Recently, Emma Watson spoke before the Wizengamot about feminism and her HeForShe campaign, and, naturally, Taylor Swift swooped in with an enthusiastic co-signing.
Personally, I’m not excited about Hermione Granger’s most recent endeavors, not least because of the Sadie Hawkins Dance-esque HeForShe, but also because of her criticism of Beyoncé’s feminism, which she implies is less valid than, say, hers, because she claims Beyoncé is too concerned with the male gaze.
Hating-ass antics that push me to abandon feminism and walk into womanism aside, the conversation about coveting the male gaze reminds me of other women who get to call themselves feminists but don’t get their beliefs called into question because of their music — Taylor Swift, for instance.
Though “You Belong With Me” isn’t one of her most recent hits, it remains a “bona fide” problematic hater anthem. Strumming through the teardrops on her guitar, the speaker in her song calls out to her best friend/secret crush whose attentions are not focused on her but instead, on another mystery girl, whose mad style and athletic ability are a point of personal frustration throughout the song.
Though unrequited love is painful and the speaker’s judgment might be impaired due to her suffering, the speaker doesn’t give her attentive listeners any solid clues about why she “deserves” her love interest more than his current girlfriend does. Reviews of the lyrics yield inconclusive results:
“You’re on the phone with your girlfriend / She’s upset / She’s going off about something that you said / ‘cuz she doesn’t get your humor like I do.”
Don’t be an enabler, Tay. Who knows what he might have said that he deserved to be checked for? Moving on:
“I’m in my room, it’s a typical Tuesday night / I’m listening to the kind of music she doesn’t like.”
Lol. Onward:
“She wears short skirts — I wear t-shirts!
She wears high heels — I wear sneakers!
She’s cheer captain / I’m on the bleachers dreaming ‘bout the day / when you wake up and find / that what you’re looking for / has been here the whole time!”
So, in short, mama is popping with her look together and gets to enjoy the spoils of those long expensive hours spent at cheer camp while you’re passive-aggressively hating from the outside of the club because you couldn’t get in with her man. Got it.
I suppose the purpose of Swift’s pop/country diddy is to shine light on “regular” girls, the long-suffering ones who might desire the attention and affection of certain men but make the mistake of comparing themselves unfavorably to their lost beau’s new love when things don’t work out.
The speaker unnecessarily mentions her rival’s appearance and dramatizes her (stereotypically feminine) behavior in the song as if the speaker resides in some sort of moral high ground where wearing t-shirts and sneakers makes you a more appropriate first round pick in the cuffing season drafts than someone who might wear skirts and heels.
Though some people are tragically mistaken about this fact, all women are not in competition with one another.
The last contest I saw between two women resulted in Serena Williams spanking the US Open, and that was three weeks ago.
The language that persists that women have to fight in order to ensnare the male gaze and are expected to resent other women who bae up before they do is infuriatingly problematic. Attention from men does not validate the existence of women; we do not get XP for every man who looks upon us favorably; there is no leveling up involved in having a boyfriend.
Internalized misogyny, however, guarantees a loss 100 percent of the time.
The speaker razes her “rival’s” “short” skirt, sniffs at her “high” heels and of course, gains and changes absolutely nothing because of it. This behavior isn’t unfamiliar speech to some young women — say, Emma Watson — who in their criticism of certain other women’s — say, Beyoncé’s — appearance, forget that all women have agency over their own bodies and sexualities, and that women can and often do enjoy sexiness on their own terms.
High heels and short skirts are not the mark of a woman undeserving of respect any more than sneakers and t-shirts are a sign that a woman is undeserving of affection, and those who call themselves dedicated to the empowerment of all women would do well to remember that.
Sierra Mannie is an English major from Canton.
