#poc swifties

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

As a poc I would like to say that not every poc swiftie has internalised racism and worships whiteness. A lot of them just get swept up in the cult.

I'm brown and I became a casual listener during covid. (Started disliking her once she started dating matty.) I've never been a swiftie because I don't think celebs should be put on a pedestal.

But I did feel how easy it was to be pulled into the "swift-lore". Idk how to explain it. But once you're in those spaces you immediatly get bombarded with Taylor's lifestory and all the "good" things about her. It really is like a cult and before you know it you're brainwashed into it. But that still doesn't mean you worship whiteness.

hm.

i’ve heard this argument before but unfortunately the people arguing this to me have all shown me they still do have deep internalized racism and/or clearly fetishize white people. a lot of black/latinx swifties i know who love her music also feel “rejected” by their communities in some way and they find comfort in her music i think because of it. from what ive learned abt east/south asian swifties its their desire to position themselves as close to whiteness as possible.

lowkey being swept up in the swift cult is being radicalized to hate anyone who “hates” taylor, and this usually means they target ppl who rightfully critique taylor, and this is usually ends up being p/woc who call her out for her racism. i do not see white tiktokers who critique taylor get harassed half as much as p/woc do.

i literally saw one of my former mutuals, a black swiftie, continue to stan and defend taylor’s 1830 lyric. any poc swiftie who continues to defend taylor racist incident after racist incident shows their internalized racism whether they believe they have it or not.

like at a certain point as a poc swiftie you have to choose between self respect and your racial allyship or to continue stanning that woman (esp within the past year). idgaf if you put #blm in your bio in 2020, if youre poc and kept stanning her after everything with matty healy do not call yourself an ally to any black woman ever again.

i know you said youre not a swiftie, which good for you, but when you talk about whiteness, you should really consider yourself the exception on this one. because literally every other poc swiftie in my experience has proven to be otherwise

[pearls-n-opulence]

Someone on TikTok said that greens are swiftie coded and that is so real tbh

[mooshkat]

if there's one thing the 911 fandom knows how to do, it's work themselves into upset

[hopingitgetstoyou]

Swifties after watching Taylor perform ballad after ballad about her football bf

[notyouraryang0dd3ss]

One lowkey thing that kinda drives me insane about Taylor Swift is discussion about her music. I don't know how to explain this properly but... (sorry for the long ask)

She's not an excellent singer. She's fine, but as a good example from her own discography: look at Florida feat. Florence. Florence singing her verse made me wake up in that album and made me realize how the song could've been delivered! She sings it in a much more interesting way than Taylor did. This isn't even to speak towards other popular artists like Beyonce, Ariana, Lana, Olivia, Billie, etc. who all have their own signature vocal styles and delivery that are impressive and make their songs.

I don't know. It feels bizarre to have one of the biggest pop artists in the world to have such mediocre vocals. TTPD as an album I feel partly got killed because of the way she's so samey about her vocal delivery.

But her fans would say no it's not about the vocals, it's the songwriting. But then TTPD songwriting was meh and just awful at some parts (the 1800s racist line is weird. period. I don't care whatever essay defense they give it). What now? What's the appeal? Why does she get to release something mediocre and get all the attention and praise when some artists have released great albums this year?

Then there's also when she gets the weirdest praise for the mildest things that other musicians have done. Album eras? "Oh, she's so cool and different for that!" No, she didn't invent them, shut up. An album of fictional songs with a story? They act as if concept albums don't exist! The most minor of genre shifts (she's primarily exploring different types of pop) are treated as experimental and groundbreaking. The most milquetoast and shallow political music she ever wrote (YNTCD and The Man) are seen as iconic moments of speaking out. Like what?

It's just frustrating me. I remember when someone told me she screamed in some songs in TTPD (Who's Afraid of Little Old Me and The Black Dog iirc) and I listened to that album and I thought they were joking with me because what do you mean scream??? Why does she get praised for so much mediocrity holy shit!

I think this is why when I hear people say that there's swifties that only mainly listen to Taylor and Taylor-adjacent artists, I believe them. I feel like they're making so many impressed remarks about her work because that's all they know. That's how we get genre takes like someone saying Rep is punk or how they want her to make a rock album. I feel like that's how we get stupid stuff like Gaylors too. Because why listen to actually out queer artists if you can just reimagine your fave artist as queer?

Honestly, I just don't understand the attachment to her music? Every time someone tells me it's because she's relatable, I just shake my head because she's never been relatable to me, even back when I enjoyed her songs. Maybe I'm too un-USAmerican for this, but she was never very universal for me. I enjoyed her because she did fun pop songs. But now I've realized she's so frustratingly shitty as a person, I can't listen to her.

Sorry for the rant, but it's been hard to find a space for this without getting attacked by swifties (especially as a poc).

(1/2)

[youareinlove]

I’m sorry you got hate in may from the shippers, that sounds awful

thanks, anon. i tried not to let it get to me- and for the most part, it didn't- but it did suck a little

[septembersghost]

also jewish swifties i love you so much i'm sorry for everything that has happened this year and if you've ever felt unsafe in the fandom

[cyarsk5230]

hellosearchingforthelight 

31m ago

Truly her biggest fan @taylorswift but did not intentionally match for a Red 2013 Coca Cola commercial

[jewishbarbies]

The fact that I didn't even have to finish reading the Taylor can buy Kanye post to think, "well that's racist" and yet her fanbase is out here thinking about that, editing photos and posting the shit...

Well, Swifties are never beating the racist allegations I guess.

the fact that so many swifties of color see that shit and not think anything of it because they’re so deep in the ts bullshit is genuinely concerning.

[meraki-yao]

Seriously, what the absolute fuck.

travis kelce with 3 film projects (and one as lead) announced in a couple of days with zero acting talent (just because he is taylor swift boyfriend) and he gets those so easily while so many actors struggle to make space in the industry piss me off so bad seriously fuck off hollywood

[telugxrl13]

idk but normalize poc swifties

[neilabramjostcns]

adding bdilh has caused exactly what I feared.. swifties are feeling sorry and saying that we had no right to call out taylor because it's her life. yes I agree, it is her own life, but do not feel sorry for standing up for whats right. ratty is not a good person and we had a right to call out taylor. she isn't responsible for his actions but she is responsible for associating with him even though he has hateful views. she is seen as a role model in the eyes of millions of people who are ready to follow her anywhere so it comes across as if she condones this behaviour which is harmful because impressionable children love her music.

as POCs or people part of the minorities ratty insulted, we had a right to call her out on this so excuse me if her "never been happier" speech or "id rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning" didn't faze me at all.

[joesalw]

Some good comment on this 1830s line from reddit thread about swifties harassing Maitreyi Ramakrishnan:

As someone with a masters in poetry, who has analyzed, graded, and critiqued poems, lyrics, and lyrical prose, it 💯 seems like the work of a younger white student just starting out, romanticizing a random decade bc it would make them seem deep. During workshop someone will mention that time period wasn’t so great for POC, and then the writer will stick on “but without all the racists” and think that solves the whole problem, when that’s only part of the issue to begin with.

ETA I’m getting a lot of messages from people who are supplying me with the lyrics in context, which admittedly I had not seen before. I took a look and I remain unconvinced at the assurances that the lyrics are doing the opposite of what I had first interpreted.

If this song were in front of me during workshop, I would absolutely inform the writer that because of a lack of clarity, this could be interpreted in a variety of ways. I would then ask:

“Nostalgia’s a mind trick” for whom, and why?

Because nostalgia isn’t a mind trick for marginalized communities.

It’s whiteness and privilege that allows for nostalgia in the first place. It’s whiteness and privilege that would write about “the highest bid” as referring to marriage and not chattel slavery during a time of literal chattel slavery while referencing the time period’s racists in the same stanza/verse. (If marriage as the highest bid is a metaphor for sexism and transactional marriages, the metaphor fails in context).

It’s whiteness and privilege to tell a story about a speaker being supposedly so aware of their whiteness and privilege that they educate their friends on it during a game (which also implies they never played this game with someone who was a member of a marginalized community, a game that with the lyric “used to play” implies it was played fairly regularly for a time), but concludes that “nostalgia is a mind trick” without adding that it’s only a mind trick for those immersed in privilege.

This is emphasized by “Seems like it was never even fun back then.” This line implies that at one point, it seemed fun to the speaker.

“If I’d been there, I’d hate it.” I would let the writer know that I as a reader am not convinced of this conclusion due to a seemingly lack of comprehension on the speaker’s part. I would let them know many readers would interpret this lack of comprehension as willful ignorance. If that is the writer’s intention, then proceed, if not, a revision is in order.

!

[lafemmemacabre]

🥀🔮 G A B R I E L ⚰️🕯️

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DNI ~ Not that it stops the wrong people, but...

No lesbophobes, misogynists, biphobes, transmisogynists, transphobes or homophobes.

No transandrophobia bros.

No racists (including antiblack poc), antisemites or zionists. No US or otherwise imperial core chauvinists. Your lives aren't more worthy than those of the global south.

Very much uninterested on liberals interacting with me or my posts, for the love of God please leave me alone.

I'm very against the whole m-spec "lesbian" bullshit and no you will not convince me that it's #Valid. I'm not interested in the politics of the validity of identity labels, I'm only interested in labels in their capacity to describe our positionality within hierarchies of power and oppression. Lesbian identity describes specific gender relations within our established patriarchy, and part of those gender relations is as women or women-adjacent people who do not willingly form sexual or romantic relationships with men outside of sex work or other similar survival needs.

I'm similarly opposed to TME people claiming the transfem label. Fuck off.

If you're an able-bodied person who thinks physically disabled people have it somehow easier, are more believed, or are given more compassion/sympathy, and/or you co-opt our struggles, kindly kill yourself. <3

If you're someone who thinks misogyny is Oppression Lite™ also kindly kill yourself yes even if you're LGBT/disabled/etc. I don't care. Die. <3

I'd rather swifties stay the fuck away from me purely because you're all insufferable even if the mediocre white woman you all were worshiping wasn't a snake billionaire polluter bully.

[puriteenism]

Why are you against taylor swift? I'm just curious.

❤️- Aurora

OK! so basically

1. I just don’t like her music, like I find it rlly bland

2. Her actions rlly suck:

Like:

Saying she stands with victims of SA, even posing on a times magazine cover for #metoo but recently she’s been such good friends with Brittany Mahomes, who told victims of SA to ‘just shut up’ (for context Britanny’s brother in law is accused of SA)

Taylor, by hanging out with Brittany sm, has given her a lot more publicity, which is gross to me. Jackson Mahomes, the guy with all the SA claims against him, is someone who she’s also been seen buddying up with, taking selfies and high fiving

Taylor dated Matty Healy, a known racist, who said awful things about black and POC women. While Taylor broke up with him, she never addressed his behaviour.

She makes a choice to hang out with these people, people who harm vulnerable communities, which leads to her (majority white and young) fandom thinking it’s ok)

Taylor Swift, as you probably heard, has huge carbon emissions. Like huge. She unnecessarily uses her private jet for useless trips.

When 1 person tried to make her climate use more public, they allegedly got sued, claims TS hasn’t yet disputed.

Taylor also sued a blogger who demanded that she denounce white supremacy in 2017

Why was this blogger asking that she denounce white supremacy? Bc swifties, as a fanbase, has some very toxic elements

As a POC, I don’t rlly feel safe in swiftie spaces (especially the ones on Twitter) bc her fandom has a tendency to go after people who don’t like her, especially POC. (Luke going after travis kelces ex, being rude about the Latina’s who criticised TS response to a girl dying at one of her concerts)

I know, ofc that not every swiftie is racist and white, but her fanbase can be, and it does affect the POC who try to criticise her.

Taylor has also done nothing to stop the harassment of her ex Joe Alwyn, with some ven saying she leads her fandom on with the way she releases her songs. If ur fandom is telling ur ex: if I were u I’d kill myself?’ Let get a hold on them!

She’s a billionaire. Enough said.

All in all, you can like her music and vibe to it, TS is someone who you can separate the art from the artist pretty well, unlike some others (cough JK Rowling, cough) but be a critical fan.

Ilysm 🩷

[eternqlvestigiql]

It’s a very nonsensical comparison (very in-character for swifties lmao). Like, the two are very different things??

Chris Rock made a joke about Jada’s Alopecia. It was already a very shitty joke hurled towards a black woman. And Will slapping Chris only made it worse. And Will got banned from the Oscars for the next 10 years for it. He’s getting criticised for it to this day.

Taylor took offence to a joke which wasn’t even about her. It was about the NFL using her for better viewership. And she looked so fucking stupid putting that face on. She wasn’t just ‘sipping her drink’ she made sure she looked visibly bummed.

The comparison is so fucking stupid. Swifties try to at least make your defence make sense.

if there’s one thing swifties are gonna do, it’s be white feminist and stupid as fuck