How Hating Taylor Swift has Misogynistic Undertones

‘Fuck the patriarchy’: Taylor Swift

When discussing music preferences with most men, the second I mention that Taylor Swift is my favourite artist, I hear the classic line “Of course she is” with a miniature roll of the eyes or a little shoulder shrug. And then if you’re super lucky, they tell you about some cool, hip, indie artist they favour instead. The artist is typically a man. Funny how that works right? I love indie music but it led me to consider how this must be a regular experience between Swifties (Taylor Swift lovers) and misogynistic men. And I was so right because guess who has a line for a similar situation like this (the situation being belittling women’s music taste to make men feel cooler)?

You Guessed It! Taylor Swift.

In We Are Never Getting Back Together, she writes “some indie record that’s much cooler than mine” and for context, she’s talking about a guy mentioning an indie record that he thinks is much cooler than hers! Flash forward, she actually made an indie record that’s much cooler than his but that’s besides the point I suppose.

A story or experience like this may not outwardly appear as significant in the grand scheme of things. However, if you start to string these experiences together, calculating how many men have said the classic line, done the classic eye roll, added the additional feature of another artist, you’re left with the significant conclusion that societally, men really do not like Taylor Swift. And their hatred is stemmed from a systematic misogynistic outlook, often reducing her to only writing about her exes or slut shaming her for ‘moving on too fast’ or reducing her to crude, sexualised comments. All whilst men write about sex, date whoever they want and are talked about in a usually more professional and respectful manner. Male artists could do the same things and would not be as scrutinised. In fact, male artists who commit crimes are not as scrutinised. There appears to be a pattern in which powerful men use their power to harm women. 

Internalised Misogyny

But unfortunately it’s not only men who speak about Taylor Swift, or women as a whole this way. Taylor Swift has a song called Mad Woman in which she writes the lyric “Women like hunting witches too, doing your dirtiest work for you“ which perfectly ties together how often the blind hatred within women for Taylor Swift is linked to these misogynistic attitudes. 

The media has always pushed the concept of ‘not like other girls’ onto young girls through movies and for the longest time, it was cool to hate Taylor Swift because the media hated her because men hated her because she’s a successful woman. And sexist men hate to see a successful woman coming because it threatens their masculinity. I almost feel sorry for them. 

Her success threatens men’s egos because like her or not, there is no denying that she’s one of the most talented musicians and songwriters of this generation. She received an honorary doctorate degree for fine arts. Her writing is already being studied in university courses. She is the embodiment of success. 

Therefore, there is internalised misogyny in having such strong hatred for her and almost acknowledging her in a personal manner. You don’t have to like her music, or her, but diminishing her or belittling others for liking her whilst praising male artists for the same things is insane. Women should not get hate at all, but the hate that Taylor Swift receives in comparison to other female artists is also striking and should also highlight and help signify that how the media speaks about women is important because criticising women how she has been criticized (her whole career, might I add) is so blatantly sexist. 

People often also discuss how she does not speak up about important political matters, which I also believe is significant and may open up a controversial can of worms. However there’s still an enhanced scrutiny towards her rather than balancing it between celebrities and oftentimes I notice that people do not care about her political stance apart from defending their reason to hate her whilst still admiring others who do the same. That brings us back to the internalised misogyny. 

Hating Taylor Swift does not make you cool. Hating successful women whilst simultaneously uplifting other men in the industry does not make you special. But being able to outgrow systematic hatred, specifically hatred designed to cause further rifts between women makes you both cool and special. Learn how to unlearn internalised misogyny because the lord knows that women could not take more hatred against them right now. So be cool and special. 

Words by Momnah Shahnaz

Cover Image Credit: Eva Rinaldi