The first album I ever purchased with my own money was Taylor Swift’s debut album in October 2005 when I was eight years old. I used to have a Walkman that I carried with me everywhere and I would drive my family of six crazy with how loud I would sing “Picture to Burn” in the car on every family outing. I have t-shirts, posters, and strained vocal chords from screaming along to all of her famed break-up ballads that prove I have been a dedicated Swiftie from the very beginning. She has gotten me through every awkward stage of my life since I was eight and she is still my go to girl at 20 years old.
So as most of my closest friends know, I get really, really irritated with all the nonsense she gets just for being good at what she does – writing love songs. When I call them love songs, most people respond with “they’re not love songs, they’re breakup songs. All she does is break up.” Wrong. What she does is express herself musically and cope with her feelings of life through song – and the hardest thing to cope with is love and a broken heart.
Here are my responses to all that hate she gets:
1. “She dates so many guys, she’s a skank.”
Ugh. I won’t mention the many male celebrities that get away with this, but I will say that if she was a guy, all anyone would talk about would be Taylor’s music, and she might be dubbed courageous for her ability to put out such personal lyrics. Taylor is an attractive girl in her 20’s – she’s allowed to have more than one boyfriend in the more than ten years she’s been on our radar. Some of them lasted a long time, some of them didn’t. We don’t know the full story – the only thing we have are pictures to burn (see what I did there) and speculation about who her songs could be about. Taylor has always been a queen at keeping her private life private and the truth is, we really don’t know anything about how serious those relationships were or what happened during them.
2. “But what about the Kanye issue?”
Again… ugh. For those of you who live under rocks, Taylor and Kanye have had an on-off feud since he interrupted her award acceptance at the 2009 VMA’s saying she didn’t deserve it over Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” music video. They two had since shown that they got over it, but when Kanye’s album Life of Pablo was released in 2016, things got ugly again. Kanye wrote in his song “Famous”, “For all my south side n***** that know me best / I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.” A snapchat video was released of Kanye on the phone with Taylor asking her if the lyrics were ok and if they offended her, and she was recorded saying yes, she was ok with the lyrics and even complimented him on them. But when she was asked about them after the song’s release. She apparently claimed to not know about them, and that she was shocked and offended.
This does sound a bit sketchy from Tay at first listen, but any true Swiftie knows that when she says she was shocked at the lyrics, she was referring to Kanye’s wording of “I made that bitch famous”, which he did not tell her about in the phone call. It is always degrading to hear that someone is trying to take responsibility for where you are in life. Kanye seems to think that his rude interruption in 2009 is what made her skyrocket to fame. But the rest of the world knows that she would have been just fine without that headline.
3. “All she writes about is boys!”
This is my favorite one to hear. Anyone who listens to a Swift album knows that while she does excel at lyrics about broken hearts and unrequited love, a lot of her songs are about so much more than that. She writes about her friends, her family, and even has a song dedicated to the fans titled “Long Live”. Her song “The Best Day” is about her close relationship with her mom. “Fifteen” is an ode to what her and her best friend Abigail went through in high school. She even has a song dedicated to Kanye West titled “Innocent” and it’s about what happened at the VMAs and all the ridicule he was getting from the media. She wrote the song to him as a way of saying “It’s ok, we all make mistakes.” “22” – not about boys. “Bad Blood”- not about boys. “Change”, “The Outside”, “Mean”, “A Place in This World”, “Shake It Off” – all not about boys! Swifties are sick of the media portraying her as a serial dater because she’s good at what she does. Check out all her Grammy’s then talk.
4. “I’ve heard she’s just mean.”
I’ve heard that gum won’t digest in your stomach for 7 years, but, boy, were we wrong there. You can’t believe everything you hear, and that goes for all celebrities. Even if she’s not the nicest person in the world (which she totally seems to be, but whatever), she gives back a lot more than some celebrities do. She has donated and raises millions of dollars for countless relief efforts, including victims of the Haiti earthquake, tornado disaster in the Midwest and victims of Hurricane Sandy. All of the proceeds from sales of the “Welcome to New York” single went to New York Public Schools. She opened a music education center in Nashville and has been recognized for her countless volunteer work and PSA’s by Do Something, the Tennessee Disaster Services, and received awards such as the Big Help Award and the Ripple of Hope Award (Wiki).
5. “But why didn’t she say anything about the election?”
Taylor has always said that she avoids the topic of politics to avoid swaying her fans just because she believes something. That doesn’t mean she avoids the causes that are important though – During the 2008 presidential campaign, Swift promoted the Every Woman Counts campaign, aimed at engaging women in the political process, and was one of many country stars to record a PSA for the Vote (For Your) Country campaign (Wiki). She is self-proclaimed feminist and has repeatedly spoken out in support of LGBTQ+ rights. I think it’s ok that she does not advertise her political views every chance she gets.
6. “Who’s Taylor Swift Anyway?”
If you didn’t get that, I can’t be your friend. Taylor Swift is someone who cares about her fans. She is extremely talented and so smart. Sure, she’s had a few bad headlines. But her music is great and so is her soul.
Stop hating.
XOXO
All Swifties
*All images courtesy of Giphy