#not gonna tag this for the swifties bc i feel like that's swinging a bat at a hornet's nest

[icannotgetoverbirds]

swifties look away im so sorry

okay so i heard a song on the radio today that is apparently one of taylor swift's pieces.

this is by no means an in-depth analysis, nor unbiased or even well-written.

so for reference i'm talking about anti-hero. keep in mind, this is pretty much just a vibe check.

vibe check: it feels to me like she's upset that people are attempting to hold her accountable for her actions wrt the whole private jet thing, and it's kinda sad. Not like, i feel bad for her sad, but like, girl, get it together, sad.

evidence:

anti-hero released in october of 2022. for reference, those articles about celebrity private jet usage - which you may remember left taylor at the top of the list, garnering serious backlash - came out in august of 2022.

in this song, she is the anti-hero (afaik - if it's someone else, that could change the meaning entirely). she sees herself as hated, as someone viewed as an enemy. she bitterly refers to her narcissism as though she's been called one and is tired of the accusations.

she says she dreams about her daughter-in-law killing her for the money, then screaming that taylor's laughing up at her from hell because the in-laws were left nothing in the will.

worth noting that she has children, all of which are under the age of ten. not sure how to feel about the implications of her presenting this hypothetical situation in a song long before her kids have the chance to bring a partner home. somehow i doubt they're going to be comfortable doing that.

some lyrics that were what really sent up the red flags for me:

"It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me (I'm the problem, it's me) At tea time, everybody agrees"

this sounds exactly like the kind of shit someone says when they're trying to dodge responsibility. guilt-tripping the person calling them out by exaggerating what they're saying. "I'm always the villain. I'm always the bad guy. Everybody's on your side. You always have to be right."

(that last one is one i've personally heard from an abuser. again, this is biased and my vibe check is definitely imperfect.)

it's just. pathetic feels too mean but it's the only word I can think of. taylor swift has a lot of reach and her music meant a lot to me as a kid, but as i've gotten older i've kind of grown apart from her work.

which, you know, nbd. then the shit about the plane drops and it's like Oh Wow Okay. Fuck Me I Guess. idk. it seems like it was made to garner sympathy and support, which isn't inherently bad, but i'm having trouble being sympathetic when she's contributed so much to climate change and pollution.

i don't hate swifties, i don't even hate taylor swift. i just... don't have a lot of sympathy for her when that article could've been a wake-up call, and the memes could've been a wake-up call, but instead it seems like she's whining about people being mean to her - and don't get me wrong, people are absolutely being mean, but when she's literally directly, massively, and unnecessarily contributing to the destruction of the planet, i think they have a right to get a little pissed.

so instead of stepping up and doing better, she just wrote a song that feels like a pathetic attempt to get people to stop calling her out for her bullshit, whether it was intended to be manipulative or not.

swifties, if you read this, i'm sorry, but that's just my perspective on it. i have no issues with people being fans of her or liking her music or whatever, i just... i guess i felt like this was something worth discussing.

like, idek if this is too harsh or too nice. i have qualms with the concept of punishment in an attempt to bring about change, even for the privileged, but people have a right to be angry about what she's done. is there something to be said about the fact that people mostly went after her for being at the number one spot and almost nobody is making memes about other celebrities on the list? probably.

anyways. just my unorganized thoughts abt it. someone else can probably put it better than i can - i don't have the spoons to do a proper analysis right now, but i can provide this lens to view it through, i guess.