Something I continue to find interesting about Taylor Swiftâs evolution is how little she actually evolves, and how much the conversation around her has genuinely evolved. If she had released the âYou Need to Calm Downâ video four years ago, I think people would have been too scared of her power to say sh-t about the queerbaiting, the stereotyping and the genuinely questionable lyrical composition to boot. One could argue that Taylor is just trying to be an ally and for that alone, we shouldnât criticize her. One could also argue that sheâs only coattailing onto a widely popular cultural issue (gay rights) after years of silence, and whatâs worse, sheâs equating her own detractors with violent homophobes. And sheâs the one profiting from it all and doing it all to sell music. Basically, I donât think âYou Need to Calm Downâ was the slam-dunk she thought it was. Which is probably why she wants us to focus on the Katy Perry aspect of it. Taylor spoke to a radio show yesterday about burying the hatchet with Katy:
Thereâs no more âBad Bloodâ between Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. Following the release of her music video for âYou Need to Calm Down,â in which Perry, 34, makes a cameo, Swift, 29, updated fans about their reconciliation after having a complicated relationship for years that seemingly inspired their songs âBad Bloodâ and âSwish Swish.â
â[Katy] and I have really been on good terms for a while,â Swift told the U.K.âs Capital Breakfast radio show about putting an end to their feud last year. âShe sent me a really nice note and an olive branch â like an actual olive branch â to my tour when it started, the Reputation Stadium Tour, a while ago. From that point on, weâve been on good terms.â
The pop star, who recently revealed the name of her upcoming album Lover, recalled how she and Perry made peace, something Perry made a reference to when she shared a photo of a plate of chocolate chip cookies with the words âPeace at lastâ written in red icing above the treats.
âWe saw each other at a party and walked up to each other and hugged it out and talked about things. Then saw each other again and hung out at another party,â Swift shared. âIt was just like something felt so much lighter about my life when things became really good between us.â
The singer also revealed that she and Perry have been on good terms for a while but wanted to make sure they were âsolidâ before announcing their reconciliation to fans.
âYou know, she and I have been fine for a while and really on good terms but we didnât know if we were ever gonna really tell people about it. We wanted to make sure that was solid between us before we ever made the public aware,â Swift said.
You know what? Iâm still f–king mad on Katyâs behalf. Katy didnât do ANYTHING. She didnât do anything but have good friends who were backup dancers, and those dancers chose to work with Katy rather than Taylor. And thatâs why Taylor began her years-long campaign to malign Katy and to show the world that she (Taylor) has more friends than Katy. And then Katy went through that peace & love phase where she didnât want all of that petty bullsh-t in her life, and so she apologized to Taylor just to get the ball rolling. And Taylor forgave her (FOR WHAT?) and then made Katy wait more than a year to confirm that they were no longer beefing? Once again, Taylor waited until it was convenient for her, until she found some way to profit from it. Just like her LGBTQ+ allyship.
Just like my life, this video was co-executive produced by @todrick đž pic.twitter.com/AObdtkYl0w
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) June 17, 2019
Photos courtesy of Taylorâs Instagram, video.
If nothing other than being a person who just wants to be the victim so bad I just cant understand her “nothing is my fault” attitude. Is she going to apologize to Kanye West? Or any of the other people that she had bullied and publicly dragged? No.
She still wanged on about the snakes in the song….sheâs obsessively self involved
I mean, I don’t know if it’s for nothing. She encouraged the Diplo shenanigans which was pretty shady.
What were the Diplo shenanigans? I don’t remember now.
The worst part about it to me was that Taylor gave enough details in the RS interview to make it easy for people to figure out that Bad Blood was about Katy. She even specifically said that she was saying that because otherwise people would assume it was about an ex boyfriend.
Then when people figured it out, she did an interview where she said :”You’re in a Rolling Stone interview, and the writer says, ‘Who is that song about? That sounds like a really intense moment from your life.’ And you sit there, and you know you’re on good terms with your ex-boyfriend, and you don’t want him â or his family â to think you’re firing shots at him. So you said, ‘That was about losing a friend.’ But then people cryptically tweet what you meant. I never said anything that would point a finger in the specific direction of one specific person, and I can sleep at night knowing that. I knew this song would be assigned to a person and the easiest mark was about someone who I didn’t want to be labelled with this song.”
Except once again – that’s not true. She gave lots of details regarding the scenario, that was confirmed by the backup dancers and Katy Perry, but she always tries to claim innocence. No one had any idea about the whole back up dancers thing until she brought it up in RS. Much like the whole Kanye thing, she obviously lies and no one seems to call her on it. It’s happened a few times, and it’s infuriating every time. She never gets called out on her changing her story all the time. Ugh.
Letâs be honest she may have been also jealous about john Mayer. And or there may be more details! Nice that theyâre both with better men now. I just now realized KP will be or is a stepmom to Miranda Kerrâs kid, since sheâs with Orlando Bloom.
Because of her unprofessional with racist undertones attitude during the whole tape debacle. Any adult with some kind of sense would have done it (or, would never have engage that way in the first place) but not our lady white snake, of course.
She really got mad those dancers CHOSE to go with Katy on tour instead of her. No wonder why they liked Katy better. I canât… Katy is a better person than me because I would never say sorry purely out of spite.
We have to keep in mind, that while Taylor is super savvy and business-smart, sheâs also extremely immature and petty. Like Katy gets some backup dancers from Taylorâs tour, and Taylor chooses to see it as a personal attack and as Katy sabotaging her career. Then the John Mayer thing.. I canât. Heâs the actual worst, but yet again, I think she saw it like a high school girl would; it was all âmean girl Katyâs fault and I must get revenge and show her Iâm the better choice.â Taylor has always acted about half her age when it comes to her social life.
I’m sorry, but are we not gonna talk about the fact Taylor is literally dressed as a “bisexuality” flag while dancing with Todrick?
Seen that on twitter, now can’t unsee it.
Yeah, I felt that was pretty queerbaiting since she’s wildly assumed to be bisexual – I’d love to know the thought process behind that. IMO, either come out or don’t. Ariana Grande has done a similar thing recently (kissing girl in BUWYGIB and singing “I like women and men” in Monopoly), and I think it’s lame. If you’re going to hint around at your sexuality, then just state it. No one’s obligated to come out, but then they shouldn’t make all these cute little hints about stuff.
Why should she? Why not let people express and live their sexuality their own way? Perhaps for some, it’s enough to state or show attraction to both sexes without explicitly labelling themselves either way. People who are exclusively hetero are allowed that option- they can just state or portray their interest in the opposite sex without actually calling themselves heterosexual and while still supporting the LGBT+ community. On the left, it seems like we’re open to people who are exclusively gay doing the same too. Is it really equality if people whose sexualities are somewhere in between aren’t allowed to do the same?
Keep in mind that women- especially those of this generation, it seems- are sort of damned if we do, damned if we don’t when it comes to this kind of sexuality. That’s especially true for the ones who are also associated with sex-positive feminism (which doesn’t really apply to Taylor Swift). Even when one does label herself as bisexual or pansexual, it comes with abuse and inequality from both sides. And if women don’t label, but just let their interest in both sexes be known, they get crap too. Being flawed and problematic while being attracted to both sexes isn’t allowed either. I’d be shocked if anyone here could name 5 American celebrity women under the age of 30 whom none of this applies to. Lauren Jauregui, Halsey, Kehlani, and Demi Lovato can already be taken off that list for sure. All this drama on top of the other, more traditional drama posed by the scroll-thumping MAGA crowd.
My point is simply that it comes across like she’s trying to have the best of both worlds – “look, I’m an ally, and I know you all think I’m bi, so I’ll wear the bi flag colors and wink wink but won’t ever say that I’m attracted to females or present anything other than heterosexual so as not to offend my larger base.” It just seems pandering. She’s not obligated to come out or identify as anything but why do wink wink nods and that’s it? She hasn’t expressed or stated any attraction to women either, so that’s why it seems pandering.
I was arguing yesterday that the people complaining that this is too late are being silly because she’s putting her money where her mouth is ie. sharing petitions, writing the government, and donating to GLAAD. And anything that preaches awareness and acceptance is a positive. I think being an ally is a good thing, even if it took you longer to be open about it. And nobody is perfect and not problematic (even Beyonce), but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for criticism either.
(Also, I’m Taylor’s age, so you’re preaching to the choir here).
I don’t feel like Ariana deserves to be lumped in with either Katy or Taylor on this. Her statements ARE statements — that she doesn’t want to feel “pressured” to label her sexuality — not cute little visual winks and hints that seem like “clues” but are never backed by public acknowledgement. Speaking as a queer woman, someone saying they’re comfortable with personal fluidity but not the intensity of identity politics is completely valid and, in my opinion, MUCH more preferable than the idea that these things are easy, or black and white, in a society that’s still largely heteronormative and homophobic. Everyone deserves as much time as they like to figure out what’s right and comfortable for them.
She’s not exempt from criticism — no one is — but she’s not attempting to sell her songs as queer anthems, or whatever. Her art is clearly personal (down to name-checking ex-boyfriends), and it’s allowed to be.
I’m as bi and queer as can be, and I think the whole “Taylor has bi pride hair” is ridiculous. The top of her head and her bangs are green/turquoise, and yes — then it fades to blue and purple and pink. There isn’t any green or teal in the bi pride flag. So it’s only a bi pride flag from the ears down. Calling it one is a real stretch.
The color choices and imagery of the video is pretty consistent with Todrick’s art and other work. He’s a producer, and I don’t think that title is just lip service. I’m sure that a lot of the aesthetic, costuming, and color choices were his work, not hers. He’s a fucking brilliant LGBTQIA+ POC artist. And dressing Taylor Swift as a rainbow version of rockabilly singers like Janis Martin and Sparkle Moore is a textbook Todrick Hall move.
And to be clear for everyone using the term incorrectly, she’s not queerbaiting in this video.
Queerbaiting is when an artist or a work of film hints at two people having non-hetero relationship, attraction, or sexual tension without ever actually following through or while insisting that person is straight. Shows like Supernatural do it all the time. Katy Perry blatantly did it with “I Kissed a Girl.” Implying that Valkyrie from Marvel is queer but never actually saying it is queerbaiting.
This video is not queerbaiting. It’s definitely queer coded — full of imagery and symbolism from across LGBTQIA+ culture and history. But that’s appropriate, given it has a queer cast and a queer producer.
I am not a TS stan and think she’s problematic as hell. But Todrick Hall deserves to have his influence and art in this video recognized. He deserves to have it seen in context of all his other work. And making it all about whether or not TS’s hair is a bi pride flag instead of looking at his art and role as a producer is erasing his work and assuming he’s an oblivious bystander.
And I’m honestly getting really pissed that every conversation about this video is about whether or not TS is bi or baiting, instead of about the queer artist whose stamp is all over it. I’m tired of the erasure. I’m just fucking tired of it.
‘I donât feel like Ariana deserves to be lumped in with either Katy or Taylor on this. Her statements ARE statements â that she doesnât want to feel âpressuredâ to label her sexuality â not cute little visual winks and hints that seem like âcluesâ but are never backed by public acknowledgement. Speaking as a queer woman, someone saying theyâre comfortable with personal fluidity but not the intensity of identity politics is completely valid.’ Seconded. There are all kinds of reasons why someone in her position may prefer that alternative. I’m more concerned though with the toxic, dehumanizingly cliquish and misogynistic way ‘feminists’/progressives feel entitled to treat bisexuality in women (an issue that sometimes puts liberal straights and gays in bed with the right) than whether or not Taylor Swift labels herself in the long run. PurpleHoulihan also made a good point about why we may need to slow down a little with using the term ‘queerbaiting’ when discussing the sexuality of real people.
That is a reach. The bisexuality flag consists of 3 of the 5 or 6 colours she is wearing. It doesnât have turquoise or yellow in it for starters. I think people are seeing what they want to see with that one.
yeah, but her hair is in the actual flag, not the whole outfit.
Who is we though?
Tay Tay will never leave high school. She will take this basic beckery to the damned grave.
Kim Kardashian is more influential than Taylor both culturally and historically. There, I said it.
Ugh I would much prefer if neither of them had any influnece culturally or historically.
hahahahaha word.
Katy Perry chose to be an adult and knew Swift would never apologize or make the first move so she did. One wanted peace and the other wanted to “win.” They both got what they wanted
Taylor will never change but the ppl I fear/pity most are her fans. They eat this sh*t up and will believe her when sheâs peeing on their leg and calling it rain. Grown ass women who think highly of this petty brat and call her a genius! Now thatâs scary.
Theyâve been especially revolting as of late. Any lgbtq figure on Twitter whoâs criticized her has been getting bombarded by her fans.
In a world now where banks, fast food restaurants and every consumer product imaginable are waving pride flags, Taylor is very late to the party.
And that whole “Bad Blood” video where all of Taylor’s performative friends participated to drag Katy? That was psycho and I side-eye anyone who participated in it.
I love The Onion’s IG post which sums her up quite nicely “taylor swift inspires teen to come out as straight woman needing to be at center of gay rights narrative.”
taylor swift is definitely gaybaiting and exploiting pride to sell music. this whole new look/stance seems completely arbitrary, just like reputation. she has no authentic identity except privileged twee victim white girl inserting herself into other narratives and making them about her.
I wholeheartedly disagree.
She may may have been late to speak up and stop being apolitical – but letâs not forget that it took BeyoncĂ© a long time too. I understand it. They get attacked for these stances and not just by some bitchy women in the comments section of a gossip article. No, these stars actually have to step up their security because of the threats of rape, violence and death they get when they take a political stance on something like feminism, black lives matter, equal rights, and LGBTQI+ rights. And yes, they possibly also worried about the monetary consequences.
However, she did end up speaking (just like Beyoncé before her) and standing up for what she believes in. And she has not just paid lip service.
In her first ever political statement, Taylor came out HARD in the lead-up to last yearâs midterms. Included in her statement was this âI believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG.â
She then encouraged people to vote and told them where to go to register in her home state and her statement led to a 65k voter spike in 24 hours. It also led to a tonne of the afore-mentioned backlash.
Then, a few months ago, Taylor donated $160K to the Tennessee Equality Project (TEP), an organisation dedicated to protecting gay rights in the Volunteer State. So she put her money where her mouth is.
Then, at the start of Pride Month, she penned an open letter to Republican senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee to ask for his support in passing the Equality Act when the bill reaches the U.S. Senate. There are some powerful statements in support of the LGBTQI+ community in that letter and she came out hard in her accompanying statement when she posted it too.
So Taylor has actually made some power moves. She has been thoughtful and intelligent about her statements and actions. She has donated. She has aimed the attention of her huge fan base at key issues that can actually make a difference and she has tried to get them more involved in politics. She has made real-world differences.
So, whilst Taylor may be late to the party, she is not doing one video clip for attention, nor is she queer-baiting. She is continuing with her newfound political voice and making an actual difference for many people.
We have to stop expecting any celebrity who tries to do good to be perfect all the time – and if theyâre not, tearing them down. If they are trying, those efforts need to be encouraged. If they mess up, letâs ask them to be better. But I see this with feminist and LGBTQIA+ and other allies all the time – they get something wrong and their own supporters light them on fire. Instead of cancel culture, letâs lean into – education culture and encouraging people to just be better culture. It is more effective. (Of course, feel free to cancel heinous people: rapists, etc. That is fine!)
Alt Righters/Neo Nazis were claiming her as their “Aryan princess” for months, maybe even years and she never retaliated or made a statement about it (still). She has been quiet for some time about some problematic issues and only became publicly political at the midterms and now, advocating for lgbtq rights.
Honestly I don’t care that much. I am not a fan of her or her bland pop music. So I’m going to continue making bitchy comments on celeBITCHy. You can go write a dissertation on why Taylor is not the victim in this scenario.
Just as I expected, their friendship will be more exhausting than their feud.
Some of the people complaining about the homophobic protesters being portrayed negatively are just mad MAGAts (and their sympathizers). You can tell when someone describes that position as ‘just a different viewpoint’. Others were not though, of course. It’s true that that’s definitely an oversimplified representation of homophobes in America, plus more well-off Deplorables have already been using the poor deplorables as a shield. On the other hand though, doing it this way shows how people can be at a disadvantage and still actively choose to hate and hurt marginalized groups of people. Portraying them as stupid works nicely because this is the side that often paints people who aren’t okay with things like homophobia as illogical, or as brainless bandwagon-hoppers.
This is so true: “On the other hand though, doing it this way shows how people can be at a disadvantage and still actively choose to hate and hurt marginalized groups of people. ”
When I was in the US a colleague who described himself as a Chicano from Texas explained to me that his family, all Latina, of Mexican descent,, voted for Trump because they are super catholic and anti-abortion. My brain could not compute.
True true. I’m aware of many latinos who voted Trump (not Mexicans, but other ethnicities in my case), because they are super against undocumented immegration. Many of them went through the process and it took years and a lot of money and they resented the undocumented enough to vote for someone who said they would do something about it. They didn’t care about the rest of it.
Idk but heard from an industry adjacent (Rihanna makeup artist trainee) that Katie is a complete 180 from her sugar-spun Cali peace and love persona. Said sheâs actually scary intense/isolating when she likes you and scary intense/nasty when she doesnât. These rumors coincide with the reason Rihanna and Katie split just before she married Russell Brand.
I think they clearly didn’t like each other for a while. Perhaps there was pettiness on both sides – I think taylor had a fit because John Mayer dated KP after her and then KP tweeted something about Regina George in sheep’s clothing. Either way, it seems pretty silly to make that feud so public. But what do I know, SHE’S the bajillionaire!
In Katy’s defense, she tweeted the Regina George thing the day after Taylor’s interview with RS was released that said Bad Blood was all about this awful person who tried to sabotage her stadium tour and was a fake friend, boo hoo poor Taylor – with just enough details that it made it very easy for people to figure out that she was talking about Katy.
You’re not wrong at all. However I do think she is coming to a realization of her own and is going to come out. Or maybe she’s just coming out to herself… FYI people can come out whenever and regardless of past relationships.
I don’t believe the hype. It’s all PR stunts.
Ugh. I think I’m still just accepting that we will never get Red/1989-era Taylor back, in terms of songwriting and appeal/catchy-ness of the tunes.
I know a lot of her more casual fans (like, who would buy the album/maybe go see the tour but aren’t stan-stans) who are just like, “well, maybe there will be some good songs on the album that aren’t singles…” because they are underwhelmed. and I don’t think that’s a minority. I really hoped Reputation-era sucky singles were a phase. But neither of these singles have/are going to blow up the way Shake it Off or Never Ever Getting Back Together did. At this point, it’s just the die-hard stans driving up Youtube views and Spotify listens, but most listeners have moved on.
All that is to say, I’m still kinda bummed. The magic of the previous eras is over. I’ll just go listen to “Style” on replay now, kthanx.