Taylor Swift has been a bit of a reluctant feminist in the past. She once told an interviewer who asked if she was one: '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.'
But that's all change. Not only has she adapted her way of thinking – and her definition of feminism – since making friends with Lena Dunham, but now she's congratulated Emma Watson on her #HeForShe speech, explaining that maybe if she'd seen it or heard it when she was 12, she would have been a feminist a lot earlier in her life.
READ MORE: Emma Watson Made An Incredibly Inspiring Speech At The UN About Feminism
She told French-Canadian talk show Tout Le Monde En Parle: 'I wish when I was 12 years old I would've been able to watch a video of my favourite actress explaining in such an intellectual, beautiful, poignant way the definition of feminism because I would've understood it, and then earlier on in my life I would have proudly claimed that I was a feminist because I would have understood what the word means.'
She continued: 'So many girls out there say: 'I'm not a feminist' because they think it means something angry or disgruntled or complaining or they picture, like, rioting and picketing. It is not that at all.'
Well – sometimes it is, Taylor. But not to worry… feminism takes its different forms, right? All around the same basic principles: 'It just simply means that you believe that women and men should have equal rights and opportunities. To say that you're not a feminist means that you think men should have more rights and opportunities than women. I just think that a lot of girls don't know the definition and the fact that Emma got up and explained it I think is an incredible thing and I'm happy to live in a world where that happened.'
READ MORE: Hackers Threaten To Publish Nude Pictures Of Emma Watson Because She's A Feminist
Emma's speech, which was given for the UN as part of her role as Women Goodwill ambassador for the international organisation was basically a call to action to get men (the people least likely to 'get' feminism, as they benefit from sexism on a daily basis) to understand how sexism brings everyone down and how they have a duty to help stop it.
Taylor then notes how we can all be a bit feminist – she wants all the rumours of girlfights, and the idea that women always take each other down, to stop: 'One thing that I do believe as a feminist is that in order for us to have gender equality we have to stop making it a girlfight. We have to stop being so interested in seeing girls try to tear each other down. It has to be more about cheering each other on as women.'
Which is exactly what she's doing right now. Okay, it's not actually narrowing the pay gap or putting money into the coffers of pro-choice activists, or even implementing sex education in schools, but it's a step, right? At the very least, bigging up Emma Watson detracts from that whole story that she's so upset with Katy Perry for stealing her backing dancers (and going out with her ex, John Mayer) that she's written a song about her, right?
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Picture: Getty
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.