notdefendingtaylor

[notdefendingtaylor]

Genuinely don’t understand how I keep seeing swifties compare Chappell and Taylor’s activism and and say that the stupid little song she did had more of an impact than anything Chappell has done. Even when that song came out, back when I wasn’t even that critical of Taylor, it felt so self serving and rainbow capitalism-y to me. That might have even been the first time I got the ick. Like she waited until it was “safe” to pander towards us- too little too late. To see people claim that it was a huge thing for the LGBT community is crazy to me, and then in the same breath say that Chappell is completely performative despite her speaking out and donating to trans and Palestinian charities frequently. I’m not even a fan of Chappell or anything but I’m truly baffled.

Idk. This is purely anecdotal, but I also work for a fairly large gay bar (there’s 3 locations) and every time she’s brought up at work or is played on the TVs, all my coworkers complain and think she’s performative. Again, just my personal experience.

I remember when YNTCD came out... and I honestly was underwhelmed and a little annoyed even then. It seemed very self-satisfied and also like she was equating unpleasant online remarks about her to homophobia, which is systemically propped up in a way that is far more potent and dangerous. In essence, she was centering herself in a struggle that isn't hers.

On the same album (Lover), I also disliked the mv for "The Man." It didn't land right for me, and I keep saying it - I aspire to more than being a shitty man. The mv wasn't pro-woman as much as it was saying "women should be allowed to be as bad as men and not receive criticism (like men)." Taylor wants to be the patriarchy, not dismantle it.

[notdefendingtaylor]

I remember one time I was arguing with a swiftie. All I said was that a lot of swifties on twitter are racist. She didn’t believe me and asked for proof so I sent her like 5 links nasty tweets (that were waaay too easy to find). She condescendingly said that tweets aren’t a reliable source because people fake those posts to make swifties look bad, and since I have a degree I should know that.

Like girl, if you ask for proof *FROM* TWITTER, you can’t say that tweets don’t count! That is literally the subject of the conversation like wtf!!! She was a social worker too, like how are you going to just brush aside racism like that?

My own eyes saw the racism when Beyonce was named Artist of the Century by Billboard. Now I think crowning an artist of the century is unnecessary only 1/4th into the century. It was also unnecessary to start the announcement with, basically, "so sorry to the swifties, we know y'all will be mad, here's our formula we used so pls don't be offended."

But if we do need an artist of the century instead of, more reasonably, the last quarter century, yes, it should be Bey. But of course the reflexive outrage from swifties was not just loud but loudly racist. I saw a tweet I can almost remember verbatim due to how completely repugnant it was- it literally made me just close twitter with a nauseous feeling. I really think teaching swifties that feminism is when a (white) woman gets questioned did calculable harm to our culture. in their minds, taylor's talent was questioned, and so the other identity factors are fair game to go after a black woman who got recognized above their white queen. the racism i saw from young pop star stans was fully as bad as anything i've seen from older male cess pool user bases on other platforms.

also, the person you were explaining this to needs to familiarize themselves with the 'no true scotsman' fallacy. if someone is racist, they can't be a REAL swiftie! (ofc they can)

[notdefendingtaylor]

https://www.tumblr.com/the-trans-man-with-no-plan/790819591369703424/opinion-15-relates-to-opinion-1?

Okay look, I can’t stand Chappell roan. I hate her, I hate her music, I hate her attitude, I hate her take on parenthood, and I hate her bare minimum political takes. But saying that taylor has done anything positive for the queer community is a fucking lie. She didn’t do any of that for lgbtq+ people, she did it to make herself look good. Chappell is weird for using drag queen aesthetics, but at least she’s drawing attention toward drag as performance art. Whether she’s actually a lesbian or a re-closeted bi, she’s undoubtedly queer and brings queer representation to the public eye. Taylor only does things to make herself look better. (And right now I don’t know how any of her fans can still think positively about her with her complete abandonment of her miss americana persona.)

I can't possibly see the '1830s without the racists' line being a thoughtful acknowledgement of her privilege, most people found it to be a hammy and cringe-worthy attempt to pay lip service to a community she just doesn't care about anymore, if she ever did*. she left tumblr for all intents and purposes after being asked by rightfully upset fans why she wouldn't say a word about BLM. but taylor is Queen Status Quo herself. she will say something only when it is no longer controversial or risks alienating a potential market. she's very much an artist who hedges her bets and wants to be marketable to pretty much EVERY group (including MAGA now, seemingly). chappell may get it right or get it wrong, but i do respect that she tries to do SOMETHING rather than live in lukewarm market-tested zones of corporate 'activism.' i do give her props for her healthcare/labor rights advocacy for developing artists during her grammys speech. I think that was helpful since it was petitioning for a concrete, immediate way to make the lives of people in the arts (often POC or queer people) better.

* can't talk about romanticizing the 1800s without bringing up her former bestie, blake lively, who married ryan reynolds on a plantation. so she still plays that childish privileged game in adulthood, enjoying her privilege with other privileged people but paying lip service to anti-racist ideas.

[notdefendingtaylor]

https://www.tumblr.com/midnightsslut/790786405318164480/speaking-of-olivia-and-i-understand-if-this-is?source=share why so many swifties have to be like that with Olivia ?? Like now Olivia and her team wanted song credits but not really, so Olivia is just an angry little girl. There is def something that happened between the two, when Taylor does something off putting you know she stays silent

LMAO at the idea that Taylor was a promo angle Olivia used for guts but that angle didn’t work/was unsuccessful. Olivia has the most streamed album by a female artist on Spotify. She has three Grammys and various other accolades. The idea that she’s riding Taylor’s coattails is absurd and not very girls’ girl of anyone to claim. She doesn’t talk about Taylor now because Taylor is irrelevant to her journey now. It’s clear when they did intersect it was painful and disillusioning for Olivia.

[notdefendingtaylor]

what are your thoughts on selena gomez?? I'm starting to not like her much 💀 the true colours of all these popstars are just being revealed to me, thanks to reddit and tumblr 😭

but what do you personally feel about her? she is SO not giving anymore, and her stans? ewww. her stans are like swifties but just more unhinged, but 🤓☝️ atleast swifties like taylor, selenators on the other hand ... 😃 idek if I should feel bad for these pop girlies living in their delulu world or not.

I'm extremely sorry for ranting 💀 I hope you're having a great day! :')

hi! haha buckle up, because i have complex feelings about miss gomez.

of all the pop girlies, i always found her and demi lovato the most relatable due to their struggles with mental health. while neither of them are perfect, the deck was stacked in favor of me liking them simply because they shed light on that struggle. selena grappled with child stardom, bipolar, lupus, and of course the justin bieber thing that everyone knew was wrecking her emotionally. it was simply very easy to see her as an underdog for all of these struggles.

now i think the underdog appeal is losing its luster. much like with swift, she is a billionaire. and while she does have charities and a track record of activism through donation, she keeps making the unforced error of filming herself crying about things that are happening in the world, which people tend to see as self-indulgent/cringe/centering herself. she's showing her maturity there.

i'm glad she seemingly worked out her romantic struggles but i've stopped really following anything she does. the latest album was a copy + paste of lana del rey. her fans are toxically parasocial with hailey/justin and it's all just something i don't have much interest in.

[notdefendingtaylor]

Someone should do smthg about neutral-roast because it’s getting old now

don't worry, she'll self-victimize and delete again only to respawn and act like we're all dumb enough to think there's a new anti tag user with all of her habits and style choices that's somehow not her

spamming / non-genuine behavior / tag abuse / doxxing / misgendering / harassment / slur use

most of these are against tumblr terms of service, the rest are just shitty behavior generally

[notdefendingtaylor]

😭😭 thank you sm for keeping your asks open, whenever I wanna rant to someone about how much I don't like taylor, i just know that I could rant on here 😭 I'm not meaning it in a mean way as if you're just smth that I can use, noo, that's not what I meant!! like I just know that you can lowk understand me and where I'm coming from 😭 thank you!! ❤️❤️

this is so sweet, thank you! and with the exception of one time, my anons have all been very well-spoken and well behaved and it feels like useful discussion is taking place so i don't feel used at all! thank you for this ask ❤️

[notdefendingtaylor]

she said herself that getting 'cancelled within an inch of her life' traumatized her

she literally didn't want to be seen if there was a chance of public criticism

the same criticism that joe provided a refuge from

Swifties claiming that Joe forced Taylor to act like a tradwife, and unironically referring to Joe as a “prison guard.” 🤡

Imagine thinking a billionaire choosing to primarily live in London for a few years is the same thing as “prison.”

Also… Taylor not going outside makes me fucking laugh. There are paparazzi pictures of her from all those years, she attended award shows, she starred in 2 movies, put out 2 documentaries, went on a world tour with reputation, would have toured with Lover if her mom wasn’t sick, she also put out 5 albums, + 2 re-recordings and won multiple grammys… but yeah, Joe was definitely forcing her to stay home and bake sourdough bread all day. 🤡

[notdefendingtaylor]

Reasons that I, personally, just really dislike Taylor Swift:

She's carbon emission queen of the world and decided to send a cease-and-desist to and then even attempted to sue the student who revealed as such despite the fact that the information used to do so is public information. Truly, I could simply just call it there and not go further, but I will.

Her ideas of feminism are vapid and very white privilege centric-

Which ties heavily into her casual fatphobia and also her ableism/saneism (intentional or otherwise)-

And her continued cultural appropriation which even goes on into downright romanticization of white euro-centric colonization in some of her songs/music videos.

She also sells herself as an underdog despite the fact that she just never was one. Both of her parents were and still are well off - her father comes from three generations of bank presidents and her mother works in finance - and truly they put as much of that money as they could towards Taylor's dream. Her parents literally flew her near daily to expensive voice training and singing lessons, karaoke competitions, and more, from as young as age 10, and even bought her a new convertible Lexus for her 16th birthday. So her selling herself as an underdog just feels ingenuine and the fact that she doesn't acknowledge that she isn't an underdog and actually comes from a place of privilege irks me, greatly, and adds to the general feeling of her being an ingenuine person.

And she drags other artists down - even going so far as to release 34 versions of the same album with many regional variations in a bid to remain at the top of the charts when artist Charli XCX, with her album Brat, artist Jon Bovi, and artist Chappell Roan took the top spots on the charts. Taylor and Charli XCX may not have beef with each other but this move was still incredibly greedy and pathetic, in my opinion, and adds to my dislike of her as an artist and a person, personally.

[notdefendingtaylor]

It has become absolutely impossible for me to defend Taylor anymore. I did for years, but like.... how hard is it, really, to not spend your spare time with MAGAs? Especially if you actually care? I don't think shes the girl from her documentary anymore and idk thinking critically in these past months has really made me realize all the really weird shit I defended her for in the past. Like, fuck she did know about Matty's comments toward Black women, how the hell did I say she might not???? Idk man. Sorry

no, you are absolutely right to be wrestling with this and expressing it! i personally just realized in the last few years that everything connected with her is marketing, including platform use and professed morals. it's pretty clear when you get past a certain net worth and can have unflattering stories killed or threaten lawsuits against people who criticize you, you don't have to maintain consistent ethics. or in any case, she certainly chooses not to. she's a private citizen, she can do what she wants, but it should alienate people who bought into her image of a girl doing her best to use her voice and platform for good. now her behavior signals that hanging out with MAGA, abusers, accused rapists is fine as long as it's part of your latest relationship arc.

[notdefendingtaylor]

My level of Upset at Taylor Swift in recent months has been, like, not that of a normal person. But like... girliepop's unequivocally made herself into a fantasy high school cheerleader who breaks bread with MAGATs.

She's molded her entire personality to an asshole Trumper who can't read, seems to perceive herself as HIS sidekick (as if), and has completely abandoned every semblance of fighting those in power to the point that I'm like, yeah, maybe Miss Americana WAS 90% Joe's influence.

I miss my girl, I want her back, and I think she's gone. I'm just coming to accept that even if she and Travis break up, the woman I deeply loved and respected isn't coming back. She'll just mold herself to the next man she gets with, and even if she doesn't, the trust in her I had is lowkey already broken.

Anyway, I've been struggling with this far more than I should be. My love for her music will always remain a constant in my life - it has been since 2006 - but I don't think my regard for her will ever be what it was.

[notdefendingtaylor]

revisiting the folkmore era.

i've heard some criticism on the r/travisandtaylor sub that folklore & evermore (well received by fans AND critics) isn't very good but simply sits higher than other TS offerings. my instinct was to push back on that idea especially since it was lauded so much by critics and therefore met both benchmarks of acclaim, like getting a "fresh" rating from rotten tomatoes.

but i thought today, hey, maybe give evermore a re-listen and see if i feel the same or think the redditors have a good point. here's what i see now:

a lot of the lyrics DO seem like pinterest boards you'd get if you searched 'fall/winter aesthetic' or 'poetry about missing someone.'

examples: Your Midas touch on the Chevy door / November flush and your flannel cure ; The mischief, the gift wrapped suburban dreams / Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring

sure, the words sound great stitched together, but despite that success it still feels like loose form impressionist poetry. that's fine, but would it be winning without the production that keeps the momentum up in the album, pushing each line into the next before you can do much to dissect the actual meaning? when the production takes the air out of the room on TTPD, the loose association lyrics fall with a graceless thud. in folkmore, they feel like a steady current.

the production is very good on folkmore to this day. dessner did his best on the back half of ttpd but at that point her lyrical excesses weighed it down so much it still sunk like a lead balloon. there's a good amount of production variation on folkmore and some fun flourishes and surprises, like the piano scales at the end of 'champagne problems.'

hey dorothea / betty / marjorie turn her gaze away from only singing about men or the tragedy of having loved them (from a female perspective at least). the last great american dynasty is also about a woman's journey.

what do you think? i think they are great comfort albums. i think they are a solid effort because of how they sound more than the specific lyrical content. i also think the ttpd production was absolutely fatal to infusing that album with any charm or momentum. you can't set mid lyrics to dirge production. i can do it with a broken heart is serviceable due to its momentum. and that's unfortunate since i think the lyrical content is pretty cringe.

[notdefendingtaylor]

sorry but the entire world isn’t comprised of NPCs in YOUR video game. Other people have their own thoughts, feelings and motivations, and unfortunately for you, some also don’t like Taylor Swift. thoughts and prayers 🙏

Antis try not to bully people off the platform for just criticizing you for once challenge

[notdefendingtaylor]

Antis just explain what they think and why and it enrages y’all

Antis try not to bully people off the platform for just criticizing you for once challenge

[notdefendingtaylor]

Living in a logic black hole sounds nice, how’s the rent?

Antis try not to bully people off the platform for just criticizing you for once challenge

[notdefendingtaylor]

you mean the way she doxxes or insults anyone who criticizes taylor once?

Antis try not to bully people off the platform for just criticizing you for once challenge

[notdefendingtaylor]

at this point taylor could swing all the way right and go full barefoot-and-pregnant cottagecore beef tallow trad wife with her boyfriend and swifties would still find a way to make it the most feminist thing ever