A Peek into The Artist Of The Decade and The First Female and Non-English Global Icon Award (BRITS 2021) Recipient’s rise from the ashes.
We are living in 2021: the “golden” age of social media. In the past decade, the rising potency of social media and journalism has become apparent. It is appreciated and heralded as the harbinger of free speech, freedom, and creativity. It didn’t take us much time to turn this tool into something equally bad. Lately, we see many celebrities quitting social media and citing their deteriorating mental health. People who choose to live in the limelight and under the public scrutiny of people, pay hefty prices in terms of their mental peace and health, and Taylor Swift is no stranger to that.
After having a breakthrough at the age of 16, she has risen through the ranks to make her way into the influence industry. But this did not happen overnight. It took her years of pain and miserable situations that made her stronger and vocal about the injustice and unfairness of people who tried to hold her back.
Taylor Swift’s struggle with her body image
In her documentary Miss Americana, she shook her fans by admitting to having suffered from eating disorders and body image issues, by constantly seeing her pictures everywhere and comparing them to the ‘ideal’ body image of a woman. This even forced her to be out of the public eye for a year.
Her being canceled
Her being canceled was one of the most toxic things to come from people’s unabashed trolls on social media is the ‘cancel culture’. Cancel culture is ostracising people and forcing them to disappear as a result of their speculative behavior. Though viewed as a positive action in many cases, it has been the cause of detrimental effects on a celebrity’s mental health. Kanye West’s song ‘Famous’ which came out in 2016, implied having sex with Taylor, but she immediately announced that she neither approved of all the lyrics nor the video which shows an inappropriate and morphed picture of her alongside the rapper.
The Big Reveal
But when a video posted by Kim Kardashian claimed to contradict this, she was targeted by a campaign, which intended to “cancel” her. It was later found that Kim Kardashian had edited the phone recording and Kanye West didn’t take permission, for the same. But, by that time, the damage had already been done. In an interview, she recalled it as a very isolating experience and said “I don’t think there are that many people who can actually understand what it’s like to have millions of people hate you very loudly. When you say someone is canceled, you’re sending out a mass message to this person to either shut up, disappear, or it could also be perceived as, kill yourself”. After this debacle, she was absent from the media for a long time and came back with one of the strongest comebacks history had ever seen — her album “Reputation”.
Her experience with bullying
Unfortunately, this was not the end of Taylor’s misery at the hands of unfair and deceitful people. In 2019, she was bullied by her own music label, who sold the masters of all her six albums to Scooter Braun, despite having denied any fair agreements for her buying them. This put Taylor’s career in the worst-case scenario, her art being owned by a man who actively tried to dismantle her career. This bullying made Taylor experience even more vagueness, betrayal, public scrutiny, and backlashes in her life which again triggered some really dark times.
Rising through it all
But through all this, she continued to create music from the bottom of her heart. She remained unbudged and came out stronger every time. She sought inspiration from her own life, she broke records of the highest-grossing US tour in history through Reputation, was named as the Artist of the Decade at the American Music Awards in 2019, and in 2021 she became the first female winner of the Global Icon award at the BRITS Awards. Taylor Swift saw the worst of people and social media, and was often cited as a “snake”, being “too nice” or “calculated and manipulative”. Naturally, she didn’t want any other person to go through the same trauma and constantly advocated for equal rights for women, mental health awareness, and respect for people’s privacy. She did not shy away from calling out one of the biggest names in the music industry and moved on to strive for fair deals, not only for her but for all of her contemporaries as well; acting as a guide and paving a better and safer way for the many young ones to come after her.
All in all, Taylor Swift really is ‘The Man’ and the ‘Mad Woman’, and we all love her for that!
Written By- Mariya
