Taylor Swift Is Tired Of Slut-Shaming: 'It Sends Me Into A Real Sad Place'

Yesterday (October 30), Beats 1 released more from Zane Lowe's recent interview with Taylor Swift. In it, the singer spoke about the complex relationship she had with her past records while making Lover, her upcoming role in Cats, and her friendship with Selena Gomez. Most importantly, though, Swift called out the music industry for slut-shaming and minimizing female artists — something she experienced first hand at the age of 23.


In her early twenties, Swift's dating life was often the topic of conversation once her name was brought up in the media. Despite making and releasing excellent music at the time, Swift was constantly being criticized for being a "serial dater" and for writing songs about her exes. Whenever I was 23 ... People were just sort of reducing me to, like, sort of making slideshows of my dating life and putting people in there that I'd sat next to at a party once," she mentioned, noting that critics determined that her ability to pen lyrics was "like a trick rather than skill and also a craft."


Criticizing a lady musician over her dating history or her lyrics about past relationships isn't just unfair — it's proof of the misogyny that keeps it up and continues to exist today. "It's a way to take a woman who's doing her job and succeeding at doing her job and making things, and — in a way — it's figuring out how to fully minimize that skill by taking something that each person in their darkest, darkest moments loves to do, which is just to slut-shame," Swift mentioned. And having been through it herself, it deeply saddens her to be able to see that it's still an ongoing problem. "I can visualize a headline about a young artist, about a young female artist, about another breakup, and yes it sends me into a real sad place because I don't want that to keep happening."


Right now, with songs like The Man and her increased interest in making sure creators are being compensated for her work, Swift isn't afraid to call out a problem once she sees one. "I don't think people understand how easy it is to infer that someone who's a lady artist or a lady in our industry is somehow doing something wrong by wanting love, wanting cash, wanting success," she mentioned. Girls are not allowed to want those things the way that males are allowed to want them, and thus think As soon as I was the youngest, it was hard because I didn't understand why nobody was saying that this was wrong."


Having experienced this misogyny herself, Swift keeps it up and continues to stimulate young, emerging talent to continue creating music, no matter what: "I'm like, 'Do not let anything stop you from making art. Just make things. Never get so caught up in this that it aids in averting you from making art, [even] in case you've got to prepare art about this. Although never stop making things."