#Just have been sleeping in transformative justice and abolitionist activism recently and I feel so free talking about Taylor in real life

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

I spent 40 minutes in therapy today talking about the role of narrative and self creation in Taylor’s interview, and how she acts in her life as the main character- she steps into her power. Which is of course a story I was telling about myself, too. And I’ve been thinking a lot about symbolism and fairy tales, and I just… love that Taylor is embracing her symbolic role as the people’s pop princess. I appreciate the scale of her cultural contributions, including introducing an entire generation of young women to a new vision of ourselves as subjects rather than objects in music (and yes, for many of us, our first taste of “modern” feminism that felt a whole lot better than the version my mom’s generation ascribes to which feels more like “you don’t need any help because you are independent”. By putting it so simply in 2014 during the cultural wave of legalizing queer marriage, Taylor made being a feminist cool. She gave me the basic language to seek out and begin exploring intersectional feminism on my own as a bright eyed 17 year old girl).

I think the part that bothers me most about the reductionist discourse - is she “good” or “bad”- is that it conflates Taylor’s real life with her symbolic place in pop culture. The discourse about her every move distills a full complete human woman down to her reputation as either the evil queen/witch/capitalist, or the slut, or the wife, or the crazy ex. And then, once the role is chosen, she mirrors how “good” the person discussing her imagines themself to be. I’d personally rather view her as the hero because that’s the kind of agency I am trying to empower myself with.

The confusing part is that lots of people have really wonderful sharp critiques of what Taylor’s real life symbolizes about our world, but those messages come out as personal attacks on a real human being, often by belittling her intelligence, accomplishments, impact, and character- as if none of us have ever been friends with a shitty person, or been a shitty person ourselves (sometimes even repeatedly). For example, I am fascinated by the white feminism phenomenon that emerged during the 1989 era, and by the monetizing of self care, the rise of influencer culture, and how it reflects on the political landscape over the last 10 years, and how my development from girl to woman was impacted by all of it- none of that discussion requires a decision on if Taylor herself is good or bad. We can’t keep reducing each other, including celebrities, down to binaries of “good” or “bad.” If we can’t even humanize the one stranger we all know intimately, what does that say about our capacity to grow from our own mistakes? To help each other grow?

One of the core things that builds people’s movements is working toward shared goals even if you disagree on some things- I’d rather have Taylor Swift as the symbolic person of the year, speaking about getting in touch with her emotions and rising from trauma stronger than before, working hard for her goals, being proud of her accomplishments, and loudly celebrating women, than another war criminal politician 🤷🏼‍♀️. There’s so much juicy stuff to digest from her crowning as Person Of The Year (including critiques of capitalism and white feminism!) and it just sucks that people are stuck on “is she good or bad,”preventing them from actually engaging with the interview as an enormous pop culture moment. And during the biggest labor movement in history! She’s up there talking about a patriarchal industry exploiting her and other musicians! She’s talking about recovering from an eating disorder and loving her past selves! She’s talking about staying true to herself even when the entire world is watching her every move. It is important, regardless of if she meets everybody’s personal standards of “good” or “bad.” Nobody is required to like her! We can all have different boundaries for different relationships- I might not be friends with Taylor swift in real life, but I have no problem appreciating her art and listening to her unique perspective. The haters are missing the point- she symbolizes unity, joy, fun, love, healing, family, trying to be better, forgiveness and women’s empowerment. She also symbolizes nuance and disagreement. She symbolizes gossip and cyber bullying and cancel culture. She symbolizes coming of age in a traumatizing world. She symbolizes perseverance and the value of owning your own work. She means something different to everyone because she is a mirrorball. What does she symbolize to you?