Voices
speak. Now, I have a lot to say
about this “Taylor Swift is sexist”
argument. There was one jarring
article on Buzzfeed recently that
got to the heart of the issue for
me. The piece analyzed lyrics from
her songs and asked: “Does Taylor
Swift Hate Other Women?”
But what I’d like to know from
Buzzfeed is: “Why do you?”
I’m not arguing that her songs
are perfect feminist anthems that
romanticize healthy romantic
relationships. Few, if any, mainstream musicians today (male or
female) write songs that are not
problematic in that sense, and
this probably says more about our
preferences as an audience than
their talent as artists.
Why, suddenly, do we all feel it’s
her responsibility to carry our political banner for us?
It’s one thing to have a feminist analysis of Swift’s songs and
to find them wanting. It’s another
to dismiss her because her music
doesn’t achieve feminism perfection in a vacuum where no one
does. The more we focus on and
disapprove of the few female singers who dare do their own writing,
the more we are creating a hostile
environment for empowered female artists to exist, period. More-
ELIZABETH
PERLE
HUFFINGTON
01.27.13
over, Swift has actually negotiated
interesting — and arguably, unprecedented — ways to retain her
agency in an industry that would
rather she didn’t. That’s what
makes her a feminist role model.
Even though there’s little she
can do to change the system that
puts her private life as a young,
female celebrity on display, Swift
appears to have created a model
Why, suddenly, do we all
feel it’s her responsibility to carry
our political banner for us?”
where she can manipulate it. She
has preemptively created a narrative for herself that she has power
over and, for the most part, has
benefitted her career.
In an industry known for targeting young, successful women and
attempting to strip them of their
agency, Swift serves as a powerful
example of someone who has fought
back in ways that are smart, complicated and unapologetic. It’s also
probably worth mentioning that
Swift clearly doesn’t need
my defense. She’s got this.
Elizabeth Perle is editor of The
Huffington Post Youth Network.