Updated 12:05 a.m. EDT, 20 March 2025
During the 2024 Golden Globes, comedian Jo Kody made a joke about Taylor Swift: “The difference between the Golden Globes and the NFL [is that] on the Golden Globes we have fewer camera shots of Taylor Swift.” The camera switched to display Swift’s soured expression, her fellow nominees and guests of the award show shared her discomfort. In fact, the only one laughing was Jo Kody himself.
While this joke may have been met with poor reception and backlash, it is not new or unexpected. Rather, it is a culmination of the pervading flippant treatment of Swift. Throughout her career, she has been the recipient of all forms of sexist remarks. Slut-shamed for her apparent endless relationships, vilified for her scandals, and mocked for her “lack of substance.” In this way, Swift has become a scapegoat for overarching sexism.
“…swift has become a scapegoat for overarching sexism.”
Dating is a normal aspect of life for 20-year-olds, except if you’re a woman, then society doesn’t want you to talk about it; even more so if you are a woman writing and producing songs about it. Taylor Swift is constantly ridiculed for her songs about her relationships. She gets laughed at for making break-up songs and criticized for making her dating life public. Swift is a woman experiencing her life normally under public scrutiny, and if a man had produced the same songs she had, he would have been praised.
“…if a man had produced the same songs she had, he would have been praised.”
Swift continues to be shunned for daring to write about the human experience of romance and dating as a woman. Isn’t love and heartbreak something we can all relate to? Yet, she became branded as the girl who “only writes songs about her exes.” When Bruno Mars wrote “When I Was Your Man” did he get taken less seriously? When Ed Sheeran publicly wrote about his ex, Elle Goulding, in “Don’t,” did you think he was a villain just getting together and breaking up to create his next hit song?
Swift, however, isn’t just dismissed because she is a woman being outspoken about her love life. Her audience is also primarily women, more importantly, young women. How often has the media and society laughed at something known for being liked by teenage girls? For example, “Twilight” is constantly joked about, and when another love story is bad, people always comment “at least it is a better love story than Twilight.” Why? Because it was something that young girls popularized and loved.
When asked about your favorite singers, do you hesitate to admit you like Taylor Swift? I know I do because of the jeers and teasing I would receive. It is embarrassing to like Taylor Swift because the media and pop culture have labeled her as something to be embarrassed of. Everyone makes fun of you when you listen to her because she is the “girl that only writes about exes,” because she is “a terrible musician,” and because you can never, ever take a woman who is vocal about her sexuality seriously. She must be an awful musician because young girls like her music, and she must be evil because she writes about her bad experiences with men: Girls only like things that are bad and women who write about men negatively are “vindictive sluts.”
So why is hating Taylor Swift misogynistic? Because it maintains the rhetoric that the media and society have presented about outspoken women in positions of power. It keeps us in the mindset that female artists using their experiences as a form of artistic expression are laughingstocks, convincing the public that something liked by young women should continue to be vilified. Disliking Taylor Swift is one thing but choosing to spread the hatred and misogyny that has been taught to us is what sustains societal injustice and inequality. ★
Jesse Voltz is a Senior at Houghton majoring in psychology. Her future plans are to attend graduate school at Binghamton University with the hope of working as a clinical psychologist in her respective field.
