ONTD

She is a bitter little possum

Taylor is the product of what the mass media tells us "good women" should be. Media, culture and entertainment created the narrative of "good girls" vs. "bad girls." Take a look at every song/book/movie/TV show aimed at young girls, and look at what messages are being sent. The protagonist good/pure girl gets the man/job/life of their dreams because they are good. While the antagonist evil/unpure girl gets a dose of karmic revenge and we all laugh and cheer that the "bad girl" got what she deserved.

Taylor's music and videos are the plots taken from every Disney/Nick show and movie that is aimed at young girls. She, like millions of other girls, are conditioned to believe that happiness and success can only be achieved if they model themselves after a Disney Princess. That if you are pretty and sweet and sing with the birds, eventually your Prince will find you and take you away from the evil treachery of the ugly old Queen.

Yes, it's important to point out the hypocrisy and the misguided notions that plague her music. However, it is also important to see that it isn't just Taylor being some horrible misguided person that we can all bash on. She's a product of the patriarchal definition of being the "good girl," while perpetuating and carrying on that message to other young girls.

Perhaps instead of looking for ways to make Taylor Swift the scapegoat for all things horrible with gender messages, we should be looking at the entire system. Honestly, she really is just a cog in the machine, a worker bee who does what she's told without question. Why do her albums sell so well? Why is she being touted as a role model for young girls? Who is holding her up as the standard for every little girl out there? Who is sending the message? Yes, Taylor writes her own songs, and they no doubt are filled with misleading messages. But where is she getting those messages from? Who is letting her echo those messages?

It's the record companies, video stylists, radio stations, PR people, etc... that are all helping Taylor to send out the long standing message of "Be a good girl that all men will love and you will live happily ever after. Be a bad girl and nobody will ever love you."

tl;dr Again, we are missing the forest through the trees.

yes

omg I love this gif.

did a brunette kill her mother

i wouldn't say she's slut shaming, but it seems that she thinks really highly of herself. i mean, how many 'i know you love me more than her' songs about how may guys can a person write about?

I wouldn't call any slut-shaming (Except for better than revenge, which is obvious slut shaming).

Taylor seems to blame other people for her relationship problems, but I don't think she hates women. She has blamed men for the problems before. I think her problem is that she never thinks she is at fault.

And It is not always the womens fault, okay? Unless the women clearly seduced the guy knowing the he is in a relationship, then they take equal blame. A lot of the time the girl doesn't know he is in a relationship because he is an asshole and tells her lies.

I don't know. I can't seem to hate her. She reminds me of my high school self. >.>

Other female singers have ~shamed~ women in their songs before. Ill be waiting for those posts too.

i'm sure she feels jealous of other girls - maybe she doesn't wanna have sex with guys and she feels "victimized" by others who are willing to have sex and maybe that's why guys break up with her. i mean, i don't really know.

her songs aren't really empowering to women. at the same time, i feel a bit defensive of her because of the tina fey golden globes comment. men go out with younger girls all the time and it's never questioned but when women do it, it's looked upon as weird. i thought it was kind of a sexist comment.

this is late. but op you are a loser. you want to post this elaborate post about taylor swift, yet still "love gaga." you've called out gaga for her ignorant bullshit but claim you still love her. you're such a hypocrite and quite frankly a huge loser for trying so desperately to villainize taylor. taylor is not perfect and i really could give a shit about her, but seriously could you people try any harder to make her look bad. it's pretty fucking pathetic to be honest

Country music has a very interesting take on gender equality. And while there's Tammy Winette's "Stand by your Man", we have Loretta Lynn's "The Pill" with strong political themess and "I wish I was a single girl". My super favorite is Dolly Parton's (queen tbh) "Just because I'm a woman", which was a response to slut-shamming. The song is a response from a conversation she had with her husband about their former lovers, in which she sings, “My mistakes are no worse than yours, just because I’m a woman.”