After years of misunderstanding what feminism is, Taylor Swift has finally identified herself as one, saying: "I've been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."
The singer has previously refused to touch the term with a barge pole, having told The Daily Beast, "I don't really think about things as guys versus girls. I never have. I was raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life."
Now though, a newly ignited friendship with Lena Dunham and Lorde has changed Swift's viewpoint considerably. The singer told The Guardian: "As a teenager, I didn’t understand that saying you’re a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men."
Listen to Taylor Swift's 'Better Than Revenge' below
She added: "And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they understand what the word means. For so long it’s been made to seem like something where you’d picket against the opposite sex, whereas it’s not about that at all.
"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realise that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.”
The singer also tackled her reputation for public break-up songs, often interpreted to be about other celebrities: "“I really resent the idea that if a woman writes about her feelings, she has too many feelings,” she says. “And I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do."
As for songs such as 'You Belong With Me' and 'Better Than Revenge', the latter of which includes the lyrics, "She came along, got him alone and let's hear the applause, she took him faster than you could say 'sabotage'," Swift said: "“I was 17 when I wrote that. That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realise no one take someone from you if they don’t want to leave.”
Swift's recently announced details of her fifth album, 1989, which includes the single 'Shake It Off', the video to which suggests intersectionality might be a good next lesson for Swift.
