With last weeks Women’s March and the reemergence of the call for feminism stronger than ever in the spotlight, it is no surprise that celebrities have fallen victim to backlash. Celebrities are always in the public eye, scrutinized for their every word-or, in Taylor Swift’s case, their every tweet.
Many celebrities attended the Women’s March, including Miley Cyrus, Amy Poehler, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, and Emma Watson. Taylor Swift did not participate in the event, but went on Twitter to say, “So much love, pride, and respect for those who marched. I’m proud to be a woman today, and every day. #WomensMarch”
Although Swift’s tweet seems supportive, she instantly received backlash from others, calling her out on Twitter. Taylor Swift has been known to be a feminist, from her brand of clothing to her “girl squad” of friends. Nonetheless, her tweet gained a lot of backlash from others.
A lot of people called her out for simply tweeting support, but not actually marching. However, not every celebrity was able to attend the march. (Even Hillary Clinton tweeted instead of attending!) However, some people made a lot of stronger claims, such as she “picks and chooses” when to use feminism to support her brand and overall image.
Swift had stayed silent about politics the entire campaign, expect for a photo of her at the polls. Of course, this is a personal choice of hers. But others believe that she refuses to fully support or denounce any political issue, especially the Women’s March, because she would ultimately lose fans.
With the millions of fans of Swift’s, she is bound to have some Trump supporters. If she attended the March, she would “lose” those fans. But by not participating in the March, she has angered her other fans. Swift’s choice is ultimately “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
This is the strongest claim against Taylor Swift. As a human being, she is allowed to support whichever party she wants. She is free to choose whether or not to talk about her political opinions. But the conscious choice to take an important movement and twist it so that the outcome is her own personal gain is what really has upset people.
Did Swift really mean for all of this to occur? Nobody knows. Maybe she really, truly did mean every word in her tweet. Or maybe she is twisting the country’s recent events so that she does not hurt her image. We will never know. Taylor Swift is a celebrity and anything she does will be scrutinized-that is the only thing we do know. We can choose to be mad at this one celebrity for not participating in the Women’s March, or we can focus on all the others that did-and all the others that are continuing to support and work for the movement.
Besides, the Queen Bee of Feminism, Beyoncé, sent out a Facebook post of support, and she did not attend the March either. Should we be mad at her, too?!
Jill Augustine
Viewpoints Editor