Comments on: Why Taylor Swift Offends Little Monsters, Feminists, and Weirdos

By: Rachel

Rachel — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:42:16 +0000

I wonder why you mention Beyonce in your list of pro-women artists. I don’t agree with that at all. She is pro-women in the way that P!nk (who you also mention) is pro-women. “Stupid Girls” illustrates a definite hostility towards the ‘ditzy, self-unaware’ and ultimately STUPID girls who “use their bodies” to get attention from guys. I mean just look at the video. Look at the way the girl (P!nk) who “respects” herself dresses. Apparently confidence and a healthy self-esteem come from fashioning the librarian-chic look.
A lot of Beyonce’s songs feature a traditional idea of how women should behave; for example, the lyrics in “Me, myself, and I”; girl group Destiny’s Child’s “Cater to you.” (Though, that song is sweet, there is nothing wrong with showing your partner love.) It’s just the video on YouTube has hundreds of comments ranging anywhere from “See, this is how it should be”, “Women need to realize that this is what men like. We like to be taken care of, too. Womens’ lib really messed things up” to nauseating comments from girls reading, “I’m not feminist, but I don’t believe that women need to be doing these things ALL the time”. (Ridiculous, the amount of shame and repulsion this word has been reduced to.) With regard to pop–Cyndi Lauper, Gaga (Blonde high-heeled feminist enlisting femmes for this. Express your woman-kind. Fight for your right!!), Madonna—THESE are the artists that encompass and welcome EVERY facet of feminism, which is what your article claims P!nk and Beyonce also embrace, and, as I mentioned, that couldn’t be further from the truth. They DO slut-shame, ridicule, and ultimately end up purporting the myth that women can only “respect” themselves if they “respect” their temples, er, bodies. For these women, intellect/self-esteem and sexual discipline are directly correlated. Think “I’m not like all those other girls”. Or in P!nk’s case: “I don’t want to be a stupid girl.”
Just wanted to point that out.

By: what is a moonroof?

what is a moonroof? — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 08:39:56 +0000

[...]please pay a visit to the web pages we comply with, like this a single, as it represents our picks through the web[...]

By: AJS

AJS — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:02:50 +0000

Srsly. My gf has glasses and I think glasses are very attractive.

By: MsDalfo

MsDalfo — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 06:04:07 +0000

I don’t really have an opinion on Taylor Swift, but I LOVED reading this… which really implies otherwise…

By: chappers

chappers — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:48:33 +0000

Popular opinion doesn’t affect quality, bud.

By: Igbygrl

Igbygrl — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:07:51 +0000

^ See that right their shows you aren’t really a true feminist Jill. If anything feminism teaches women not idolize anyone or any form of ideology. I think Taylor Swift is a flawed human being who needs someone to tell her that she has no idea what type of ideology she spews in her songs. Her slut shaming propaganda in her music just makes me shake my head at her and wonder how her fans young, impressionable fans take that to heart.

Also I think girls who insult other girls by calling them slut, whore and the like to be even more degrading and puts us back in evolution. No wonder men still think us women can’t truly rule the world because of our vindicative, catty emotions.

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 03:28:15 +0000

That last couple of paragraphs about Lady Gaga… GURL, ILY! Just awesome. I mean, the whole thing, but that especially.

By: Digger

Digger — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:58:32 +0000

I’m a feminist..And I do in fact “suck”..On many, many things..Necks..Earlobes..Lips..Nipples..The list goes on and on..Or should I say down and down..And I’m really quite good at it

By: john

john — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:15:36 +0000

Just another cynical.

You say that Taylor is not the great thing about having just 20, please, is the youngest person to win an album of the year. This will have good experience but Beyonce sasha fierce abum just received a punctuation of 62 on Metacritic nothing compared to the 73 of Taylor, so the album was much better not tell me what the critics say many music magazines.

Obviously there will always be in the cynical world, and spend so much to write Taylor, if you must hate her.
get a life

By: RadioactiveRomance

RadioactiveRomance — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 06:49:27 +0000

I think you have a lot of great points here, but I have a problem with the claim that Lady Gaga is the idol to which we should compare Taylor Swift to prove her inadequacy. Lady Gaga is seen as a “visionary” in the music industry because she is different. But she’s full of mixed messages and even lies (plastic surgery debacle, anyone?) And either you believe she’s a pathological liar, or you believe she spent three days in an egg. Either way, this woman is not who I want my daughters to aspire to be like. If T-Swift blindly follows a wrung-out idea of what women should be, Lady Gaga questions what women should be. But what do her answers mean, and are they positive? She’s also guilty of worn out ideas (just dance, anyone?) and she may dress like a person on a lot of drugs, her upbringing was comfortable and she was no more a freak than Taylor- she went to the same prep school as the Hiltons, for pete’s sake. The message she sends to her fans=it’s ok to be a freak, if you’ve got the cash to foot the bill. God forbid my future daughter idolize either of these women blindly.

By: Layla

Layla — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 03:20:01 +0000

One tiny, very small point about the article at hand…

Lady Gaga and Beyoncé did not need to be brought in by comparison. They can coexist with Taylor Swift, even if one wins awards over the other. People can enjoy music about relationships and feeling upset just as much as independence and being unique (I know I do). When I listen to music, I honestly am not looking so deep for self expression. I mean, obviously I’m not just listening to something just for a catchy beat, but I do not look so deep into music to find “virgin motifs”, etc.

Also- about your point on Alison, her virginity, and the song Fifteen.

I think what Taylor Swift was suggesting here, instead of being about breaking a hymen or simply loosing your virginity, is that she gave the fullest symbol of her love- full unity and compassion- to someone who obviously didn’t return it. I know how it feels- lots of people do, and it hurts. Sex, and more importantly, virginity aren’t throwaway matters. It doesn’t mean that “All Alison had was a hymen”. They’re very important, to be honest, and big events in one’s lifetime.

But I really did like the article- a lot. It was extremely well written, very, very much so (unlike this comment, as I am about to pass out from exhaustion!). I also really liked how you differentiated your dislike for Taylor Swift’s music, and her personality.

Also- I have seen her live, and I thought she was pretty good, but everything I see else where seems to disagree? Maybe I was just happy to be at a concert instead of actually listening to her voice.

By: Alexandra

Alexandra — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:25:24 +0000

Thank you so much for writing this article because it points out exactly what I’ve wanted to say.
On tumblr, there’s a little satire post running around that makes fun of her song “Fifteen” and a few people have blown it way out of proportion and started claiming that the entire feminist movement is against girls not having sex. Which is, obviously, not true. And then there’s the argument that she doesn’t know what she’s saying, which is honestly even scarier because if you don’t realize that you’re slut-shaming, and think that it’s totally okay, you probably should be told so.

Basically, I agree with everything.