Taylor Swiftis reflecting on prior speculation surrounding her “squad” and rumors about her sexuality.
“I had become the target of slut shaming — the intensity and relentless of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today. The jokes about my amount of boyfriends. The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath … I had to make it stop because it was really starting to hurt,” she writes in the prologue of the time when she was 24 years old.
For Swift, it became “clear” that “casual dating” or having a “platonic” male friend wasn’t possible for her.
Taylor Swift performs in Los Angeles in August 2015.Christopher Polk/TAS/Getty
Christopher Polk/TAS/Getty
The pop megastar says that because she was a “consummate optimist,” she thought she could “fix” the way she was perceived.
“I swore off dating and decided to only focus on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships. If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that — right? I would learn later on that people could and people would,” she writes.
Swift goes on to thank listeners for understanding her motives at the time.
“I’ll always be so incredibly grateful for how you loved and embraced this album. You, who followed my zig zag creative choices and cheered on my risks and experiments. You, who heard the wink and humor in ‘Blank Space’ and maybe even empathized with the pain behind the satire. You, who saw the seeds of allyship and advocating for equality in ‘Welcome to New York,'” she writes.
“You, who knew that maybe a girl who surrounds herself with female friends in adulthood is making up for a lack of them in childhood (not starting a tyrannical hot girl cult). You, who saw that I reinvent myself for a million reasons, and that one of them is to try my very best to entertain you. You, who have had the grace to allow me the freedom to change.”
Hailee Steinfeld, Lily Aldridge, Taylor Swift, Gigi Hadid and Lena Dunham during The 1989 World Tour Live at MetLife Stadium in July 2015 in New Jersey.Larry Busacca/LP5/Getty
Larry Busacca/LP5/Getty
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The “Cruel Summer” singer announced that1989 (Taylor’s Version)would be her next re-recordingas shewrapped the U.S. leg of her Eras Tourin Los Angeles on Aug. 9.
“There’s something that I’ve been planning for a really, really, really ridiculously, embarrassingly long time, and instead of telling you about it, I think I’ll just sort of show you," she said, unveiling the cover art and release date for1989 (Taylor’s Version)on the big screen.
Swift revealed in anInstagram postthat the re-recording wouldfeature five vault songs.
“To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane,” she said of the new tracks. “I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long!”
source: people.com
