'You Need To Calm Down' Is The Official Anthem Of Pride Month
Pride month can be celebrated by everyone.
As you may already know Taylor Swift's new music video "You Need To Calm Down," was released on Monday with a ton of stars including Ciara, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Ryan Reynalds, and Ellen Degeneres. If you weren't already in love with Swift's new song with a cool summer beat, you definitely are now. Having more celebrities use their voice towards positive activism is a relief, including this video.
Taylor Swift has proven that activism doesn't have to be angry or upset about a devastating event. Instead, activism can be simple like supporting friends or family and ensuring they are equal members of society. Activism doesn't have to be just screaming and shouting to make your voice become less invisible in a world with 24/7 communication. Activism should be service that people do all the time, not specifically during the hard times.
Second, Swift proves anyone can enjoy pride month. As someone who is not part of the LGBTQ community, I thought to enjoy pride month was off limits and didn't apply to me. I learned pride month is something everyone can enjoy and how not to discriminate against people for being themselves. Pride month is about supporting civil rights of LGBTQ+ people but also all people.
Third, Swift attempts to heal what is broken, specifically her feud with Katy Perry. I thought this was unbelievable, to say the least. It really shows how people need to be the bigger person, do the right thing and be a better version of themselves. Regardless of Katy Perry, the song speaks to healing a broken world that doesn't believe in itself.
Instead of responding with anger in the midst of a terrible catastrophe, we can instead respond with hope for the value we already have and learn to think positively. After all, Taylor says, "Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD(referencing The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)?" Celebrating Pride month gives hope for furthering equality, peace, and living with fulfillment and confidence about who you are.
No one said you have to be narcissistic or get into fights to make your voice heard. A good alternative is discerning if you are using your voice in a positive or negative way and helping society as much as possible. Rather than being down on your luck as if nothing will ever change for the good, starting with you it always can.
Here's a summary of what we've learned:
1. Throwing a little shade does not destroy another's identity.
2. Express your identity how you want
3. Be who you were born to be aka you're real, authentic self.
4. Getting into fights doesn't help.
5. Think the best, rather than the worst.
6. Everyone can enjoy Pride Month.
7. Don't "scream" at people if you don't have to.
8. Learn to use your voice appropriately and at the right time and place.
9. Stay cool because we all need to calm down.
10. Live peacefully and grow in the brokenness.
We All Need To Learn How To Combat Nasty Comments, One Tweet At A Time
To post or not to post . . . that is the question. Ever not known how to get your point across without typing in all caps and hurling insults left and right? Yeah, me too.
I have a hard time knowing how to respond to something that just seems so utterly wrong in my mind. How do you gently tell someone everything they've ever believed is sexist or racist or just unethical? Do you even tell them? How do you decide whether to speak up or not? What medium should you use to talk to them? Will your posts come back to haunt you when you're looking for a job? If you've ever been frustrated with these questions, you are not alone! I still don't know all the answers.
It's difficult to know when and where to post/comment/talk in our day and age where social media reigns king over all. I don't know about you, but I'm paranoid about everything I put on the internet under my name because I'm worried it'll come back to bite me in the butt when potential employers google me. I've had a lot of recent experience struggling with when and where and how to reply to something I don't agree with online.
Check out my article about checking yourself (before wrecking yourself) on your social media comments here!
The things I keep in the forefront of my mind when deciding whether to post or not are respect and validation. No matter what someone posts on their social media page, every person deserves to be respected and to have their experiences and opinions validated. I want to make sure I respect and validate everyone because that's how I want to be treated when someone comments on my social media posts. Even if I just want to tear the other person's argument apart, I do my best to have calm, respectful conversations. If anything, hopefully, anyone who sees your comments will understand your good intentions of educating the person you're arguing with. These good intentions are necessary for the person to actually listen to you.
If I start yelling out meaningless insults in between insightful comments, the person is only going to be blinded by the insults. They won't even begin to consider what I have to say because they're too busy being offended.
My goal isn't to offend anyone - it's to educate them about my thoughts so they can maybe be well-informed citizens. I don't want to make people angry; I want to get someone to rethink their opinions and take a look from a different perspective. No, this won't resolve the world's issues, and I'm not claiming it will. But if we respond out of kindness and understanding instead of hurt and animosity, we just might be able to sway someone's opinion or (as the kids are saying these days) spark some "woke" thoughts.