March 8th, 2010 by Kanye, how could you? Terrorizing a 19 year old in front of millions of people, media and celebrities?!? Not cool. The poor thing could not find her voice after you literally tore the mic away from her to acclaim Beyonce as the real winner of Best Female Video at this years MTV Music Video Awards.
The event created lots of controversial buzz and MTV decided to publish the feedback they received after Kanye’s show stealing performance. After watching the video again, I’m still wondering: was all this fuss just a failed attempt of “scandal-promotion” or a real act of rebellion? Was it Kanye or Taylor that the crowed booed?
As any artist/celebrity (and everybody else on earth I guess), Taylor Swift has supporters and critics. Unfortunately for Swift, she has actually started to irritate lots of women, it’s has nothing to do with her music though, it’s the actual message she is spreading.
“Rather than choosing an established/evolved talent (Beyoncé) or a revolutionary (Lady Gaga), the Grammys chose someone who, according to her lyrics, has spent her entire life waiting for phone calls and dreaming about horses and sunsets.”
Ther rutheless ladies of Jezebel, Bitch Magazine and Autostraddle are pointing at Swift, showing her as the antithesis of feminism:
With her pretty face framed by a halo of blond locks she looks like an angel – a pretty face always helps to spread a message. However, with her supportive and wealthy family background helping her reach her stardom dreams, Swift doesn’t have the same credibility as other fellow-singers – as described in Autostraddle Lady Gaga would have fought Kanye West back on the MTV stage, and Beyonce at the same age was praising her independence and celebrating strong and powerful women.Another point is that Taylor Swift, who’s promotion pillar is the fact that she “writes her songs herself”, basically sings about girls, being outcast, waiting for the boy-prince to come and save them – see this brilliant infographic produced by Autostraddle.
It may be a relief for mothers to see Taylor Swift as a role model for their daughter, rather than high-heeled sexualized child like Noah Cyrus. However, Swift’s message cannot help young women to face real situations because she sings fantasy! For instance, Swift’s songs are simplifying relationships (the virgin against the whore, fighting for the love of the boy), mystifying sex and referring to old puritan concepts (take a look at her song Fifteen below).
Moreover, Taylor Swift’s habit to repeat over and over she is a freak, hiding behind glasses, is becoming pretty irritating. Come on Swift! Just take a quick look at the last Gaga apparition before claiming idiocies.
Talking about Lady Gaga – you know I’ve got a weakness for her – I was reading this article about the rocketing success of this young ambition-driven women and the way she managed to transform brands instead of giving her name and image for a campaign.
From a general point of view the front of the music scene has been pretty much a female only space (with Gaga and Beyonce leading the way). This article describes this fact this is a general trend:
“Jody Rosen, music critic of Slate, the online magazine, declared “we are living in the year of the diva”, when “boys’ music” such as hard rock and gangsta rap is fading both creatively and commercially.”
Is Taylor Swift a durable option in the pop music landscape? Will she survive in a jungle with all these amazons? And was Kanye trying to get his fame back, by sabotaging the speech of a new starlet?
Let me know what you think – and who you would have booed at the MTV VMA awards!
Hi ladies,
I didn’t know anything about this girl but I found your article very illuminating. It makes me wonder why this naive girl is attacked for her innocent and silly, if you want, lyrics. I found much more anti-feminist and dangerous all the marketing-made girl bands that sing irrelevant songs (badly) about being wild, sexy all the time and have an attitude. You have 9 year olds with make up and “bitch” written on the back of their trousers. And one of the highest rates in Europe for teenage pregnancies. What’s so feminist about that? Let girls be girls and sing about their inexperience until they have something (genuine) else to offer. The women that fought for our right to get undressed, professional and able to refuse iron our men’s shirts didn’t do it for us to become sex kittens that can’t even remember who they slept with because they were too drunk or drugged. What kind of girl power is that?
I don’t mean to rant, just mean to say we are entitled to a bit of innocence until we loose it (and we all do, after all!).
Hi A.R.
Thanks a lot for your comment.
I understand your frustration.. and I totally agree: I don’t think it’s wrong for young women to be innocent – as long as they are realistically innocent!
This horrific bimbo type trend you are describing and that the kids are following is indeed worrying. Unfortunately, like Charlotte Raven interestingly describes it in her last article ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/06/charlotte-raven-feminism-madonna-price ) it’s probably feminists’ own fault: the revolution is not in a pole dance class!
But I don’t think Swift puritan and manichean embellishment will help young ladies neither..
Marion
You can say that again!
lady gaga is one of the best singers in the world but she does bad things too …
Rubbish!!!
Taylor Swift just shows that girls don’t have to whore themselves around like tramps (the way a certain Lady Gaga does), and that someday you will find true happiness.
I know to some this can be seen as a sort of delusion, but is it really that bad that people grow up with wishes and ambitions, as fantastical as they may be? I’d rather spend my days continuing to pin my hopes that my ’soulmate’ will walk around the corner and into my life at some point, rather than become comfortable with my own core misery and realise that actually all that may ever happen is that I find someone I can ’settle’ for, and hope to make the best life I can with that person.
As for Taylor’s music, from a person who plays guitar, I personally believe that she does have large amount of credibility, and when you see her nominated for Best Country Artist at the Country Awards, up against the ‘big guns’ like Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith, this shows that the establishment also believes she is a credible country artist too and that is something I believe should be commended in such a young talent.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Hi Marty
Thanks for your comment.
I think the point there is that young girls (who represent the other part of Swift audience) may not have the experience and grounds to handle any of these extreme: neither Gaga’s violent and extraverted universes nor Taylor’s wonderful world of self-inflicted lies.
Hi Marion,
Thank you for your reply.
I can very clearly see your point and respect that you have such strong feelings regarding musicians of today. It’ll be interesting to see which of our view points is most accurate in one or two decades time, and whether or not our taste in music shapes our eventual lives.
I’m a 16, and a huge fan of Taylor’s. Im currently doing a business project on her. I came upon your article and read it. Although you prove you’re points well, I must say that girls my age, younger, and older look up to her because she isnt prancing around in skimpy outfits showing us that it’s okay to whore ourselves out when it isnt. She sings about happy endings and prince charmings and such, and maybe that is setting us up for dissapointment, but at least she is keeping our wishes and ambitions alive. I would rather learn from Taylor then Lady Gaga, even though I like her as well, because she sings about her and what she writes, girls can relate to it. Taylor is a big role model in today’s society, and that’s a good thing. Would you rather your daughter being looking up to Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga (who wears almost NOTHING in her videos) or aritists like Taylor who tell us that it’s okay to have their innocence it’s okay to dream? That’s my opinion.