Feb 9, 20223 min read

What’s the Obsession with Discrediting Taylor Swift?

“Speak Now” was written entirely by Swift at 19 years old, but go off, I guess

CREDIT: pinterest/@weheartit

It’s the age-old story: woman becomes successful, and man must do all in his power to attribute her success to anything besides her own hard work and ability.

Taylor Swift, who is arguably the most successful musician of our time (and no, not female musician), has been at the butt of this since she began receiving public recognition for her success.

We all remember that fateful night that Kanye West rushed the stage at the MTV Video Music Awards and snatched the microphone from the hands of a stunned 19-year-old Swift.

West was 32 years old when he chose to ruin a teenager’s career-defining moment to voice his opinion that he somehow convinced himself outweighed that of voters.

Since then, he’s continued to make a career of taking advantage of Swift’s kind nature and the good-girl persona that had been forced onto her since the start of her career.

But West isn’t the only one.

The man who decided to take a completely unfounded dig at Swift this time is Damon Albarn, someone whose name I had never heard until it was referenced by Swift.

Albarn was quoted in an article for the Los Angeles Times saying that Swift “doesn’t write her own songs.”

He was met with a response that could only come from someone seasoned in the art of rebuttals.

Swift acknowledged how “f*cked up” she found Albarn’s claim to be, not mincing any words.

She doubled down by ensuring, “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering.”

If I had to take a guess, Albarn was likely shivering with absolute humiliation and regret watching as the likes and retweets on Swift’s responses climbed higher than his follower count.

Not only did he paint himself as an out-of-touch conspiracy theorist by ignoring all the writing credits attached to the Swift name, but then to have her call him out for it in front of her 89.9 million Twitter followers? Now that’s gotta sting.

As a longtime Swift supporter and lover (pun intended), I can’t help but feel sick over how she is still having to spend her time and energy on the senseless, contrived opinions of men (no matter how iconic her comebacks may be).

But when it comes down to it, Albarn is just a no-name attention seeker, and West is still making a fool of himself in front of the world, treating his Instagram like a diary to air out his and his family’s drama.

And there are still others out there like these two, but most are too irrelevant to recall — so I’ll let that lie. But they all have one thing in common: a fragile ego and heavy dose of toxic masculinity that shutters every time they see Swift continue to swim in glittering gold trophies and add to her all-too-impressive discography.

Jillian Rodriguez is an Online Writer at Rowdy Magazine. You can find her sitting in her bedroom under a mirrorball listening to Taylor Swift, sipping iced coffee, and contemplating which seemingly mundane moments of life to add to her many drafts; maybe you’ll show up in her writing one day. You can reach her at @jillygabrielle on Instagram for more info.