I’m not sure if you realized all the songs you’ve mentioned is not from her recent album, “RED”. Many of her songs focuses on other subject matters that isn’t “boys” related. Fifteen, Never Grow Up, The Lucky One, and Ronan to name a few off the top of my head. The last one deals with a three year old boy who had cancer and died. It was written & recorded by Taylor just so the profits would go to cancer related charities. Taylor is a typical girl who enjoys seeing love as something magical and happy like a fairytale and not as a pessimist who is too scared to dip her feet in the water that she forgets to play. She is a 23 year old young woman she is still growing up and figuring it out. There is no shame in not having been in a serious relationship or having a long term boyfriend by 23. She has accomplished so much with her career, earned 6 Grammys, released 4 #1 Albums, been on Two Worldwide Tours that she was the brain child in creating every last detail. She wrote every songs in all of her albums. She made $57 Million last year. Not many 23 year olds can say had accomplished that in 7 years that shes been in this business. Yet, all that anyone can talk about is that she dates too often off the assumption that she dates every guy she hangs out with. With a busy career like hers it would be quite difficult having a relationship, nonetheless for it to thrive when she is barely in the same state or country for a week at a time.

If you listened to her song from her fearless album entitled “Fifteen” she sings, “But in your life you’ll do things greater than Dating the boy on the football team But I didn’t know it at fifteen”

Her songs are written in certain instances driven by emotion and that is what makes her relatable to many girls out there. Its not that she is imposing on her fans wisdom and advice in every lyric. Its a page out of her life and its how she felt when she was going through a certain situation.

“Speak Now” was inspired by her friend Haley William from Paramore who’s old highschool sweetheart was getting married to a girl that she felt was terrible. And he was the guitarist in her band so she had to go to the wedding. Taylor accompanied her as a good friend and got inspired and wrote that song.

Or the song “Better Than Revenge” when she finds out her first love of her life cheated on her and dumped her with a certain actress. She was 17 years old and felt hurt and angry and in that instance wrote a song about it. Many girls has felt that way, its venting and sometimes its okay to be angry. Her songs are written thoughts and are like her diary she chooses to share it with her fans and I love that she is so raw and fearless to be so open with her emotions.

I think that music has no rules it is what it is. Songwriters are creative and they write about whatever inspires them.

Taylor is a young woman and like many of us a hopeless romantic. She has an undeniable great work ethic and puts her career first. That is something that should be commended not looked down upon. She goes on dates with boys and there’s nothing wrong with that she is young and should be dating. She isn’t afraid of being burned because the risk is worth the reward.

She donates money to natural disasters, charities, visits endless cancer wards, donates books, and countless charitable endeavours. She just recieve the Ripple of Hope Award for her selfless acts. Yet, here we are bashing on the young woman because she hasn’t been in a serious relationship and writes about love and boys in her songs. What does other popular male artists write about? Bruno Mars, Maroon 5, One Direction, Justin Bieber? All their songs involves girls. Why is it such a big deal Taylor writes about boys? Why isn’t anyone else lyrics getting dissected? Oh right Taylor is young and artist that constantly gets manhandled because she won’t put the media in their place or say Fuck You like Katy Perry, Adele, Pink, and Christina Aguilara were to be treated in the same manner. She’s a nice girl who holds it in and writes it all down.

Who knew that taylor swift reads the D and is smart enough to write about herself in third person…

I think the D should start rejecting any and all articles that include the word othering in scare quotes.

“Taylor is a typical girl who enjoys seeing love as something magical and happy like a fairytale.” This is the problem. The role of women in idealized romance is not the role women deserve. It is a social construct that has its roots in a deep history of art, literature and mythology in which women are allowed passive passion, but no agency. In traditional romantic dynamics, agency is the right and duty of men: to make the romance “happen” for woman whose right and duty it is to be helpless and enjoy it. This dynamic is only augmented by fantastical elements. Rapunzel is rescued from her tower by a prince, Danae from her box, Cinderella from her destitution by a prince after he tours the kingdom, Snow White is literally asleep until a prince kisses her…the examples are legion. When women are permitted agency in the world of idealized sexual dynamics, it is only exercised in heinous,vain, deceitful, or pathetic(crying and suicide) ways. (Snow White’s stepmother, Medea,Phaedra)As a consequence of growing up in a society steeped so heavily in the fairy tale conception of love, the “magical” aspects of the female experience of romantic dynamics are not only protected from criticism when they are written off as “typical” by commenters like Kat, they are celebrated and perpetuated by influential artists like Taylor Swift. This is especially dangerous because her fan base is constituted almost entirely by the impressionable girls who are most susceptible to internalizing what they are told it is to be a woman in society. There are, of course, counterexamples in Swift’s work, partially because no artist desires or is capable of total thematic homogeneity. But they subtract little from the overwhelming significance of Swift’s work in our sexist society. Few female artists do a much better job, but Taylor is the worst. Depressingly, the best role model for girls (at least with regard to independence and sexual empowerment) is Ke$ha.

This article reflects more on the writer than us readers. Taylor Swift is a role model for my granddaughters my nieces etc and I couldnt be happier.I am taking them to her concert this summer and even I cant wait. And I dont get your moronic comments about what she sings about it is NO DIFFERENT than what everyone else sings about, Love and breakups have been a staple of country and pop for hundreds of years what the h__ is wrong with you. As far as her current album what are looking Only triple platinum album in 2012. Sold almost as many as her previous already RED is as good a CD that has come out in 20 years!!!!READ RAE Alexanders comment in sf gate or you can google Taylor and find it there. She is a 23 year old SUCCESSFUL female apparently something you forgot!! And her music actually has grown out of just the young girl stage. I GUARENTEE SHE has way More MALE fans then will ever admit too. We LOVE her to death!!!So what she is lost if anything in females she has more than made for in MALES trust me onthis cause I am one

While I do agree with you on some of these points, especially slut shaming, I’d have to lean more with Kat. Sure, Taylor Swift isn’t going to become the Gloria Steinem of Country music, but compared to most mainstream music put out of male and female artists, the negative examples put forth by her songs are much milder. Yet all people do is complain about Taylor Swfit, and honestly it got old a couple years ago.

This article came out a few days ago, and while it hits on a lot of things others complain about in regards to Taylor Swift that you didn’t, it’s still very worthwhile: http://raquel-roman.tumblr.com/post/41885789432/in-defense-of-taylor-swift-i-think-this-is

This article chooses to nitpick at a few of her songs and paint a light on her entire personality. Swift writes plenty of songs not about love and romance, those just don’t make it to the hit list. Her songs are expressive and poetic, reflecting her sentiments at a particular point in time. Who are you to say she is acting like a middle schooler? I’m sorry, do you know her life? Have you had an actual conversation with her? All you know is her public persona and what you choose to deduce about her from this very limited scope of information.

God, it’s such a crime to write about wanting love! This argument is so ridiculous. Almost every musical artist in the world writes more about love than any other subject.

Also, Taylor is the richest person under 30 in the world. She obviously knows how to work it, has put her career first since she got on the big stage.

Well-written and I agree with you! When my 9 year old sister was going around singing Swift’s lyrics like “she wears short skirts, i wear t-shirts” or “She’s better known for the things she does on the mattress” I knew it was time to have a talk with her about how NOT to be like Taylor Swift.

I also find it funny that Taylor Swift calls OTHER people mean when it’s she who says in songs that boys are like toys and shames girls who are more open about their sexuality than she may be. Sure she might be “warm” or “gracious” to fans but at the end of the day it’s all a business, and pretty sure she knows being nice to fans equals more fans and more money.

I don’t want my 9 year old sister or any girl, including myself (I’m also 23) to be the kind of girl whose world centers on boys/love/romance/crushes. It’s a sad place to be after a while if that’s basically all you think about and we see it now with the media and people poking fun at Taylor Swift’s love life and her teenage mentality.

YOU BITE YOUR TONGUE! Taylor Swift is the voice of a generation.

Taylor Swift reminds me of the kind of girl who is clingy, obsessive and overprotective. It comes through in her songs, and the fact that she burns through boyfriends faster than Spinal Tap went through drummers. And she’s a piss-poor songwriter to boot.

Stop the presses. I’d rather read a comic

Why are newspapers important on campus?

http://yaledailynews.com/ at least Yale updates it’s comic section

Ratchet, your comments are indicative of somebody whom has gotten so deep into the study of their own crusade that they have forgotten that everybody has the agency to live their life as they wish. As a man, I too am a hopeless romantic and consistently get dragged across the tracks of the roller coaster called love. Let her live her life, and let her sing about her feelings, experiences and lessons learned. Her large fan base is not a paternalistic and oppressive society, but rather anybody who can relate to her.

Taylor Swift is hazing her boyfriends and a whole nation of teenage girls.

This article reminds me of another college girl’s criticism i recently read about Swift. She was a newbie feminist and an avid reader of Jezebel. Why do I get the feeling that Emily also fits this model? Perhaps it’s because she cites just a few of Swift’s songs out of 60 recorded and uses these to suggest her music is “sinister”? That her arguments are weak, and that, laughably, she suggests Swift’s songs are “bad” for young girls?

Speaking as an older feminist, i find it hard to believe that a college woman such as Emily can be living in such a cultural vacuum. My first question would be is: what music do you think is appropriate for teenagers? Rihanna is Taylor’s age. Rihanna willingly objectifies herself. Is she a better role model? O the other women today who objectify themselves and sell themselves as objects of desire? Jump back in time and look at someone who was wildly popular—Madonnaand Like a Cirgin (Ouched For the Very First Time) Or go back to 1999, to Briitney Spears. I suggest you look at her videos from that time. She was the most popular female star of that age group, her primary audience is still young women. Her first hit video, teenage girl as sex object. Later, Everytime, a song pleading for forgiveness from an old lover, and drowning in a bathtub. (In the original she was supposed to die of a drug overdose). Going way back, how about the legendary Janis Joplin, a tortured soul who riveted teenagers with her tortured songs of rejection? So I ask again, Emily—what performer today is a better role model for girls and young women?

I speak as a longtime feminist, graduated Phi beta Kappa, an M.A. In cultural Studies. Others may disagree, but I assure you, Taylor Swift is a good role model whose music is perfectly appropriate. She wrote her music in “real time” about many subjects, including boys, but her music has always had vast appeal because she sings about problems young women deal with. My goodness- do you think older women such as myself didn’t have a crush on the guy on the football team? I even had a friend who bitterly accused me of trying to steal her boyfriend? (she eventually went to Harvard, college prof, 3 kids).and anyone who has examined Swift’s music knows that she writes about a variety of music. A couple of my favorites are Fearless, 15 and Change. Taylor Swift is a cultural phenomenon, the first female to ever rise to international superstardom on her own terms, not selling herself with sex and objectification, much less pathos and self-destructiveness—but through own words and her own music. Perhaps there are some people who don’t know that much of country music is based on personal experience. This is what Taylor Swift does, and her music is youthful and refreshing, a brilliant songwriter. She has opened the door for other women to follow in her wake. I only wish I’d had a.woman songwriter like her to listen to when I was young, instead of always listening to music based on the male point of view. I suggest you open your eyes, Emily. Examine the culture teens and young women live in today. The Kardashians, the Rhianna’s, rap, and the Fashion Police! The list is endless. Then study American culture of the last 50 or 60 years. Music! Perhaps start by reading the lyrics of the a Rolling Stones. I find it another fascinating cultural phenomenon that some young feminists would wrongly accuse Swift of bitch-slapping that’s (Jezebel speaking) at a time when Swift is under attack from the purveyors of the double standard—the mass media? Instead you attack the victim of this vicious cultural double standard? No, I guess you may not be a feminist after all. Just terribly misguided.

Dear author… all you are is mean. And pathetic. And a liar. And alone in life and mean. And mean. And mean. And mean.