Reconciling Taylor Swift

I'm often fascinated by pop music. What's popular? What makes it popular? I often find myself singing along with these songs, even though I often don't agree with the message that they send. One of the artists that I follow new singles of is Taylor Swift. I know, weird, right? Her songs are just catchy and I find myself singing along with every word and sharing her songs with friends...mainly as a joke or to make fun of the song, but still. So how do I reconcile my feminist beliefs with the music of Taylor Swift?

Most of Taylor Swift's songs (that I know at least) are about getting the guy, not being complete without a guy, etc. One of my friends (who also has a weird love for Taylor Swift) once asked me: have you ever noticed how many of Taylor Swift's songs end in marriage? I don't know about that one, but most of them end in getting the guy or keeping up a relationship with a guy.

Let's get to some examples:

"Love Story" - all about a guy that her father won't let her see, so they have to sneak around (think Romeo & Juliet, pretty much exactly). Then the father approves and the guy proposes. Ends in a proposal.

"Our Song" - all about being in love with a guy. That's pretty much it.

"You Belong With Me" - all about being in love with a guy who has a girlfriend, then in the end he dumps his girlfriend for her.



"Picture to Burn" - maybe the one song that of hers that I know that doesn't end in getting the guy. But...it's about breaking up with a guy, so it still centers around the male gender.

How, as a feminist, can I like the songs (or released singles) of a singer who only sings about her relationship with guys? If you only sing about relationships with guys, it shows a dependence on guys. If you have a dependence on guys, you can't be an strong, independent woman.

There are some things about Taylor Swift that do indicate that she is a strong woman. For instance, she was one of the producers of her last tour so that she had a say in how things were done. That's great, especially for a 19 year old. But you would never know this about her through her songs.

I don't know if I can, right now, reconcile my attraction to Taylor Swift's music with my values in feminism. It's something that I think about every time one of her songs comes on the radio. There are some things that can't always be reconciled and maybe shouldn't be reconciled. There are always going to be things that people enjoy doing that might not align exactly with their values, it's a part of the society that we live in. I think that as long as you recognize the problematic attributes of things and question how they fit into society, then it might be ok to partake in things that might be anti-feminist.

Analyzing the anti-feminist attributes of certain parts of society, like music for example, is an important part of my feminism. I guess that's how I reconcile Taylor Swift with my feminism.