Taylor. We’re the same age, and I was introduced to her by my young cousin of all people, but objectively, she has grown up in the spot in a good way. She IS growing. She IS self-aware. She admits her mistakes. She wants to do good. I cannot fault her for this apology.
Taylor grew up rich and very lucky. She was always going to have a great life, a top % life, but she doesn’t seem to take that for granted. We can’t hate her for being born/white privilege/being beautiful & slim/whatever. She’s running with her good fortune. She can really play guitar. She’s clever about her business. She has skills. She cares about other people. I absolutely dig this woman.
😀😀😀😀😆😆😆😅😅😂😂😂😂
As a disclaimer… I’m not a fan of Taylor, Nicki, nor Katy. But this post is too ridiculous not to comment on.
The only person Taylor wants to do good for is for herself. She writes Mean about a reviewer who gave her a poor, but honest review. It’s a song against being mean. In it, she sings about how he’s a bully and she’ll be better off. She has crowds chanting along in stadiums around the world how he’s “pathetic and alone in life”. Having been a fan, and witnessing this, I was disgusted. I didn’t like the song to begin with, but seeing thousands of people singing those lyrics about a man doing his job is bullying. Taylor plays the victim and puts down someone else in the process.
When Tina and Amy make a simple joke about her, Taylor quotes “there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” But how many of her songs openly bash other women? Didn’t she say how before she couldn’t even be friends with other girls because she saw them as her competition for boyfriends??
And then, she sold Katy out to the media (EVEN THOUGH her back up dancers said in an interview that they were friends with Katy and wanted to go back to her upon hearing she had a new tour, and that they were bored with the level of challenge the Red tour provided). She said Katy tried to ruin her tour by “taking away” three back up dancers (dramatic), and how there apparently is no personal element to this but it wouldn’t be as much of a problem if the other artist wasn’t so competitive. Taylor shows her true colours like this, all the time.
Taylor continues to round up a squad of girls to fight Katy in her music video (disgusting), AND they premiere it together at an awards show, which was intimidating enough for Katy to not even go.
Taylor always plays the victim and this Nicki situation is yet another example. She is conniving and calculating. There are so many incidences you can write about to demonstrate her poor character. Those are only a few of the biggest examples. I’m also her age, albeit two years younger, and I think she’s gross. She’s no one to look up to.
Great post, fully agree.
I was drinking the Taylor-Kool aid in that moment, but she DOES seem self-aware, willing to see her flaws and improve. A lot of my criticism for her when we were both 18 (and my young cousin was introducing me to her material via her compilation DVD of music videos) was precisely that her songs seem boy-crazy and made HER seem crazy (she’s the commonality in all of her relationships after all), but what did she do years later?
“Shake-It-Up”
A very fun, dance-able song, point-blank addressing that criticism.
So what if all of her friends are famous? That’s her field. Engineers tend to be friends with other engineers. You *should* surround yourself with talent in your field so you can improve (probably what happened with Lorde who is a talented lyricist).
We all make mistakes. When I was younger, I certainly made flash, by-the-book-cover decisions. I probably practiced more discretion but present-Taylor probably would NOT make such a hateful anti-journalist song and present-Taylor probably wouldn’t have said that stuff about the back-up dancers that seemed to point to a Katy Perry. Benefit of the doubt. We’ll see–and we WILL see. The entire American music industry is built around Beyonce and Taylor Swift so she’ll be in headlines for awhile yet.
We all change and Taylor seems to be growing in the correct decision. I wouldn’t mind my younger cousins both male and female admiring her. In fact, she is probably the only celebrity besides Angelina Jolie that I’d want them to take cues from.
(The fact that we’re looking to movie/music celebrities instead of people that contribute in more tangible ways is probably a bad sign about our society anyway.)
Jess, I don’t know how to directly reply to your reply…
You’re a Taylor Swift apologist and no matter what she does, you won’t be able to see otherwise, so I think this is futile. It is funny to me how she wrote Shake It Off about not caring about what critics say… YET in album press interviews, she would say things like how she doesn’t want to date because she doesn’t want to give anyone anything to talk about. Doesn’t sound like she really can “shake it off” to me.
She has orchestrated an image for herself which I’m not buying. To me, she is a vengeful, typical high school mean girl, and I don’t have proof of her growing out of that. I used to love her when I was in high school and she released her first CD, but a lot of things about her didn’t sit comfortably with me back then, and continued not to, and I stopped being able to make excuses for her.
I don’t think there is anything respectable about Taylor and the way she goes about plotting her life. I don’t know what Angelina Jolie has to do with anything, but it’s funny that you would add that, because she is one of the few other celebrities I outright don’t respect either- for different reasons, to do with my background and some of her actions.
p.s. What does the fame of her girl squad have to do with the fact that she’s bullying someone via a music video and award show, among other avenues? I think you missed my point that she’s a bully. This is all very recent… or did you not know that half of my examples were from her 1989 and Bad Blood era???? She wasn’t “younger” when she did this.
Why do people always you the terms like she still young, she’ll learn and she grown up a lot when defending Taylor but say things like she to old to be acting like that or grow up when talking about Katy Perry.
Niki has responded to Tayloragain after apology and all is well.. Now let’s see what Katy inserts herself again. She may not be happy with Niki
LOL at people thinking 25/26 is old. Get out of your Midwest fly over state bubble.
newsflash there are even people from different continents commenting here, maybe get out of your bubble a bit. People here dont say Taylor is OLD, they say she is fully grown woman with a few years into adulthood. she isnt 15 anymore. Zendaya who is 18 handles even direct and digusting attacks on her with grace.
I read that Gawker piece last night. Right after Taylor became friends with Lorde (after Lorde had previously bad mouthed her in interviews) I found it bizarre Taylor went out of her way to befriend a girl who was way younger than her and who seemed to have little in common with her. Then she kept parading with the new IT girls, models whose names I can’t remember and other random people. It became clear to me that Taylor ruthlessly curates her list of “friends.” The Bad Blood video pretty much confirmed it. It’s really weird. I know she wanted people to stop talking about her short relationship flings but instead of becoming a boy collector she is now a friend collector.
I just finished the Gawker piece, it’s excellent. Why can’t more people see through her calculated friend-collecting? It’s ridiculously transparent at this point.
I read that silly Salon article. It’s funny to read a seemingly grown-up male journalist write a snarky piece on a female pop star. No, I’m not a fan of hers but I found the glee in a Taylor backlash from this man a bit disturbing. I usually go to Salon to NOT read about celebs unless it’s truly newsworthy.
I honestly do believe that American society only wants women to achieve a certain level of fame and wealth and then they turn on her. I don’t know why, I don’t understand this at all, but it just keeps happening. I think the worst offenders are other women. It’s rather sickening. Kanye West can be a multi millionaire who goes around acting like a complete ass every day of his life, and continues to get a free pass from the general public and the media, who still lick his boots. Elton John has lost his damn mind, running around with that bad hair transplant, blown out voice and diva antics, and still sells out everywhere he goes. But where are the female equivalents to these guys, in terms of money and power? They never get to reach that place because the media, fans, society smack them down when they get too big. Look at Beyonce. Everyone loved her until she reached a certain level of fame and now people love to shit all over her. She hasn’t done anything differently. She’s certainly not doing anything that male rock stars haven’t done but she just gets lambasted in the press no matter what. Taylor’s only the latest. It will never end.
+ 1 million. I think Schumer said it: the public only tolerates successful women for so long before picking on them. Meanwhile, boorish men like The Donald and Kanye get a huge fanbase and can go on forever. It’s unconscious internalized misogyny if you ask me. Both men and women think uppity females need a lesson and to learn their place, or something like that. The worst is the rationalizations: Taylor shouldn’t have sent that Tweet! Oh no…she’s an idiot Tweeter! That puts her in the company of many….
Who is a female equivalent? Um Mariah Carey.
Yes, and look at the backlash around Mariah. She was once America’s sweetheart, and now she’s a laughingstock. People slam her for her age, her voice, her diva antics. Elton John does the same shit and is a lot worse for wear — everyone loves him. It sure feels like sexism to me.
This is true to some extent but it depends on the individual. Women are held to a higher standard and are vilianized for being more demanding and aggressive. But let’s be clear that there are both men and women who need to be brought down a few pegs or have people stop worshiping them altogether. Unfortunately, men are better able to withstand public scandal. However, I don’t predict that the public will turn on those who are truly kind, professional, and non-judgmental to their colleagues and fans. Many successful women come to mind who have not had the public turn on them yet and they are well into their middle-age and senior years. Another problem is that a lot of not-so-bright celebrities love to rant and discuss issues on Twitter which is the worst place to have a peaceful and sane dialogue. I don’t use Instagram or Twitter because eventually most people will step into controversy if they publish every opinion and moment of their lives for the world to see.
Well I do think that you and Amy Schumer are somewhat right about society’s attitudes toward famous/successful women. It does seem like male celebrities have to behave much worse than female celebrities in order for the backlash to begin. But, Taylor is also a hypocrite.
I guess part of the reason I drank the Taylor Kool Aid and praised her so profusely above is because one of my friends, who is 30, married with three children, and in medical school, had his backpack stolen (laptop, iPad, books, wallet, fancy stethoscope his retired parents got him.) It was just a messy, stressful time.
It was a very expensive loss especially with school and the kids. He’s a HUGE Taylor Swift fan, and she contributed a significant amount of money to this online KickStarter (?) fund so he could get a new laptop, etc. His classmates were all contributing generously also, but Taylor was wonderful in that specific way. I was thankful for that, and of course my friend was thankful as well.
And how much money has your friend contributed to Taylor’s career? And what’s her income… this can’t be more than a drop in the bucket for her? She does these sort of things… gives a fan $1989 for her college tuition, or sends a care package. While it is nice, I can’t help but believe it’s calculating to improve her carefully constructed image. Until she’s at Paul Walker or Leonardo DiCaprio’s level of activism (and perhaps there are much better examples of celebrities out there), I wouldn’t full out consider this a positive character trait.
Leonardo “I have a yacht” DiCaprio and Paul “statutory rape” Walker?
Not the best examples of good people doing good things.
We can’t really assess someone’s motivations and we can’t really judge *people* just actions. Taylor’s actions have won me over, over the years. It’s OK to build something (an image) and it’s OK to care what other people think of you (to an extent). Public goodwill is important for anyone. Taylor gets a lot of criticism for playing the victim (which I think she’s largely grown out of), for being “fake”/”calculating”, for being wealthy, for being pretty and slim and to me it’s uncalled for. How do people get ahead in their fields? They calculate. They think. If her motivations were askew, we can’t know, and it doesn’t matter. Her actions have by and large resulted in positive outcomes.
Of course it was a drop in the bucket. She’s managed her career well. Her parents are financially savvy but in our increasingly socialist society, we forget that it was her prerogative to spend her money in that way. My friend was not entitled to any of Taylor’s money.
Taylor is aggressive in the correct ways imo and she gets pooped on. She strikes a good balance between caring about other people (and what they think of her), being a modern young woman in business, born into fortunate circumstances. She seems grateful.
In any event, I also lost the narrative. Nikki wanted to draw attention to the different treatment towards artists of color.
Jess, don’t apologize for liking Taylor Swift. I like Taylor and the things that people say we shouldn’t like about her don’t bother me. Friend collecting, writing songs about other people, only out to make money….I just don’t agree with their assessments. She seems nice and I’m going to continue to take that at face value. People like to ascribe ulterior motives to her actions and that’s their opinion. Until someone puts out a video of her licking donuts and saying she hates America I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt.
+1,000,000
Never understand the hate this woman gets.
I choose to also believe she is who she seems to be unless I see otherwise, and she seems to be a smart, kind and level headed young woman.
So this is pretty much Nicki saying #blacklivesmatter and Taylor saying #mylifematters.
At least Taylor apologized with a real actual apology. So good for that.
#vanillalivesmatter
Btw that’s a comment on Swift’s Apple pie persona, not her race.
And Camilla Belle brought it home with her own pointed tweet.
Not a good week for Swifty at all, she ended up doing to herself what she’s done to so many others with a single silly tweet. Karma.
What did Camilla Belle say?
In response to Katy’s tweet about Taylor parading out the whole ‘woman pitting against other women’ when it suits her Camilla wrote:
“Couldn’t have said it better myself”
Short, sweet and quite to the point.
https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/news/camilla-belle-finally-gets-revenge-taylor-swift-sides-183430658-us-weekly.html
I know a lot of folks are unhappy that Nicki’s point isn’t getting more attention but sadly I think most aware folks knew that was dead in the water. Even if Taylor hadn’t inserted herself the media would have found a way to twist it into ‘angry black woman says something unpleasant and unnecessary’.
I’m glad at least the hypocrisy of Taylor’s ‘super supportive feminist’ has been cexposed and her persona is a little dinged and tarnished.
boo hoo Poor Tay-Tay. Over her and her PR Team personality.
Tempest in a teapot, for sure. Over VMA awards? Geez. These people and their problems. At least Taylor provided a real apology. No “sorry if you were offended” bullsh*t that most celebs eek out. People who don’t like her, never will, no matter what she says or does.
Wow! This has gone way past what I thought it was going to. Yes, Taylor has an ego, inserted herself in a situation that she should have stayed out of, and commented on something she was not in a position to speak out about but the way people are tearing her to pieces is ridiculous. Like no one has ever said anything that was wrong and/or misinformed in their lives. Glass houses people!!! She is a real person and she made a mistake for which she apologized. Hopefully now she will educate herself on the issues so it doesn’t happen again and maybe she’ll also learn to stop and think before she tweets next time.
Katy should have also stayed the hell out of it. That tweet (while true) was petty and unnecessary. She could have been the bigger person but she wasn’t. She’d rather the attention of getting in on the “twitter feud”.
All of Nicki’s points are valid and industry double standards when it comes to artists of different races is deplorable and I applaud her for speaking out on this issue. While it is entirely possible that is what happened in this case regarding her lack of nomination, I feel that it’s also possible that they thought it was a both a crap song and video so didn’t nominate it. After seeing comments about how influential it is and how it impacted culture and body image I had to go back and watch it because I assumed I must have watched the wrong video. How is a video with half naked women humping the air, Drake, each other and everything else practically seen as so influential and deserving of awards outside of number of views on You Tube? I also felt the same way about Miley’s Wrecking Ball video. Great song, talented artist, stupid video! And while the video does show beautiful women of various shapes and sizes the song itself is a horrible example of positive body image with lyrics that include “F*&K those skinny bitches”.
Glass houses work both ways.
Taylor released a song and then did an interview where she did her usual brand of “I’m not going to come right out and say who this is so ill leave clues and you guys guess”. She then made sure that video was entire much hyped production with as many celebrity friends as she could squeeze into it.
I don’t buy this off-repeated defense of Swift that one tweet is more petty compared to a million dollar music video.
Glass houses do not work both ways.
I notice she didn’t take up Nicki’s challenge to address the fact that she and other white artists directly benefit from the racist standards in the industry, but expecting Taylor Swift to care about that is perhaps a bit too ambitious!
Why is it necessary to respond to everything someone says. Even if they are talking about you.. they say that the response to something creates another story. If Taylor had said nothing; this would have been over. But she like many others can’t help herself. I think she is so tuned into everything about herself.. and she buys into the projection of who she is. I have never bought the sweet innocent thing about her. She is very savvy and people get fooled by the sweet innocent looking blonde.. When the truth of the matter is they are usually not what they seem.
She’s bound to catch some backlash over it, and she deserves it, but she apologized for it…and it was actually a decent apology and not some half-assed “Sorry you were offended” version. Genuine or not in your eyes, it was a much smarter PR move than continuing to insist she was correct. Great opportunity there to lay low for a bit on the issue and turn it around into as, “I educated my sorry white self about racism in industry because my argument led me to realize a few things” maneuver. She has some serious arrested development issues, but she is a savvy businesswoman, so she’ll likely bounce back from this. Hell, she might even actually learn something along the way.
I love how throwing “he/she’s white” is now taking on a rather derogatory tone.