There are two things I know for sure. First, Taylor Swift is humorless. And second, Kanye West is a bloated bag of nuts. When combined, you get a can’t-miss car crash of insults on repeat. For those that missed the back-story, Kanye West inserted a song lyric that said he made “that bitch famous” in reference to Taylor Swift, and insisted that Swift blessed the barb before its release and “found it funny.” Swift countered that she found it misogynistic and objected to the idea that Kanye’s infamous on-stage take-down at the MTV Video Music Awards was responsible for her subsequent super-stardom. I need not state the obvious fact that Swift was already hugely successful. When Swift received the Grammy for Album of the Year last night, she used that moment to take a dig at Kanye West and disguised it in an uplifting bow, saying, “As the first woman to win album of the year at the Grammys twice, I want to say to all the young women out there: there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame. But if you just focus on the work and you don’t let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you’re going, you’ll look around and you’ll know it was you and the people who love you who put you there and that will be the greatest feeling in the world.”
The media is making this out to be some beautiful soliloquy of sweetness, rather than what it actually is. A DIG. Why waste even a millisecond of your great moment taking a hit at West, who doesn’t deserve a breath of your time? If the purpose was really to empower women, as she suggested, she could have clearly accomplished that without the negative zing. This is akin to a yoga-loving person that meditates with motivational quotes on her wall while insisting she’s super happy, only to cry each night in the corner of her room. (Too deep?).
I think Taylor Swift is great, and I have two of her albums. I like her. I like her style, and I’ve heard through numerous insiders that she treats everyone in her circle with the greatest respect. I’ve heard she’s kind, professional, and classy. But I’d encourage her to shrug insults off her back a little more often, especially when it comes from heavy-hitters. It just adds darkness to the light she’s trying to emanate, and it sends a bad message.