Full disclosure: I love Taylor Swift, ever since I was ten and bopping along to “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story.” I may have switched from Spotify to Apple Music so that I could listen to her music and yes, I have called myself a Swiftie. But for most people, Taylor Swift is a polarizing figure- you either love her or you hate her. She’s always either being dragged on social media or being adored on many Tumblr posts. She’s constantly in the news for her boyfriends, her feuds, and her “squad.
But ever since 2016, one question keeps on coming up when it comes to Taylor: Is she truly the feminist she claims to be or is she just claiming the title without doing any actual work? Is she a good role model for the thousands of girls who look up to her? After all, Taylor is idolized by so many young girls and women. She’s sweet and beautiful and writes songs that seem like they could apply to your life. She shares her life on her social media. Before she deleted everything this August, her Instagram was full of candid moments with her friends and cats and family. In short, Taylor is your awkward best friend who you can totally relate to. That’s her brand and what made her one of the most successful artists of our generation. She has millions of followers on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Facebook. Those numbers gave her an unprecedented platform to spread change and do meaningful work. However, many people believe that Taylor doesn’t use her platform to enact any change. Instead of encouraging her fanbase to attend rallies or become activists, her haters think she simply plugs her own music and merchandise.
So, let’s ask the question the Internet has seemingly already decided the answer to: Does Taylor Swift get to call herself a feminist?
Let’s back up to 2014. In an interview with The Guardian, Taylor Swift announced that she had always been a feminist. In it, she says one of the main reasons that she began identifying with the feminist movement and called herself a feminist was because of her friendship with Lena Dunham. In hindsight, it’s probably not great that she “learned” what feminism was from Dunham- after all, she’s pretty problematic as is (but that’s a post for another day). It was a start though. Remember, this was a time when the word feminism wasn’t as commonplace as it is now. By beginning to discuss feminism, Taylor put it on the radar for a lot of her fans. For some people though, it wasn’t enough. She seemed to only identify feminism with girl power and her squad. For that, she was mercilessly mocked all over social media. Of course Taylor Swift wasn’t a true feminist when she only hung around carbon copies of herself and wrote songs about falling in love with boys. How could you be for woman empowerment when you were pining over every boy you saw? (That’s a very wrong viewpoint, by the way. You can totally want to fight for women’s rights and still believe in love. Not exclusive actions.)
Taylor also seemed to misunderstand what exactly feminism was about. When Nicki Minaj said that only white artists were given a chance at music awards like the VMA’s, Taylor responded by saying that she thought Nicki and her were friends. Not her best moment, to say the least. But she took something away from that lesson, even while everyone was making fun of her: Intersectionality feminism is important. It’s not okay to stand for feminism but only fight for it in terms of white women. (And Nicki and Taylor eventually made up, so yay for another squad member!)
The discourse surrounding Taylor’s feminism seemed to explode in the 2016 election cycle, for a fair reason. It was an extremely decisive election. Everyone, even celebrities had an opinion on what was being said. It seemed that if you wanted to be taken seriously as someone who cared about social issues, you had to speak out. But Taylor never did. The closest she got was Instagramming a picture of her on a line to cast her ballot with a caption encouraging her followers to vote. (This was also met with disdain with the general public and was one of her last posts on social media before she began promoting reputation.) And now we’re here: Still arguing whether or not T-Swift is a feminist and going around in circles about it. So, is she? Let’s spill the tea.
Personally, I truly do believe Taylor Swift is a feminist. When I started listening to her music, it struck a chord inside of me. She not only sung about cute boys that she was hopelessly in love with, she sang about being unsure of her future. She sang about how she didn’t know what she was doing, but she was gonna jump in any way and write her future. She had these songs about friendship and family that described everything I felt. Look past the label she has of being boy-crazy and you find some truly uplifting music. Just look at the lyrics from “A Place In This World” off her debut album Taylor Swift: “I’ll be strong, I’ll be wrong/Oh, but life goes on/Oh, I’m just a girl/Trying to find a place in this world.” So yeah, she doesn’t *just* sing about boys. But even if she did, who cares? Her songs about love are still amazing. She wasn’t afraid to admit she fell in love over and over again, sometimes learning from her mistakes and sometimes not. She just kept putting herself out there, and that inspired girls too. And when she was done with boys, she wasn’t afraid to admit it. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” made that pretty clear. Taylor has been out here since 2006 inspiring girls to be fearless in love but to love yourself first. That’s a part of what feminism is to me- allowing girls to be anything and everything they want to be. Teenage girls are a beautiful mess. They make mistakes, they fall in love, they don’t know what they want, except that they want the world. And Taylor’s music made me feel like I could go out and conquer the world, all while still being myself. That’s some empowering stuff.
And finally, Taylor Swift does stand up for social justice. During Kesha’s 2016 trial against her ex-producer, she donated $250,000 to Kesha’s legal defense. She was a woman standing up for another woman and made it clear that she always would. But for me, the most feminist thing Taylor did was countersue a DJ who groped her. The DJ sued Taylor for getting him fired from his job when all she did was inform his employers that he shoved his hand up her skirt and groped her ass. Taylor countersued for a symbolic $1 and planned to donate money to sexual abuse victims. The whole point of her going through a trial was to show women that they did have a voice. She testified bravely and refused to accept any blame for a man’s actions. She stood up not only for herself but for many scared women who didn’t know how much power they had. And that’s the other part of what feminism is for me. Standing up for every woman, regardless of race or age or socioeconomic status. Recognizing your own privilege and doing something to help those who don’t benefit in the same ways you do. Refusing to stick to the status quo and being determined to change the way the world goes on. And in that aspect, Taylor Swift rocks at being a feminist.
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