1 Taylor Swift as Girl

Girlhood became a popular term in the 1950s after World War II. Advertisers began to target girls as their own specific group and marketed products to them based on their interests. Girl power came about after the concept of girlhood took hold in the popular imagination and took off in the 1990s due to the Riot Grrrl movement. The Spice Girls began to use “Girl Power!” as a slogan, which further propelled it into the mainstream. It was an inoffensive and marketable catchphrase for the feminist movement (Woodcook, 2022). Some have criticized “girl power” as being too media friendly, a simplification of the feminist movement, and a way of watering down the real concerns of gender inequality. Slogans like “girl power” seem to make feminism all about aesthetics and consumerism (Bae, 2011).

That said, the media is based on consumerism, which positions women as less economically powerful because they consume instead of produce. This reinforces a stereotype about women as unable to care for themselves economically, and capitalism promotes the need to buy in order to look good. “By making women feel insecure about their bodies, the industry forges the link that just the right product will help reduce this anxiety and bring newfound confidence and satisfaction” (Lipkin, p. 129). Such satisfaction will not last nor is it real or healthy, as it positions women as objects. Women then view themselves through the “eyeglasses of the mature male” and find themselves being “put back in her place” (p. 132).

Media literacy can help girls to navigate all of this, as they may not realize that the messages they are receiving are harmful, deceitful, and slowly destroying their self-esteem. Many programs now “train girls to think more critically about assumptions and gender stereotypes that are presented as ‘natural’” (Lipkin, p. 161). Taylor Swift contributes to this education and critique of patriarchy, writing about “The Man” and male privilege in her music and giving girls music that speaks to their realities and lived experiences. Swift is contributing to the societal change in which “girls and young women are increasingly visible and powerful within popular culture” (Lipkin, p. 167). Swift started as an entertainer while just a girl herself, and she has developed that innocent beginning into a powerful empire.

Music can be empowering by giving girls a voice. Swift found her voice through music and has become a worldwide phenomenon. Whether girls are making the music or listening to it, there’s a process of identification, and listeners realize that somebody else feels the way they might or that somebody has articulated the complications of being a young woman. Many girls long for voices that sound like theirs and that adddress what they care about. Susan J. Douglas has noted that the music of her girlhood “gave voice to all the warring selves inside us struggling . . . to forge something resembling a coherent identity” (p. 269). Music empowers girls, so it isn’t surprising that Swift’s songs about girlhood and her early public persona have appealed to so many.

Becoming well known as a girl has had its complications. When Swift was younger she practiced “appropriate femininity,” especially since her music landed firmly in the country category, known for being conservative and promoting middle America’s values. Her lyrics were innocent and focused on young love and relationships. There were no outwardly sexual themes in her music and her pure image was guarded carefully.  “Our Song” is an example of the pure, good girl rhetoric found in Swift’s early work. The chorus mentions the innocence found in early teenagehood by steering clear of anything too mature or risque and instead focuses on sneaking out, talking on the phone late at night, and the age-old question of whether or not the boy should kiss her on their first date. The song walks through a teen girl’s experience with a new found love and how anxious she is to find something that makes the love special and unique. The good girl rhetoric is also found in the way the song mentions God and praying, asking to keep their love, or their song, going. The last chorus of the song is changed slightly to highlight how the narrator has slowly fallen more in love with the boy, as if she’s come to terms with the relationship. Rather than the line, “Man, I didn’t kiss her and I should have,” which is said in the first two choruses from the perspective of the teen boy, Swift sings, “Man, I didn’t kiss him and I should have.” After the protagonist of the song “heard every album” and “listened to the radio,” she realized she was in love with the boy and that their song (their love) is perfect the way it is. It is a happily-ever-after ending, and Swift’s earlier work is characterized by fairy tale themes. Allusions to love stories (like Romeo and Juliet) speak to the hopes and dreams (as dictated by society) of girlhood. The album Speak Now is themed around fairytales—with songs like “Never Grow Up,” “Enchanted,” “Long Live,” and “Superman.”

Girlhood is characterized by innocence, and during this period of life it may be more acceptable to be silly, funny, wild, or quirky. As girls grow up, may be pressured to mature quickly and are often encouraged to abandon their carefree identity, if they have one. Swift is often seen as a symbol of girlhood because she began her career as a girl, but she is outwardly silly and fun. She makes being clumsy and comical a part of her identity, which encourages girls not to lose that younger part of themselves as they age. This also makes her seem more relatable than other seemingly perfect celebrities. Her playful personality can be seen in the music video “Delicate,” the NPR Tiny Desk Concert, the music video “You Need to Calm Down,” and in an “Errors Tour” (a play on the name of her concert The Eras Tour) compilation on YouTube.

What else does it mean to be a girl, particularly in an American context? In class, we discussed the following qualities of a stereotypical American girl: white, middle-class, skinny, heterosexual, attractive but not sexy, demure, kind, sweet, religious, virginal, and innocent. At debut, Swift’s appearance (colors, dress style, hair) reflected wholesome girlhood and stereotypical American girlhood. She is blonde, started out with a Southern accent, wore frilly dresses (often white, signaling purity) and cowboy boots, applied neutral and minimal makeup, and used butterflies as a symbol in her album and performances. During this debut era, Swift’s image exuded girlhood and innocence. Swift’s style has changed and matured as she’s grown up. There are fewer frilly dresses and more elegant gowns, pants, and blouses. She shows more skin and rarely wears her hair curly anymore.

Maturing and leaving girlhood can be a difficult project. In “Nothing New” on Swift’s Red album, girls are encouraged to go out and have their fun, but when they do they are criticized: “How did I go from growin’ up to breaking down? / … But I wonder if they’ll miss me once they drive me out.” This is a sentiment that a lot of women relate to, as we are often forced to grow up quickly in a society where the oversexualization of young girls is rampant. For Swift, this experience was likely heightened because of the entertainment industry. She told Vogue, “The second I became a woman, in people’s perception, was when I started seeing the sexism in the music industry. It’s fine to infantilize a girl’s success and say, ‘How cute that she’s having some hit songs, how cute that she’s writing songs.’ But the second it becomes formidable? As soon as I started playing stadiums—when I started to look like a woman—that wasn’t as cool anymore” (Aguirre, 2019). Something as simple as getting older, which happens to everybody, is fraught for girls. When they’re young and less capable of defending themselves they aren’t seen as a threat, but once they grow older and find their voice they become the problem.

References

Aguirre, A. (8 August 2019). “Taylor Swift on Sexism, Scrutiny, and Standing up for Herself.” Vogue, 8 Aug. 2019, www.vogue.com/article/taylor-swift-cover-september-2019

Bae, M. S. (2011). Interrogating girl power: Girlhood, popular media, and postfeminism. Visual Arts Research, 37(2), 28-40.

Douglas, S. J. (2010). “Why the Shirelles Mattered” in Paris, L., & Forman-Brunell, M. The girls’ history and culture reader: the twentieth century. University of Illinois Press.

Lipkin, E. (2009). Girls’ Studies: Seal Press.

Swift, T. (2019). Our Song. Taylor Swift.

Woodcook, A. (7 October 2022). “Talking Back with Girl Power.” National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/girl-power