Dear Taylor Swift,
Adolescent girls today are a generation of your biggest fans. We grew up with you. Sure, we listened to Miley, Demi, and Selena, but you were the queen ever since you burst onto the music scene when I was 9 years old. I remember getting your first album for my birthday and downloading it onto my first MP3 player. Fearless came out when I was 11, and became the soundtrack of my life in middle school. During the most impressionable years of my life, I related to you. Even though I didn’t have boyfriends or heartbreaks, your music made me feel like I did. It makes me sad that your young fans today didn’t get to know the Taylor Swift of 10 years ago.
The Taylor Swift of today is not someone that I’m a fan of. You used to be relatable, funny and awkward. Of course, we all grow up and blossom and I don’t blame you for that. I blame you for losing the humbleness and girl-next-door quality you’ve always had. It’s hard to imagine you today singing a song like “You Belong With Me”, because that would mean your ego subsided long enough to believe that a guy would be dating someone over you in the first place. Your love songs have increasingly included lyrics describing what you’re wearing, your lipstick, and how you look, rather than the guy you’re supposedly singing about. Each new relationship you have becomes more and more of a spectacle, yet you continue to deny that you’re a serial dater with quotes like “I’m not the girl who always has a boyfriend. I’m the girl who rarely has a boyfriend.” You’re young, and there’s nothing wrong with dating around, but at least own up to it.
Your selective feminism is one of your biggest flaws. After Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made a joke about you in 2013, you famously stated “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” Yet it’s okay to feud with Katy Perry, write a song about her, and then make a corresponding revenge-themed video with your girl gang, all over something as small as losing backup dancers to her? This was clearly done to make Katy feel excluded, an excuse to show off all the famous friends that took your side in the war. Who knew the world of adult female pop singers could be so much like high school? And in famous Taylor Swift fashion, you capitalized on the drama and “Bad Blood” in your life.
Another thing you’ve capitalized on is your “victim” status, ever since Kanye West jumped on stage at the VMAs in 2008. We all felt bad for you, even Barack Obama. However, you’re not the same wide-eyed, innocent girl that was blindsided and embarrassed in front of the world eight years ago. During the most recent debacle involving Kanye’s “Famous” lyrics, you once again pulled the victim card, but this time Kim K was around to call you on it. When she did, you were quick to post a paragraph on Instagram explaining yourself, but it just seemed like a cop out from someone who was just caught in a lie. Arguably, you and Kanye have both benefitted from the drama that surrounds you, and the situation could’ve easily been a publicity stunt, but it has definitely left a bad taste in the mouth of your fans.
Basically, to make a long story short, you kind of suck, Taylor Swift. I’m not saying I won’t shamelessly sing along when your music comes on the radio, but I don’t consider myself a fan. I just can’t bring myself to root for such a hypocrite, and I hate that little girls are still considering you a role model, because you don’t deserve that title anymore. I’m sure you have a long career ahead of you, but I can’t help but hope you officially fall off your pedestal sometime soon.