You Need To Calm Down About Taylor Swift
I, a gay, trans man, am calling off the white knights for the LGBTQ+ community.
This Pride month has been a special case from past years. People seem to be more aware of companies attempting to take advantage of people's Pride, the phenomenon called "rainbow capitalism".
On another hand, it's amazed some how much acceptance can be shown, with streets, malls and more decked out in rainbow.
Taylor Swift recently joined the fray by releasing a single "You Need To Calm Down", the music video almost immediately reaching #1 on trending on YouTube and garnering over fifty-five million views.
Her song is part of Pride month as she urges people with hateful views to calm down and "not step on his gown". Her video is filled to the brim with gay, trans and drag icons, including a drag race with icons dressing up as Swift, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and more.
One of the integral parts of her song release is that she donated and urged others to donate to GLAAD, an organization committed to fighting misrepresentation of the LGBTQ+ community in the media.
Something I was extremely surprised to see was the pushback Taylor Swift received.
People decided that it wasn't enough that she provided representation in her video, that her song tells others they need to be more accepting, or even that she greatly increased donations to a great LGBTQ+ foundation. They grouped her song in with rainbow capitalism and decided that the help wasn't necessary.
I think this is ridiculous, and I want straight people (yes, even allies) to stop white knighting for the community.
A month ago, I attended Momocon in Atlanta. They held an awesome panel on gay/bi/trans representation in anime, and I genuinely enjoyed both it and the welcoming feeling of the room itself.
There was a point where the panelists (an awesome lesbian couple in cosplay, mind you) were talking about an anime with a trans character. Someone in the back of the room raised their hand and commented that the shorthand "trans" can be offensive to some people and they should use the term "transgender".
The person who commented was not trans. They could have been gay or an ally, but they were not trans. I was just sitting there, thinking, "I didn't know I was offended by this! Trans is intentionally an umbrella term, including people of the nonbinary as well as the transgendered and transsexual."
Just like this person getting offended for trans people at Momocon, there were countless articles written by people outside the community telling us we shouldn't appreciate the song.
Even people in the community should accept the help from Swift. She did everything right in my opinion, and short of being gay herself I see nothing she could have done better with her gesture. For the most part, I'm a skeptical person. I think it's a wise decision to be wary of help and possible motives. In fact, when I saw that she released a Pride-centric song, I was wary at first too.
I'm calling off the attack hounds. Stop bashing her efforts, whether you're trying to be a good ally or a good member of the community. Taylor Swift did a good thing, with good motives and a good result.
You need to calm down.
