May 21, 2024 4:38:07 PM

The Allegations of Taylor Swift being Racially Problematic [Part C]

Do I think Taylor Swift should engage in more frequent and more direct activism? Yes, I think every person with a platform has a responsibility to try to better the world. It doesn’t have to be a specific cause, but just something, anything legitimately close to their heart. I want to see genuine engagement and support of some cause. And I’d love to see other voices lifted by those with the platform, especially if that celebrity is not as well versed (the top 1% will never “get it”).

Do I think people unfairly critique Taylor Swift’s non-monetary tiny-activism? Yes. And I don’t want you to think I’m being wishy-washy here. Let’s just hone in on what I’m critiquing and what this post is trying to show. We looked at many of the charitable donations she has given throughout her career in our subseries (A1-A5) and it’s just a huge amount and frequency by any standard. And she’s (genuinely, IMO) tried speaking on things, sometimes, and in a limited way, but was immediately called out in each instance. So I can see her point that she’s afraid to put herself out there (though I do think she should have at the very least denounced Trump prior to the 2016 election):

This billionaire doesn’t get a pass from me. Even with the donations, I’d like to see/hear more from her. On race, specifically, I’m reporting the big concerns other people have voiced in this summary post. I personally can see the point of about 43% of this. For example, Taylor’s personal wardrobe choices in the Shake It Off video were appropriation, and cringe. But featuring all different dance genres with those experts dancing was cool. Another example: The Squad was probably 87% white (just a guesstimation, I didn’t actually run the stats). But there were POC (and different ages and men) represented in it, so it wasn’t lily white as has been purported. So I think about 57% of these issues are exaggerated, said in bad faith, missing the point, or a total reach. And I’m not saying that to $hit on someone else’s feelings or undermine what they’re putting across. I’m also not saying it to defend or protect the most popular woman of the last two years (and disputably longer). I’d like to see Taylor Swift be accountable for real indiscretions and change for the better. But decide for yourself what’s problematic and what has been misconstrued.

White Feminism:

Defined as a "type of behavior that rests under the guise of feminism only as long as it is comfortable, only as long it is personally rewarding, only as long as it keeps 'on brand.'" It believes in equality for white women in a false assumption that doing so will open doors to others. The trickle down theory of equal rights, if you will. In other words, white feminism leverages whiteness and a proximity to white men to exclude and disavow women of color. Core to this ethos is marketability, because it pursues a limited view of empowerment gained by capitalist means (23).

From a Rolling Stone Magazine Interview: The feud after Kanye’s interruption of Taylor’s award shouldn’t have gone beyond a week. But it turned into this huge beef between Taylor, a young white woman and Kanye, an older Black man. I understand that Kanye was being obnoxious and rude and awful. It did not merit years of what felt like a development of a real victim sort of image that played out over years. And it was playing out right as this moment in American politics where explicit racism and white supremacy are cresting… (24)

Her music video for "Shake It Off," released one year before, was met with backlash for culturally appropriating Black culture (23).

Tweet exchange and full context here:

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/taylor-swift-nicki-minaj-twitter-argument-timeline-6641794/

Rolling Stone: After the phone call (when Kim is, like, in the best graces of her career at that point) her defense of Kanye puts a complete nail in the coffin. That amplified it because Taylor was so maligned at this point for a lot of reasons. The optics of her as a white woman kind of being in this feud with a Black man - you know, it doesn't look good, especially because of her coming from country music. The country music scene is, historically, geared towards white audiences and only a handful of artists of color have broken through in that scene. That is a part of it that sort of amplifies the whiteness of Taylor a lot. And she's very pro-America in a lot of ways. For example her Fourth of July parties. It’s a shattering type of moment where it's like, how do you come back from that? And this is happening in 2016. Then she becomes very absent during one of the most contentious elections in American history (24).

When Taylor was silent, it created space for assumptions: Is she pro-Trump, or is she a white supremacist? Because she had not said anything and because of what she represented for so many years that it was easy for hate groups to just be like, well, she must be on our side. She must be seeing these stories, she should say something, but she waited a long time to do that. A really long time. And Nazis started to attach themselves to her. Nazis loved Taylor Swift in 2016 (24).

I don't think she even realized how much of a representative of, like, white culture she had sort of become until 2016, until Nazis and white supremacists absorbed her because she was so absent. She stopped having those Fourth of July parties and started speaking out more (24).

In 2017, she showed support for the Women's March but did not actually attend (23).

In 2019, she became an LGBTQ+ ally, releasing the anti-homophobe single "You Need To Calm Down," donating to queer-led organizations and inviting drag artists on stage but has since remained quiet on the issue, which is especially vital now that a slew of anti-trans and anti-gays laws are sweeping through the country (23).

She vocally disparaged Trump — but only after receiving backlash for refusing to voice her opinion during the 2016 election when Trump became president (23).

Trump:

In 2020, she spoke out against statues in Tennessee that depict Confederate generals and Ku Klux Klan members and in support of justice for George Floyd . . . and yet she is supposedly dating an unapologetic racist (23).

When Swift and her long-time boyfriend broke up recently, she appeared to rebound with The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy who has a well-documented track record of problematic behavior. In January, he appeared to do the Nazi salute on stage. He also made fun of a Black female rapper, laughing along and encouraging podcast hosts as they mocked Ice Spice as an "Inuit Spice Girl" and "Chubby Chinese Lady" (even though she's Nigerian and Dominican and previously publicly declared herself a fan of The 1975) (23). He joked about being into hardcore porn featuring content that humiliates and sexually degrades women of color. “Extreme hardcore face f—king, ebony hoodrats, ghetto double penetration, yellow discipline and interracial throat banging of the Ghetto Gaggers,” the official description of Ghetto Gaggers reads, per BuzzFeed (23).

Rather than commenting on the controversies of her alleged new beau or denouncing his remarks, Swift decided to team up with rapper Ice Spice in a move that many felt was obvious damage control. And considering the timing, as well as how Swift's girl squad is predominately white, it felt an awful lot like the ole "I'm not racist; I have a Black friend" defense, as if that shields you from prejudice (23).

The common mentality among many fans was that “either he’s better than we think he is, or she’s worse than we think she is”. Many said they were leaning towards the latter and have since questioned whether it has left a permanent stain on her reputation. Sure, Taylor and her team have come out to say she and Healy were "always casual" and that they’re no longer together at all. But it doesn’t change that she dealt with the demise of her long-term relationship by rebounding so publicly with a man who seems to have such little regard for anyone who isn’t white (23).

At the height of her most successful Eras Tour, Swift will visit 52 stadiums at record-breaking crowds and rake in an estimated $500 million to $1 billion. Her platform is larger than ever, which only makes her silence more troubling. She used it to address Ticketmaster when it was difficult to get tickets to her shows. Addressing her complicity in racism? Not as big a deal, apparently (23).

While it's unrealistic to expect celebrities to speak up about every issue, it is reasonable (and wise) to hold them to account for the things they do say, and Swift's pseudo-activist track record certainly raises a few questions. The star's silence is loud. To be "neutral" is to still be complicit in racism. Whether she's dating Healy or this is all an elaborate PR scheme, Swift has proven herself to be another white woman who claims to be an ally, claims Black Lives Matter and calls herself a feminist — but only as long as it serves her. When it comes to politics and activism, Swift's true beliefs have always been opaque. The star exceeds at always being one foot in and one foot out, saying just enough to support a cause (and receive praise for it) but never enough to follow through on any of them (23).

Sources:

1] https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Boys

2] https://muse.jhu.edu/article/758591

3] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/231904832_Peter_Pan_and_the_White_Imperial_Imaginary

4] https://thefifth.medium.com/the-peter-pan-syndrome-epidemic-why-modern-men-are-lost-in-never-never-land-f0f052e1ec9e

5] https://aahabershaw.com/2016/02/22/boyhood-manhood-and-peter-pan/

6] http://komunikata.id/index.php/komunikata/article/view/236

7] https://animatedmeta.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/peter-pan-and-gender-roles/

8] https://honors.libraries.psu.edu/files/final_submissions/4462

9] https://macsphere.mcmaster.ca/bitstream/11375/9569/1/fulltext.pdf

10] https://www.123helpme.com/essay/Gender-Roles-in-Peter-Pan-by-J-273202

11] https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Boys