...of all time!
I've recently become fascinated with Taylor Swift. Well, that's not exactly right. Not specifically her. I've become fascinated with trying to put my finger on why Taylor Swift doesn't annoy me. Even more specifically why despite reading to me as possibly the "whitest" person in America, she doesn't annoy me.
To be clear, this isn't rooted in an anti-white bias. Growing up as a person of color in America, I think theres a certain acceptance of the dominant culture being that of White Americans/western europeans, what have you. It isn't ideal, and obviously there are downsides. But for the most part, I can separate my feelings about racism, white supremacy, colonialism, etc. from my feelings about Hockey or Microbrews. I think because we're forced to constantly deal with and manage our interactions with the mainstream culture so constantly, it's not weird for me as a black person to hate the confederate flag, but love "Sweet Home Alabama".
But aside from that, there's this notion of performative whiteness, that past a certain point, pushes all sorts of hostility buttons for me. Which explains why I have an enormous amount of irrational distaste for Wes Anderson*. And I know it's totally subjective, and I'm sure he's completely genuine and probably a lovely person. I imagine my feelings for him are along the lines of how some people feel about Richard Sherman. I'm the same way about Zooey "The Human Ukelele" Deschanel. Although, I really suspect that it's no accident that some television network executive genius realized that for her to be palatable, she'd have to be surrounded by what might possibly be the most diverse sitcom cast on tv.**
I think what it comes down to is that unlike Wes Anderson who seems to be constantly creating these worlds where I don't really exist. Taylor Swift seems to be from that mythical all-white world, and in the real world of actual diversity ,she's kind of the fish out of water. Like she's the real life Will Ferrell from the movie Elf.
And to be clear, I'm talking more about these people as pop-culture personas they put forth and not the actual people they are. Not to mention filtered through my own subjective cultural lens, which I readily admit is weird as hell sometimes.
And strangely, the only reason I'm thinking of Taylor Swift at all is Because of Kanye West, who I really believe is the only person at that level of celebrity who's not putting any sort of act. But doing so as a form of art. So it really is a performance after all. Which is meta in all the right ways.
* I know most of my friends love them some Wes Anderson, and I don't begrudge them that. In a perfect design-nerd world I would be his biggest fan. And I love Rushmore so much. My love of grand old hotels meant I kind of had to see Grand Budapest, and I liked it in spite of myself. The production design was just that good. I tried to watch Moonrise Kingdom on a long plane ride, and made it about 20 minutes before wanting to shoot myself in both eyes.
** I find it awesome that race is never an issue on New Girl. Interestingly, every character on the show has had an interracial relationship except Jess?
To be clear, this isn't rooted in an anti-white bias. Growing up as a person of color in America, I think theres a certain acceptance of the dominant culture being that of White Americans/western europeans, what have you. It isn't ideal, and obviously there are downsides. But for the most part, I can separate my feelings about racism, white supremacy, colonialism, etc. from my feelings about Hockey or Microbrews. I think because we're forced to constantly deal with and manage our interactions with the mainstream culture so constantly, it's not weird for me as a black person to hate the confederate flag, but love "Sweet Home Alabama".
But aside from that, there's this notion of performative whiteness, that past a certain point, pushes all sorts of hostility buttons for me. Which explains why I have an enormous amount of irrational distaste for Wes Anderson*. And I know it's totally subjective, and I'm sure he's completely genuine and probably a lovely person. I imagine my feelings for him are along the lines of how some people feel about Richard Sherman. I'm the same way about Zooey "The Human Ukelele" Deschanel. Although, I really suspect that it's no accident that some television network executive genius realized that for her to be palatable, she'd have to be surrounded by what might possibly be the most diverse sitcom cast on tv.**
I think what it comes down to is that unlike Wes Anderson who seems to be constantly creating these worlds where I don't really exist. Taylor Swift seems to be from that mythical all-white world, and in the real world of actual diversity ,she's kind of the fish out of water. Like she's the real life Will Ferrell from the movie Elf.
And to be clear, I'm talking more about these people as pop-culture personas they put forth and not the actual people they are. Not to mention filtered through my own subjective cultural lens, which I readily admit is weird as hell sometimes.
And strangely, the only reason I'm thinking of Taylor Swift at all is Because of Kanye West, who I really believe is the only person at that level of celebrity who's not putting any sort of act. But doing so as a form of art. So it really is a performance after all. Which is meta in all the right ways.
* I know most of my friends love them some Wes Anderson, and I don't begrudge them that. In a perfect design-nerd world I would be his biggest fan. And I love Rushmore so much. My love of grand old hotels meant I kind of had to see Grand Budapest, and I liked it in spite of myself. The production design was just that good. I tried to watch Moonrise Kingdom on a long plane ride, and made it about 20 minutes before wanting to shoot myself in both eyes.
** I find it awesome that race is never an issue on New Girl. Interestingly, every character on the show has had an interracial relationship except Jess?