Jezebel is grinding their Taylor Swift axe again, some more, this time agreeing with (and amplifying) Autostraddle's statement that "Taylor Swift is a feminist's nightmare."
I don’t particularly like Taylor Swift, so I hate being in the position of having to defend her, but come on. In addition to some of the excellent points made by commenters -- e.g., it’s ridiculous to say a young woman who sings about how there are bigger and better things in life than boys, and exhibits more control over her career than most 20-year-old women in the music industry are allowed, is "a feminist’s nightmare" (surely there are more horrifying things keeping you up at night) -- there’s the very simple fact that if you pay more than five seconds of attention to Taylor Swift, it becomes very very clear that the cute/sweet/virginal/infantilized image is not all there is to her, nor is it the image she most often chooses for herself. If you want to have a conversation about why we as an audience, no matter how educated or liberal or feminist, seem unwilling to acknowledge that women in the public eye (and in general) can exist somewhere between the opposing extremes of "sexed-up whore" and "sweet baby virgin" (and I guess now "liberal feminist smartypants"), then that’s cool. I’m with you. But if you’re not willing to do that work, and are instead going to take the lazy, careless route of conflating the image projected upon Taylor Swift with the image Taylor Swift projects, and using that to proclaim Taylor Swift, as both a person and a symbol, the enemy of feminism? Then fuck it, you’re feminism’s worst nightmare.
I don’t particularly like Taylor Swift, so I hate being in the position of having to defend her, but come on. In addition to some of the excellent points made by commenters -- e.g., it’s ridiculous to say a young woman who sings about how there are bigger and better things in life than boys, and exhibits more control over her career than most 20-year-old women in the music industry are allowed, is "a feminist’s nightmare" (surely there are more horrifying things keeping you up at night) -- there’s the very simple fact that if you pay more than five seconds of attention to Taylor Swift, it becomes very very clear that the cute/sweet/virginal/infantilized image is not all there is to her, nor is it the image she most often chooses for herself. If you want to have a conversation about why we as an audience, no matter how educated or liberal or feminist, seem unwilling to acknowledge that women in the public eye (and in general) can exist somewhere between the opposing extremes of "sexed-up whore" and "sweet baby virgin" (and I guess now "liberal feminist smartypants"), then that’s cool. I’m with you. But if you’re not willing to do that work, and are instead going to take the lazy, careless route of conflating the image projected upon Taylor Swift with the image Taylor Swift projects, and using that to proclaim Taylor Swift, as both a person and a symbol, the enemy of feminism? Then fuck it, you’re feminism’s worst nightmare.
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