Writer Biography

Emma Randall is a sophomore at Utah State University. She grew up in Utah as the youngest of three siblings accompanied by her two cats. Emma loves to read and write; she attends concerts and travels whenever she can. Emma has a part-time job and is enrolled in school full-time. She wants to major in Journalism and study print publications.

This essay was composed in December 2022 and uses MLA documentation.

 “I think there’s plenty of annoying women, I think that Taylor Swift, she is annoying. . . She’s too skinny, it bothers me, all of her model friends. . . She’s going through guys like a train” (qtd. in Wilson 32:25).

THE MUSIC INDUSTRY AND its audience continuously view female artists as lesser than their male counterparts. As one of the most successful music artists and women in the world, Taylor Swift is a prime example of this male-female imbalance. This imbalance is seen in the language used to describe Swift. In publications that use words such as dumb, annoying, boring, and bitchy to define the person who is dominating music and breaking records left and right (Thomas). This degrading vocabulary is most commonly reserved for women, especially powerful women.

In 2006, Taylor Swift’s debut album Taylor Swift was released, and a snowball effect of success and discrimination ensued. For every album released, award won, and dollar earned, there seemed to be a stabbing headline and backhanded compliment. The harmful things being said about Swift concerning her dating habits and genre shifts were only the beginning of a long line of mistreatment. The harmful things being said about Swift concerning her dating habits and genre shifts were only the beginning of a long line of mistreatment. At the 2009 Video Music Awards, Taylor Swift received the Female Video Award. During her acceptance speech, Kanye West infamously interrupted to exclaim that another competitor, Beyoncé Knowles, “had one of the best videos of all time” (ArtisanNewsService). This display of disrespect towards an upcoming young woman in the music industry would trigger years-worth of back and forth between Swift and West.

Seven years after this event, Kanye West’s song “Famous” was released. West wrote, “I think me and Taylor might still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous” (KanyeWestVEVO). The coinciding video depicts several naked bodies in bed next to West, including someone who is clearly meant to be Taylor Swift. Although it was not actually Swift in this video, it can be categorized as “revenge porn,” which is the nonconsensual revealing of sexually explicit images or content to humiliate or embarrass an individual (“Revenge porn”). As a powerful man in the music industry, West uses sex and gender to degrade and embarrass a woman who was already receiving an award when he “made her famous.” This public mistreatment continued as West toured, encouraging crowds to chant “fuck Taylor Swift” (Wilson 34:10) during the performance of this song.

The usage of the word “bitch” is important to note in West’s derogatory commentary about Swift. It has long been a word used to put down women. In Taylor Swift’s song “The Man,” a feminist anthem that encapsulates her experiences in the music industry as a woman, Swift uses various comparisons between herself and her conceptual alter ego, “the man.” She questions what it would be like to “Brag about raking in dollars and getting bitches and models. . . If I was out flashing my dollars I’d be a bitch not a baller” (TaylorSwiftVEVO). Her use of the word “bitch” comments on the way women are disregarded rather than celebrated through the use of this derogatory term. This song can also be seen as a remark towards West’s use of the word to describe Swift as something to have sex with, rather than a person to be respected.

This language and narrative surrounding women in the music industry are damaging. It is a direct result of a society that pays women less than men for the same jobs (“America’s Women”), a society that puts women in danger (“Facts and Figures”), and a society that normalizes and encourages biases against women (“Report Reveals”). Recognizing that these issues are real and prevalent is the first step for progression to occur. Only recently have women obtained the same rights as men, and they currently have the most opportunities available, but personal and institutional misogyny still prospers.

While experiencing this treatment, women in the music industry are placed on pedestals for everyone to witness and ignore. As they obtain success, they must constantly reinvent themselves to stay relevant and successful. In the Netflix documentary Miss Americana, one commentary explains, “We do exist in this society where women in entertainment are discarded in an elephant graveyard by the time they are 35” (Wilson 1:10:35). Women in the music industry are placed on pedestals for everyone to witness and ignore. Taylor Swift has steadily gained success and broken records in recent years as she approaches the age of 35, as well as continuously contradicting the prediction that her seventh studio album Lover would be her last opportunity to achieve high levels of success (Wilson).

Swift has instead been a trailblazer for all women in the music industry. In 2019, she was awarded Billboard’s Woman of the Decade award and expressed the ways she has molded herself to be what people desire. By doing this, she recognized that people will never be satisfied, so it is better to do what she wants instead (BillboardMagazine “Taylor Swift Accepts” 14:50). Swift has been an inspiration to aspiring young women everywhere. In this speech, Swift references her previous address as she received the Woman of the Year award in 2014. Swift draws upon when she expressed, “Somewhere, right now your future Woman of the Year is probably sitting in a piano lesson or in a girls choir, and today right now we need to take care of her” (qtd. in BillboardMagazine “Taylor Swift Accepts” 13:44). She later discovered she was right.

Billie Eilish received the Woman of the Year Award in 2019 and shared that she was 11 at the time Swift received it in 2014. At that moment, she was enrolled in piano lessons and singing in a girls choir (BillboardMagazine “Billie Eilish Accepts” 2:14). Taylor Swift has consistently been an advocate and influence for women everywhere. Fogarty and Arnold explain that “the guitar maker Fender revealed that over half of new guitar sales are now made to women, a phenomenon which they dubbed ‘The Taylor Swift factor’” (Fogarty and Arnold 6). This increase in inspired women who have been able to break through in the music industry thanks to Swift is remarkable. Although these strides of progression for young women are met with drawbacks and retaliations, it is clear that these young women will not be deterred.

Swift has evolved genres all the way from country to alternative but is ultimately a pop artist. Although pop is increasingly in demand, some people dislike the genre with no fault to the artist or the listener. It is common to dislike things that are popular, like pop music, especially if someone wants to be seen as different or unique. Unfortunately, when it comes to shunning something well-liked among mostly young women, like Taylor Swift, it piles onto the phenomenon of “not being like other girls,” a phenomenon that places value on women who put down other women (Luna).

In the effort to “not be like other girls,” the “other girl” rejects the “girly” blueprint that is Taylor Swift—the one that sings about boys while wearing pretty dresses and red lipstick. Swift is associated with a bubblegum pink persona depicted by bright neon colors, unicorns, and kittens. In other words, the exact opposite of what the “other girl” desires to be. Instead, the “other girl” is smart and wears dark colors; she likes sports, and, most importantly, loathes what other girls love. This harmful concept inadvertently places further power into the hands of patriarchal ideals, contributing to the social norm that being feminine is bothersome and undesirable whilst piling onto the public’s negative perception of Taylor Swift.

When people are on a parasocial pedestal, such as celebrities, they are removed from humanity in our eyes. They no longer exist to us as people; they are instead objects for us to project onto. When someone is prejudiced against women, they will latch onto the easiest target, such as a singer, and blame it on her voice, what she wears, or what she writes about. This behavior is much easier than questioning the why behind those criticisms: Why do you not like their music? Is it because you prefer a different genre or a different gender?

Admittedly, it can be frustrating when a multimillionaire evokes resentment for the industry that has provided her with an incredibly successful platform. To the majority of listeners, hearing about how Swift is sick of running as fast as she can, wondering if she would get there faster if she was a man (TaylorSwiftVEVO “The Man”) can seem tone deaf considering her $450 million net worth (“Taylor Swift Net Worth”) and numerous awards, including 11 Grammys, 14 Video Music Awards, and an honorary doctorate degree from New York University (“Taylor Swift”). Admittedly, it can be frustrating when a multimillionaire evokes resentment for the industry that has provided her with an incredibly successful platform. These accomplishments, however, do not invalidate the experiences she has had in reaching this point in her career. Swift has publicly expressed her struggles with impossible beauty standards and the eating disorder she developed to meet them, along with the publicization of her sexual assault case (Wilson 55:23). These are common issues amongst women, and Swift is not immune; in fact, she must also endure what the public has to say about them.

Because Swift is human, she is not infallible, which means controversy will always surround her and her popularity. People should not be idolized and deemed flawless. These behaviors can create a skewed lens on important issues and opinions. It is important to recognize when someone is imperfect, while also commending them on their craft and success. The acknowledgment of imperfection does not excuse the mistreatment and abuse of women in the music industry. Music taste is entirely subjective, and no one should be expected to obsess over, or even like certain artists. I do hope, however, that people who hold contempt for Taylor Swift, along with other female artists, will consider why they latch onto these negative opinions and what they are rooted in.

Works Cited

“America’s Women and the Wage Gap.” National Partnership for Women and Families, National Partnership for Women and Families, https://www.nationalpartnership.org/our-work/resources/economic-justice/fair-pay/americas-women-and-the-wage-gap.pdf. Accessed 5 Dec. 2022.

ArtisanNewsService. “Taylor Swift VMAAward Moment Ruined by Kanye West.” YouTube, YouTube, 13 Sept. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z8gCZ7zpsQ.

BillboardMagazine. “Taylor Swift Accepts Woman of the Decade Award | Women in Music.” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Dec. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVpkFb9-fts&t=10s.

BillboardMagazine. “Billie Eilish Accepts the Woman of the Year Award.” YouTube, YouTube, 13 Dec. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0L1MYciVuw.

“Taylor Swift Net Worth 2022 – Bio, Career, Albums, Income.” SSSAMITI.ORG, sssamiti.org, 5 Dec. 2022, https://www.sssamiti.org/taylor-swift-net-worth/.

“Facts and Figures: Ending Violence against Women.” UN Women – Headquarters, UN Women, Feb. 2022, https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures.

Fogarty, Mary, and Gina Arnold. “Are You Ready for It? Re-Evaluating Taylor Swift.” Contemporary Music Review, vol. 40, no. 1, Feb. 2021, pp. 1–10. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.dist.lib.usu.edu/10.1080/07494467.2021.1976586.

KanyeWestVEVO. “Kanye West – Famous.” YouTube, YouTube, 1 July 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7FCgw_GlWc.

Luna, Lauren. “‘I’m Not Like Other Girls.’” The Bottom Line: University of California Santa Barbara, UCSB, 24 Feb. 2022, https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2019/10/im-not-like-other-girls.

“Revenge porn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/revenge%20porn. Accessed 5 Dec. 2022.

“Report Reveals Nearly 90 per Cent of All People Have ‘a Deeply Ingrained Bias’ against Women.” UN News, United Nations, 5 Mar. 2020, https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1058731.

“Taylor Swift.” IMDb, IMDb.com, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2357847/awards.

“Taylor Swift’s New Netflix Documentary Shows the Star in a New and Rare Light: Review.” Annenberg Media, https://www.uscannenbergmedia.com/2020/02/25/taylor-swifts-new-netflix documentary-shows-the-star-in-a-new-and-rare-light-review/.

TaylorSwiftVEVO. “The Man.” YouTube, YouTube, 27 Feb. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqAJLh9wuZ0&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 2 Nov. 2022.

Thomas, Bri. “15 Times Taylor Swift Was Actually the Worst.” TheThings, 7 Aug. 2017, https://www.thethings.com/15-times-taylor-swift-was-actually-the-worst/.

Wilson, Lana, director. Miss Americana. Netflix, Morgan Neville, Christine O’Malley, Caitrin Rogers, 31 Jan. 2020, https://www.netflix.com. Accessed 2 Nov. 2022.