Taylor Swift was recently named Billboard's Woman of the Decade and her acceptance speech at the 2019 Billboard Women In Music Event is being praised like crazy.
Her speech touches on a lot of highs and lows throughout her career, but mainly focuses on how she became the woman she is today in spite of the male counterparts in the industry trying to change her or criticize her life or career choices.
A lot of people are praising Swift for calling out the people who have tried to force her to be something she's not or the people who took away from her success, but that's not the only thing her speech was about.
As she speaks on the moments in her career, she talks about the ways in which she adjusted herself to avoid the male toxicity in the industry that would drive her from doing what she wanted to do in her work.
She talks about how there are so many young women in the music industry who are unapologetically who they are and she applauds them for their bravery.
She talks about how women dominate music nowadays because they have to top what they've previously done in order to prove themselves deserving because they are held at a much higher standard than men.
Taylor Swift did not make this speech about herself or how happy she is that she is being recognized for her songs. She made it about what she's overcome to get here and that all of her fellow female artists are right up there with her.
She encourages women in music to keep advocating for themselves, their voices, their styles, to be heard and respected while they make their music because they deserve to be taken seriously.
As you can imagine, she had to discuss her recent experiences with her music being kept from her because it was purchased without her knowledge, and forbidden for her to perform.
"After I was denied the chance to purchase my music outright, my entire catalog was sold to Scooter Braun's Ithaca Holdings in a deal that I'm told was funded by the Soros family, 23 Capital, and the Carlyle Group.
Yet, to this day, none of these investors have ever bothered to contact me or my team directly to perform their due dilligence on their investment, on their investment in me."
She goes on to say that she knows that even though Scooter Braun never took the time out of his day to discuss this with her, he knew how she would feel about it.
Swift is very clear in making note of the blatant sexism in the industry and how artists fall right into the trap.
"The definition of toxic male privilege in our industry is people saying: "well he's always been nice to me."
When I am raising valid concerns about artists and their rights to own their music. And of course he's nice to you, if you're in this room you have something he needs."
She concludes her speech by talking about the major steps that have been made in the last decade for women in music, which includes the fact that women now have the ability to call out "unfairness and misconduct."
This speech was extremely important. Not just for women in music, and not just so we could watch her publicly expose the men who have wronged her constantly.
Taylor's speech was for women everywhere to understand that your voice isn't limited, and if you have something to say, speak up because you can and because you deserve to be heard.
