Taylor Swift vs. The Women: Look What She Made Me Do
Taylor Swift’s record-breaking new single is a mediocre piece of pop music. Nonetheless, people love it. Some even celebrate it as a feminist anthem. I think that might be a bit of a stretch, at least from my perspective. Here’s are several artists I feel are stronger female role models.
I don’t really care about Taylor Swift. As a feminist and a music nerd, her new single doesn’t really affect me. In my eyes, she’s a mediocre pop-songwriter with boss marketing skills, that’s it. But when she drops a single and the entire Internet is talking about the damn thing, I do want to see what the fuss is about. So I watched the lyric video.
The music and lyrics are as I expected them to be: boring. Kind of predictable, if you’ve listened to her song with Zayn Malik for the ‘50 Shades Darker’ OST. After getting in so many fights with so many people, well, you’d kind of expect her to get even with those who she feels wronged her.
The only article I read on the subject matter was commentary (it’s in German, but Google Translate does a decent job) on how TS’s video “Look What You Made Me Do” shows that girls/women can finally be angry in music.
Wait. What?
Finally?
There are countless examples of scorned women in pop music writing about how they were wronged before Swift was even born. Just take a look at Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Nicks, Patti Smith and Dolly Parton.
Female anger was thing especially in the 90s when an entire genre was coined on angry women (remember the Riot Grrrls?). You know, when singers and bands like Alanis Morissette, Hole, Melisa Etheridge and No Doubt (when they still made angry ska punk music) had their hey-day. Singers like Beyoncé, PJ Harvey and Kathleen Hannah have been championing feminism and equality for years, some even for decades.
The difference between these female artists and Taylor Swift is simple: Swift uses her rage as a marketing tool with a narrative that focusses entirely on herself and her status as a victim, while the other female singers actually have something to say to denounce injustice.
I could go on about how Swift uses feminism only when it fits her, but others have done that before me. So let’s focus on some of the awesome women in music history that have been fierce and angry long before Swift wants to make us look at what we made her do.
Dolly Parton — Just Because I’m A Woman (1986)
Key lyrics: “Yes, I’ve made my mistakes
But listen and understand
My mistakes are no worse than yours
Just because I’m a woman”
Nina Simone — Four Women (1966)
Key lyrics: “Between two worlds
I do belong
My father was rich and white
He forced my mother late one night”
Lesley Gore — You Don’t Own Me (1963)
Key Lyrics: “don’t tell me what to do
Don’t tell me what to say
And please, when I go out with you
Don’t put me on display ’cause
You don’t own me”
Bikini Kill — Bloody Ice Cream (1993)
Key lyrics: “Who is it that told me all girls who write must suicide?
I’ve another good one for you, we are turning cursive letters into
Knives.”
L7 — Shitlist (1992)
Key lyrics: “When I get mad and I get pissed
I grab my pen and I write out a list
Of all the people who won’t be missed
You’ve made my shitlist”
Patti Smith — Rock N Roll Nigger (1978)
Key lyrics: “I was lost, and the cost,
and the cost didn’t matter to me.
I was lost, and the cost
was to be outside society.”
Beyoncé — Formation (2016)
Key lyrics: “Okay, ladies, now let’s get in formation, I slay
Okay, ladies, now let’s get in formation
You know you that bitch when you cause all this conversation
Always stay gracious, best revenge is your paper”
PJ Harvey — Snake(1993)
Key lyrics: “You snake, you dog, you fake, you liar
I’ve burned my hands, I’m in the fire
You salty dog, you filthy liar
My heart it aches, I’m in the fire”
Mynabirds — Generals (2012)
Key lyrics: “Get your black boots on
Beat your marching drum
We’re gonna make ’em run
We’re gonna get ’em on the run
So get your warpaint on
Let ’em know we’re out for blood”
Björk — Declare Independance (2007)
Key lyrics: “Declare independence
Don’t let them do that to you”
Ms. Lauryn Hill — Consumerism (2013)
Key lyrics: “Consumerism running through them like a tumor in ‘em
Ageism, sexism, racism, chauvinism
Capitalism running through them like the rumour business
Separatism, skepticism, modernism, atheism” (but basically the entire damn thing)
Image credit: Eva Rinaldi / Julia Maehner (edits)
