The Life of a Showgirl: Why it is Important to Hold our Favs Accountable
By: Gabrielle Bernabe
Picking up where we left off, in her fourth song, Father Figure, Swift claims to be the “Father,” the one willing to make “deals with the devil [because her] checks are bigger.” was in a way addressing the illuminati allegations, which have been plaguing her for as long as she has been immensely popular.
The line “this love is pure profit” serves as another jab to how swift is interpreted in the public eye. Her relationships are less two people coming together to see how they mesh, but more of a hands-on experience to create another album that is bound to sell. This song felt mostly satirical and weirdly light.
The fifth song, Eldest Daughter, I went into ready to relate to what Swift was going to say on this song. As an eldest daughter, the stresses and pressures that we face and show into the world cannot fully be understood except by those in the same predicament. The first line that I empathized with is “sad as it seems, apathy is hot” simply because it is true. In the world that we live in, empathy, and caring about others even half as much as you care about yourself is rare and seen as stupid. The individualistic life that we all live is hurting all of us, because being unable to understand the complexities of someone else’s life unless having that experience is crazy. It feels like the way we live life now is so isolating, and honestly boring. Caring about others along with yourself is cool, and much more fulfilling.
Where Swift loses me is when she digs into Kelce’s past once more to shade the women that he used to date. In a line that felt entirely directed to him, she says “ but i’m not a bad bitch // and this isn’t savage.” The Savage in which she is talking about is the 2020 hit song “Savage” made by 3x grammy award winning artist Megan Thee Stallion. In the song, the most infamous lines are “ I’m a savage // Classy, Bougie, Ratchet // Sassy, Moody, Nasty.” Light lines that highlight the multifacetedness that is being a “bad bitch”, a term mostly coined by black women. The reason why this is equally concerning, is that this isn’t the first time that she has shaded black women on this album, and while yes it could just strictly be done to Kelce’s exes, the only critique that she has is that they are his ex partners and are black. As a society, we have gotten too used to ignoring the very obvious signs and patterns that can be misconstrued. A continued effort to mention this and how they (swift and the women) are so different, needs to be acknowledged. In my eyes, the “too woke” era was the last time people had public empathy and tried to watch what they said in order not to offend people, a point that Swift brings up herself.
My last argument in this song is a point I have been mentioning for the entire album, but especially after this song- these songs just do not have a lot of lyrical depth, and yes sometimes light and airy lyrics are perfect for fun, songs. But that is not the reputation that Swift has created for herself, nor what she was trying to do with this album. The lines “every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter // so we dressed up as wolves and we looked fire,” are arguably true.But to say we “looked fire” at the end of what I think is a good metaphor, takes away from the entire line itself.
The sixth song, Ruin the Friendship, goes across the storyline of a young girl wondering whether or not she should ruin the friendship with her friend, even though he has a girlfriend. Ultimately, the girl battles with herself and doesn’t ruin the friendship, and upon reminiscing, wishes that she did, as the young boy that was her interest died. The biggest take away from this song is to live your life without regrets, do the thing, as you never know when you’ll have the opportunity again. My only caveat is that you shouldn’t do things with the intention of hurting someone else, people end up hurt all the time, but being honest with yourself and other people is far more respectable than lying and prolonging the pain in order to “spare someone’s feelings” or to spare your own.
In Actually Romantic, the seventh song on the album, it was a response to another artist – Charlie XCX. Before this song, Charlie apparently called Swift a “boring barbie”, and this song is a response to that insult. In the song, she calls Charlie a cokehead, which to me isn’t much of a dig because Charlie is a party girl who is very open with her drug use. All of these digs and subs are particularly interesting to me on a self proclaimed album of love. The responses of Swift to Charlie are very highschool-esque, which is fine, because that is part of Swift’s branding, but she’s aged out of it a long time ago. “It’s actually romantic // no man has ever loved me as much as you do,” that’s actually not a good thing Taylor, and it says more about the people you surround yourself with than Charlie’s supposed hater/fan behavior.
Wi$h Li$t, the eighth song of the album, is a song that is just Swift’s wish to settle down with Kelce. Many people believed that this was her last album because of this song, as it talks about wanting a simple life with Kelce, where “everyone on the block looks like you.” That’s an interesting way to put that line, after my previous points, and knowing how intentional Swift is as an artist, some of these lines are concerning and sound downright bigoted.