#I’m really less concerned with whether tying specific choices in her songwriting that suck

[onceuponanaromantic]

I have rewatched the anti-hero video so many times istg to try and situate my discussion of the fatphobia more accurately within a) the music video b) midnights and the TS evolution and c) within the larger context of pop culture. And actually I realise that actually the cultural response and backlash and the backlash to that backlash can be tied to like how we talk about bodies + body policing, feminism in the pop culture (and music) scene, and like the cultural reception of TS and fatphobia as a systemic issue.

(syl’s nerd stuff under the cut)

Ok so actually it required a lot of breaking down fiske’s theories of domination and the celebratory effects of pop culture, and like how pop culture is mobilised to circulate dominant ideologies. (And I was trying to apply the dialectic approach to intercultural communication but it didn’t work because actually the cultural-individual dialectic and the contextual-individual dialectic don’t really work even though I was trying very hard to make it work HAHAHA.) But yeah, I think a big part of the problem is specifically TS’ situation on the pop culture and music scene and like the ‘renaissance’ through both the Taylor’s version series and as an artist through folklore, evermore and now midnights. I think esp because midnights comes and is marketed as a discussion of her insecurities and a response to self-loathing (which is never fun! Even if it can be cathartic!) that added layer of vulnerability invokes the strong parasocial r/s that TS is very very good at playing on and is very creative in, esp in social media. And that heightens the sensation that any criticism, even sensitive and gentle criticism, is going to come as an attack.

the next thing that stands out to me is the way the word ‘fat’ specifically is used and why it holds such tension. I argued that it’s really the polysemic nature that leads to a lot of the conflict around it, precisely because body policing and its ties to specifically femininity but also other gender presentation is so fraught. And that’s a very understated way of putting it, but the issue is that a lot of people’s personal discomforts with body policing and dysphoria and body shaming in general are tied to the perception of being fat, and the link of being fat with fearing the loss of desire and the loss of safety (of many forms) that’s tied to that. At the same time though, actual fat people and activists are naming these specific harms they experience because of systemic fatphobia and the very real harms and violence they experience by being fat (through food policing, denial of medical care, dehumanisation, higher rates of abuse, etc). And they are specifically identifying that the perception of being fat and fearing the loss of that safety as a thin person is vastly different from the actual stigma and harm that fat people experience, and the use of the word in the way that TS did contributes to the stigma. And they’re right to do so, because TS has a massive platform and so any harm she does will be amplified by that. And TS is def not the only pop culture artist who has been criticised right (see also: Lizzo being criticised for the word ‘spaz’ being ableist in her song) but because of TS’ position contextually, people are very sensitive to any criticism of her and anything that might even be perceived as an attempt to damage her reputation. And because culturally, TS has built herself up as a feminist (or at least feminist in her authorship) and a source of resistance against sexism, and the way she interacts is very much to build a sense of investment in her writing (paratextual strategies yay), this does amplify the magnitude and intensity of the harassment directed at anyone who speaks up about the harm TS has done/is doing.

yeah so in conclusion, stan culture is a logically extension of the media environment and like, current PR strategies of engagement, and also very specifically in this case, TS’ persona and the way ppl engage with it.