F**k the Patriarchy: How the Media Taught Us to Hate Taylor Swift
Image Courtesy: Taylor Swift via Instagram (@taylorswift)
Whether we choose to acknowledge it or not, society and the media have been gunning for Taylor Swift, calling her a 'serial dater,' a fake good girl, and even downright annoying. Despite your personal views on Swift, it's hard to deny that the narrative the media has portrayed has always been harsh.
At sixteen, Taylor Swift entered the country music scene with her hit song, Tim McGraw debuting from her self-titled album, Taylor Swift, in 2006. The album was an instant success, debuting at number nineteen on the Billboard 200 chart and selling over forty thousand copies in its first week. From there, Swift’s popularity grew with her next studio album, Fearless, 2008, winning four Grammys, including Album of the Year, Best Country Album, Best Female Country Vocal Performance, and Best Country Song for "White Horse." But as Taylor began making a name for herself in the music industry, the media began discrediting Swift as a female singer-songwriter, leading to Taylor's third studio album, Speak Now. This album is comprised entirely of songs written solely by Swift. However, as Taylor attempted to earn respect in the industry and disrupt the mocking narrative the media tried to push, the infamous 2009 MTV Video Music Awards occurred where Kayne West notoriously interrupted Taylor's acceptance speech, causing a feud that the media would use to continue discrediting Swift not only as a performer but as a woman.
After the 2009 MTV Awards, the targeting of Swift in the media only worsened. She was labeled dramatic, dumb, fake, and annoying, constantly being belittled and scrutinized for almost everything she did. Plus, with headlines like Vice's 2016 article, "Taylor Swift isn't like other celebrities. She's worse," trending and with comments like Nikki Glaser's "She's too skinny, it bothers me" being seen as funny, it quickly became a trend to hate Taylor Swift and shameful to like her music. But why was the media so critical of Taylor? Simple, because she is successful.
Image Courtesy: Andreas Rentz via Getty Images
The media's constant attacks aimed at Taylor Swift have created a negative bias toward her, causing the cycle of negativity to continue. The idea is that repeatedly hearing something negative will cause our perceptions of that thing to be negative. In the case of the media versus Taylor Swift, Taylor is frequently labeled as the villain when in a feud with another celebrity. In 2016, after Kim Kardashian posted an edited phone call between Swift and West, Taylor was called a "liar" and a "snake" and is even still seen as one despite the unedited recording being leaked a couple of years after because of the way the media portrayed Taylor during that time.
In Swift's Netflix documentary, Miss Americana (2020), she details the time during the "death of her reputation" in which the #TaylorSwiftisOverParty hashtag began trending number one worldwide on Twitter, causing her year-long self-isolation. Taylor goes on to discuss what it was like to have jealous and patriarchal stereotypes following her every move, saying how "f**cking impossible" it all was to keep up with what the public seemingly wanted from her, no matter what she did, "it was never enough."
However, the death of her reputation was not enough to silence Swift forever. After her year of accepting her inability to please everyone, Swift returned in the fall of 2017 with her sixth studio album, reputation, which provides further insight into the media's attack on Taylor's character. But as Swift made peace with the public's perception of her, the media continued its aggression, this time coming at her for womanhood. In 2017, Taylor went on trial against David Mueller, who claimed Swift had Mueller "wrongfully terminated" after Swift claimed Mueller had touched her inappropriately at her 2013 meet-and-greet. During this time, the media played into the narrative that Swift's assault resulted from her excessive amount of romantic relationships.
Image Courtesy: Taylor Swift via Instagram (@taylorswift)
For Swift, the trial and the media's coverage brought to light the inequalities she has faced throughout her career and how the media has chosen to portray not only herself but women in the spotlight. In her 2019 song, "The Man," off her seventh studio-album Lover, Swift further delves into the scrutiny she has faced because of being a woman, singing the lines, "they'd say I played the field before I found someone to commit to / And that would be ok," "they wouldn't shake their heads and question how much of this I deserve / What I was wearing / If I was rude / Could all be separated from my good ideas and power moves," and "when everyone believes ya / What's that like?"
As the media and society continue to unjustly discredit Taylor Swift as a musician, performer, artist, and woman, it feels like more than a result of being a public figure. Over the years, the media has subconsciously trained the public to hate Swift through the constant negativity seen in the headlines and social media. Yet, can we genuinely find a reason for our hatred if we don't use an argument generated by the press?
Image Courtesy: Taylor Swift via Instagram (@taylorswift)
When I was younger, it was funny to hate Taylor Swift. I remember how embarrassing it was for one of her songs to come on the radio when I was in the car with my friends. We would immediately change it because she could only write songs about the men who didn't want her. Yet, in the wake of Taylor's announcement to re-record and release her first six-studio albums that her record label had sold despite her interest in purchasing them, I realized just how much she has gone through to make a name for herself. To constantly reinvent herself, time and time again, that's no easy feat for any artist, especially for one who is continuously discredited simply because of her success.
Taylor Swift has won ten Grammy Awards, twenty-nine American Music Awards, and twenty-three Billboard Music, the most wins by any female artist. According to Pollstar, Taylor's Eras Tour is projected to gross $624-728 million, making it the highest-grossing tour ever. Yet, we continue to accept the media's discrediting narrative. While there is nothing wrong with not being a fan of Taylor Swift, there comes a point where we need to stop negating her, not only as a musician but as a person, because there's no room for any more hate in this world.
Strike Out,
Writer: Lauren Hamilton
Editor:
Tallahassee