Swiftian Femininity: Taylor Swift's Gender Identity and Brand (2023)

Von Dessi Gomez ('21)

Audiences construct Taylor Swift as if she were an idea, not a person, consistent with her gender and gender expression. These constructions are intertwined with her fame as "America's Sweetheart" and "Good Girl." As she grew up in front of the public eye, she began to cling to or associate with her current boyfriend, and as she began dating more boys and men, the construct of her as a "serial donor" developed and became almost constantly in gossip magazines used and radio broadcasts. As Swift's career progressed, her musical narrative became more and more detailed, adding a layer to her serial date persona that made her someone who would date men just to write songs about them. There has been an evolution in Swift's career, moving from eloquently describing her relationships to responding to comments about her personality, gender, and other ways she expresses herself. Many of her songs allow for insightful analyzes of gender issues, particularly how she responds to self-portrayals based on her gender and love life. A common theme Swift uses in her songs revolves around the extreme caricatures created around her childhood and womanhood, particularly that of the good girl and the series date. It is important to note that Swift exhibits what scholar Jack Halberstam describes as "the idealization of white femininity," or what is considered the racially highest form of femininity, or girlhood: that of a white woman (1). Swift demonstrates an understanding of gender as "an interlocking system of performances and forms of self-knowledge". She deftly complicates her own genre while entertaining her audience, collecting media commentary and scrutiny, and processing these perceptions in interviews (1). In this way, their self-knowledge is linked to their representation of identity (discussed in more detail in the third chapter on politics).

On the one hand, Swift appears in interviews as the "girly girl" who is happy about every little thing. At the beginning of his career in an interview forRolling StoneSwift has been described as "mainly interested in the emotional lives of 15-year-olds: prom time and date nights with guys you don't like, humiliating screams about guys you don't like, and those few transcendent experiences when a girl's feelings." and a boy finally agree” (2). In part, her music career is based on love and expressing the complexities of emotion and feeling in such a personal way that it seems as if she swelled from the influence of country music's intimate narrative. If her audiences are curious about who her songs were written for, Swift can play with those clues and the gossip around her, exercising some agency to build her and her genre.

Appearance isn't everything

An early aspect of Swift's gender construction is the preoccupation with her physical appearance, which is also emphasized in the Miss Americana documentary. On oneRolling StoneProfile, journalist Vannessa Grigoriadis comments: "She may be a 1m80 blonde, but she lacks the carefree soul that often accompanies this look and her back is starting to hurt a little from the stress" (2) . Therefore, Swift's gender construct is based on assumptions about how she should behave based on her looks. Grigoriadis even describes Swift's performance persona as "a slightly sensual stage presence - punctuated by many movements of her long arms in the air" (2). While Swift can now be judged for her seemingly hyper-sexualized and hyper-feminine performances, she was previously more inclined towards Professor Anita Harris' idea of ​​curbing femininity and female innocence (3).

The model

Part of her specific "brand of femininity," at least early in her career, has included a responsibility to set a "real girl" example for her younger teenage fans. Underlying this role model status, according to Swift colleague Valerie Pollock, is Swift's achievement in wisdom and normativity (4). The combination of these two traits made Swift less of a standout artist because she didn't push the boundaries that constrained female artists when she first found fame. It seems that these aspects of Swift's public persona have challenged her authenticity as a person, because now that she's speaking more directly and politically, fans and critics are still questioning her motives because she did it later than other celebrities and she has no established history of political expression. Using author John Fiske's definition of culture, Pollock notes how these Swift constructs emerge and endure when she writes that "the psychic reading of a celebrity like Swift is not alone in its analysis, but is a part of it constructive web set that not only creates and iterates ideas about what is "known" about Swift, but also becomes a large part of the ongoing circulation of that knowledge" (4). These repeated remarks about Swift become markers of her personality, and the fabric of her construction is read in her actions. Reading previous themes surrounding Swift in her recent actions confirms a particular way she is constructed, provides evidence for that construction, or refutes its authenticity by confining it to previously established expressions from which it deviated while it matures and persists. To make decisions both musically and artistically as well as personally in public. This adds to her paradoxical nature as she has become a byword for childhood and how girls are supposed to behave. Due to her constant development, both musically and artistically, politically and personally, she can never satisfy a single construct of herself. Swift plays a role in these constructs as she internalizes and engages with them by making pointed comments in her music. I'll come back to how she responds sonically to her stereotypes after addressing the notion that she orchestrates each of her musical moves with a master plan.

The perfectionist who pleases people with a "calculation strategy".

As early as 2009, Swift was analyzed as calculating in her musical movements. The sameRolling StoneAn article by Vanessa Grigoriadis featured phrases describing Swift as "Swift has come a long way playing Little Miss Perfect," "the nicest girl in the country," and "she's a very competitive girl, and these people go a long way." (2) . Early in her career, Swift's intersection of gender and race formed the ideal of white femininity and associated it with innocent and morally correct behavior. Songs like "Love Story", "You Belong with Me" and "White Horse" stand out in his musicFearlessThe album marks the age of innocence through its dreamy, romantic longings and fairytale-like tropes. The notion of her being strategic and calculated developed as she grew in public, adding a new layer to her "snake" makeup. The snake's construction fuses Taylor's white femininity and calculating good girl persona to create a negative connotation of someone lying and conspiring to get what she wants. Linking these various constructs to Swift's later albums, it's evident that she's transcended them, having internalized them in certain songs like "I Did Something Bad" and "The Man," among others. "I Did Something Bad" challenges Swift's reputation as a good girl with her cast in a darker light of bad girl satisfaction.

The songs she wrote prior to this one hint at Swift's humanity and utter lack of purity when mentioning certain honest, vulnerable moments that may or may not allude to sex. An earlier song from the career ofspeak Nowhinting at Swift's sexual flair, "Better Than Revenge," another girl calls out for "the things she does on the mattress" (5). Another newer song upRufAlbum Dress goes so far as to suggest that she's lost her virginity - something so important to her early career image - when she sings the refrain, "I only bought this dress for you to take off" (June 6 ) . A fun snack, the GrigoriadisRolling StoneThe included article was that Swift's parents "gave her an androgynous name, assuming she would later climb the corporate ladder. “My mom thought it was cool that if you had a business card that said 'Taylor' on it, you wouldn't know if it was a boy or a girl. She wanted me to be an entrepreneur in the business world'” (2). At the beginning of her documentary, Swift discusses how she inherited the work ethic and philanthropy from a young age, going on to explain how these values ​​influence her gender performance. At the beginning of her documentary, Swift discusses how she inherited the work ethic and philanthropy from a young age, going on to explain how these values ​​influence her gender performance.

Swift's own rendition of her genre should also be given serious consideration in her gender construction. His expression has evolved throughout his career, staying true to his roots of genuine emotional response and serious, thoughtful language. According to Valerie Pollock, who wrote her dissertation on Swift in 2014, "Swift's traditional childhood, or assumed sweet and accessible naivety, makes her all the more acceptable to conventional notions of real childhood" (4). I agree that's how Swift's image started, but I want to bridge the paradoxical gap between the innocent and naïve Swift and the later calculating and manipulative "snake" image of her that inspired the film.RufAlbum. Simultaneous views that Swift is a cold, calculated businesswoman and a role model for traditional white womanhood and girlhood point to several contradictory constructions of her gender.

The "Series Lover"

Swift's serial dating image has been fueled by each of her high-profile relationships with other famous men. The list includes Joe Jonas, John Mayer, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, Calvin Harris, Tom Hiddleston and current boyfriend Joe Alwyn. These relationships also provided Swift with inspiration for many of her songs. "Forever and Always" is known among her fans as the song about how Joe Jonas broke up with her over the phone in no time. She apparently confirmed this in an interview withRolling Stone(2).She also described the phone call on The Ellen Show, including the exact length (7). The song "Dear John" is clearly about John Mayer; from the signature guitar licks mimicking Mayer's musical style, to the title specifically including his first name and also referencing a Nicholas Sparks novel (8). Back to December reportedly commemorates Swift's relationship with Taylor Lautner, 8. Jake Gyllenhaal has not one, but two songs (and maybe even three) on itRot: "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" and "All Too Well" (and possibly "I Knew You Were Trouble", which could be about him or Harry Styles) loudthe bellPodcast about "Red" (9). said quicklyRolling Stonein another interview before the publication of1989in 2014, the1989it was "not such a boy-centric album because [her] life hadn't been boy-centric" (10). gain weight1989Swift hadn't dated anyone since splitting from One Direction singer Harry Styles a year and a half earlier. After this album, we see the shift from Swift, who only writes about her romantic relationships as well as her rivalry with Kanye, to other gossip events around her, like her reputation and her rivalries with other celebrities. I'll go into more detail on these songs later, specifically "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood". Guessing who your songs are about can only go as far as an interviewRolling Stonereports that "many of his songs are not about his personal love experiences - about half are inspired by his friends' relationships" (2). However, fans still love to speculate and read specific parts of Swift's life into their lyrics.

From "Space" to "The Man"

Presenting a hyperbolic image of Swift's serial dating stereotype, "Blank Space's" lyrics are made even more powerful by the accompaniment of the music video. Swift begins with a perfunctory hook that ends with "You look like my next error / Love is a game, wanna play?" (11). Citing the common criticism that she dates men just to write songs about them, Swift also plays with the idea that men don't date her or that she has bad taste in men. In the chorus, Swift sings, "Got a long list of ex-lovers / They'll tell you I'm crazy / 'Cause you know I love the player / And you love the game", specifically referring to her past series experiences. Relationships, hence the idea that she is dating to boost her career (11). In the music video itself, Swift interprets the genre, particularly the conception of "female hysteria." She struts around her character's mansion with graceful but exaggerated gestures and body movements. When the switch from seductive to crazy or psychotic changes, she starts throwing things at her love interest after yelling at him in heated arguments, consistent with the lyrics: "But you'll come back every time you go/ 'Cuz darlin' I "I'm a nightmare disguised as a daydream" (11). Bring this idea home: She's looking at the camera with mascara running down her face, but instead of seeing her sobbing, we see Swift with a mad look in her eyes. The final scene, with Swift taking golf clubs to the man's car, reinforces an image of women losing control and breaking things, which is generally more acceptable when men act that way. The image of her crouching over the man's body and biting his lip while he's unconscious also feels suggestive and extreme, a solid finishing touch. And when the next guy arrives in his red car, the critics and media constructed "cycle" of Swift's serial dating starts all over again.

"Blank Space" paved the way for "The Man" by first grappling with the image of the serial dater. appear in it1989—the album released afterwardsRotthat critics like the podcasts produced by the entertainment sitethe bellI consider it a less coherent album, but one that deals extensively with heartbreak - "Blank Space" includes the image of the series friend who theRotAlbum of songs about Swift's real-life relationships (9). The caricature of the serial boyfriend Swift adopts appears in the music video as a hysterical, hyper-feminized version of herself. The Man complements this Swift construct by specifically addressing the impact of her serial boyfriend image on her entertaining career.

One of Swift's strongest responses to the constant commentary and criticism of her career, as well as certain musical and political choices she's made, comes in the music video she made for The Man. In the video, Swift undergoes an elaborate transformation into a male alter ego named Tyler Swift, but for those watching for the first time, we might not realize it's her until the end of the video. Tyler Swift looks a lot like Jordan Belfort in Leonardo DiCaprio's portrayalThe Wolf of Wall Street.According to Katie Shepherd and Allyson Chiu,

“It makes sense that Swift would choose to balance her macho, high-spirited personality with a film whose main character, played by DiCaprio, is a corrupt New York stockbroker with a penchant for cocaine and hookers. […] Throughout the music video, Swift points to the cultural norms that allow, and sometimes even encourage, men to develop exaggerated egos” (12).

At the beginning of the song, Swift sings, "You'd say I've played the field before / Found someone to commit to / And that would be fine / For me to do / Every feat I've made / Dignity." make me more a boss for you," reminds her fans. Listeners remember the discrepancy in judgment between men who date a lot of women and women who date a lot of men. For men, sleeping around is a positive thing that builds their reputation through a Strengthens a string of sexual "accomplishments," as Swift puts it. While women need to be committed and remain faithful to a man early in life, men can take time to figure out life and settle in. She thinks she'd be celebrated if she would be a man with the same number of relationships she's had.Tyler behaves terribly towards his crew, something Swift seems to have said about the media scrutiny of her public behavior, and this is reinforced by her poetry: "You wouldn't shake your head and ask how much I deserve this. / what I wore / when I was rude / everything could be separated from my good ideas and power movements” (13). Specific references to toxic masculinity, or just mastery of masculinity in general, include Swift's "manspreading" on the subway, which points to the broader notion of male privilege encroaching on the spaces of others. In the song's final bridge, Swift sings, "How's it bragging about making bucks/ And getting bitches and models?/ And it's okay when you're bad/ And it's okay when you're mad." / If I flaunted my bucks/ I'd be a bitch not a player/ They'd paint me bad/ So it's okay that I'm crazy" (13). Again, Swift writes about how her gender affects how she's viewed by fans and critics alike. The social construction of binary gender produced a female construction by Taylor Swift, particularly in contrast to masculinity. Her ability to make music from her critiques and constructions of genres continues to this day, and her responses to those critiques and constructions in interviews add an interesting layer to how she engages with and catapults perceptions of herself to to make more art and to catapult to make more art.

parts of your love life

It's important to look at the root causes of these constructs that come with being a celebrity. Most celebrities are scrutinized by paparazzi and fans alike as to who they date or are friends with, and who they can be spotted with for "pap pics." Someone without the fame Swift has attained could date as many people or more as she does and go unscrutinized in their romantic relationships. in advance1989 Rolling StoneArticle, Swift Responds to Her Published Love Life:

"I feel like watching my love life has become a national pastime," Swift says. "And I just don't feel comfortable providing that kind of entertainment anymore. I don't like seeing slideshows of guys I seem to have dated. I don't like giving comedians the opportunity to poke fun at me at awards shows. I don't like it when the headlines say, "Look out bro, she's going to write a song about you," because it belittles my work. Most importantly, I don't like how all of these factors combine to put so much pressure on a new relationship that it's over before it even begins. And like that,” she says, “I just don't date” (10).

As Jason Gay wroteMode, "Swift has achieved a celebrity where uninvited drama is just finding it" (14). Inserted right away in a 73-question interviewModearticle, Swift addresses the serial boyfriend construct by saying, "If I could talk to my 19-year-old self, I'd just be like, 'Hey, you know, you're going to date like a normal 20-year-old should be allowed to, but you will be a national lightning rod for bitch shame” (15). Gay wrote in his article, "It's as if Swift has become so big, such an attractive target, that she is no longer just a person, but a cultural icon of whom anything can be asked" (14). This was written before the great Aryan Goddess cataclysm of 2016, but this would be another example that qualifies Gay's quote (16). Swift's cultural weight and influence play a large role in how she is constructed and how those constructs haunt and bind her.

"Or 1" could be Joe Alwyn

As of 2020, Swift has been in a relationship with actor Joe Alwyn for four years, according to reportsElle, it's still pretty hard to find words from Swift about her relationship with Alwyn. This correlates with Swift's decision to keep their romance private. she saidThe guardthat she feels that when she speaks openly to the media about it, people think it is up for discussion, which is not the case (17). Her boundaries have become clearer and she doesn't want to miss anything in the world. This new privacy element may challenge its authenticity, but it ultimately reduces the possibility of misinterpreted Swift construction. There's a limit to what she can control, but this is a thoughtful response to her previous scrutiny as serial dates, and while she shouldn't go to the ends of the earth to protect the privacy of their relationship, it's a lesson that she studied in front of the media. There's the classic joke some make about what Swift will write in her songs when she finds true love and gets married, but I think she's got enough material now. The releases of "Folklore" and "Evermore" demonstrate his ability to remove the scope of his compositions from themselves and center them on other subjects. His ability to weave tangentially related themes into a cohesive album and retell stories that reveal wisdom well beyond his years only strengthens his mastery of storytelling.

One of the first songs Swift released under media scrutiny was "The Lucky One," followed by "I Know Places." She was always careful to hide names in her lyrics, save for a few notable singles whose titles included the names of men she had dated ("Dear John" and "Style"). Her transformation into respecting privacy, while showing that she cared less about the opinions of others, can be traced back to theRufalbum on which she began writing songs about Alwyn. "Gorgeous" and "Dress" reference him with detailed lyrics like "Ocean Blue Eyes" and "Flashback to When You Met Me, Your Haircut and My Bleached Hair," which harks back to the Ex Machina Met Gala, which Alwyn just dropped out of is a military film and Swift actually bleached her hair. "Call it what you will" is a direct statement to anyone wondering about her relationship with Alwyn and what they have to say about it. OLoverThe album has a few songs about Joe that can be traced back to detailed lines like "Gorgeous" and "Dress," but there aren't that many songs about their relationship that get the spotlight.Folklorereturned to this theme of couples' scrutiny, although Swift credited the songs' stories with "people I knew, people I knew, or those I wish I hadn't met," particularly with the songs " Invisible String” and “Peace” (18). . Speaking to Paul McCartney, Swift reflected on her relationship with Alwyn in a rare moment of candor on the subject, saying:

"Knowing him and being in the relationship I'm in, I've definitely made decisions that have made my life feel more like real life and less like a story that needs to be talked about in the tabloids. Whether it's choosing where to live, who to date, when not to take a picture, the idea of ​​privacy seems so weird trying to explain it, but it's really just trying to add a little bit of normality find” (19).

Swift complicates a crucial aspect of her early career, that of denominational songwriting and authenticity, by sharing less personal content on social media. These traits also largely indicate how she interprets and expresses her gender, and moreover, the curating of her personal life in response to the myths that have developed about her helps her against these constructions. Swift's romantic relationships, as well as her homosocial friendships, influence her gender appearance.

From friendships to feuds

Not only is Swift scrutinized for her romantic relationships with men, but her platonic female friendships are also scrutinized. This particularly began as Swift's famous Fourth of July parties grew between 2013 and 2016 and her star-studded friend group expanded. As Gay wroteMode, "The Men–of–Taylor Swift slideshows have calmed down, but she now laments her 'posse' of celebrity friends who, depending on the jab, are either too glamorous or too fake, or a combination of both" (14) . Swift's friendships that seem to be constantly reevaluated in the media are those with Karlie Kloss, Selena Gomez, Gigi Hadid. Again, the celebrity aspect needs to be considered, as Swift maintains many of her childhood or hometown friendships with (non-celebrity, but frequently mentioned) women like Abigail Anderson and Britney Mack. There was some overlap in examining the dynamics between Independence Day parties and the team Swift assembled to shoot her 2015 music video "Bad Blood."

Swift's gender construct is negatively impacted by celebrity feuds, and not just Kanye West. While the feud with Kanye lasted the longest, Swift also clashed with other female celebrities like Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj. Her feud with Katy Perry grew out of a stand-in dancer dispute, in which Perry reportedly stole Swift's crew:

"The angriest song in the world1989it's called "Bad Blood" and it's about another artist Swift declined to name. "For years I was never sure if we were friends or not," says [Swift]. "She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I'd be like, 'Are we friends or did she just give me the hardest insult of my life?'" Then, last year, the Another Star crossed a line . "She did something so horrible," Swift says. "I thought, 'Oh, we're just direct enemies.' And it wasn't even about a guy! It had to do with business. She basically tried to sabotage an entire arena tour. She tried to hire a bunch of people below me” (10).

The music video for "Bad Blood" hovers between sending a strong message of female empowerment and choosing to operate within patriarchal structures in accordance with media codes without significantly changing them. In the beginning, Swift and her good friend Selena Gomez break into a building and work together to fend off all the men trying to stop the robbery. When everything seems to be ready, Gomez turns on Swift and kicks her out a window, causing Swift to fall from many floors onto a car. Swift then regroups and assembles a strong all-female celebrity cast at a secret training facility to face Gomez and her team in the finale amid flames and debris.

On one hand, dressing in form-fitting clothing that accentuates their fit bodies and gets them ready to kick ass empowers Swift and her group of women. But the sexualization of clothing simply cannot be ignored, and the high heels that every female character wears along with clothing look very fashionable but don't seem fit for battle. "Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' video is the anti-avenger"Umthe AtlanticThe magazine argues that the video promotes the status of women in popular culture by giving all of Taylor's Squad characters agency. Kornhaber writes that the reels in the video "serve as a corrective to thatSmurfette SyndromeThis forces Black Widow, for example, to define itself almost exclusively through its entire genre, while the Avengers men enjoy a variety of stories. All of the women in Bad Blood have their own powers, gear and personalities - imagine that!" (20). Kornhaber also writes that the video fuels "old stereotypes about women as inherently vicious and the limiting notion that women necessarily have to compete for the top spot in arenas from music to dating" (20) fueling this recent narrative and emphasizing its same-sex friendships on social media," the observation is perceptive and shows that Swift absolutely plays a role in how she's set up, and I think by releasing her next couple of albums, she's recognized that and her downplaying of social media and public performances in general (20).

While "Bad Blood" featured most of Swift's girl troupe — who she devoted most of her time to, rather than what she called "boyfriend shopping" for the year and a half, she didn't go out on dates and it should only be construed as a fictional music video , the women's teams competing in the video add a layer to the supposed theme of the song. Perry wrote a song called "Swish Swish" in response to "Bad Blood," and after that series of musical rebuttals, Swift dressed up as a character very reminiscent of Perry in her "Look What You Made Me Do" music video. bring him to light again. In part, Swift's calculated, dramatic constructions solidify in the feuds. In May 2018, Perry sent Swift a real olive branch, and Swift thanked her for it on Instagram. Since then, Swift has featured Perry in her music video "You Need to Calm Down," where they symbolically made amends: Swift wears a potato chip costume at the end of the video and looks around, then the camera pans to Perry in a potato chip costume and cheeseburger. The two approach and hug. . Although that feud was apparently now resolved, Swift portrayed it as caustic and dramatic, and there was even the idea that she was using it for public relations. Feuds like this also contribute to Taylor's negative reputation as a "snake," someone who is deceitful and manipulative.

The rivalry with Perry overlapped with one Swift had with Nicki Minaj, which began on Twitter after "Bad Blood" was nominated for a 2015 VMA. Minaj's "Anaconda" was not included, nor was "Feelin' Myself". his collaboration with Beyoncé. Minaj then tweeted, "If your video celebrates women with very thin bodies, you will be nominated for video of the year," to which Swift took offense, replying, "I have done nothing but love and support you. It's different than when you pit women against each other. Perhaps one of the men took his place” (21). Minaj then tweeted that Taylor missed the point by speaking about the biggest issues of racism and lack of feminism in the music industry. Perry complicated the exchange by adding her own comment that it was ironic that Swift would use the words "pitch women against women" when "Bad Blood" was supposedly about Perry himself. Minaj and Swift hugged at the 2015 VMAs, but then Minaj contributed a verse to Perry's "Swish Swish." From the perspective of many media outlets, this feud might not have become what it was if Swift hadn't been part of the Twitter conversation.

In response to Swift's response to Minaj's claim that her first tweet was not directed at Swift: "If I win please come along!! They're invited to every stage I'm on," says Nardine SaadLos Angeles Timeswrites that "[Swift] "rather than feeling authentic, however, felt condescending and self-centered" (21). Swift didn't help matters by reacting the way she did, especially on Twitter. While it makes sense for Swift to process such emotional events through songwriting, dedicating feuds to music makes them seem more important than they should be. Swift later admitted in an interviewThe guardthat she recognized her white privilege left her in the dark about racial issues in music and entertainment. Now planning to pursue further education, she asks, "How can I see where people come from and understand the pain that comes with the history of our world?" (17).

Again, it's important to remember that Swift's notoriety means her career and other parts of her life are under constant scrutiny. The interpretations of her songs by the fans and social media also do not help the singer if the fans are not on the right track. His first generic track on his seventh album,Lover, "I Forgot That You Existed" sounds like a last-ditch effort to possibly end just the rivalry with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, or that rivalry combined with those of Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj. "That's why we can't have good things."RufAlbum also seems to stem from Swift's long history with West and Kardashian.

Taylor Swift's gender constructs are numerous and varied. Her relationships with other female celebrities or her closest friends surface from her eponymous first album to the end.Folklorewith "Crazy Woman" commenting on how women can be portrayed in the media as emotional and out of control. Gender is possibly the most complex aspect of Swift's ongoing construction, not only because it pervades her career choices, physical appearance, and private dating life, but also because she chooses to respond vocally to that construction by being in people's opinions and perspectives. sometimes even more so and also learn how to simplify them as you get older to keep more of your life private.

Swift's development as an artist and growing up in the spotlight has garnered a lot of buzz about her fashion choices, who she dates, and who she's spent time with platonically. She also deliberately incorporates many genre themes into her music. Of course, her whiteness plays a key role in how her gender has been viewed and interpreted throughout her career. It's important to address the intersection of race and gender to recognize how Swift was built from an early age to be a good girl for younger kids to look up to. Over the years, as she spoke about the challenges women face, she became increasingly empowered to break the restrictions she used to follow so closely, which was to stay apolitical and keep her music consistent with what she had to say had to let her speak for her: about being in love. . After moving from country to pop, the change in music genre seems to have coincided with Swift's decision to attack women's double standards. Rebelling against this seems more acceptable now than it was at the start of her career, and it may have tarnished her image as America's by-the-by-the-book sweetheart.

„Don’t Blame Me“ und „I Did Something Bad“ NrRufThe album challenges Swift's reputation as a girl, as do other songs like "So It Goes" and "Dress," which are sexually suggestive. The development of her reputation as a good girl continues with a song that builds on "Blank Space": "The Man" from Swift's albumLoverAlbum. some songs outFolkloreit even suggests constructs of femininity and stereotypes of women, especially "crazy women". The last two focus on the representation of women in the media. In particular, The Man discusses Swift's thoughts on how people view their careers in terms of their femininity as opposed to how men are viewed when they are successful. "Blank Space" follows Swift's masterful transformation of her ill-fated reputation into art as she responds to her serial friend's image. The sonic and visual responses she generates in her albums and music videos demonstrate the system of interlocking performances and forms of self-awareness that Halberstam uses to define genres, as do her public interviews and celebrity appearances that make her self-expression visible to all enlarge . . In fact, these criticisms and judgments lead Swift to improve her self-esteem and adjust her overall behavior based on various forms of unsolicited feedback.

Dessi Gomez is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame. She graduated with a major in American Studies and a minor in Journalism, Ethics and Democracy (JED) and Gender Studies. Her retrospective is a distillation of her bachelor thesis, which was supervised by Professor Perin Gürel and Professor Jason Ruiz. She won the Genevieve D. William Grant ($1,000) from the Department of Gender Studies and won the Elizabeth Christman Award for Best Graduate Paper by an American Studies Student.

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11. Hurry up Taylor. "void,"Youtube, 10. November 2014,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg.
12. Shepherd, Katie, and Allyson Chiu. "What Taylor Swift wants to show you in 'The Man,' is her gender descent from patriarchy."Washington Post, February 28, 2020https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/02/28/the-man-taylor-swift/.
13. Hurry up Taylor. "The man,"Youtube, February 27, 2020,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqAJLh9wuZ0.
14. gay jason "Taylor Swift As You've Never Seen Her Before"Vogue-Magazin, 14. April 2016.https://www.vogue.com/article/taylor-swift-may-cover-maid-of-honor-dating-personal-stYle.
15. "Taylor Swift talks about herself on Google, which celebrity closet she broke into, and what's the bravest thing she's ever done."Vogue-Magazin, 19. April 2016.
16. Donnella, Leah, „Taylor Swift, Deusa Ariana?“NPR, 27. May 2016,https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/05/27/479462825/taylor-swift-aryan-goddess.
17. Snape, Laura. "Taylor Swift: Trump thinks his presidency is an autocracy"The guard. 23. August 2019.https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/23/taylor-swift-trump-thinks-his-presidency-autocracy.
18. Hurry up Taylor. "Midterm elections on November 6." Instagram photo, October 7, 2018.https://www.instagram.com/p/CDAsU8BDzLt/.
19. DOYLE, Patrick. "Musicians About Musicians: Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift",Rolling Stone, 13. November 2020.https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/paul-mccartney-taylor-swift-musicians-on-musicians-1089058/.
20. Kornhaber, Spencer. "Taylor Swift's 'Bad Blood' video is the anti-avenger“the Atlantic, 18. May 2015.https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/05/taylor-swifts-bad-blood-is-exploding-what-exactly/393527/.
21. Saad, Nardine. "Nicki Minaj calls out the music industry for racism - not Taylor Swift" in an epic Twitter rantLos Angeles Times, July 22, 2015.https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/gossip/la-et-mg-nicki-minaj-taylor-swift-vma-snub-twitter-20150722-story.html.