Taylor Swift is known as "America's Sweetheart" by this generation, but if we really want to break it down for you, she's really not all that sweet. Taylor Swift has stated many times that she's a feminist, but if we look deeper into her feminism, it benefits no one but herself. Her feminism has only caused her to look like a whiny brat. Don't get me wrong, I was once a fan of Taylor Swift (well, her music, not her). I enjoyed singing "Our Song" in the comfort of my bedroom on a Saturday afternoon. But growing up and watching her talk in interviews and award shows and how she has handled various situations, my distaste for Taylor grew, like her petty feud with Katy Perry (that wasn't really a feud until she decided to write a song about it), or her shoving her "squad goals" down our throats. But what really bothered me was how she responded to Nicki Minaj's rant on Twitter about the divide in music award shows. Seems to me that no matter what, Taylor seems to always want to be the center of attention. But what is truly bothersome is her lame excuse for feminism.
In a Women and Gender Studies course that I took two semesters ago, feminism was explained as, "Feminism is a range of political movements, ideologies and social movements that share a common goal: to define, establish and achieve equal political, economic, personal and social rights for women. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment." A feminist is a person who advocates for and supports the rights for women's equality. Taylor Swift has claimed many times in interviews that she is a feminist, but it seems that her feminist views are simply just one form of feminism: white feminism.
White feminism, as described by feministculture.com, is that "white feminists are generally white middle class women who focus only on issues that affect the white cis woman." A lot of the issues that Taylor Swift addresses are only about issues that the white feminist faces. Around this time last year, Nicki Minaj took to Twitter to discuss her discourse with the fact that her song "Anaconda" was not nominated for Video of the Year.
After said "rant," Taylor Swift took to Twitter to respond to Nicki's tweets and had gotten a response from Nicki:
What truly bothers me about the situation is that Nicki Minaj was bringing light to a situation that very few people discuss. Women of color do not always get the recognition they deserve in the music industry. But what was worse is that instead of supporting Nicki and using her platform to shed light on the issue of inequality in the music industry, Taylor Swift used this chance to play victim and assume that Nicki was throwing shade at her. The bigger irony of Taylor Swift's statements was her mentioning the fact that Nicki was pitting women against each other. But the video that she filmed that was nominated for and won Video of the Year was a song and video that glorified pitting women against each other, in which Katy Perry was quick to tweet about:
And she is right to do so. Feminism is supporting and advocating for the equal treatment of ALL women in society and the workplace. So what Taylor did in responding to Nicki Minaj was telling her that her issue did not matter and that she should be ashamed for trying to pit women against each other. She is undermining the fact that there is a divide in the music industry between white women and women of color. Even after Nicki explained that she wasn't talking about Taylor Swift in her tweets, Taylor still did not acknowledge the issues that women of color face. If it is not an issue that she herself is facing, she won't talk about it.
Read part 2 here.
