Posters and big advertisements, friendship bracelets graffiti on the ground in front of the CN Tower, and newly installed street signs with her name. Walking through the streets of Toronto, there’s one thing that you can’t look past this week: The Eras Tour. It’s the first time Taylor Swift has been back in Canada since 2018. And the excitement is huge. So huge that she is playing six sold-out shows at the Rogers Centre. That equals around 300,000 people who are coming to see her play. And the demand is even higher, thousands of fans are still looking for tickets.
Canada is Taylor’s last stop on the Eras Tour, with which she will have performed 152 shows in almost 2 years. While touring, she released a new album, two new re-recordings and a concert film of her tour. She broke countless records and is the most streamed artist in the world. Her fans have made her concerts a safe space: a place of love, friendship and acceptance. This safe space isn’t just limited to her concerts — through social media it spreads all over the world.
But as with all nice things, people can’t just let other people enjoy what makes them happy. Especially when the happy people in question are primarily young girls and women.
Taylor’s Success And Sexism In The Music Industry
Throughout her entire career, Taylor has had to deal with misogynist and sexist comments that reduced her to her gender and put her looks into the spotlight instead of her music and her talent. Since the beginning of her career, she has fought against these comments and continued proving her talent. After having won her first Grammy for her second album Fearless at the age of 20, critics claimed that it wasn’t her success alone and that she couldn’t write songs without the help of experienced songwriters. To prove them wrong, Taylor wrote all 17 tracks of her next album “Speak Now” by herself — without the help of any other co-writers.
Whereas the success of male artists is never questioned and they are praised despite publicly known problematic behaviour, female artists get picked apart and discredited for their work because of the way they look or who they date. And you would think this would have changed in the year 2024. Or after selling out 152 stadium shows of a tour. But it hasn’t.
People still make fun of Taylor Swift and people still make fun of people for liking Taylor Swift.
“Her songs sound all the same and she can’t sing”
“Being so obsessed with someone is embarrassing”
“She is so basic and so is your taste in music”
These are all things that have been said to me this year alone. In fact, these things have been said to me since I was 12 and started liking pop music that was primarily addressed to young girls. The sad thing is, these comments are not only coming from sexist *ssholes, from who you would expect. They are coming from people in your everyday life. They are coming from people who pride themselves on being “woke” or “open-minded”.
The double standards are maddening. When grown men cry over their favourite football team losing a big match, no one bats an eye. It’s accepted, even celebrated, as a sign of passion and loyalty. But when young women are sad because they couldn’t get tickets to see their favourite artist who has been a significant part of their lives for over a decade, then that is “crazy behaviour” and “embarrassing”.
The Impact Of Female Role Models
We live in a world where it is so normal to belittle the interests of girls and women that we don’t even realize what norms and values we are reproducing while doing that. Whether it’s making fun of a teenage girl for loving a boy band or dismissing a woman’s passion for fashion or romance novels, our society is constantly sending the message that women’s interests aren’t as important or worthy of respect. On the surface, this might seem like no big deal, but it reinforces patriarchal ideas about what’s considered “worthy” in our society.
It’s so important for young girls to grow up feeling like their passions matter. Having female role models who inspire them can make all the difference — whether it’s a singer whose songs they connect with, a scientist breaking boundaries, or an athlete proving that women can excel in sports. These idols show girls that their dreams are not only valid but also achievable.
And I am so glad that I did have this Idol while growing up.
Hating on Taylor Swift and her fans is not a sign of your great and unique taste in music. It is a sign of internalized misogyny.
Of course, it is completely fine to not like Taylor Swift’s music — you don’t have to! As long as you respect those who enjoy it without making fun of them.
The comments Taylor and her fans are receiving are just one example of many about the deeply rooted misogyny in our society. And there is only one way to change it: keep making female artists bigger and bigger and their success so normal that no one even thinks of making fun of them. When we stop belittling the things women love and start celebrating them the way they deserve to, we are not just supporting individual women — we are challenging a society that needs to change.
In the meantime, we keep enjoying what makes us happy and won’t let miserable people ruin our fun!