Can we just talk about how taylor swift takes her own fans to court for making merchandise on ETSY, sued her old guitar teacher for using her name on his website as if he didn’t give her everything she has, finds a problem in every single streaming site because she wants her fans to only be able to purchase her album - even when Apple agreed to fix the issue she had she STILL hasn’t agreed to be apart of Apple Music, and talks passionately about issues pertaining to her but never about actual social justice issues. Yet the media and promotional team doll her up as some american sweetheart who loves her fans and is super sweet and generous. I don’t know about you but I am not here for that or for her AT ALL
I thought I’d make a post summarizing Taylor Swifts video “Shake It Off” for the people who don’t want to give her more hate views on VEVO. Maybe instead of giving her 4,000 angry views on youtube we can just give her my one view and reblog this hella so no one else watches it out of irritable curiosity?
Anyways the video is basically just her dancing singing an anthem that every White person appropriating another culture says, “The haters gonna hate.” There’s no real content or plot to the video, just a lot of dance shots where she’s being really awkward. It’s actually amazing how someone could really pretend to be so innocent and naive yet still convey a very harmful message.
Above I posted some screen caps of the video and after only watching it once I got all I needed to know. Already from the beginning of the video you see a hard clash between the dancers. There are the prima ballerina types who are all white women, elegantly leaping and stretching and dancing. Then there are the faceless black women who are shaking their asses. Yes, faceless, literally every shot of the “twerkers” are only their asses. There’s also other groups of dancers which include some break dancers (which are all brown men,) and contemporary dancers (which is a group of white people and one girl with an afro.) Oh, yes, I forgot the cheerleading group which was all white cheerleaders and one black girl in the back. I just find it hard to believe that they couldn’t have a solid mixed group of people in each category. She pulled a Miley and Iggy and probably said something like “Well I want a more urban feel! But keep the safe ballerinas white!!” Literally the only group that had a saturation of black women was the twerking group. She even had them squat and shake their asses while she crawled through their legs! So edgy! So urban!
This is the problem I have with Taylor Swift. She’s always trying to convey herself as the innocent one who is “man worthy” (as if being man worthy is even important) while slut shaming other women for being sexual, or even just dressing in “short skirts” and “high heels.” All of the sudden now she wants to say, “To hell with the haters I can have as many problematic exes as I want! Now I’m going to be single and edgy! I’m going to shake it off! And to be single and edgy and sexual I have to dance with a bunch of ass shaking black women! USE A BUNCH OF BLACK WOMEN AS PROPS“
Long story story, Taylor Swift is not only a slut shaming misogynist, she’s ignorant and has obviously racist/stereotypical views of brown and black people.
Perpetuates the virgin/whore, Madonna/whore, good girl/bad girl dichotomy with slut-shaming lyrics such as “she’s not a saint and she’s not what you think/ she’s an actress and she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress”. It’s important to note that she alludes to having sex herself “there’s a drawer of my things at your place”, but still criticizes other women for doing it.
Perpetuates the myth that women are only worth their virginities with lyrics such as “Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind”. Her virginity was “everything she had”. Not her intelligence or talent or kindness or anything, just her virginity. (The Abigail mentioned in the song, a friend of Swift’s, says Swift used that wording because those were the words Abigail had used.)
Perpetuates the myth that women need men to save them
Plays at being the ugly, unwanted outsider despite being a thin, attractive, wealthy, white woman. Apparently glasses = ugly loser.
“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”
— Taylor Swift, a woman who has built a career by slut shaming women, publicly humiliating girls who ‘stole’ her exes, teaching women to not have sex because it will mean they are bad sluts, teaching women that their virginity is everything they have and losing it makes them bad sluts, teaching women that if the guy they like happens to like another woman then that woman is a bad slut, does nothing to help gay women, teaching women that wearing short skirts and high heels makes you a bad slut, teaching women that if they enjoy cheerleading or partying then they are a bad slut, teaching women that getting a boyfriend is the most important thing and should be their number one priority, teaching women that it’s totally acceptable to make a move on another women’s boyfriend if you love him, teaching women that it’s good to pathetically mock your ex boyfriend, quite aside from the fact that she doesn’t speak out about women’s rights or donate to women’s charities. (via mrsmelchiorgabor)