T. Swift isn't going to take sexism sitting down; she's firing back. In her recent interview with The Telegraph, Taylor Swift addressed her "boy-bashing" songs and how calling them that is inherently sexist. "There was a bit of a reputation for having a lot of boy-bashing songs," she said. "Which is a sexist way of saying heartbreak songs. To trivialize someone who’s heartbroken is really cruel."
The singer hasn't been afraid to stand up for herself and her reputation in the past, even criticizing Tina Fey for joking about her dating life at the 2013 Golden Globes. But, having gone a couple of years without a guy under her belt, Swift says she's glad that "there’s less chatter about the serial dater thing. I’m just really excited at an awards show when they don’t make some weird joke about my dating life."
It's disappointing that so many people bought into that image of Swift, myself included. In high school, I laughed along with the rest of them about her string of boyfriends, and the songs that were so blatantly about them. But then I discovered feminism, and Swift discovered it too and began to talk about it, and I started to see that everyone was really unfair to her over the years.
Which singer hasn't written a song about an ex? In fact, men get praised for it, and even awarded for it. It's brave of them to do. For example, Sam Smith, after winning Record of the Year at the Grammys, thanked his ex in his acceptance speech with a pretty pointed jab. "I want to thank the man who this record is about, who I fell in love with last year," he said onstage. "Thank you so much for breaking my heart because you got me four Grammys!"
He was lauded for this comment, but I can't help but think if it was Swift who'd said it, she'd have been slammed for her man-eating ways. The singer agrees, saying just last October that she's tired of people acting like she's the only one to write about her romantic life.
Frankly, I think that's a very sexist angle to take. No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says that about Bruno Mars. They're all writing songs about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life and no one raises a red flag there.
I'm sad that Swift still has to address this kind of stuff in her interviews, but I'm glad she's unwavering in her takedown of sexist comments. I want to apologize to her for not listening all along, but I hear her now, and hopefully others do too.
Swift is an artist, and as such is going to draw upon her life experiences for her music. She shouldn't be punished for writing about successes and failures of love, especially when male singers do the same without any negative attention. She's completely right in saying it's sexist, and we shouldn't stand for that anymore.
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