Reactions to my last Post

I was entertained at Dr. Stiltner describing my writing as "bracing" in my last post about Taylor Swift...I wanted to respond to his comments and questions and elaborate more on some of my ideas for my paper. It might move into the "scathing" category :)

Just to start, some definitions that you might need clarification on from my last post, as Dr. Stiltner pointed out!

Slut shaming: Simply put, the idea of shaming or attacking a women or girl for being sexual, acknowledging sexual feelings and pleasure, having sexual partners, or acting on sexual feelings.  From Alon Levy's "Slut Shaming," he puts it as "The implication that if a woman has sex that traditional society disapproves of, she should be shamed or made to feel guilty or inferior."  Though you've probably never heard the term before reading this (unless you're into feminism or sociology like I am), I'm willing to bet you've probably called a girl a slut at some point in your life, haven't you?

Rape Culture: We live in a rape culture.  To understand what this means (well, first you can re-read my post from the beginning of the semester on sexual assault), let's look at the explanation found in "Transforming a Rape Culture" by Emilie Buchwald, Martha Roth, and Pamela R. Fletcher:

A rape culture is a complex of beliefs that encourages male sexual aggression and supports violence against women. It is a society where violence is seen as sexy and sexuality as violent. In a rape culture, women perceive a continuum of threatened violence that ranges from sexual remarks to sexual touching to rape itself. A rape culture condones physical and emotional terrorism against women as the norm.

In a rape culture both men and women assume that sexual violence is a fact of life, inevitable as death or taxes. This violence, however, is neither biologically nor divinely ordained. Much of what we accept as inevitable is in fact the expression of values and attitudes that can change.

You probably don't automatically connect these ideas with the songs of Taylor Swift, but I will be expanding a lot further on these ideas as I continue to work on my paper.

Dr. Stiltner also asked: But what about the video?

In case you've never seen the music video to You Belong With Me (not that you're missing out), you can check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bKAaKwX5aA

As Dr. Stiltner pointed out after watching it, "It seems to be more about the nerdy girl trying to find her self-confidence. It doesn't make the "girlfriend" slutty, but certain very attractive, cool, and popular."

So, I'm going to point out what I find to be problematic about the video and how it connects to the ideas I discussed in my last post.

In the video (and in most of her other songs/videos), Swift casts herself as the proverbial outcast - in this case, "the girl in the bleachers." How does she do this in this video? By...oh, wow. Putting on a pair of very round, large glasses! Certainly these "dorky" glasses erase everything else that make Taylor attractive: long blonde hair, fair (read: white) and clear skin, big doe eyes, and thin.

But didn't you know?  Taylor Swift is just an average girl: don't worry, awkward adolescent girls, boys don't notice this hugely famous and gorgeous pop star either!

...Right, that's why almost all of Taylor's songs are about a different guy she dated.

And that's just it: all of Taylor Swift's songs are about boys. That is all she writes about.  That is all she pines over, all she desires.  Without a boy, Swift feels incomplete, and she's waiting around for the day she meets her prince charming and then she'll never have any problems ever again.  All Taylor Swift loves is boys. And you know what she doesn't love? Other girls. Know why? Because they steal her men.

How do they steal her men? Their seductive good looks and sexual availability.  Swift clearly lacks these things: she sings about how all she has to offer is her quirkiness, which means that though she's not beautiful, she can understand these boys in a way that these other beautiful, superficial, popular girls can't.

Here's the thing: Taylor Swift is beautiful. She, like many supermodels found in magazines, on television and the rest of pop culture, does not represent anything "average" about girls. 

In her single "Hey Stephen," Swift sings: "All those other girls, well they're beautiful, but would they write a song for you?"

What? Beautiful girls can't write songs? Is that what you're saying here, Taylor? I beg to differ: beautiful girls can write songs, but most beautiful girls (unlike you) don't have the supportive wealthy parents and resources that you were privileged with that allowed her to move from Pennsylvania to Nashville when they were 14 so they could get a record deal...

But do you want to know what part of Taylor Swift really allowed her to become as famous as she is?

She didn't (and allegedly still doesn't) have sex.

That's right! Just listen to her song "Fifteen."  First of all, this song is the only one (that I can find, anyway) where Taylor actually has a female friend.  Because in all of her other songs, girls are just obstacles in the way of her finding true love.  But what happens to this female friend of Swift's? Clearly she didn't end up a famous pop star like Swift did. Why is that? She had sex. Before she was married. And then they broke up.

It's true: "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy, who changed his mind, and we both cried."

All Abigail had was her virginity.  And she gave that away before she was married, so she was destined to lose her boyfriend because of it.

Didn't you know? Relationships where a couple are having pre-marital sex never work out. They certainly never work out for reasons completely unrelated to and other than the fact that the couple is having sex.  Just don't have sex, and your relationship is set to last.  And you, too, can write songs about your sexually active friends who never become pop stars while you continue on your way to virginal success. 

And trust me, "Fifteen" is hardly the worst of Taylor's slut shaming songs that perpetuate society's virgin/whore dichotomy (exclusive to women, by the way. No one ever cares that the boys Taylor wants but can't have because they are too busy being seduced by these harlots must, then, also be having sex...odd). No, I give that award to her song "Better Than Revenge."

Let me tell you something - good luck finding Taylor in any color dress but white. It doesn't matter if it's award shows or her music videos. White. Because she is perfect and pure and virginal. Just like in Better Than Revenge's music video, which I can sum up for you: Taylor shows up to a party looking awestruck and doe-eyed in a white dress, where her innocence and purity makes the boy realize that she is actually what he deserves, and he leaves his date (girlfriend) who is wearing a red, more revealing dress for Swift and her virginal beauty.

This is literally the virgin/whore dichotomy. Images, colors and everything. There is nowhere for women to fall but on one side of this spectrum. 

Don't forget the wonderful lyrics to this song either, you don't even need the music video:

The story starts when it was hot and it was summer and...
I had it all, I had him right where I wanted him
She came along, got him alone and let's hear the applause
She took him faster than you could say "sabotage"

Oh, yeah. This guy was completely powerless to say no to this girl's sexual prowess. No fault lies with him. And sex is sabotage.

I never saw it coming, wouldn't have suspected it
I underestimated just who I was dealing with
She had to know the pain was beating on me like a drum
She underestimated just who she was stealing from

Read: Boyfriends are possession. Girls own them, and other girls can steal them. Boys are completely powerless, have no autonomy, and can't turn down sex, ever.

She's not a saint
And she's not what you think
She's an actress, whoa
She's better known
For the things that she does
On the mattress, whoa

That's right. Women who are sexually active are always deceitful. You can't be good in bed and have othe redeeming qualities, either.

Soon she's gonna find
Stealing other people's toys
On the playground won't
Make you many friends
She should keep in mind
She should keep in mind
There is nothing I do better than revenge

Boys are toys. Need I say more?


Here's the thing: these implications are not harmless.

Swift is perpetuating the idea that choice of dress and sexuality are intertwined, and that sexuality is something to be shamed.  The consequence of slut shaming is that this conception contributes and encourages rape culture, by supporting a rapist over a victim on the defense that the victim was "asking for it." The very idea of "asking for it" comes from clothing.  If a victim was wearing clothes considered to be revealing, then it is often claimed that she was purposefully drawing attention to herself and did not have the right to turn away sexual advances. Also prevelant in Swift's lyrics is the idea that men, when given the chance to have sex, literally cannot turn it down.  Though in her songs, Swift blames other girls for ruining her perfect relationship, in society this equates to men not being able to turn down sex even when the victim cannot give consent, thus leading to assault.

I'd also like to let Taylor Swift know that not all girls like boys, and not all boys like girls. Guess you can't relate to everyone, Taylor.

I'll take Nicki Minaj lyrics any day: "But fuck who you want, and fuck who you like" - as long as you get consent first. And don't let anyone make you feel bad about it either.