‘You Belong With Me’ Is the Anthem to Internalised Misogyny
And this is coming from a Swiftie
Friday the 9th of April, 2021 was a momentous day. You may have noticed something, be it the uncontrollable sobs of women forcing themselves through a breakup album or even the sound of wine bottles being simultaneously uncorked across the globe. Because on Friday the 9th of April, Taylor Swift released her first rerecorded album, and Swifties got to live through the delight of ‘Fearless’ all over again. It didn’t matter that we’re in our twenties or thirties now, singing about high school crushes and loss. It simply allows us to experience the album drunk as can be or blasting on the speakers as we drive — except for me, I’ve been barred from listening to Taylor Swift whilst I drive with friends, but that’s a story for another article.
As an out and proud Swiftie, I was overjoyed to be listening to an album recorded and owned by Taylor Swift. I had worked past the internalised misogyny that made me pretend that I didn’t like Taylor Swift, the self-hating thread that made me laugh at the jokes they made about her and label her ‘mainstream’. Basically, I was done pretending that her work wasn’t good because she’s a woman and that her writing about her love life is any different from the dozens of male artists who do the same.
