In Defense of Taylor

Full disclosure: I don’t really identify as a Swiftie. It’s not that I don’t love Taylor’s music; I’ve been a fan since the Tim McGraw and Teardrops on My Guitar days. I specifically remember being on the way to a college internship, mourning a recent breakup, and listening to Back to December on repeat. She’s insanely talented. I just…don’t worship celebrities the way some people do. There, I said it.

That said, her most recent album, The Life of a Showgirl, is very Taylor. Like, actually very Taylor. Have you listened to 1989 or Speak Now? The storytelling, the confessional lyrics, the emotional rollercoaster — it’s all here. Despite what fairweather ERA fans might say, this isn’t a sellout or a pivot; it’s her doing exactly what she does best.

And while we’re at it: celebrities don’t owe us their lives (or their art). Not Taylor, not anyone. Call me an empath, but even with her two-billion-dollar empire, her privacy is basically nonexistent. Let her have her happiness… and her fiancé’s giant pee pee.

Listening to this album made me think about the way music follows us through life — how it remembers heartbreaks, friendships, and late-night confessions alongside us. For me (and so many others), Taylor’s songs have always been that friend who gets it, even when the world doesn’t. And to all of the haters: it was never that serious.

Ask Clara: How did Taylor Swift's tour impact perceptions of girlhood?