Why I am boycotting Taylor Swift--and you should too...
There have not been many pop singers in the past decade who are as influential and widely popular as Taylor Alison Swift. Airing from my native state of Pennsylvania, the little blonde darling decided to move to the south to pursue a country career at age eleven. And thus a star was born.
I'm assuming that most of you know about Taylor Swift's career evolution from country darling to pop sensation, so I won't bother recapping. If you need to look it up, just go to Wikipedia. It's free. Anyway, to fully explain where the problem began, we need to go back to 2009. Yup. That awards ceremony. Taylor Swift, the innocent country darling, was accepting her VMA award for the her hit song and music video, "You Belong with Me," when she was rudely interrupted by a certain rap giant.
Kanye West had been around for a few years at this point, having smash hit songs across the charts. He was also known for his larger-than-life persona and inflated ego. He rudely interrupted Swift's speech at the 2009 VMAs to inform everyone that Beyonce had had "the best video of all time" with her hit "Single Ladies." Nobody is denying the fun black-and-white choreographed dancing of the music video, or Beyonce's vocal talent, but the best of all time? Really. Better than the fantastic Madonna or Michael Jackson videos of the 1980s? Better than 2009's own competition in the forms of rising stars such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, both known for their jarring music videos? Really? But Swift's video did have a lot going for it, setting out to tell a story through signs from across the street between a high school Swift and a handsome young actor named Lucas Till. Oh dear. This is the beginning of the ex-wars isn't it? Well, let me explain.
Nobody in their right mind is going to say that Mr. West was not in the wrong for interrupting Swift, but this incident sets up part of the story for later on. And by the next year, when Taylor Swift released her hit country ditty "Mean" supposedly calling out bullies, she thought herself invincible, "Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me," and thus began Taylor Swift's reign of playing the victim.
Yes, Taylor Swift dated fellow singer Joe Jonas in 2008, her first highly publicized relationship, but this was just the beginning. While Jonas is somewhat of a famous figure, who has definitely garnered some fangirls, especially back then, he isn't nearly as famous as some of her later relationships. Next up was the aforementioned Mr. Till, who she began dating after the music video. She briefly dated actor Taylor Lautner in the latter half of 2009, but of course it didn't go anywhere. Celebrity dating is no more than a pinky promise, right? But it gets worse. Oh, so much worse.
In 2010, Taylor Swift dated much-older singer, John Mayer, and after the breakup, she subsequently wrote a diss track to her ex, entitled "Dear John." Now this is nothing special, as it is typical for singers to write nasty songs about exes. "You're so Vain," but Taylor is different. And you'll see why. Later in 2010, she dated Jake Gyllenhaal. Wait, we're already at 5 exes? Well, that isn't out of the ordinary either. Still nothing worth boycotting someone over, is it?
Well, here comes number six, Conner Kennedy...oh no, this isn't good! A quick summer fling is all it was, but it was something nonetheless. I'm starting to think she's dating these guys for publicity and song inspiration than for actual romance. Taylor plays guys. And dare I say, uses them?
Okay, so next was then One Direction member Harry Styles--and of course fans went insane. Swifties and Directioners banded together, went to war and everything in between. Let's just say this was the first major relationship that literally EVERYONE knew about. And that wouldn't be so bad now, would it? But let's follow her album 1989. "Boys only want love if it's torture, don't say I didn't say I didn't warn you." Hold up, isn't that a huge over-generalization? Maybe only YOUR boys want it, or maybe you just want them to want it. Yup. Using guys. Oh, no. This gets worse doesn't it. And let me mention that she calls them "boys." And no, not in a youthful Charli XCX kind of way, but often in a condescending way. Take her recent song, "Ready for It." "Younger than my exes, but he acts like such a man so." Oh boy. So only her current beux can be a man, and the rest, no matter how mature they might be, are reduced to "boys" plain and simple. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So lets take a look at Taylor's beef with fellow pop singer Katy Perry. It all started with some friendly competition and a few backup dancers, but turned into an all-out flame war. Literally. There are flames and explosions in the video for Swift's 1989 single, "Bad Blood," allegedly about Katy Perry. So, what, it's just a feud, right? But the problem appears when Swift speaks of feminism with her primarily White and Taylor-exclusive "squad" while putting other women down. Swift is preaching false feminism, and this will be explored more later. She also had twitter beef with other celebrities such as Nicki Minaj, but that almost seems small in comparison.
Now it is time to introduce Scottish DJ, Calvin Harris, who Swift began dating in 2015. Here's where Swift's career takes a downhill dive. And it's not because Harris is a bad person or anything. No. It's the breakup in June of 2016. Let's talk about the met gala. Oh, God. And no, this has nothing to do with Swift being a bad dancer. It has to do with her tearing up the dance floor with acclaimed actor, Tom Hiddleston. And let's just say she might have had her eyes on a certain Joe Alwyn at the same time. More on that later. So. That's that. Taylor Swift can't dance. And apparently, Tom Hiddleston can. But really now. Here's where the Swift/Harris/Hiddleston love triangle of the century gets even more convoluted. Taylor Swift ghost-wrote Harris' hit song, "This is What you Came For," featuring pop diva Rihanna as the vocalist on the track. But things get real weird when Swift broke up with Harris, supposedly on speaking terms, and she wanted to take credit for the mediocre dance track. And this made Harris mad for some reason, tweeting that Swift should focus on her new relationship, and sounding awfully butthurt about it. Swift was just stirring up controversy for the attention, because she loves it.
Swift and Hiddleston were spotted dancing=relationship. The media is awfully gullible sometimes. Let's just say that Swift ran with it, dragging Hiddleston through a Lady Gaga paparazzi nightmare, which in itself wouldn't necessarily be a problem if he actually liked it. I mean, I wouldn't date someone that famous if I were you, Taylor. Famous. Oh, dear. We have to talk about THE CONTROVERSY, don't we? And this is one reason I am boycotting Swift. Hard.
In addition to the fact that Hiddleston doesn't seem like the kind of guy to go on a publicity drug trip, if she said she loved him, he must have believed her, later saying the relationship was very real. Oh yeah, I have to talk about "Famous" don't I? Okay, here goes. Remember Kanye West? Yeah. Well in 2016, he released a song called "Famous" with the highly controversial and misogynistic line, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, yeah, I made that b^*ch famous," featured in a music video where West is in bed with a wax sculpture of Swift. Mean, right? Well, Swift seemed to think so, immediately attacking West for his lyric, saying she had not approved it and had no knowledge. Here again were the days of young, innocent Swift at the MVAs. But wait--there's more. West's wife, popular reality star Kim Kardashian exposed Swift when she released a recording of Swift approving the line, saying it was tongue and cheek. Swift later alleged that she had misunderstood, but the damage had already been done. She had set up West as a monster, herself as victim, and completely lied about her knowledge of the scenario. Say what? She completely lied to, and played, Kanye West. In some ways, this is a pretty impressive achievement, but really, we should be talking about how messed up that is.
Anyway, her reputation was destroyed, which promoted a series of questionable career decisions, being honest about who she liked by ditching Hiddleston (due to her being mad at his schedule?) and pursuing the aforementioned up-and-coming actor Alywn, then proceeding to take an edgy persona by dropping a song for the "Fifty Shades" sequel, then wiping her social media and literally turning into a zombie and keeping pet snakes for her 2017 comeback single "Look What you Made me Do," a funny title, and supposedly a diss track for Kanye and Kim. Aside from the fact that all of this is Swift's fault to begin with, the question must be asked. What did we, the listener, make her do? I'm really not sure to be honest. It could also be a diss track for Perry, but their beef seemed to be all but over, although Perry released "Swish Swish" her own diss track for Swift, who proceeded to drop her album, "Reputation" in November, which has many eerie and questionable lyrics involving treatment of exes, her questionable sex life, and much more. But really, the nail in the coffin needs to be addressed in the music video for "Look."
Does anyone remember that Robert Palmer song from the '80's called "Simply Irresistible"? Well it features a bunch of suggestively dancing-dress-alike women.
Apparently, some found this sexist, including indie pop singer Ingrid Michaelson, who parodied the video in her 2014 hit, "Girls Chase Boys." 
Anyway, this whole dress-alike dancing thing has been done forever, so it isn't really sexist, is it? Well, I think we have established how Swift treats men, using them as publicity, calling them "boys" falsely implying things about their behavior, and trying to frame West, who has admitted to having issues and trying to get help. This seems completely unrelated, right? Well...I'm sorry if I just made any of my fellow Hiddlestoners cringe, but I am going to keep this as objective as possible. 
Alright, so this happened. Well, basically, and I quote, "“The truth is, it was the Fourth of July and a public holiday and we were playing a game and I slipped and hurt my back,” he says. “And I wanted to protect the graze from the sun and said, ‘Does anyone have a T-shirt?’ And one of her friends said, ‘I’ve got this’ … And we all laughed about it. It was a joke.”
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the video for "Look."
Hold up, that's eight backup dancers (I guess we're omitting Jake or Conner?) allegedly representing her eight exes. And they are all wearing the infamous I <3 TS shirts! And doing synchronized dancing. Other than the fact that she was supposedly ripping off Beyonce's formation video (say what?) this represents everything about how she feels about her exes. They all love her. And they will bow to the false feminist snake-woman. Maybe she would be a good partner for Loki after all.
Seriously, Ms. Swift is teaching young young girls that it is acceptable to put men and other women down, and to use people for your own advantage. So join me in boycotting this singer. Do not: Buy Taylor Swift Music, Listen to Taylor Swift on the radio, go to her concerts, watch her YouTube (aside from showing people how awful she is), buy merch, or give her money in any way. You may listen to the songs you already have downloaded, but that is it. Thanks for reading. Leave your thoughts on Taylor Swift in the comments below. I would love to have a civil discussion.
~StarGamesGrl02
I'm assuming that most of you know about Taylor Swift's career evolution from country darling to pop sensation, so I won't bother recapping. If you need to look it up, just go to Wikipedia. It's free. Anyway, to fully explain where the problem began, we need to go back to 2009. Yup. That awards ceremony. Taylor Swift, the innocent country darling, was accepting her VMA award for the her hit song and music video, "You Belong with Me," when she was rudely interrupted by a certain rap giant.
Kanye West had been around for a few years at this point, having smash hit songs across the charts. He was also known for his larger-than-life persona and inflated ego. He rudely interrupted Swift's speech at the 2009 VMAs to inform everyone that Beyonce had had "the best video of all time" with her hit "Single Ladies." Nobody is denying the fun black-and-white choreographed dancing of the music video, or Beyonce's vocal talent, but the best of all time? Really. Better than the fantastic Madonna or Michael Jackson videos of the 1980s? Better than 2009's own competition in the forms of rising stars such as Katy Perry and Lady Gaga, both known for their jarring music videos? Really? But Swift's video did have a lot going for it, setting out to tell a story through signs from across the street between a high school Swift and a handsome young actor named Lucas Till. Oh dear. This is the beginning of the ex-wars isn't it? Well, let me explain.
Nobody in their right mind is going to say that Mr. West was not in the wrong for interrupting Swift, but this incident sets up part of the story for later on. And by the next year, when Taylor Swift released her hit country ditty "Mean" supposedly calling out bullies, she thought herself invincible, "Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me," and thus began Taylor Swift's reign of playing the victim.
Yes, Taylor Swift dated fellow singer Joe Jonas in 2008, her first highly publicized relationship, but this was just the beginning. While Jonas is somewhat of a famous figure, who has definitely garnered some fangirls, especially back then, he isn't nearly as famous as some of her later relationships. Next up was the aforementioned Mr. Till, who she began dating after the music video. She briefly dated actor Taylor Lautner in the latter half of 2009, but of course it didn't go anywhere. Celebrity dating is no more than a pinky promise, right? But it gets worse. Oh, so much worse.
In 2010, Taylor Swift dated much-older singer, John Mayer, and after the breakup, she subsequently wrote a diss track to her ex, entitled "Dear John." Now this is nothing special, as it is typical for singers to write nasty songs about exes. "You're so Vain," but Taylor is different. And you'll see why. Later in 2010, she dated Jake Gyllenhaal. Wait, we're already at 5 exes? Well, that isn't out of the ordinary either. Still nothing worth boycotting someone over, is it?
Well, here comes number six, Conner Kennedy...oh no, this isn't good! A quick summer fling is all it was, but it was something nonetheless. I'm starting to think she's dating these guys for publicity and song inspiration than for actual romance. Taylor plays guys. And dare I say, uses them?
Okay, so next was then One Direction member Harry Styles--and of course fans went insane. Swifties and Directioners banded together, went to war and everything in between. Let's just say this was the first major relationship that literally EVERYONE knew about. And that wouldn't be so bad now, would it? But let's follow her album 1989. "Boys only want love if it's torture, don't say I didn't say I didn't warn you." Hold up, isn't that a huge over-generalization? Maybe only YOUR boys want it, or maybe you just want them to want it. Yup. Using guys. Oh, no. This gets worse doesn't it. And let me mention that she calls them "boys." And no, not in a youthful Charli XCX kind of way, but often in a condescending way. Take her recent song, "Ready for It." "Younger than my exes, but he acts like such a man so." Oh boy. So only her current beux can be a man, and the rest, no matter how mature they might be, are reduced to "boys" plain and simple. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So lets take a look at Taylor's beef with fellow pop singer Katy Perry. It all started with some friendly competition and a few backup dancers, but turned into an all-out flame war. Literally. There are flames and explosions in the video for Swift's 1989 single, "Bad Blood," allegedly about Katy Perry. So, what, it's just a feud, right? But the problem appears when Swift speaks of feminism with her primarily White and Taylor-exclusive "squad" while putting other women down. Swift is preaching false feminism, and this will be explored more later. She also had twitter beef with other celebrities such as Nicki Minaj, but that almost seems small in comparison.
Now it is time to introduce Scottish DJ, Calvin Harris, who Swift began dating in 2015. Here's where Swift's career takes a downhill dive. And it's not because Harris is a bad person or anything. No. It's the breakup in June of 2016. Let's talk about the met gala. Oh, God. And no, this has nothing to do with Swift being a bad dancer. It has to do with her tearing up the dance floor with acclaimed actor, Tom Hiddleston. And let's just say she might have had her eyes on a certain Joe Alwyn at the same time. More on that later. So. That's that. Taylor Swift can't dance. And apparently, Tom Hiddleston can. But really now. Here's where the Swift/Harris/Hiddleston love triangle of the century gets even more convoluted. Taylor Swift ghost-wrote Harris' hit song, "This is What you Came For," featuring pop diva Rihanna as the vocalist on the track. But things get real weird when Swift broke up with Harris, supposedly on speaking terms, and she wanted to take credit for the mediocre dance track. And this made Harris mad for some reason, tweeting that Swift should focus on her new relationship, and sounding awfully butthurt about it. Swift was just stirring up controversy for the attention, because she loves it.
Swift and Hiddleston were spotted dancing=relationship. The media is awfully gullible sometimes. Let's just say that Swift ran with it, dragging Hiddleston through a Lady Gaga paparazzi nightmare, which in itself wouldn't necessarily be a problem if he actually liked it. I mean, I wouldn't date someone that famous if I were you, Taylor. Famous. Oh, dear. We have to talk about THE CONTROVERSY, don't we? And this is one reason I am boycotting Swift. Hard.
In addition to the fact that Hiddleston doesn't seem like the kind of guy to go on a publicity drug trip, if she said she loved him, he must have believed her, later saying the relationship was very real. Oh yeah, I have to talk about "Famous" don't I? Okay, here goes. Remember Kanye West? Yeah. Well in 2016, he released a song called "Famous" with the highly controversial and misogynistic line, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex, yeah, I made that b^*ch famous," featured in a music video where West is in bed with a wax sculpture of Swift. Mean, right? Well, Swift seemed to think so, immediately attacking West for his lyric, saying she had not approved it and had no knowledge. Here again were the days of young, innocent Swift at the MVAs. But wait--there's more. West's wife, popular reality star Kim Kardashian exposed Swift when she released a recording of Swift approving the line, saying it was tongue and cheek. Swift later alleged that she had misunderstood, but the damage had already been done. She had set up West as a monster, herself as victim, and completely lied about her knowledge of the scenario. Say what? She completely lied to, and played, Kanye West. In some ways, this is a pretty impressive achievement, but really, we should be talking about how messed up that is.
Anyway, her reputation was destroyed, which promoted a series of questionable career decisions, being honest about who she liked by ditching Hiddleston (due to her being mad at his schedule?) and pursuing the aforementioned up-and-coming actor Alywn, then proceeding to take an edgy persona by dropping a song for the "Fifty Shades" sequel, then wiping her social media and literally turning into a zombie and keeping pet snakes for her 2017 comeback single "Look What you Made me Do," a funny title, and supposedly a diss track for Kanye and Kim. Aside from the fact that all of this is Swift's fault to begin with, the question must be asked. What did we, the listener, make her do? I'm really not sure to be honest. It could also be a diss track for Perry, but their beef seemed to be all but over, although Perry released "Swish Swish" her own diss track for Swift, who proceeded to drop her album, "Reputation" in November, which has many eerie and questionable lyrics involving treatment of exes, her questionable sex life, and much more. But really, the nail in the coffin needs to be addressed in the music video for "Look."
Does anyone remember that Robert Palmer song from the '80's called "Simply Irresistible"? Well it features a bunch of suggestively dancing-dress-alike women.
Apparently, some found this sexist, including indie pop singer Ingrid Michaelson, who parodied the video in her 2014 hit, "Girls Chase Boys." Anyway, this whole dress-alike dancing thing has been done forever, so it isn't really sexist, is it? Well, I think we have established how Swift treats men, using them as publicity, calling them "boys" falsely implying things about their behavior, and trying to frame West, who has admitted to having issues and trying to get help. This seems completely unrelated, right? Well...I'm sorry if I just made any of my fellow Hiddlestoners cringe, but I am going to keep this as objective as possible. Alright, so this happened. Well, basically, and I quote, "“The truth is, it was the Fourth of July and a public holiday and we were playing a game and I slipped and hurt my back,” he says. “And I wanted to protect the graze from the sun and said, ‘Does anyone have a T-shirt?’ And one of her friends said, ‘I’ve got this’ … And we all laughed about it. It was a joke.”Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the video for "Look."
Hold up, that's eight backup dancers (I guess we're omitting Jake or Conner?) allegedly representing her eight exes. And they are all wearing the infamous I <3 TS shirts! And doing synchronized dancing. Other than the fact that she was supposedly ripping off Beyonce's formation video (say what?) this represents everything about how she feels about her exes. They all love her. And they will bow to the false feminist snake-woman. Maybe she would be a good partner for Loki after all. Seriously, Ms. Swift is teaching young young girls that it is acceptable to put men and other women down, and to use people for your own advantage. So join me in boycotting this singer. Do not: Buy Taylor Swift Music, Listen to Taylor Swift on the radio, go to her concerts, watch her YouTube (aside from showing people how awful she is), buy merch, or give her money in any way. You may listen to the songs you already have downloaded, but that is it. Thanks for reading. Leave your thoughts on Taylor Swift in the comments below. I would love to have a civil discussion.
~StarGamesGrl02
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