#I'm a professional Taylor Swift Critic

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

Taylor Swift is a Female Rage icon? Get a Grip.

I’ve just received word that Taylor Swift is calling her show “Female Rage: The Musical.” Here is my very much pissed off response to that nonsense:  

The phrase, Female Rage has an intimately rich history:  

Some of the first accounts of female rage dates to the Italian renaissance. To be clear, women in those days were not allowed to become painters- the arts were seen as the domain of men. They did not believe that women have rich inner lives capable of delivering the type of artistic innovation with which renaissance men were obsessed.  

However, rebels abounded, through the might of their fucking rage. Several women created some of the most compellingly emotional paintings I’ve ever fucking seen. They did it without permission, without financial support, and often under the threat of punishment. They did it as a protest. In paintings like “Timoclea Killing Her Rapist” by Elisabetta Sirani (1659), and another by Artemisia Gentileschi “Slaying of Holofernes” (1612) as it depicts the bravery of Judith as she slayed a traveling warlord out to rape Judith and enslave her city. The painting often is referred to as a way Artemisia was envisioning herself as slaying her rapist. These paintings were used against these women as proof that they were unfeminine- and far too angry.  Both these women suffered immensely for their audacity to call attention to the violation men perpetrated on them. Female Rage bleeds off these paintings- bleeds right through to the bone-deep acknowledgement of the injustice women faced being barred from the arts and having their humanity violated in such a sick way. Both women were hated- and considered far too angry.

In philosophy, also as early as the 15th century, an example of female rage is a philosophical text, often hailed as one of the first feminists works in the western world, written by Christine de Pizan titled The City of Ladies (1405). She wrote in protest on the state of women- writing that “men who have slandered the opposite sex out of envy have usually know women who were cleverer and more virtuous than they are” (“The City of Ladies”). People mocked her all her life- but she stood fast to her convictions. She was widowed at a young age with children to feed and the men wouldn’t let women have jobs! She wrote this book and sold it so that she could feed her family- and to protest the treatment of women as lesser than men. Her work was called aggressive and unkempt- they said she was far too angry. 

In the 18th century, a young Mary Wollstonecraft wrote, A Vindication of the Right of Women ( 1792) upon learning that the civil rights won in the French Revolution did not extend to women! She wrote in protest of the unjust ways other philosophers (like Rousseau) spoke about the state of women- as if they were lesser. She wrote to advocate for women’s right to education, which they did not yet have the right to! She wrote to advocate for the advancement of women’s ability to have their own property and their own lives! The reception of this text, by the general public, lead to a campaign against Wollstonecraft- calling her “aggressive” and far too angry.  

Moving into modernity, the 1960’s, and into literary examples, Maya Angelou publishes I know why the caged Bird Sings (1969) in which she discusses the fraught youth of a girl unprotected in the world. It beautifully, and heart-wrenchingly, described growing up in the American South during the 1930’s as it subjected her to the intersection of racism and sexism. The story is an autobiographical account of her own childhood, which explains how patriarchal social standards nearly destroyed her life. Upon the reception of her book, men mostly called it “overly emotional” and far too angry. Maya Angelou persisted. She did not back down from the honesty with which she shared her life- the raw, painful truth. With Literature, she regained a voice in the world.  

Interwoven into each of the examples I have pulled out here, is the underlying rage of women who want to be seen as human beings, with souls, dreams and hopes, yet are not seen as full members of society at the behest of men. They take all that rage, building up in their souls, and shift it to create something beautiful: positive change. Each of these cases, I have outlined above, made remarkable strides for the women as a whole- we still feel the impact of their work today. They were so god-damn passionate, so full of righteous anger, it burst out into heart-stopping, culture-shifting art. Feminine rage is therefore grounded in experiences of injustice and abuse- yet marked too by its ability to advocate for women's rights. It cannot be historically transmogrified away from these issues- though Taylor Swift is doing her best to assert female rage as pitifully dull, full of self-deprecation, and sadness over simply being single or losing money. She trivializes the seriousness with which women have pled their cases of real, painful injustice and suffering to the masses time and time again. The examples above deal with subjects of rape, governmental tyranny, and issues of patriarchally inspired social conditioning to accept women as less human than men. It is a deadly serious topic, one in which women have raised their goddamn voices for centuries to decry- and say instead, “I am human, I matter, and men have no right to violate my mind, body, or soul.”  

The depictions of female rage over the last few centuries, crossing through many cultures, is an array of outright anger, fearsome rage, and into utter despair. The one unyielding, solid underpinning, however, is that the texts are depicting the complete agency of the women in question. The one uniting aspect of female rage is that it must be a reaction to injustice; instead of how male depictions of female rage function, (think Ophelia), the women are the agents of their art with female made- female rage. They push forth the meaning through their own will- not as subjects of male desires or abuses, but as their own selves. That is what makes the phrase so empowering. They are showing their souls as a form of protest to the men who treat women like we have no soul to speak of.  

Taylor Swift’s so-called female rage is a farce in comparison. Let’s look at an example: “Mad Woman” (2020). I pull this example, and not something from her TTPD set, because this is one of the earliest examples of her using the phrase female rage to describe her dumb music. (Taylor Swift talking about "mad woman" | folklore : the long pond studio sessions (youtube.com)  

The lyrics from “Mad Woman” read “Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy/... And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry”  

How exactly is agreeing with someone that you are “crazy” a type of female rage in which she’s protesting the patriarchy. The patriarchy has a long history of calling women “insane” if they do not behave according to the will of men. So, how is her agreeing with the people calling her crazy- at all subversive in the way that artworks, typically associated with concept of female rage, are subversive. What is she protesting? NOTHING.  

Then later, she agrees, again, that she's “angry.” The issue I draw here is that she’s not actually explicating anything within the music itself that she’s angry about- she just keeps saying she's angry over and over, thus the line falls flat. The only thing this anger connects to is the idea of someone calling her angry- which then makes her agree that she is... angry. So, despite it being convoluted, it’s also just not actually making any kind of identifiable point about society or the patriarchy- so again, I beg, what on Earth makes this count as Female Rage?  

In essence, she is doing the opposite of what the examples above showcase. In letting an outside, presumably male, figure tell Taylor Swift what she is feeling, and her explicit acceptance of feeling “crazy” and “angry,” she is ultimately corroborating the patriarchy not protesting it. Her center of agency comes from assignment of feelings outside of herself and her intrinsic agreement with that assignment; whereas female rage is truly contingent on the internal state, required as within our own selves, of female agency. As I stated above, the women making female rage art must have an explicit agency throughout the work. Taylor Swift’s song simply does not measure up to this standard.  

Her finishing remarks corroborates the fact that she's agreeing with this patriarchal standard of a "mad" or crazy woman:

"No one likes a mad woman/ You made her like that"

Again, this line outsources agency through saying "you made her like that" thus removing any possibility of this song being legitimate female rage. There is simply no agency assigned to the woman in the song- nor does the song ever explicitly comment on a social issue or protestation of some grievous injury to women's personhood.

She honestly not even being clever- she's just rhyming the word “crazy” with “crazy.” Then later rhyming “angry” with “angry.” Groundbreaking stuff here.  

Perhaps Taylor Swift is angry, in “Mad Woman,” but it is not the same type of rage established in the philosophical concept of female rage of which art historians, philosophers, and literary critics speak. Instead, it is the rage of a businesswoman that got a bad deal- but it is not Female Rage as scholars would identify it. In “Mad Woman” I fear her anger is shallow, and only centered on material loss- through damaging business deals or bad business partners. She is not, however, discussing what someone like Christine de Pizan was discussing by making a case for the concept that woman also have souls like men do. In her book, she had to argue that women have souls, because men were unconvinced of that. Do you see the difference? I am saying that Swift’s concerns are purely monetary and material, whereas true examples of female rage center on injustice done against their personhood- as affront to human rights. Clearly, both things can make someone mad- but I’d argue the violation of human rights is more serious- thus more deserving of the title “Female Rage.”  

Simply put, Taylor Swift is not talking about anything serious, or specific, enough to launch her into the halls of fame for "Female Rage" art. She's mad, sure, but she's mad the way a CEO gets mad about losing a million dollars. She's not mad about women's position in society- or even just in the music industry.

She does this a lot. The album of ��Reputation” was described as female rage. Songs in “Folklore” were described as female rage. Now, she’s using the term to describe TTPD, which is the most self-centered, ego-driven music I’ve heard in a long time.

Comparing the injustice, and complete subjugation, of women’s lives- to being dumped by a man or getting a bad deal- wherein she is still one of the most powerful women of the planet- is not only laughable, but offensive. 

[areyoudoingthis]

that post about how if you don't value someone to ask for their advice why would you accept their criticism really changed my perspective about things

[trusweethrt]

LATE NIGHT DRIVES

PAIRING: BSF!RAFE X SWEETHEART!FEM!READER

summary: Rafe cherished these drives with you. Where you both would blare your wildly different music, talk about anything that came to mind, and stop at random convenience stores for snacks. It was the only time where he felt genuinely relaxed and content.

a/n: okayy new setup? 🫣 I dunno, I'm trying it out but I likee. very professional, very cutesy. Anyway, this is my first well thought out writing so please do leave constructive criticism if you think I could do something different next time...

word count: 0.6k

The route to your house was second nature by now. He's been there so much that he almost knows it better than his own home. which he doesn't mind at all, cause your house was basically his second home.

As you lie in your bed, your phone buzzes with an "I'm outside" text from Rafe. So per routine, you get up, throwing on the first hoodie in reach and heading out of the door.

He blows out out a breath, letting out a low "Its about fucking time" as you get in his truck.

"yeah yeah, it wasn't that long. you're just impatient"

he pulls out of your driveway, scoffing slightly "I must have plenty of patience, I deal with you, don't I? and put your seat belt on."

Once your seat belt is fastened, he begins driving on the road, having no destination in mind like usual. For a while, it's just silence between you two. Which isn't uncommon for both of you, it's familiar and more comforting than he'd like to admit.

"Lets stop at a gas station for snacks" you request, looking out the window

He nods, a murmured "sure" leaving his lips as he drives in the direction of the nearest gas station.

Entering the gas station, you immediately make your way toward the section with candy, picking out packages of a variety of candies while he heads towards the chips.

Once you both have gathered a good amount of snacks for each of you, which you both are gonna end up sharing anyway, you set them down on the counter as the cashier to rings up all of the items that he ends up paying for like usual since he'll throw a fit if he doesn't.

When you both make it into the car, he drives to the usual spot you both spend nights at. An empty parking lot. "Oh my gosh, turn it up!" you motion to the radio, smiling widely.

He groans as he turns up the radio "What the hell is this? Taylor Swift?"

"Sabrina Carpenter" you correct "And it's good, just listen."

"Yeah, I'd rather not" he replies as he takes a few gummy bears from the bag in your lap. He always claims to hate your music taste but you always find him humming a beat to one of the songs you pick out during a drive.

He leans back into his seat, chewing slowly as he listens to the lyrics. "You listen to some dirty music" he chuckles

"Hey, she's not that bad. You should see her on tour though, you'll have a stroke."

he raises his eyebrow, an amused expression on his face "really, huh? what, are you gonna go?"

you hum, shaking your head "No. I want to, though. But her tickets are kinda pricey. Maybe if I have extra money to spend soon."

"I'll take you."

The Skittles you were eating nearly get stuck in your throat as you look at him in bewilderment "What?! No! Rafe, that's too much money."

he shrugs "It's fine. I wanna do it. Just let me? Please?" of course he wouldn't bat an eye at spending that much money, he was loaded.

you hesitate for a moment, but seeing the insistence in his eyes, you eventually nod slightly "Fine. You can take me. But I'm paying you back eventually, alright?"

"Mm okay, sure. Deal." he agrees, even though he knows when it comes time for you to pay him back, he'll either give the money right back to you or refuse it.

"Thank you, Rafe. I appreciate it." you smile, genuinely touched by his willingness to spend that much money on you. It was rare that he went out of his way to please someone.

"Mhm, of course" he smiles back before throwing a gummy bear your way "consider it a late birthday gift."

"my birthday was like nine months ago, but okay."

"Mm yeah, just go with it" he chuckles, reaching over and talking your hand.

That was definitely new...

[netflixonyourcouch]

Sleep Token and Music Criticism

I'm going to try to get my thoughts out as coherently as possible, but my brain's been all over the place lately. I keep halfway participating in these Sleep Token discussions. The main point that I've come away with is criticism, both professional and from the everyman Facebook commenter, has been immensely ignorant.

Let's get the elephant out of the way here: Sleep Token is divisive. And they are divisive completely and solely because they are a metal band that mixes other genres into their sound, such as trap, R&B, electronic and some radio friendly pop music. They have been compared to Sam Smith and Imagine Dragons. Their whole getup, which consists of masks and costumes, might also add to the irritation.

Now, I'm a huge fan of music, and I never think that I'm outright "wrong" on any band. So I firmly believe that Sleep Token is a great band, and the criticism they've faced has just been incredibly shortsighted and uncharitable.

If one more person says, "They're not even a metal band!" I'm gonna flip. You ignorant motherfuckers. WHO. CARES. Who cares IF they are or are NOT a metal band. All of you sound stupid when you say this. But even with that aside, it's hilarious that they have plenty of songs with metal parts in them. Plenty. Yes, there are songs that are devoid of any metal element in them, but since there are so many songs that DO feature metal elements, it ultimately refutes the "they're not even metal!" claims. They're so baseless.

And the fact that so many people keep parroting this asinine opinion leads me to believe that none of these people have tried to give Sleep Token a fair shake. Like, they might have heard a few of their pop leaning songs and then made a judgment on the band of a whole. But it doesn't fucking work that way. They have four albums out, try listening to all four in full, then come back and tell me they're not a metal band. AND, if you speak from a pre-conceived notion that pop music is a lesser form of music than other popular forms of music (by the way, most modern metal follows a pop format...) then I don't even want to listen to what you have to say.

The critics, like Pitchfork and Fantano, have predictably given the new album a 2. Now, this is where the crux of my rant begins. I find myself thinking, what use is this to anyone? Like, you all clearly aren't the target demo for this stuff and then you go ahead and just trash it for clicks and views. It's punching down on something they think is beneath them and that's the worst part, it's like this isn't 2005 anymore, nobody cares that you're too cool for certain music. People would defend this behavior by some manner of "So, what? They're supposed to give every album a positive rating?" and it's like no. I don't like all music and I think some music sucks. But if I'm reviewing something I'd rather critique it in a way that doesn't resort to belittling or imparting some smug arrogance on the person that's meant to consume the opinion.

For example, I love the new album and I have reservations about it, namely that some of these cadences and melodies that Vessel is using simply doesn't last long enough in these songs. Standout track "Gesthemane" has Vessel doing this impassioned yell-rapping sort of thing but it only lasts 4 bars. Likewise, when he uses this Weeknd-like melodic progression at the end of the song, it also feels short. I would love to see him try to spit a 16 using a good cadence/melody so we can really enjoy it. "Caramel" and "Emergence" have similar problems for me.

If your review is simply "this is bland, this sucks, this is Imagine Dragons, this isn't metal" it's not good criticism. It's halfway interacting with the music and forming a biased opinion against it. Like, I don't like Taylor Swift, but I'd never use the word "bland pop music" against her. I'd at least try to be constructive and voice legitimate complaints. And that's all I'm asking for with Sleep Token (who by the way, I still believe are a great band and I think everyone is simply wrong about them lol). Just give me something substantial. Stop nitpicking over the genre.

[taylortruther]

De-idealised may be the wrong word but I've definitely noticed an uptick in comments/the sentiment, especially since she brought him on stage/retconned some lyrics about him/talked about him, that "she's making her career all about a man, ugh"

and its interesting to me that they feel that way because a) she's Taylor Swift (doesnt need an explanation) and b) I wonder if they see that when someone who is sooo wildly successful professionally is including her partner in her work, what hope is for ordinary women like them to be able to gain an independent from their (often) male partners? Will we also always be reduced to the men?

I really dont know if i'm explaining this well lol

i get what you mean! and i think the fandom has a penchant for doing this because they're, idk, overprotective of taylor in a way?

taylor has been so independent professionally, and open about it, her whole career. a major part of her career is that she's a solo artist, writes all of her songs herself (sometimes with collaborators but always as the primary), and is super hands-on and in control of her own business and marketing and whatnot.

a lot of her talent and hard work has been dismissed as just petty breakup songs about boys that she dates for material.

i think the fandom tries to combat this by going really hard in the opposite direction. suggesting that she wants marriage and children is discouraged by some well-meaning fans, because in their opinion, that minimizes her to just a wife and mother. 'women are more than that! taylor swift is more than that!!'

so the pendulum has swung the other way, to the point where fans push back on taylor herself for mentioning her male partner, saying she's 'made it all about a man.' similar to how people criticized her for joe getting a grammy for folklore.

it's like this misguided notion that having/wanting a male partner, and acknowledging that partner while being recognized for her own accomplishments, is diminishing of a woman's autonomy.

[angelnextdooor]

"Still the same girl with the same name. Just a different mindset and a new game."

roses + vanilla - living life like tony stark & blair waldorf - ambivert - delulu perfectionist - baroque & gothic architecture - coffee & matcha & mango lassi - your favorite middle child - in my academic comeback era - the mediterranean - mentally in Austria & Italy & Greece - world traveler - photographer - class of 2026 (feeling senioritis) - vanilla ice cream - amateur poet - leather boots and coats - gold jewelry

My youtube is Talah’s Audiobook Library where I post all of the audiobooks I have recorded (I'm no professional so I'm open to any criticism/feedback!)

my library: the inheritance games & the grandest game (my obsession), the naturals, agggtm, five survive, the reappearance of rachel price, the hunger games, shatter me, divergent, the maze runner, harry potter, percy jackson & the olympians, better than the movies, shakespeare, jane austen, dostoevsky

lights are turned off, music is on: the weeknd (the loml), lana del rey, one direction, hozier, adele, gracie abrams, olivia rodrigo, dean lewis, tom odell, taylor swift, james arthur, lewis capaldi

rainy day films: knives out, little women, pride & prejudice, princess diaries, tangled, cinderella and beauty & the beast (the live actions), the greatest showman, how to lose a guy in 10 days, annie (2014), mr. & mrs. smith, marvel. I don't really watch tv shows but I love full house, gossip girl, tsitp, and maxton hall

my socials: spotify. pinterest. tiktok. please dm for discord.

feel free to reach out I love meeting new people!!

xoxo 🫶🏻

"Sometimes, in the games that matter most, the only way to really play is to live."

[whatiwillsay]

The way this Karlie vs Taylor convo is going I expect that one of your anons or even you will say next that modeling isn’t a real job or career. Then you guys will say her entrepreneurial work doesn’t matter because it’s her hubby’s money or something like that. And you guys will specifically say hubby not husband. Smh you know how to spot fake feminists - mention a woman they dislike and see how they talk about her. That’s the vibe I get whenever Karlie is mentioned on this blog. It’s either she’s not pretty enough or she’s only pretty and that’s it. She’s too dumb to code or just dumb in general. Everything good an anon mentions about her is succinctly discredited because of the actions of the men in her life. Which is especially interesting considering Taylor gets to keep her accolades despite also having a long history with sleazeballs professionally and personally. Same as Karlie. I like this blog but I hate when Karlie topics come up. The vibe gets nasty. Your anons go too far and you co-sign.

first of all and most importantly i've never said the word hubby in my life.

genuinely tho please don't read this blog. i'm serious if someone criticizing that traitorous Trump-adjacent billionairess kushner bride triggers you that much you are not cut out for reading this blog. like... do you really not know how scummy and disgusting the kushners are?

no one called her dumb, no one said her work didn't matter, no one said she wasn't pretty. you're literally making things up to piss your pants over and it's so dumb and annoying.

HER actions are what leave a bad taste in my mouth. SHE betrayed taylor, not the skeezy sleaze balls she chooses to surround herself.

not every place in the world has to be catered to your sensitivities. karlie is not some perfect sunshine angel. she's okay and sometimes entertaining and interesting from a gaylor perspective. but a good person or a good friend to taylor she is not. she also kaylorbaits for attention, clout, and engagement which is disgusting and pathetic.

taylor has her own problems and we criticize her all the time too. this isn't a taylor vs karlie blog. taylor sucks too. they both suck. BUT AS I SAID EARLIER taylor is extraordinarily talented in a way TO ME PERSONALLY (because this is my blog and my personal tastes are the thing that affects what is said on this blog) that makes up for a lot of her shortcomings. AS I SAID EARLIER karlie is extraordinarily talented at modeling but i don't care about that.

furthermore, taylor's talent and the way she writes about her life in her music is the focus of this blog- as in who are her songs about. not "taylor can do no wrong". taylor does wrong all the time but i'm not the pop star police so a lot of the time i don't really care. i'm not here to pass down moral judgements on rich blondes i'm here to dicuss taylor swift's work and muses. but realizing karlie sucked and was awful to taylor in the end is a part of that. sorry that's what the data supports.

does it make you a fake feminist to criticize me? if not then we're not fake feminists for critisizing karlie. get over yourself.

[medusas-daughter]

I'm starting to feel a weird kind of fatigue at the way music fandoms interact with songs and I don't know to explain it. Like everytime I click on a deep dive into song lyrics, it's just a celebrity gossip video/paragraph and it's genuinely annoying. When a writer writes about murder, we don't go back to their personal lives and look for clues or proof that they have comitted murder. I'm sure songwriters use their lives and emotions as inspiration, but not all their songs are autobiographical. They most probably get inspired by many things. Writing is a skill and craft they've been working on for decades and reducing it to "they dated so and so and that's why they sing that" cheapens their art. I want a deep dive into the symbolism and metaphors, into why this lyric was used with that tempo, into which genres influenced which songs, into how music evolved to reflect society (and before someone asks me to do it myself, I would if I could, I'm not knowledgeable in music at all).

Like the whole discourse around Jolene and how it wasn't feminist of Beyoncé to be singing that about Jay Z. Who says she was? She took a beloved song and put a spin on it, she's creative and imaginative, she doesn't need to only sing about herself or her husband

Taylor Swift's new album is her 11th, she's been writing her whole life, she was writing love songs and breakup songs at 13 years old. Not every song is about her own life. She's even said so herself. And yet all I see is a chart of which TTPD song is about which crusty white man and it's disgusting. Even professional critics are playing "who's the dad" with every song af if that's all that matters.

Tiktok had a whole wave of Hozier fans trying to piece together what he's like as a boyfriend based on his songs when Hozier is literally famous for writing about social causes and things that move him

I started blocking tags of singers I like to avoid these things and when I see that even people paid to critique songs are falling for this trap it's just sad

[destinyc1020]

Tom has been gay men's obsession since day one as an adult actor. I follow some gay male professional in the industry like writers and critics who used to talk about him in the grossest ways and even posted those fakes, which is super unprofessional IMO. But I guess talking about men in the way people used to openly talk about women is still okay. They do it with Timmy too, but the biggest obsessions for a decade are Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Tom, and the Chrises.

I'm surprised that the only people I've seen make a huge deal about the AI stuff is Taylor Swift and a couple of very young female celebs. it's a huge problem for all ages and genders, and not just sexual images. And I've seen a few regular people say they've found fakes of themselves made. Maybe the idea is that speaking out will draw more attention to it, but it's out of control. There was a point where I couldn't even click on a trending topic on Twitter without seeing the stuff mixed in or being joked about.

Thanks Anon.

Ugh, that is so unprofessional indeed. 🙄😔

Like you said, people shouldn't be talking about women in this way, or making sexualized AI images of them, and they shouldn't be doing it to men either.

If they were to put themselves in these men's shoes, they should ask themselves: How would I like it if strangers online were making fake manips of using my likeness and putting my face on a fake body, with sexualized imagery, making photos of me do all kinds of graphic sexual acts or poses? 🥴

🤔

[kabillieu]

I'm not really a Taylor Swift fan, but I've been really happy to see all the interest in her Eras tour this summer. I feel about Taylor how I feel about sports. It's something I don't necessarily get, but I do get the feelings people have about them. I understand Sports Feelings, even though I don't like sports, and I understand Taylor Swift Feelings, even though I only like a handful of her songs.

There's this newsletter I subscribed to recently, Girl Culture, by one of my favorite critics and writers, and she wrote about attending one of Taylor's concerts and about how attending a stadium concert takes a lot of work. You have to get the tickets and do the planning and figure out logistics. How to get there and get home. That helped my brain understand something that I have never, ever been able to understand on my own. I have always wanted any fun I have to be effortless. I don't want to work for it. This is why I don't like vacation planning. But you do have to work to have fun. You simply do. And I need to grow up and accept that. All I did this summer was work hard for the moments of fun I was able to scratch out, and you know what? It was worth it. It was difficult, it was a lot of work, but we made the best of bad situation.

The best part of the summer was visiting Dominic in Vegas. It was a lot of work, but it takes work to have fun! (this is now my mantra). This is only the second time in nearly 12 years of being a parent that I've been on vacation alone with my spouse. It was just what we both needed: being outside of the routines of caregiving, in an entirely new place that has no connection to our identities as parents. I'm really, really grateful for that time we had, and I wish it were possible for us to have the opportunity to be away alone together more frequently.

I don't love how busy and hectic my life is these days. In fact, I sort of hate it. But it's just not possible to slow down right now. And there is a lot of fun to be had along the way, but I am going to have to work for it. Any professional fun: I have to work for it. Any recreational fun: I have to work for it. Anything worth doing: I have to work for it.

So I am trying to resolve myself to the work. It's here anyway, so I might as well reframe it in my mind as a means necessary to get to the fun.

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

It's Bothering me so much that Taylor Swift is so fake smart-girl coded, I need to say this:

I have a degree in both Philosophy and English Literature....

She used the term Soliloquy wrong in her song by using it to refer to people espousing nonsense while complaining in an echo-chamber about her.

Instead, a soliloquy is the most honest and introspective a character will ever be. Often the character will stand to the front center of the stage and, as if in a dream, speak openly to themselves (and in respect to the audience) lay out the truth, or the agony of whichever conflict haunts the plot. So, anyway she's just plain wrong in her usage of the term.

I am not giving a sanctimonious soliloquy. Miss Taylor Swift, you are wrong, and I am speaking honestly.

She finishes the lyric "sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see" and I just want to mention that a soliloquy requires an audience... so she does not know what she is talking about by saying that there is no audience for a soliloquy.

Also, for the record, I don't think Taylor Swift knows anything of substance about Aristotle. I, on the other hand, took a three-hour long oral exam over Aristotle's life work while out-of-my-mind-high on Dayquil and pain meds after a surgery. I got an "A", and, somehow, I lived through that, I doubt the validity of Swift's claims to know anything at all about philosophy. Especially, considering how all her songs are about as deep as a puddle.

She's completely lost her credibility.

The woman did not even finish High School in a traditional, well-rounded way. I think she read a handful of Joe's books and now thinks real highly of herself.

Edit: I don't mean to make fun of her for being dumb. I'm frustrated that she's "stepping on my lawn" and making her legion of fans think that she totally knows what she's talking about when it comes to literary references in her work or philosophy. It's obvious that she does not actually understand the concepts she attempts to engage with.

Her only real literary skill is name dropping actually talented writers or philosophers in her songs.

Edit 2: Since some people want to come on this post and tell me that I am being needlessly pedantic about her use of words. Go away. A soliloquy is an ancient literary form, one which transcends cultures and centuries, and I, as a scholar of English Literature, am in the position to say that Swift is speaking about the form incorrectly. She obviously did not even google the form, it's clear she has very little real acquaintance with half the literature concept or authors she names drops.

Sure, soliloquies can be unreliable (Hamlet's "To Be, or not to be" is the most obvious example). However, the fact of the matter is that soliloquy hinges on the Honesty of the character. Swift writing that it's actually the opposite of honesty proves to me that she has no real idea about the literary form.

[carolinesiede]

Reflecting on 2023

2023 marked my tenth year as a professional critic, and it was also the first time I considered giving up the job all together. Like most people, I’ve found the past few years pretty tumultuous and anxiety-inducing. But for me, that all came to a head at the end of 2022, when I lost my swanky contract gig with FOX Digital and suddenly had to grapple with just how different my career looked from its pre-pandemic state.

I no longer had a connection with The A.V. Club, the site that served as my main home for nine years. I could no longer count on Twitter, which was once my biggest networking platform for finding new work. I’d driven myself into some hardcore burnout trying to run a podcast while building a new vertical from the ground up. And to top it all off, a close family member was hit by a car on New Year’s Day. Everyone was okay, thankfully, but helping them through a five-day hospital stay and several weeks of recovery was quite a dramatic way to start the new year.

I needed a break, and for the first time since I started my A.V. Club internship back in spring 2013, I gave myself one. I put my podcast on hold. I stopped keeping up with movies and TV shows. I took a full six months off from writing. I taught myself to embroider and started obsessively binging the back catalogue of the Boy Meets World podcast, Pod Meets World. (Shawn Hunter forever!)

In a lot of ways it was great. I desperately needed the time off and it inspired me to do fun, impulsive things, like visit Disneyland with my sister and take a road trip from St. Louis to New York with my parents. But looking back, I can also see just how manic and unmoored I felt during that time. I was living without a steady source of income, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be hired to write criticism again, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to. The past decade of my career had felt like climbing a (sometimes wonky) staircase in a vaguely upward trajectory. Suddenly I was standing on a cliff with no bridge in sight.

I have two people to thank for getting me across that chasm. One is my old A.V. Club colleague Myles McNutt, who, probably more than he realizes, tossed me a life raft by inviting me to cover genre television on his excellent TV criticism site, Episodic Medium. Writing weekly recaps for a supportive audience was the perfect way to ease myself back into the world of criticism; to remind myself that even with a six-month break, I still had the muscle memory to write a review. And, more importantly, to remember that I really enjoyed doing it—even when covering a show as terrible as Secret Invasion. (And eventually better showslike Loki and Doctor Who.)

The other person I have to thank for my career revival is, unexpectedly enough, Taylor Swift’s publicist, Tree Paine, who for some inexplicable reason said yes when I pitched her on the idea of covering the Eras Tour as a way to launch a Substack about girl culture. “I'm willing to take the chance and hope it helps you kick off your new career path,” she wrote before sending me off to see night two in Kansas City. And I know she’s a good publicist because not only is she managing Taylor’s career, she’s apparently managing mine as well.

Without that vote of confidence from Tree, I sincerely doubt I would’ve followed through on launching Girl Culture—my longtime daydream of a way to continue and expand the work I used to do at my old A.V. Club column, When Romance Met Comedy. But I’m so glad I did. Though the idea of building a new audience in our overcrowded media landscape is terrifying, I was absolutely blown away by the initial support I received, both in people signing up to receive the newsletter and in offering to pay for it as well. While the money I make here isn’t anywhere close enough to live on (yet!), my total 2023 Girl Culture earnings wound up covering a month of my rent, which is a huge deal in an industry where I’m often scraping together a living one $100 assignment at a time.

Equally importantly, it’s been a huge mindset shift to have an online space that truly belongs to me. Where I can choose what I cover, and own my own writing in a literal sense, which has never been the case before this. For the past decade, I’ve fallen into the trap of defining my success based on the prestige of the sites I write for. Logging my first Girl Culture review on my official Rotten Tomatoes page helped me realize that I’m the one bringing value and expertise to my work, no matter where it’s published.

Of course, given Substack’s recent refusal to take a stand against Nazis, it’s difficult to uniformly praise the platform at the moment. I completely understand and respect anyone who’s stepping away from the site, either as a writer or a reader. But in a sea of imperfect options, I’m choosing to remain here for now—although I’ll let you know if that changes.

After getting back into a groove with writing over the summer, the second half of my 2023 was all about balance. My weird unemployment era at least gave me a blank slate to start rebuilding my career more intentionally. And with that mindset shift, I sought out higher paid consulting work, reconnected with old editors at places like Block Club Chicago and The Daily Beast, and got (somewhat) better at saying “no” to assignments I didn’t have the bandwidth to write—without feeling like I’d never be offered work again.

Personally, I also worked on rebuilding the sense of community I’d lost during the pandemic. I attended gorgeous weddings in Seattle, Brooklyn, and right here in Chicago, and actively worked on expanding and strengthening my support network of friends and family. And while I still have plenty of questions and anxieties about what the future of my career looks like (that’s freelancing for you!), I also feel a renewed sense of confidence in my identity as a critic and a renewed love of movies and television too. (Thank goodness!)

I even got it together to pick my 10 favorite films of 2023, which I’ll share below along with a round-up of all the major writing and podcasts I did throughout the year. If you enjoy my work, you can support me on Substack, Kofi, PayPal, or Venmo, or follow me on Instagram and Letterboxd. And you can expect much more to come from Girl Culture in 2024!

MY FAVORITE FILMS OF 2023

Asteroid City

Origin

All of Us Strangers

May December

Past Lives

Maestro

The Zone of Interest

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Barbie

Rye Lane

MY 2023 WRITING/PODCAST ROUND-UP

Girl Culture

The effortless effort of the Eras Tour

Did 'Barbie' need Ken?

Random thoughts on 'Red, White & Royal Blue'

On camp, sincerity and 'High School Musical: The Musical: The Series'

‘Doctor Who’ rewatch: Season one ranked

The new ‘Little Mermaid’ is a tail of two worlds

‘Doctor Who’ rewatch: Season two ranked

‘Doctor Who’ rewatch: Season three ranked

‘The Marvels’ is really messy and really fun

‘Doctor Who’ rewatch: Season four ranked

Podcasts

Chatting This Is Us on the Peak Show podcast

Chatting Midsommar on It Pod to Be You

The Daily Beast

‘The Artful Dodger’: A Gory ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Meets Charles Dickens

Episodic Medium reviews

Secret Invasion

Loki, season two

Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Specials

Doctor Who’s 2023 Christmas Special

Block Club Chicago

Blue Man Group’s Sensory-Friendly Performance Returns Sunday After 4 Years

Green Living Comes To Life At Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum’s New Sustainability Center

Black Ensemble Theater’s ‘The Other Cinderella’ Celebrates 47 Years Of The Updated Fairy Tale

And here are similar year-end wrap-ups I did for 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

[hisui-dreamer]

midnights like these

Pairing: Vil Schoenheit x gn!reader

Synopsis: it's only on midnights like these that he'll think of you

Tags: unrequited love, angst, longing, hurt no comfort

Word count: 669

Notes: christmas angst!! idk why but im always a bit sad on christmas nights, so here's that projected onto vil with midnight rain, by taylor swift!!

Masterlist

I guess sometimes we all get just what we wanted.

And he never thinks of me, except when I'm on TV.

I guess sometimes we all get some kind of haunted.

And I never think of him, except on midnights like this.

―midnight rain, taylor swift

Vil always saw his life as successful, a glittering mosaic of accomplishments that sparkled in the spotlight of global adoration. The world knew him as a charismatic and talented actor with an otherworldly beauty, a name whispered in awe across red carpets and cinema halls.

It was everything he had ever wanted, his childhood dream come true. All of his efforts to become recognised as more than a villainous character had finally come to fruition. He could finally stand on stage proudly as the protagonist.

But sometimes, there's a voice inside him that yearns for something different.

It's a voice that gets particularly loud on quiet nights when he's all alone with his thoughts.

Tonight, was one of these nights.

It was Christmas Eve, and though the streets were filled with festive cheer, Vil found himself sitting by the window by himself, the distant voices invoking a soft smile on his lips.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves with friends and family, but Vil became rather isolated after dedicating himself entirely to his career. Each cherished relationship, while still held dear, slowly ebbed away in the relentless tide of his professional pursuits. He doesn't mind much, he doesn't have the time nor energy to treat someone the way they deserve, but he always ends up reminiscing about the last time he had such a strong connection with someone.

You were a big fan of his work, but Vil quickly realised you were more than just a normal fan. You always offered your support for him, while also giving him critical feedback. In your eyes, he wasn't just a celebrity; you saw the human behind the spotlight, and that meant everything.

Slowly, imperceptibly at first, he found himself drawn to the warmth of your spirit that rivalled the sun. Your words were more than admiration; they were a lifeline that gently peeled away the layers guarding his heart.

There was an unspoken understanding between the two of you, the feelings that bubbled from admiration, to friendship, and something even stronger. You didn't dare to confess, the last thing you wanted was to impose your feelings on him. Him, who always made his work his priority.

So when he started distancing himself from you, you knew he had made his decision, and you could do nothing but respect it. And thus, both of you moved on, continuing your lives as if you never meant anything to each other.

He thinks back to the picture of you he saw the other day on Magicam where you stood amidst a Christmas celebration, a radiant smile illuminating the frame. The scene encapsulated an aura of familial bliss, with your husband, a familiar lion beastman, nestled close at your side. Two children sat at either side, cocooned in the embrace of festive happiness.

He can't help the twinge of jealousy that stings at his heart. Everything in that picture exudes perfect happiness, and that was just a slice of your everyday life. Could he have been that happy with you too? What if there could be an alternate reality where the threads of your lives had been woven in a different way? What if he, too, had a family to gather around a Christmas tree, sharing laughter and creating memories?

What if he could've had you in his arms?

Maybe in making his name known and chasing after his success, he had given away a life with you, a cosy, simple one where the rest of the world didn't matter because you had each other.

Gazing at his own reflection in the window, he beheld the carefully sculpted beauty that he had painstakingly crafted throughout every fleeting second of his existence. But amidst the crafted perfection, a solitary tear traced its path down his face.

Maybe he was in the wrong all along.

Masterlist

if you liked this post, don't forget to reblog!

[taylortruther]

Do you think critics are less critical now than they used to be? I've seen some incredibly high scores for things recently and I always wonder (to be clear, these are things I enjoy but when they get perfect scores consistently I'm a little confused). An example is Taylor's OG vs TV albums - all the TV albums are rated significantly higher than the OG, despite the fact they are the EXACT same lyrics (idk maybe they really take into account the vault tracks?)

I've noticed it with movies too, particularly kids-oriented cartoons - like every new disney/pixar whatever movie gets incredible critic scores and I feel like some of them are def significantly better than others but they all sort of get the same score.

Does this make any sense lol

i truly don't know what it takes to be a critic or how to critique music professionally but yes, i think ratings are pretty loosey goosey these days. but the pretentious rating system of yore created situations where spots like pitchforks wouldn't review taylor swift. so idk what the solution is!

[thebeautifulfantastic]

okay you know what, i'll bite. i said it in my tags but almost all the songs on the album have a very similar melodic pattern: he will start out in his lower register on the verse and always choose to belt the chorus -- which also always seems to fall in the same general range of his upper register. and overall the album is very piano-ballad-heavy with similar lyrical themes, so at least for me, that results in it not having too many standout songs because it all blends together and fades into background noise after a while. and like, i feel bad for not liking it more, because objectively i think he's a great artist, but nothing made me stop what i was doing and just listen. yeah, maybe it's a tiny bit hypocritical of me, because i've written piano-driven songs that follow similar structures (and i know how easy it is to fall into that sort of melodic pattern for a ballad because it's natural and incredibly catchy, but within the context of an album i think there just has to be more of a variety of styles to keep me engaged) but maybe i also just find his belting voice a tiny bit annoying and that's valid. or maybe i'm just in a mood today because i really wanted to enjoy the album. that's valid too.

why do i feel guilty for not liking the new lewis capaldi album

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

I know I've made this argument myself many times, but I'm starting to think that we're moving in the wrong direction when we respond to critics of fanfic and pulp romance by saying stuff like "Dante's Inferno was fanfic!" or "Jane Austen was dismissed as silly romance!"

Like yeah, transformative works can be just as creative and deep as original fiction, and romance-centric stories can be literature in their own right, but also…. it's fucking okay to read stuff that isn't like that?

Controversial opinion, but if your idea of a good read is a series of <200 word short stories about characters from your favourite TV show trying to book a hotel room only to discover that (shocker) THERE WAS ONLY ONE BED!!! then that's honestly just as valid a recreational activity as reading Remains of the Day or The Brothers Karamazov.

Do the works have equal complexity or literary significance? No, probably not, but that doesn't actually matter if the question is "what to read in the evenings so I can destress before bed?" or "what to entertain myself with while on holiday?"

It's not like we treat other forms of media this way. No one feels the need to justify having a generic flower painting on the wall by comparing it to Van Gogh's Sunflowers. Nobody excuses playing pop songs in the car by pointing out that "Mozart was the Taylor Swift of his day!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying people don't get snobbish about this stuff. People get snobbish about anything. But reading is really the only hobby where it seems common practice to validate this snobbery by insisting that actually your preferred form of fiction is literature after all.

We all get that there are people who are consumed by a deep passion for art, or music, or food, or whatever, and that many of these people enjoy spending a lot of time (sometimes in professional settings) analysing various works to determine which ones are the most complex and culturally significant.

That's fine, we wish them well and they're probably doing good work.

But we also get that there are other people who just want to watch popcorn films or listen to whatever's on the radio atm while eating oven pizza, and that's also completely fine. Those things aren't invalid just because you couldn't write an academic essay on them, they're fulfilling a completely different but equally important function in our lives!

As someone with a literal degree in this stuff, it's fine to just let reading be one of those background things that you do purely to relax and don't put any thought into. Literally nobody has the time or energy to become a connoisseur in every field, and the average person will run themselves into the ground if they try.

Bread and roses are important, yeah, but so are bubblegum and fairy lights. Not everything has to be either work or educational.