Is Taylor Swift a True Feminist Icon?

What makes a Feminist icon?

Elaine Showalter describes a feminist icon as someone who is a ‘rule-breaker’ who ‘followed their own path’ and wanted ‘their lives to matter’ (Showalter, 2002). By this definition, Taylor Swift is definitely one. She has gone against the grain of the music industry by re-recording her entire discography to ensure she has the rights to her own music, as well as stood up against sexual assault in the court case against David Mueller. Additionally, very recently she has come out to endorse Kamala Harris for President. However, to me Taylor Swift is a feminist icon as she is a representative to how we as women need to destruct our own internalised misogyny.

To many of us Taylor Swift is an icon. Her eras tour was a cultural and economic phenomenon, with fans spending about $93 million per show. Just on the US leg of her tour alone, she contributed around $5.7 billion to the economy. But, with a catalogue of songs dedicated to the men in her life, is she really a feminist icon?

Internalised misogyny is defined as a form of sexist behaviour and beliefs enacted by women towards themselves or other women. It manifests itself in everyday small acts such as commenting on a woman's appearance, to finding confident women 'annoying'. Most of these appear from jealousy, such as trying to tear other women down because you fear they are prettier than you because society has taught us that there isn't enough space for us to exist as we are and we therefore need to compete. As a sidenote; someone else's beauty does not make yours any less.

Back to Taylor Swift, she has definitely been the victim of sexism with many people, of all genders, disliking her outright due to her success. But, having watched her Miss Americana documentary (2020), I think she herself has tried, and is trying to, overcome her own internalised misogyny. It is this that makes her a feminist icon to young women and girls, as she is a role model they can look up to and realise that women don't need to tear each other down but lift each other up.

If you haven't watched the documentary, 100% go and watch it. It gives such an insight into not only her music, but her as a person and it converted me from someone who had never really invested in Taylor Swift, to being mesmerised by her. It starts with her looking at old journals in which she explains how she always thought, and I am paraphrasing here, she needed to be a good, quiet girl. But it highlights Swift's own journey to dismantle this idea, specifically by speaking out about the sexual assault case as well as going against her management team, including her own father, when she called out Senator Marsha Blackburn in her run for congress for being 'Trump in a wig' due to her anti-abortion stance.

Swift also touches on her relationship with an eating disorder (ED). She let's us in to see that due to consistent attention and criticism of her body through social media and the press, she unfortunately suffered from an ED and how that negatively impacted her life, especially due to the lack of energy for shows and tours. Nevertheless, as with the theme of the documentary, this is an area of progress for Swift, with her stating that 'There's always some standard of beauty that you're not meeting...'. This is 100% correct, so why try and meet them, when you can feel good about yourself and fuel yourself. Especially if you're a billionaire popstar who does a three-hour show...

I will leave you with this. Whilst Swift is not dying for causes, or dedicating her entire instagram to activism, she has definitely gone on a journey of personal growth, and this is something we all need to do as well. Towards the end of the documentary Swift stated: 'I'm trying to be as educated as possible on how to respect people and deprogram the misogyny in my own brain. There is no such thing as a slut, as a bitch, as someone who's bossy, there's just a boss. We don't wanna be condemned for being multifaceted'. For the patriarchy to be dismantled and for women to truly be happy, we must all learn to unlearn the misogyny that has been embedded into us from such a young age, because at the end of the day, we are all products of the patriarchy. It is not our fault that we are, but it is our job to fix it.