It’s a brutal time to be America’s former sweetheart, says columnist Lucy Vine
Do you hate Taylor Swift? How much do you hate her? When did you start hating her? Are you one of the people I’ve spoken to in recent weeks spitting blood over how ‘fake’ she is? How she ‘lied’ about that Kanye song (you remember? The one where he casually said he might have sex with her, and then took credit for that ‘bitch’ getting famous)? One of the furious many who cannot understand how she moved on from her relationship with Calvin Harris so quickly? Or one of the ever-growing mountain who don’t-have-a-reason-we-just-really-can’t-stand-that-smugness.
What is this? I’ve not seen this level of seething, seething vitriol directed at one person since, well, probably since the last wildly successful female celebrity got too big for her boots. Certainly, I didn’t see this level of sustained hatred directed at Chris Brown when he hospitalised Rihanna. I never see it for Terry Richardson who’s regularly accused of sexual misconduct on shoots. Or when an ex-girlfriend of Michael Fassbender filed a restraining order against him, claiming he, 'threw her over a chair, broke her nose, dragged her alongside her car, and caused her to twist her left ankle and blow out her left kneecap' (the charges were later dropped). Or at Justin Bieber, any of the seven million times he’s been arrested. Not at CeeLo Green who pleaded no contest to drugging a woman during a dinner and then tweeted, 'People who have really been raped REMEMBER!!!' – as if shouting that last word makes it any less total, total, total nonsense. And look at that; Ched Evans is back playing professional footballer even though his rape retrial won’t start until October.
What has Taylor done to deserve more hatred than these men? I genuinely think it all boils down to her having the audacity to get a new boyfriend very quickly after breaking up with Calvin Harris. That’s when the ‘fake’ accusations started being thrown about (even though Calvin’s name is literally not even Calvin Harris, it’s Adam Wiles).
I’ll be honest; I do not care how quickly she moved on. If one of my friends went through a heartbreak and then just weeks later met a hot guy who made her feel amazing and happy again, I would be delighted. I might secretly think it was a rebound, but I wouldn’t mind that. I don’t mind if Taylor is rebounding. I don’t even mind if it’s a fake relationship to get attention (although I do mind that Tom Hiddleston called his feelings ‘authentic’ last week because, ugh, gross celebrity word). And I do mind that this is totally, specifically, gendered disapproval. We don’t care how fast men move on. We expect it. The idea of Leonardo DiCaprio missing a heartbeat between blonde models is laughable.
And it’s felt like everything Taylor’s done since then has been received in that context. Examined from a place of molten fury. It leaked that she co-wrote Calvin’s song This Is What You Came For? We hate her for that. Kim Kardashian ‘exposes’ her for speaking on the phone to Kanye about the Famous lyrics? It’s more proof that she’s the worst of the worst. Even Instagram implementing a new anti-trolling device this week, that automatically – AUTOMATICALLY – deletes nasty and abusive messages, saw her torn down.
She deserves to be dismantled piece by piece because she failed to be the Taylor Swift we thought she was. And because of that anger, we’ve wilfully and gleefully applauded the bullying that’s gone on since – even from those who should know better; Calvin’s mean tweets about her trying to 'bury' people, Kim’s constant shady comments, the sneering news stories about her being 'snubbed' by the MTV VMAS, where she didn’t get a SINGLE NOMINATION, even though her last album came out in 2014 so wouldn’t have been eligible but look KARMA.
This is what happens. It happens over and over to women in the public eye. We like them, we love them, we hate them. When Jennifer Lawrence tripped adorably over one too many times on the red carpet, we suddenly decided she was annoying, and turned on her. When Amy Schumer reached peak Amy Schumer we decided she was fat and hateful and no more thank you. I feel like the reason Victoria Beckham hasn’t smiled in public in ten years is because she’s afraid of a reversion to those times when we used to shred her for walking through the airport in a too-good-for-us way.
We let men threaten to rape and murder women on Twitter and would rather use our collective power to flagellate a 26-year-old whose potential worse crime was rebounding hard after a relationship and lying about Kanye I’M A GOD West calling her up. Maybe Taylor Swift isn’t the Taylor Swift you thought she was, but she doesn’t owe us a Taylor Swift. She should be able to make mistakes and try things out and be whoever she needs to be, without us baring our teeth and collectively declaring the #TaylorSwiftPartyIsOver. Let’s be kinder to each other, and kinder to Taylor – as Swiftly as possible.
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