Taylor Swift is a world famous recording artist, pop singer and cat lover. She is best known for her catchy tunes, both in the country and pop spheres of music. She is a role model to many, and as a result is constantly followed around by paparazzi. Her every move over the past ten years has been well-documented: there are pictures of her heading to and from the gym with bestie Selena Gomez, and there are pictures of her walking to her car with one of her cats in hand. There are also thousands of images of Taylor walking hand-in-hand with various men. Wait, men, plural? As in, multiple men? What a slut Taylor Swift must be, right?

No.

Slut shaming is the act of making a girl or woman feel guilty about certain sexual behaviors that deviate from societal norms. Slut shaming can disguise itself in many ways, such as questioning women who wear certain types of clothes, making generalizations about women who work in the sex and pornography industries and even women who simply use birth control. Slut shaming seeks to embarrass women for acting in ways that others feel is inappropriate. There is an epidemic across media in which women are shamed for behaviors that men are not even questioned for participating in: some men are even encouraged to behave in these ways.

Taylor Swift is often labeled a “serial dater” by many news outlets. Since 2008, Taylor has dated eight men. EIGHT. This includes six relationships that officially lasted four months or less. Taylor is 26 years old. In the past eight years (which did in fact begin when she was only eighteen years old) she has found seven men that are not someone that she wants to spend the rest of her life with. The eighth may not be either, but whether or not he is the one is up to Taylor and Taylor alone. In a woman’s 20s, she should be able to continue through the dating world until she finds someone that makes her truly happy, meaning she has high standards and self-confidence, not "slutty" mannerisms.

Taylor has most recently been linked to British actor, Tom Hiddleston. There have been many images in the media of the two walking, cuddling and Taylor meeting Tom’s mother for the first time. There have also been many accusations that the couple is not really a couple: they are only pretending to be dating as a publicity stunt for Swift’s anticipated next album. Yes, you read that right. Taylor Swift’s personal life has been dragged across the coals so many times that the legitimacy of her most recent relationship is being brought into question.

We need to be talking about Taylor Swift’s relationships. Not because she may be tricking us in order to boost her album sales. But because she has had the courage to publicly date eight men. Regardless of the level of shame the world has tried to push on her for only being a twenty-something expressing her sexuality, Swift has allowed us peeks into her dating life, in Instagram and Snapchat posts and in interviews where she talks openly about her past, present and future relationships. We need to be talking about Taylor Swift’s relationships because she is not a slut: Taylor Swift is every teenager/twenty-something who is just trying to figure out who she is and the type of partner she would like by her side. We need to talk about Taylor Swift's relationships because she is a wildly successful young woman who has made a name for herself separate from her men. We need to talk about Taylor Swift’s relationships because the idea of a slut should be eliminated. We need to talk about Taylor Swift’s relationships because she is a star who has managed to find someone who she feels comfortable enough to go out and be happy with and we should be nothing but happy for her (and only the slightest bit jealous of her because who wouldn’t want to date Tom Hiddleston?!)