Do You Hate Taylor Swift’s Shitty Video As Much As The New York Times? STORY TIME

Between you me and Dupree, I have about as much use for Taylor Swift as I do for an IUD. She's the latest straight woman to make a grab for the gays, following very closely behind Iggy Azalea, who, like Swift in her new video for You Need To Calm Down, included a slew of popular drag queens in her latest video. Why are people like Iggy Azalea - who, frankly, doesn't like gay people - and Taylor Swift - who, frankly, is an apolitical hillbilly - so aggressively courting the LGBTQ population? Because garnering the undying lifelong loyalty that is gay fandom (we still like Madonna!) is like creating a hit Christmas album. It's job security.

At least that's my theory. Money. Hunty. And it isn't too different from The New York Times' theory, which makes me... a journalist? Their bitchy as hell article titled 'For Taylor Swift, Is Ego Stronger Than Pride?' is a must-read for anyone who isn't about to be Pied Pipered the house down by Taylor Swift's gay push. Just some of the gay celebs in Swift's video for You Need To Calm Down include Adam Rippon, Ellen DeGeneres, Todrick Hall, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Adam Lambert, Billy Porter, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, and of course RuPaul herself.

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The Times' article reminds us that Swift became political in the 11th hour - after Lady Gaga, Kacey Musgraves, and even Katy Perry - via an Instagram post endorsing Tennessee's Democratic candidates and coming out against Republican Marsha Blackburn during the October 2018 election. Here she dipped her toe into the gay waters for the first time with the sentiment: “I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.” Wink. Butt pirates.

Taylor Swift YouTube

It hasn't even been a year since her loving and heartfully had her team write that Instagram post and already Swift has advanced from the castrated "or who they love" to being the ringmaster of this gay circle jerk. Anyway, even though I'm a... journalist... I'm not working with the intellect or pay grade necessary to shade Swift as thoroughly as writers Jon Caramanica, Caryn Ganz, and Wesley Morris do for The New York Times. They're not 100% negative in breaking down Swift's video (just in time for Pride BTW!) but I'm only giving you the negative highlights because that's gay culture. Taylor Swift would be proud!

I love Billy Porter as much as the planet does at the moment. But what are his three seconds meant to do? What are any of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.-identified people in this video — DeGeneres, Adam Lambert, the “Queer Eye” guys, to start — meant to signify? This is as much a music video as it is a detonated rainbow-flag piñata.

Since she expanded into pop, Taylor Swift’s videos have tended to betray the ingenuity of her songwriting while insisting that she gets it — that she gets all the “its.” But I don’t know what she’s getting in “You Need to Calm Down,” which she co-directed. For one thing, it looks like a Vitamix did the editing.

...We just don’t like how clumsy and basic and grabby it is.

I’m sure there’s some gay kid somewhere on this planet who loves Taylor Swift, who’s seen her do a gay wedding and sing “Shake It Off” at the Stonewall Inn and star in this video and won’t be rolling his eyes about some iffy album rollout or her convenient brand of corporate sponsorship.

The video is seen as more jarring than the arrival of something as bluntly hokey as Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” because Gaga had nurtured her gay audience from her earliest days.

 

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It’s Pride month, and all of that flamboyant Willy Wonkaness is meant to signal to the viewer — louder and more shablamingly than the song itself — that Swift supports and loves each letter in the queer alphabet.

But there’s also something either tired, tardy or tidily opportunistic about this video. It’s shown up at a moment when corporations are spending June bleeding the colors of the rainbow flag, when store windows announce that all orientations are welcome, when the avatar for your pending Uber has turned gay.

If you can't hate Taylor Swift, how the hell you gonna hate anyone else?

I made the last one up to see if you could tell the difference between me and The New York Times. So yeah, I truly truly hate everything that's going on in this music video with every fiber of my one, but that doesn't mean that I can't be convinced otherwise. Head to the comments to let us know if Taylor Swift is singlehandedly shifting the gay paradigm or what the fuck ever!

Read the full article 'For Taylor Swift, Is Ego Stronger Than Pride?' HERE

Taylor Swift YouTube