#swiftcourse

First, it was the misogyny that has aged terribly - “she dates too many men; she’s a maneater; don’t let her write a song about you!” - despite dating a pretty normal amount for a woman in her twenties. 

Then the entire Kimye affair, where she was accused of being a snake and a manipulative liar. And then, years later, we find out she was telling the truth the entire time! Meanwhile, Kanye has fully gone off the rails and Kim continues to enable his worst impulses. 

For years, she was the butt of one joke or another, whether it was her singing or her alleged victimhood status or for being a snake or a bad feminist. And not only was it all in such bad faith, it all turned out to be complete and utter bullshit in hindsight.

What did Taylor even do to deserve so much animosity?

Well, we all know what she did: she dared to be a teenage girl writing songs about her experiences for teenage girls. She dared to be a woman who took control of her own career. She dared to have unabashed femininity be a focal point of her work and image. And that put her under a microscope where every gaffe she made (and yes, of course there were gaffes) would be hyper-criticized with everyone leaping at the chance to knock her down a peg. 

And it wasn’t only Taylor who had to put up with this; all of her fans have had to put up with this to some degree. People would mock me to my face online and in my personal life for liking Taylor Swift as if it made me stupid or uncultured. I’ve had value judgements placed on me simply because of an artist whose music has meant a lot to me. 

Obviously, in the grand scheme of things, it’s not that big a deal, and clearly us Swifties won out in the end (thank you, Folklore!). But the fact that we even had to deal with this to begin with is absurd. 

And the fact that Taylor had to deal with as much public scrutiny as she did, for years, sine the age of 16, is not only absurd; it’s frankly despicable (and yeah yeah boohoo poor multi-millionaire I know I know but that doesn’t justify the harassment; for a moment, imagine dealing with that sort of social pressure throughout your entire adult life).

But Folklore sees Taylor looking beyond herself and spinning whole stories from perspectives other than her own (”the last great american dynasty”, “epiphany,” “my tears ricochet,” the love triangle songs), building her own personal, well, folklore, and actively commenting on the very act of our tendency to engage in myth-making and how those affect how we view and interact in our personal relationships. 

For instance, there are the various references to films scattered throughout the album. Often, we look to films (and media in general) as models for our own lives and relationships. Obviously, Taylor has done this before (”If This Was a Movie,” “Death by a Thousand Cuts”), but not this often and throughout a single album. It’s there in “the 1″ (”The greatest films of all time were never made,” “the Sunday matinee”); it’s there in “exile” (”I think I’ve seen this film before”); it’s there in “this is me trying” (”a flasbhack in a film reel”); it’s there in “hoax” (”you knew the hero died, so what’s the movie for?”). Seems pretty clear she’s making some sort of point here! 

We all know that Taylor has said that she looked beyond her own life for much of the inspiration behind this album and many of the songs are narrated by characters other than herself. And many of these narratives she weaves are ones we’ve heard some variation of before - a teenage love triangle, an eccentric widow who earns the ire of the whole town, soldiers on the battlefield, doctors in the emergency room, a “mad woman” cast out and seeking revenge. These stories are archetypal and can be found across the world whether it’s in myths or novels or films. We all understand them on level. They’re universal. 

But, of course, though they are ostensibly told from perspectives other than Taylor’s, you can still find her there in some form. She now owns the home owned by Rebekah in “the last great american dynasty” and feels a sense of camaraderie with this woman. The love triangle could very easily have been lifted from her earlier albums, including the twangier production. And it’s very easy to interpret “my tears ricochet” and “mad woman” as a VERY pointed message to a couple particular music executive rats (ahem). 

Even “mirrorball” could be read as Taylor reflecting on her role as a songwriter and storyteller, how she is “shining just for you,” the listener, how she mines her heartbreak for the comfort of her audience and how, in turn, her fans often see themselves in her own songs (”I’ll show you every version of youself tonight”). 

What it feels like when you fucking told people so:

Also I found this bit particularly interesting:

"Gudea said they also found a significant user overlap “between accounts pushing the Swift ‘Nazi’ narrative and those active in a separate campaign attacking Blake Lively.” The Gossip Girl actor is involved in a sexual harassment lawsuit with her It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni, whom she claimed orchestrated a smear campaign against her on social media."

Swift Training Institute in Noida