#analyzingtaylor

The man who blocked me for saying the way he spoke about Taylor was misogynistic and he should stop.

Matt @analyzingtaylor

He blocked me a while back because he said that my saying he was being misogynistic could negatively impact his career he’s so secretive about until he wants the help of his tumblr minions.... So he blocked me. 

But also if someone who’s NOT blocked could pass this along to him, I’d be grateful.

Matt, I’m going to break a hard truth to you and it’s gonna sting. Brace yourself babe. Brace yourself.

You, my dear, are insignificant. 

By “insignificant” I mean what you think.... is essentially pointless. It’s meaningless. Your opinions mean exactly nothing. Ever. Period. End of story. Your opinions hold no weight and have exactly  Z E R O  bearing on the world. 

You mean nothing.

Now, this isn’t an insult... It’s truth. I also mean nothing. I’m just a person with a tumblr blog. I mean nothing. I am no one. Taylor Swift does not give a shit what I think and feel. I express my feelings and opinions gladly and openly and I feel justified in doing that, but I know that my opinions mean exactly nothing. 

I know you hate it when people bring gender up because you feel too defensive and are too attached to the idea that you are not afforded different privileges and do not see the world differently from those of us who are not afforded those privileges, but this is honestly and immature attachment to an idealized version of the world that you have been given and coddled with. Privilege is nice and cushy. I would like to mention here about the original meaning and concept of “privilege” in a sociological context. (NOTE: what follows is a intro level description of an academic concept you can verify for yourself. I’d be hard pressed to discredit it off the bat. You’ll look stupid.) 

So “privilege” was coined by a woman named Peggy McIntosh. She referred to it as an “invisible knapsack.” It was originally coined in the context of race and gender. She wrote a paper about white privilege and male privilege and her experiences as a white woman dealing with consequences of both. 

So the “invisible knapsack” of privilege refers to all of these invisible tools that you get when you are in a privileged category that marginalized groups do not have. It’s incredible difficult for privileged people to see these tools because they’re invisible and are given to them without question. However, if you are marginalized and not afforded these tools, it’s much easier to see them. You know when you need something and you don’t have it much more than you know that you’re using something others don’t have if it’s invisible and you can’t see others not having it. 

Now, this is where I note... Peggy McIntosh’s original paper discussed her experience with her own invisible knapsack as a white person as well as her experience without one as a woman. She discussed being on both sides of this. It was not an attack, it was an honest description of social inequality.

So back to you..... Honey, I’m here to tell you that you have a whole lot of male privilege that has brought you to feel special and entitled. And you’re not. 

You are constantly saying that your blog is “Just opinions,” but you present it as fact. This is something men do frequently (also sociologically studied). In your invisible knapsacks, you’ve been given the tool and privilege of doing this. Of expressing your opinions outright as if they are true, objectively, and therefore other people should be influenced by them. The rest of us are not taught to do that and taught, in contrary, that expressing opinions like that displays arrogance and is rude. 

But you also do this thing where you appear threatened and attacked when others disagree. If someone says “Taylor owes us nothing” in response to your opinion “Taylor owes fans a Fourth of July event with her and her friends” and your response is “Can we all not have opinions?” It’s kind of transparent.

Because if you can have an opinion, others can argue with it. Your opinions aren’t indisputable facts. They’re opinions. It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, “bullying” for someone to disagree about your opinion on something. It’s life.

But that’s another thing in your invisible knapsack. Men are more likely to feel threatened when your opinions are disagreed with directly... Especially if they’re disagreed with strongly or frequently. This is because of the tool and privilege of expressing your opinion as if it is fact and should have more weight. When you do that often enough and you internalize the sentiment that you should, people disagreeing feels like an attack. The mere act of disagreeing is an act of defiance. 

But again, you are insignificant. Defying you is defying an ant that you step on at the park. It means nothing. You mean nothing.

Raw is a verb???? News to me

Your honor, my client has to plead "just look at her shoes".

Was there a particular post or posts that people didn't like?

Maybe we need to write a "social for dummies" book that is specifically for older people. I briefly flirted with the idea of being an tech tutor for people, but if I don't have the patience for my mom, it wouldn't work out.

It’d be fine if I could figure out an analogy to use to help it make sense... My grandfather does really well with analogies because then it doesn’t feel like the internet is an entirely different thing from the rest of the world, so he can understand it as just a different way to experience the world. But so far all of the analogies I can try don’t make sense to him or he pokes holes in them... 

Like with the email, I tried to explain junk mail like actual physical junk mail and I was like “you didn’t want this, but they sent it anyway” and he said “they can drive around and get my address. How do people get my email” and any explanation I give him doesn’t make sense to him. He also clicks the links in those emails, which only perpetuates they send him more and I keep telling him to stop but he doesn’t understand how that would work in their database to send him more...

I try to explain that to my mom....she thinks every post from strangers was "sent" to her. Now, in a way they were, but she doesn't understand the concept of how certain pages, like news websites will keep posting stuff all day long and fill your feed.

(I apologize for this, I just finished writing it and I’m going to post this rant because I need to for my own sanity today but I didn’t mean to write you an essay, I really didn’t!)

My grandfather does that too! He also can’t understand the concept of how people post things on their facebook that shows up in his news feed but they didn’t send it to him. So like my mom plays candy crush and posted something about it and he was like “why does she think I want to see that? why did she send it to me?” and I’m like “she didn’t, she posted it on her facebook and you have the choice to engage with it or not” and he’s like “okay but why did she send it to me” and I’m like “She didn’t. It had nothing to do with you, she posted it on HER page” and he was like “Okay but if she didn’t send it to me, how does it show up on my facebook.” and I’m like “......” 

He’s also paranoid... so like today he asked me about junk mail in his email and I told him that I can go through his email unsubscribing from lists so he won’t get it anymore and he asked how it got there in the first place, like how they got his email and I said that they hide the check marks so it’s likely he signed up for something else and it was hidden in it and if you don’t read carefully when you sign up for things, you will end up with a million random subscriptions to junk mail stuff. and then he said “it’s probable someone got my email and sold it to them” and I’m like “............... no. none of these companies would pay someone for your email.” 

and with twitter, which he’s tried to get me to explain a million times he’s like “okay so I post it. Now who does it go to?” and I’m like “everyone and no one. It’s like you stood on the sidewalk yelling what you wanted to say. so you’re not speaking to anyone, but everyone can hear you and engage if they want” and he’s like “okay, but who does it go TO” and I’m like ???????????