so you were never a saint
I know Taylor Swift is quite polarising, but over the last couple of months I've been percolating a whole bunch of inchoate thoughts about her, and her public image, and the part the media has played in perpetuating then tearing it down, and I thought I'd finally put some of it down to see what others think.
To start, I'll acknowledge that she has made some mis-steps, that she appears to have a mean streak in her, that she does appear to make big gestures in life that can backfire on her, that she really can't help but expose a lot about herself and the people she's dated whether they like it or not in song. I know it doesn't excuse it all, but part of it definitely makes sense because she's young (shut up, 23 is young, okay?) and she's making mistakes like some many of us do no matter what age we are. So.
But I'm still quite discomfited by the way the media has just turned on her. I know every pop princess has to fall, that it's part of the narrative - golden child, feet of clay, re-invented to shine, wash lather rinse repeat. And yet, I think what's really putting me off is how peole in the media, including grown women who've struggled in the harsh media spotlight, rushing to condemn her with the same tired arguments.
I think what really set me off this time was this Daily Life article about the new Vanity Fair interview. Natalie Reilly dives in by saying it's ripe for discussion "because it contains some very rich material", which is what drew my eye and made me keep reading. Ooh, is this the complex look inside the media construction of being Taylor Swift I've been waiting for? I thought. I'm in!*
Except what I got seemed to boil down to a lady dissing a lady about dissing some ladies for dissing a lady. And this makes me really sad.
I'm even sadder that all the subsequent articles have been about how Taylor caused a stir with her comments, and how she deserves the backlash, and how Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have been all class in responding to this ONE quote in an interview, like this whole debate should come down to Woman 1 v Women 2 and 3. And once that's settled in a day or two that's it, we don't need to take a closer look at ooh, this tricky issue of how the media likes to frame stories about women in certain ways, that Taylor Swift ALSO brings up in the aforementioned interview.
Because what I found most interesting about the Vanity Fair quotes was that Swift seems to want to foreground the fact that part of the problem when writing about her is gender - that she's performing some outdated, dangerous form of femininity, that her confessional songs are unbecoming behaviour, that she is crucified for having the propensity to date a string of hot, sometimes younger men.
But the criticism levelled at her, particularly in the wake of this interview, is for daring to point this out when obviously, those accusations are true. Reilly repeats in her article that the problem is not how the media has issues with how they write about women, young women: "it's that Taylor, it's not the people out there who are portraying you this way - it's your own music! Have you been over your lyrics lately?" and "but could you please have a look one more time at your lyrics? Your raison d'être appears to be how a boy can break your heart."
Oh, I've had problems with Swift's lyrics before, I'll admit (Better Than Revenge is a particular example that springs to mind). But I've also found myself maybe quietly sobbing to All Too Well, thinking about certain people I dated when I was young and the poetry I wrote about them (sobbing both because of the people, and because oh god, that poetry was terrible). And in the same way, lord knows there' a long list of pop songs I loved throughout the years written by men which have absolutely awful, misogynistic lyrics that have been given passes by people of all genders (not saying that's okay. Saying I'd have equal reason to take a good long hard look at myself for loving those songs uncritically).
So why are the media so insistent on telling young women that there's something wrong with creating something from the strong emotions you have about people and regrets, even if they're a bit embarrassing and mean? Why are we constantly holding up Taylor Swift to say it's not okay for women to share those emotions somehow through something as simple as a catchy 5 minute pop song, when it's okay for men to talk shit about their ex-girlfriends through generations of music?
The thing is, despite the fact I obviously have a lot of feelings about this, I almost didn't write anything down. I could've just saved this rant up for the next time I saw
littlerhymes and subjected her to another round of 'SQ has a frightening amount of thoughts about pop stars'. But then I watched my third episode of Please Like Me, Josh Thomas' new TV show, in two nights, and after I couldn't stop thinking about the way we approach confessional creations from men compared to those by women.
Because after I watched the first ep of Please Like Me, all I could think was "oh my god, that was just Josh Thomas' excruiating and yet compelling self-insert fanfic, wasn't it??" And when tonight's ep of PLM was followed by a taping of the abbreviated version of his 2010 live show 'Surprise', I realised just how much of his real life he mines for material. Complete with embarrassing ex-boyfriend stories, exaggerated awkward-cute persona, semi self-aware-but-not-really jabs at himself, and dance breaks to remind you that underneath it all, he's just a lovable dork. You know, that reminds me of someone else...oh yeah, Taylor Swift.
But from my possibly-not-statistically-significant data (a quick Google and tumblr search), I can tell you that generally people respond to Josh Thomas's creations in a much less critical way than they do Taylor Swift's. And sure, they're on vastly different stages - Thomas to a small, local audience, Swift to billions worldwide, but he's a successful enough comedian here with media exposure, and I'm still waiting on the day someone writes an article listing all the people Thomas has had sex with and how this invalidates his comedy and writing and success.
So this is a really long-winded, rambly way of saying yeah, instead of reading yet another article about Taylor Swift with a list of ex-boyfriends and a subtle dig at how this makes anything else she says unworthy of our attention, I want the media to turn its lens on itself, to acknowledge that on the issue of gender, they hold females to an impossible, contradictory, hypocritical standard. Because until this changes, it just works to keep us tearing each other down, for disappointing ourselves and each other, for failing to be that perfect unicorn of a woman we've been told to measure themselves and every other woman on earth against.
* This was not sarcastic, nor naive on my part. DL has some really interesting writers, often throwing up thoughtful deconstructions of what it means to be female, to be scrutinised, to not meet societal expectations and even if I don't agree with all the writers and all their arguments, most days I find something worth reading.
To start, I'll acknowledge that she has made some mis-steps, that she appears to have a mean streak in her, that she does appear to make big gestures in life that can backfire on her, that she really can't help but expose a lot about herself and the people she's dated whether they like it or not in song. I know it doesn't excuse it all, but part of it definitely makes sense because she's young (shut up, 23 is young, okay?) and she's making mistakes like some many of us do no matter what age we are. So.
But I'm still quite discomfited by the way the media has just turned on her. I know every pop princess has to fall, that it's part of the narrative - golden child, feet of clay, re-invented to shine, wash lather rinse repeat. And yet, I think what's really putting me off is how peole in the media, including grown women who've struggled in the harsh media spotlight, rushing to condemn her with the same tired arguments.
I think what really set me off this time was this Daily Life article about the new Vanity Fair interview. Natalie Reilly dives in by saying it's ripe for discussion "because it contains some very rich material", which is what drew my eye and made me keep reading. Ooh, is this the complex look inside the media construction of being Taylor Swift I've been waiting for? I thought. I'm in!*
Except what I got seemed to boil down to a lady dissing a lady about dissing some ladies for dissing a lady. And this makes me really sad.
I'm even sadder that all the subsequent articles have been about how Taylor caused a stir with her comments, and how she deserves the backlash, and how Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have been all class in responding to this ONE quote in an interview, like this whole debate should come down to Woman 1 v Women 2 and 3. And once that's settled in a day or two that's it, we don't need to take a closer look at ooh, this tricky issue of how the media likes to frame stories about women in certain ways, that Taylor Swift ALSO brings up in the aforementioned interview.
Because what I found most interesting about the Vanity Fair quotes was that Swift seems to want to foreground the fact that part of the problem when writing about her is gender - that she's performing some outdated, dangerous form of femininity, that her confessional songs are unbecoming behaviour, that she is crucified for having the propensity to date a string of hot, sometimes younger men.
But the criticism levelled at her, particularly in the wake of this interview, is for daring to point this out when obviously, those accusations are true. Reilly repeats in her article that the problem is not how the media has issues with how they write about women, young women: "it's that Taylor, it's not the people out there who are portraying you this way - it's your own music! Have you been over your lyrics lately?" and "but could you please have a look one more time at your lyrics? Your raison d'être appears to be how a boy can break your heart."
Oh, I've had problems with Swift's lyrics before, I'll admit (Better Than Revenge is a particular example that springs to mind). But I've also found myself maybe quietly sobbing to All Too Well, thinking about certain people I dated when I was young and the poetry I wrote about them (sobbing both because of the people, and because oh god, that poetry was terrible). And in the same way, lord knows there' a long list of pop songs I loved throughout the years written by men which have absolutely awful, misogynistic lyrics that have been given passes by people of all genders (not saying that's okay. Saying I'd have equal reason to take a good long hard look at myself for loving those songs uncritically).
So why are the media so insistent on telling young women that there's something wrong with creating something from the strong emotions you have about people and regrets, even if they're a bit embarrassing and mean? Why are we constantly holding up Taylor Swift to say it's not okay for women to share those emotions somehow through something as simple as a catchy 5 minute pop song, when it's okay for men to talk shit about their ex-girlfriends through generations of music?
The thing is, despite the fact I obviously have a lot of feelings about this, I almost didn't write anything down. I could've just saved this rant up for the next time I saw
littlerhymes and subjected her to another round of 'SQ has a frightening amount of thoughts about pop stars'. But then I watched my third episode of Please Like Me, Josh Thomas' new TV show, in two nights, and after I couldn't stop thinking about the way we approach confessional creations from men compared to those by women.
Because after I watched the first ep of Please Like Me, all I could think was "oh my god, that was just Josh Thomas' excruiating and yet compelling self-insert fanfic, wasn't it??" And when tonight's ep of PLM was followed by a taping of the abbreviated version of his 2010 live show 'Surprise', I realised just how much of his real life he mines for material. Complete with embarrassing ex-boyfriend stories, exaggerated awkward-cute persona, semi self-aware-but-not-really jabs at himself, and dance breaks to remind you that underneath it all, he's just a lovable dork. You know, that reminds me of someone else...oh yeah, Taylor Swift.
But from my possibly-not-statistically-significant data (a quick Google and tumblr search), I can tell you that generally people respond to Josh Thomas's creations in a much less critical way than they do Taylor Swift's. And sure, they're on vastly different stages - Thomas to a small, local audience, Swift to billions worldwide, but he's a successful enough comedian here with media exposure, and I'm still waiting on the day someone writes an article listing all the people Thomas has had sex with and how this invalidates his comedy and writing and success.
So this is a really long-winded, rambly way of saying yeah, instead of reading yet another article about Taylor Swift with a list of ex-boyfriends and a subtle dig at how this makes anything else she says unworthy of our attention, I want the media to turn its lens on itself, to acknowledge that on the issue of gender, they hold females to an impossible, contradictory, hypocritical standard. Because until this changes, it just works to keep us tearing each other down, for disappointing ourselves and each other, for failing to be that perfect unicorn of a woman we've been told to measure themselves and every other woman on earth against.
* This was not sarcastic, nor naive on my part. DL has some really interesting writers, often throwing up thoughtful deconstructions of what it means to be female, to be scrutinised, to not meet societal expectations and even if I don't agree with all the writers and all their arguments, most days I find something worth reading.