#I don’t give a fuck about Steve jobs let me analyse Taylor swift

[gayeilgeoir]

You all seemed to like this the last time I did this so we’re doing it again. Here’s a radical feminist analysis of Taylor swift’s feminist songs! I’ve done The man, so I’m moving onto Mad Woman, one of my favourite personal songs of hers.

A summary of this songs overarching meaning is that as a woman, your reactions are judged tenfold. You are instantly more dramatic, more violent. Here, Taylor embraces it, she realises she cannot fight to be seen as a “nice girl” and also as a dignified human being who stands up for herself.

“Does a scorpion sting when fighting back? They strike, to kill and you know I will”

Here, she calls her response and anger towards the misogynistic backlash she received inevitable. She does not claim to be innocent, likening herself to a scorpion and calling her anger a fight, but she does not believe that fighting back villainises her, it’s an inevitable result.

“What do you sing on your drive home?…fuck you forever”

Here, Taylor paints an image of her haunting the narrative of the life of the people who have hurt her. She imagines their guilt, heading her music, seeing her face and she reveles in it. She is ending the phase of her life where she forgives and forgets, let’s people walk over her and does not advocate for herself. Here she delights in the guilt and suffering of the people who have made her suffer.

“Every time you call me crazy I get more crazy, what about that?”

Here, Taylor disallows the use of her pain and anger as weaponry against her. She refuses to let misogynists shame her for her anger and use it to prove their own point of her being over dramatic. She does not play into their image, but makes it useless

“And you’ll poke that bear till her claws come out and you find some thing, to wrap your noose around”

This refers specifically to being a woman in the public lens . Having yourself picked apart, every detail of your scrutinised within an inch of its life until you finally crack and your human reaction to being aggravated for years is used to defame you. One woman will be tolerated by all, but to do so, she must devote herself to all. She has to be constantly making herself smaller to not step on others toes and make them feel bad about themselves, she must not be too proud of everything she has fought for, because being famous and a woman, means if you are not completely the pinnacle of patriarchal womanhood, you’re shot down because you’re sending a message to young women and girls that they can be something else.

“And women like hunting witches too, doing your dirtiest work for you”

I’ll try my best not to name and shame, but I think we all know who this line refers to. She talks of a woman who serves the patriarchy by putting down other women. She belittles and degrades women for little reason to make men like her more. “Doing your dirtiest work for you” refers to being a vessel of misogyny, if a man you hates tells you you’re ugly and worthless, It hurts a lot less than a female friend saying the same thing.

“The master of spin has a couple side flings, good wives always know. She should be mad, she’d be scathing like me but no one likes a mad woman”

The “good wife” in this analogy is a woman who lets people walk over her, accepts abuse and allows men to treat her badly. She becomes an accessory to a man the acceptance of his bad behaviour. “She should be mad” means Taylor is saying that it’s a pity these women feel the need to be subservient to be accepted, and they need to learn that they can be loved and fulfilled without devoting all of themselves to patriarchal ideals