You love her or you've got bad blood (pun most definitely intended) with her, but either way, you can’t deny that Taylor Swift is just about everywhere you turn, like it or not. To some, that’s a GREAT thing…but to others? Well, it’s like living in their version of a horror movie. You gotta admit, she’s probably done things that some don’t agree with (e.g., taking her music off Spotify and the now infamous Nicki Minaj Twitter debacle). Now, we all have some pretty solid reasons as to why we might not like a celebrity and that’s OK. I mean, they are just celebrities whom we probably will never meet. But my issue isn’t the fact that you dislike a celebrity. It’s the reason why.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but there’s a hate that’s always surrounded Taylor Swift from day one, a hate that is a little bit more than your typical celebrity bashing. And honestly? It’s problematic. It’s problematic because of the number one reason why people hate her: her relationships. Yep. That’s it. Most people dislike her simply because of the people she dates or, more specifically, how many people she dates when in reality it’s not a lot at all.
“But she’s dated like six people!” And you haven't? There are people who have hooked up with way more people than that in their young adult lives (some all in the same week, but we won't go there). But here's my question: Why does it matter? More specifically, why does it matter TO YOU? She's an adult woman who can choose who she wants to go on dates with. Isn't that what you do when you're that age? You date people for a few; it doesn't work out, and you move on. So why can't Taylor Swift do the same? Scratch that. Why do we CRITICIZE her for doing the same thing that we all do in our day-to-day lives?
I've seen guys who say they dislike her, yada yada. But most of the hate comes from girls. I've seen women talk about "building each other up," yet they slut-shame her for dating. And DON'T even try to use the excuse of her writing about them in her music. Let's be real, y'all. EVERYONE writes about EVERYONE. What makes a song that's written about an ex of hers different than a song that Sam Smith wrote about any of his exes? Robin Thicke had a whole album dedicated to his ex-wife (let's not relive that). My point is that artists write songs about their personal lives and especially their love lives. Always have, probably always will. That ultimately makes that argument invalid, sexist and just plain ol' tired.
Taylor Swift is the perfect example of the trend of slut-shaming in this country. I'm not even directing this toward any men who might dislike her because the majority of her haters are women. We, as women, need to do better. So much better. We can't preach for the end of others judging us because of who we date and how many people we date if we don't stop it ourselves.
If you have a problem with her, fine. But don't make your problem with her something that someone else can so easily turn against you, thus making the stereotypes on women worse than before. So Taylor Swift, if you're reading this: Keep doing you, and when it comes to the hating...shake it off!
