Taylor Swift and Feminism

By Kara Chyung

I saw several articles on Taylor Swift and feminism on the F-Bomb (which is a great website, by the way), and even though the topic has stopped being discussed on the website, the susbject header still caught my eye. I became even more interested in this discussion when I looked into Taylor Swift’s opinion about feminism. When she was asked about feminism, she said she’d never really thought about it. Despite all of the mixed speculation from feminists and the public about whether Taylor Swift is a feminist, she doesn’t write her songs with feminism in mind, and she doesn’t know much about it. So I decided to look deeper into how she and her music could be unintentionally creating such a stir.

A lot of the people with an opinion about this topic think Taylor sends an anti-feminist message because her music perpetuates “Prince Charming” stereotypes and, because of her pure image and lyrics about falling in love, a slut/virgin dichotomy. Some girls believe that since Taylor’s music puts a huge emphasis on boys and relationships, she is a feminist’s nightmare. I’ll admit this is one of the things I disliked about Taylor Swift; all of her songs are about boys, love, or heartbreak. Sometimes I marvel at how she can come up with so many different love songs, since there’re only so many personal experiences she could have to draw upon at only 22. And admittedly, singing about boyfriends and fairytales seems like the antithesis of feminism, which is why I was surprised to see the words feminism and Taylor Swift in the same sentence.

However, her host of teenage love songs depicting heartbreak may not be such an un-feminist thing. Many girls find Taylor Swift’s lyrics to be therapeutic because they can be an exact description of teenage love. It’s very comforting to listen to lyrics and know exactly what the artist is singing about (I even found that I feel this way about her song “Teardrops on My Guitar”). One of the purposes of music is to connect to an audience, and if girls can unite over their connection to Taylor Swift’s songs, then that’s pretty amazing - nothing says sisterhood better than that. She’s not afraid to be completely honest about her feelings in her music. If she wants to write about young love, then as an artist she’s more than free to do so.

For the most part, I like Taylor Swift. I think she’s very talented and I admire the honesty of her music. I do think her music can be clichéd and a bit unoriginal, but she has written some fantastic songs. A few of them are even on my “Favorites” playlist. She’s humble, extremely dedicated to her fans, and she’s super sweet and polite. One of the reasons that this topic intrigued me was because Taylor Swift seems too innocuous to spark any kind of controversy.

If someone had asked me my opinion on Taylor Swift and feminism before reading anything about it, I probably would’ve said that she’s certainly not a feminist because her songs imply that girls are controlled by cruel boys and heartbreak. But after doing a little research, it made me rethink my opinion about Taylor Swift. I realize that while she might not be a feminist, she is a successful female artist with her own ideas and also has the qualities of a good role model. And in this day in age, that’s definitely something the media needs more of.

What do you think about Taylor Swift? Too fairytale? Or inspirational? Let us know in the comment section below!