Taylor Swift’s songs have served as a testament to girlhood.
The cruel realities of a girl in unrequited love can be described in “Foolish One” off of her new re-recording Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). The beauty in the bond between a mother and daughter is written beautifully in her song “The Best Day” featured in Fearless (Taylor’s Version). The honest contentment of a girl in love, romanticizing the matrimony of marriage is sung in her album-titled single, “Lover.” Taylor Swift has proved to be a force in the world (she literally caused an earthquake during one of her shows of the Era’s Tour). More importantly, though, she has felt like a friend to strangers who simply stream her music. Though she is debatably the most famous woman in the world, she has the vulnerability of someone you have known for your entire life.
Taylor has gone through the same things as all of us. Despite differences in Instagram followers (and net worth), she is one of us at her core. Taylor Swift is beloved by women worldwide because we have shared experiences. College girls specifically know the feeling of your parents leaving your dorm room on move in day all too well. A song I couldn’t bear to listen to all of August was “Never Grow Up” on her album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). She beautifully writes about homesickness and the general feeling of missing where you came from—no matter how much you thought you resented it. We often wish we could fast forward time and curse our parents for simply being parents. We want–so badly–to be “grown ups”, but really, we’re the same child we’ve always been.
Taylor’s vulnerability has never faltered as her popularity flourishes. In her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, she shares her insights of how truly impossible it is to be a woman. She shares, “I wanna love glitter and also stand up for double standards that exist in our society. I wanna wear pink, and tell you how I feel about politics. I don’t think those things have to cancel each other out.” It is often assumed that to be a woman you must reject femininity in order to be taken seriously. Swift rejects this perspective, encapsulating the Elle Woods mentality of embracing womanhood while also being outspoken about what she believes is right.
Taylor also rejects the expectations that have been forced upon her for the entirety of her career. “Throughout my career,” Taylor says, “label executives would just say, ‘A nice girl doesn’t force their opinions on people; a nice girl smiles and waves and says thank you.’ I became the person everyone wanted me to be.” It is a common expectation for girls to smile, look pretty, and be thankful. This expectation is one that many girls have experienced in their lives. In this documentary, Taylor finally speaks up against this system and how the expectations differ for men and women. For women, it is nearly impossible to be a strong leader without attracting negative connotations to the title. I mean, just listen to “The Man.”
Taylor has a song for everything and everyone. There is a song of hers for every experience, emotion, and event. There is an album of hers for every season: (Red (Taylor’s Version) for autumn, Evermore for winter, Lover for summer, and Fearless (Taylor’s Version) for spring–in my opinion). She’s the voice of women around the world and her music and impact will never, ever go “out of style.” She treats her fans like family, hiding easter eggs for them to find, invites them to Secret Sessions to have a sneak peak into her albums, and shares inside jokes. The world stops whenever she has a red carpet appearance and everyone’s breath stills when she has an acceptance speech (since her surprise drops of Folklore, Evermore, and the announcement of Midnights, the world has never been the same). Taylor Swift will forever and always be an important figure to women.