Taylor Swift opened up about her past experiences with being “slut-shamed” in a rare and candid new interview, while discussing latest album, Lover. “I was 23 and people were… reducing me and making slideshows of my dating life and putting people in there that I’d sat next to at a party once and deciding that my songwriting was a trick rather than a skill and a craft,” the “Cruel Summer” singer, 29, explained to Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 show in the interview, published on October 30.
Taylor went on to explain how “slut-shaming” a woman lessens her potential. “It’s a way to take a woman who’s doing her job and succeeding at doing her job and making things and in a way, it’s figuring out how to completely minimize that skill by taking something that everyone, in their darkest moments loves to do, which is to slut-shame,” she declared.
Now on a quest to ensure women aren’t framed in such a light, Taylor wants women to know that they are “allowed” to want all of the finer things in life, just like men. “So now, when I see this happening, I can see a headline about a young female artist, like ‘Another Breakup’ and it sends me into a real sad place because I don’t want that to keep happening,” she said, explaining, “And, I don’t think people understand how easy it is to infer that someone who is a female artist or a female in our industry is somehow doing something wrong by wanting love, wanting money, wanting success. Women are not allowed to want those things the way that men are allowed to want them.”
Other topics Taylor discussed during the 9-minute interview include, Lover, — which she stated has “political” statements on it — the #MeToo movement and her favorite artists. Check out the full interview in the video at the top of the page!
Swifties can catch Taylor at this year’s American Music Awards where she will receive the honor of Artist of the Decade. It’s only fitting seeing as she’s won more AMAs than any other artist this decade. Taylor will also take the stage to perform the biggest hits of her career. The 2019 AMAs will take place in Los Angeles on November 24 at 8 pm ET on ABC.