Entertainment
11 Feminist Taylor Swift Quotes That Will Empower Fans & Haters Alike
Taylor Swift is good at a lot of things: writing songs, singing songs, playing guitar, making friends, baking cookies, witty one-liners, stalking fans on social media, looking #flawless in cat pajamas, and well... life. So it shouldn't be too shocking that she's also fairly fantastic at expressing her views in a really eloquent, relatable way. Recently, Taylor Swift has started expressing her views on feminism Especially when it comes to something, like feminism, which she's recently embraced. Take a look at some of Taylor Swift's best feminist quotes.
On Her Misconception of Feminism
Swift explained to 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. 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 realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.”
On Getting Out of an Unhealthy Relationship & Taking Control
“But I took your matches before fire could catch me, so don’t look now. I’m shining like fireworks over your sad empty town.” — lyrics from Swift’s song, “Dear John”
On Why She Most Closely Identifies With Shoshanna Out of All the 'Girls' Characters
“Shoshanna gets excited about things, she’s really girly. And when she was in a relationship that was very comfortable, she made the decision to get out and go experience new things on her own. And now she’s becoming more sure of herself and taking life head-on, in a way that I can relate to. Even though I’ve never accidentally smoked crack at a warehouse party and run pantsless through Brooklyn,” she quipped to Rolling Stone .
Image: lenadunham/Instagram
On Being Independent
To Esquire : ”…I really didn’t like the whole serial-dater thing. I thought it was a really sexist angle on my life. And so I just stopped dating people, because it meant a lot to me to set the record straight —that I do not need some guy around in order to get inspiration, in order to make a great record, in order to live my life, in order to feel okay about myself. And I wanted to show my fans the same thing.”
On Being Resilient
“Rain came pouring down when I was drowning/ That’s when I could finally breathe/ And that morning, gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean.” — Empowering lyrics about being independent from 1989’s “Clean”
On Her Female Friendships
Explaining to Esquire what’s concrete in her life, “What does seem possible and easy and comfortable is having this entire league of incredible girlfriends that I have. And I can trust them, and the reason I know I can trust them is because nothing true about me is being written in the press right now.”
When Asked Why She Thinks the Public Is So Obsessed with Her Romantic Life
“I think with every celebrity story there has to be a ‘Yeah, but…’ Take Beyoncé: She’s incredibly talented, gorgeous, perfect role model for girls, empowering women all over the world. Yeah, but… let’s try to pick at her marriage. I think that every celebrity has that. And predominantly women, unfortunately,” she relayed in her Esquire interview.
Image: taylorswift/Instagram
On Not Putting Up With Crap from a Significant Other
“And you got your share of secrets and I’m tired of being last to know/ And now you’re asking me to listen cause it’s worked each time before/ But you don’t have to call, anymore. I won’t pick up the phone/ This is the last straw, don’t wanna hurt anymore.” — lyrics to Swift’s, “You’re Not Sorry”
On Recognizing & Perpetuating Other Women's Greatness
To Rolling Stone : “But when you’re not boyfriend-shopping, you’re able to step back and see other girls who are killing it and think, ‘God, I want to be around her’”
Then, as the magazined explained, Swift referenced Lorde’s energy saying, “It’s like this blazing bonfire. You can either be afraid of it because it’s so powerful and strong, or you can go stand near it, because it’s fun and it makes you brighter.”
On Putting Her Foot Down
“People like you always want back the love they pushed aside. But people like me are gone forever when you say goodbye.” — lyrics from Swift’s song, “All You Had to Do Was Stay.”
On Keeping the Feminist Conversation Going
She gives an example of a feminist conversation she has between her and her friends to Cosmopolitan ,” … “The kind of things we say are: ‘Why is it mischievous, fun and sexy if a guy has a string of lovers that he’s cast aside, loved and left? Yet if a woman dates three or four people in an eight-year period she is a serial dater and it gives some 12-year-old the idea to call her a slut on the internet?’ It’s not the same for boys, it just isn’t and that’s a fact.”
