When Netflix’s new original series Ginny and Georgia took over conversation in every corner of the internet, I felt compelled to watch. I heard some of the acting was poor and that the storyline moved slowly, but in the middle of a pandemic, what else did I really have to do? Then I learned about the sexist and misogynistic joke about Taylor Swift made — being a huge Swifite, this made me want to boycott the show altogether. But Taylor’s powerful response to the slander and the controversy that ensued from it piqued my curiosity, so I decided to watch.
Each time I settled into bed to watch the show, I anxiously braced myself for the tasteless joke about my idol to be made. In episode 10 and the season finale, “The Worst Betrayal Since Jordan and Kylie,” Ginny comments on her mom, Georgia’s, dating life, after Georgia criticizes Ginny’s own relationship choices. “What do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift?,” Ginny says. The namedrop was over almost as soon as it began, but after facing scrutiny from the media surrounding her dating life and songwriting for years, Taylor was not about to let this one go. On March 1st, just days after the show’s release on February 24th, Taylor Tweeted: “Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse shit as FuNnY.” The Tweet also referenced Taylor’s documentary, Miss Americana, which also premiered on Netflix. “Also, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you. Happy Women’s History Month I guess.”
Ginny and Georgia is progressive in a lot of ways: it has LGTBQ+ relationships, sex positive ideologies, issues sourrounding race, unconventional familes, characters struggling with mental health, and sex positivity. So why did a show that promotes casual sex use a slut shaming joke? My original guess was that the show was created by a man, but it was actually created by a woman. The producer, several co-producers, and script writers are women as well. I am not sure why women who are successful in their own industry feel the need to tear another powerful and accomplished woman down.
Maybe the most ironic thing about the tasteless Taylor Swift joke in Ginny and Georgia is Netflix’s long and positive history with Swift. In 2018, Netflix released a video of Taylor Swift’s Reputation Stadium Tour on their streaming service so fans could enjoy the concert from their own homes, once touring ended. Then in 2021, Netflix premiered Miss Americana, a documentary in which Taylor discusses parts of her life the cameras never captured: her struggle with an eating disorder, her journey towards speaking out on political topics, and how the media’s perception of her affected her life. Netflix has the documentary tagged under “inspiring”, and then decides to disrespect Taylor just a year later.
I am not going to tell you to never watch Ginny and Georgia or to feel guilty if you have watched and enjoyed the show. It touches on a lot of important societal issues, and I think that the creators, writers, and those involved in the show’s production deserve credit for this good work. That being said, I don’t think the joke about Taylor Swift can be ignored. It is 2021, and any jokes that slut shame and reek of sexism are tired. I can’t help but think that if Taylor Swift was a man, that this joke would have never been written into the script in the first place.