On Twitter, there’s a hashtag game called #ConfessYourUnpopularOpinion. I have many unpopular opinions. Here’s a couple: Vegans are Stupid and Circumcision is Healthy, but my biggest unpopular opinion is that I really, really don’t like Taylor Swift. I would say that it’s irrational loathing except that it’s not. It’s rational. More to the evidence in a minute. It’s just good to know that my teen daughter and I are no longer alone in our disgust with the teen-girl phenom (no, I’m not talking about Obama.) The world is now seeing Taylor Swift for who she really is: a lying back-stabber.
You see, Taylor dissed Kanye West while receiving an award (overrated anyone?) and Kanye’s voluptuous wife Kim Kardashian produced proof, via her social media feed, that Taylor was lying through her high-gloss pearly whites. Kanye was respectful to Taylor, cleared the line about her in his song with her, and Kanye and Kim produced video of the conversation. Kim Kardashian defended her man against defamation. Bre Payton of The Federalist gives a good wrap-up of the tiny tempest, but it’s her love of Taylor Swift that gives one pause:
Her fans (myself included) like her because she’s supposed to be like us — a good girl who got bullied in middle school. She arose to fame possessing an authentic quality and for the fact that she’s really, really nice. For Christmas, she mailed gifts to her fans that she wrapped herself (so nice!). But now, Taylor has slipped up and revealed herself to be just as vindictive and mean as the girls who bullied Taylor (and the rest of us) in middle school.
About that “really, really nice” part. Really? Perhaps I’m just too cynical but the following behaviors are not nice:
Taylor Swift has crafted this sweet-girl public persona and maybe, at the beginning, it was true. Now, not so much. She says that she was bullied and felt like an outsider. Well, now she’s an insider, and rather than use her power for good, she’s manipulative, clicque-y, vengeful, and gossipy. The list of outsiders to her “Squad” grows longer. And to make the point, she very publicly lets everyone know who’s in her in-group. There will be pictures. She wants you to see her super awesome friends frolicking. She’s cool, okay? She has cool friends. Lots and lots of them! Also, she’s nice. And patriotic. And has a cute new boyfriend.
Kim Kardashian West just through a fly into Taylor Swift’s perfect ointment.
Good. Time to poke a hole in the contrived artifice. Just write music and sing, Taylor.