I can still remember when Taylor Swift strategically avoided delving into politics. It was quite refreshing to see a pop star not use her fame to promote her political agenda. Interestingly enough, for a long time it was widely speculated that she leaned conservative, perhaps because she made a name for herself in the traditionally more conservative country music industry.
I can't even say for sure whether she was at one point conservative, and that's why she steered clear of politics before becoming a leftist after spending years ensconced in the leftist Hollywood culture. Heck, even though she faced mounting pressure to publicly denounce Trump after his election, Swift remained silent on her politics.
One of the best things about Swift keeping her politic private was that her fans didn’t have to care about what she believed.
She wrecked it all eventually. She decided to out herself politically when she took to Instagram to make two political endorsements ahead of the midterm elections. It was a defining moment in her career. Liberals called her courageous for speaking out, while conservatives lamented that she had caved to the pressure and no longer chose to keep that part of herself out of the spotlight.
And she didn't just decide to get political; she embraced crazy wackjob liberal rhetoric wholeheartedly and hasn't looked back. Now, it's hard not to see her through a political lens. And this week, she fully embraced the whiny liberal part of her that she suppressed for so many years by complaining about how our “patriarchal society” and capitalism are still keeping women down. She said all this her interview with TIME magazine, which just named her the magazine's Person of the Year.
“If we have to speak stereotypically about the feminine and the masculine,” she told the magazine, “women have been fed the message that what we naturally gravitate toward—”
And what are those examples, according to Swift? "Girlhood, feelings, love, breakups, analyzing those feelings, talking about them nonstop, glitter, sequins! We’ve been taught that those things are more frivolous than the things that stereotypically gendered men gravitate toward, right?”
Related: What Taylor Swift’s Recent Lyrics Change Says About Our Culture
Does she fail to see the irony that those are all things that she speaks of frequently in her songs? And how many times has she gone on stage donning a sequin dress or outfit? It sounds to me as if she's complaining about gender roles and expectations that she's more than happy to reinforce to make her personal fortune.
“And what has existed since the dawn of time? A patriarchal society. What fuels a patriarchal society? Money, flow of revenue, the economy," she said. "So actually, if we’re going to look at this in the most cynical way possible, feminine ideas becoming lucrative means that more female art will get made. It’s extremely heartening.”
Honestly, I'm not even sure what this nonsensical diatribe is supposed to mean, but it's hilarious coming from one of the most successful pop stars in history. She could make an album just of her passing gas and still sell millions of copies, and she has the audacity to complain about "the patriarchy"?
I should probably mention now that she's reportedly worth over a billion dollars.
Clearly, capitalism is working for her.
Frankly, I'm getting tired of how some of the loudest voices against capitalism are the ones who have benefited so much from it, and how one of the most successful entertainers in history can somehow claim that she's been disadvantaged by the patriarchy. Frankly, it's easy to see that this is more about saying what she needs to because it's part of her brand now.
