First things first. I'm not Taylor Swift's biggest fan. I've got more than a few issues with her commodification of feminism and female friendship and my perceived impact it's had on young women. And also, I'm totally mad I don't own her house. But that's not her fault.
What I don't take issue with though is Taylor Swift snogging a much-in demand handsome chap, two weeks after her break up from another very handsome, in demand man. It doesn't, as many people on Twitter decided yesterday,make her a 'slut'. Nah, it makes her a normal twenty-something girl.
@CalvinHarris @taylorswift13 #TaylorSwift is a slut. Admit it. You're like the trash in high school being passed around guys.
Seriously, I think Taylor Swift is a bit of a whore. Wtf.
does taylor swift enjoy looking like and being a whore in front of the world? probably
One time, when I broke up with a long term boyfriend, I kissed someone else the next day. Another time I started dating a new guy less than a week after I broke up with someone else. One time (OK maybe a couple of times) I snogged someone *while *I was dating someone else.
And my friends are exactly the same.
We're not badly behaved, we're all pretty nice girls, sure we have fun, but we're not sluts. And neither is Taylor Swift.
Because we agreed ladies, we agreed that we'd stop using that word.
Men have, for the longest time been able to shag about left, right and centre (even, if unsubstantiated 100% alleged rumours are to be believed, Calvin Harris while he was dating Taylor Swift). Women, on the other hand, were expected to be chaste, and refrain from sexual activity lest they darken their reputation. Which is weird, because who were all the dudes having sex with if it wasn't us?
More recently, there's been a mainstream movement to reclaim our sexuality. Sticking two fingers up to the men who believe women should behave a certain sort of way. Artists like Rihanna and Miley Cyrus have sung excellent songs sexually explicit enough to make even someone like Lill Wayne 'I get that pussy wetter than a dirty sewer*’* blush. We talk openly about our sexual exploits, we no longer have that Sex and the City mentality where we need to divide our number of sexual partners by three in order to utter it out loud, we have sex on the first date and boast about it. And that's where we need to be.
To have one rule for popstars that we consider 'sexual' and another for those that we consider 'chaste', is to set a dangerous precedent. It's to fall into that patriarchal ideology of there being the kind of girl men have sex with and date, and the type of girl they bring home to their mother and eventually marry. It's how society painted Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie, it's the Brides of Dracula versus Lucy Westenra, it's the damsel in distress versus the femme fatale; the Madonna/Whore complex.
Women can be both, most women are both. And to have that accepted by society is what we've fought to attain.
So there's no need to ruin it all now.
To be honest though, I'm not even sure why I even needed to say all that. All Taylor Swift did was kiss some dude on a beach.
I'm going to finish this piece with my favourite life advice from my favourite gif of all time ever.
Like this? Then you might also be interested in:
New Research Shows That Women Who Earn More Get Slut Shamed Less
What Do Sex Lists Tell Us About Our Attitude To Slut Shaming?
Follow Jess on Twitter @Jess_Commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.