Huffington Magazine Issue 33 | Page 25

Voices ELIZABETH PERLE HUFFINGTON 01.27.13 ROYCE DEGRIE/GETTY IMAGES In Defense of Taylor Swift I HAVE FINALLY REACHED my breaking point. LEAVE BRITNEY TAYLOR ALONE. ¶ To give you some background, it seems that people are especially mad at T Swizzle this month. They are upset with her for many reasons, like ostensibly being asexual, having an out-of-control interest in antique shopping, dating too many men, and not being sufficiently feminist. Let me repeat. Asexual. Antique shopping. Too many men. Anti-feminist. ¶ First of all, judging a young person’s perceived sexual orientation? Just stop. And I’m not going to touch the antiquing thing with a 10 foot pole. ¶ In terms of slut-shaming her for having multiple boyfriends, I think it’s pretty obvious why we shouldn’t be doing it to a 23-yearold girl, whether she’s a mega-star or just out of college from small town Pennsylvania. No one deserves that. Not Swift and not her young fans, who are probably internalizing these critiques as we Taylor Swift at the Nashville Symphony Ball in 2011.