“And if they call me slut, you know it might be worth it for once”
-Taylor Swift (Slut!)
Is it ever worth it though?
It’s no secret that the world hasn’t been entirely kind to women, especially those in the public eye. Fingers are pointed, words are thrown, and it’s a cycle that just seems to find a new victim, time and time again, like clockwork.
It’s always “sluts” and “gold-diggers.” These words were created for a reason: to demean and be derogatory to women, despite never looking at the male counterparts in the story.
“Only rumors ‘bout my hips and thighs, and my whispered sighs…”
-Taylor Swift (Is It Over Now?)
1989 (Taylor’s Version) just recently came out, and with it was a dive back into 2014, when rumors were rampant. Taylor Swift’s dating life was a spectacle, put in tabloids to mock her; her body was met with criticism, because, you know, anything other than “thin” wasn’t acceptable. This isn’t anything new. Even most people have to walk a very fine, basically invisible line between slut and prude. There’s a line between almost everything because too much of anything isn’t good enough to meet the male gaze that this patriarchal society has so lovingly adopted.
“Blank Space” said it best. The whole song is satire, playing into the media’s perception of Taylor Swift and the girl they believed she was. “Shake It Off” touched on it too, focusing much more on those who create and sell the rumors. It’s interesting to see that people still, in different social media comment sections, seem to either attribute her fame and success to a man who has no part in it and tried to embarrass a teenager on stage, or to the men that she has dated throughout her life—a point of ridicule that they can’t seem to let go. Bored people are going to talk regardless, and despite many other ongoing problems, it’s best to focus on and humiliate the young women who are put in the spotlight.
“Slut!,” a love song, entirely unexpectedly so, acknowledges the society that’s so willing to call names, and decides then and there that if it’s going to happen, you might as well look at the best of the situation. There was a similar theme in her song, “Call It What You Want,” detailing a private relationship that was going to be scrutinized by the public that was already influenced by her worsening image at the time. “Slut!,” however, is a little different since it was written during arguably her most public era. She knows the words they call her because they aren’t anything new.
With the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Swift released a prologue talking a bit about slutshaming and how any of her friendships were and could be sexualized.
“I’ll pay the price, you won’t.”
-Taylor Swift (Slut!)
There was a thing going around a couple of months ago, where beautiful, talented Margot Robbie was called “mid.” And if that means anything, it’s that we’re never going to be good enough for whatever we’re trying to be good enough for. There are impossible beauty standards that we will never meet, that are going to toy with our bodies. We can be single for our whole lives and live an adventurous life, or be traditional and have a family, and either way, someone will have something to say, filled with criticism and hate.
From Britney to Taylor, from old Hollywood starlets to modern pop princesses, it is never-ending, and as much as I want to see the end of the cycle, there’s a chance it’ll never break. Even as recently as a few years ago, Sabrina Carpenter was on the receiving end of death threats, called a “slut” and a “homewrecker.” As much as I’d like to think that society has grown, there’s always going to be a target for those in the public eye. Even though some would like to deny it, there’s a tendency that criticism is going to be harsher on women. Now I’m not saying that these people are perfect and don’t deserve constructive criticism, but when the criticism involves sexist words or phrases, then it’s not constructive, it’s just bullying. There’s a list of all the women that have been hurt and mocked by the media and that’s forever unchanging. They all deserve an apology from all those who took part in it.
And it’s not just celebrities. Like I said before, we’re all walking that invisible tightrope that won’t go away. I’ll go through Instagram and see comments made on posts that are vile and gross and should definitely not be allowed. But they are, and it’s okay because, well, look at what she was wearing. That’s pretty much the excuse, the question that gets asked when one is sexualized simply for existing as a pretty girl. Or a girl in general.