In the build up to the October release of Taylor Swift's 1989, you can be sure that there will be countless magazine covers, articles, and videos hyping up the album. To start it all off abroad, Swift appeared on the cover of The Guardian to talk about her lifestyle and music career. While the facts may not have always been up to par (that tweet to Kanye & Kim? - not real), the pop songwriter had a lot of interesting things to say - our favorite being her comments regarding feminism.
“As for the endless “is Taylor Swift a feminist?” pieces – well, they can die now. “As a teenager, I didn’t understand that saying you’re a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men. And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they understand what the word means. For so long it’s been made to seem like something where you’d picket against the opposite sex, whereas it’s not about that at all. Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realise that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so.””
We always knew Lena Dunham would have a great influence on her! To say we're excited is an understatement. As we saw in the "Who Is A Feminist Now?" article in the New York Times, Swift has always been one to shy away from the term 'feminist.' To be fair, as she says, she was always taking a feminist stance in terms of being for equality and strong women without ever identifying it as such.
Overall, this is a positive step for Swift and feminism. The more people that come out and make it known feminism is simply about equality the better. Swift has countless young girls looking up to her, so by educating herself and then her fans on what feminism is, she is able to help the movement move forward. It even seems as though this will carry into her new album, as she has made remarks that it is about moving on and being okay by yourself after a relationship. Her friendships with strong women like Dunham, Lorde, and Karlie Kloss have all helped her see how important having good people around you is. We're looking forward to seeing how all of this plays out into her music!