Twitter Account Casts Taylor Swift a Feminist
Taylor Swift may not consider herself to be a feminist but a new Twitter account that re-imagines her as one has amassed over 80,000 followers in six days.
FeministTaylorSwift (@feministtswift) is the brainchild of self-proclaimed feminist and Taylor Swift fan Clara Beyer.
The senior linguistics major at Brown University spins the pop star's lyrics with a feminist slant while addressing issues of sexism, gender roles and female empowerment.
"We're happy, free, confused, and oppressed by the patriarchy at the same time / It's miserable and magical / Oh yeah!" is just one of Beyer's clever rewrites.
"She wears short skirts / I wear t-shirts / Neither of us is asking for it" is another.
"I'm not the only one who enjoys her music but feels uncomfortable with some of the messages," Beyer, who also writes a blog about her college life, told ABCNews.com.
"I couldn't do this if I didn't know all of our lyrics, it takes a fan to be able to do this," Beyer added.
In fact, Beyer was walking home, listening to Swift, when the idea for a feminist Taylor Swift account first struck her. After brainstorming with a friend, she launched the account June 12. By the following night, she had 300 followers and thought she was doing well, until she woke up the next morning to 6,000. Since then, the account has taken off.
The reason, Beyer believes, is just about everyone knows some Taylor Swift lyrics. "They're ubiquitous at this point," she said.
That gives Beyer a great platform for bringing feminism into the mainstream for her generation and younger.
"It's funny but it's also important to think about," Beyer, 21, says of her feminist takes on Swift's lyrics, like this one: "You were Romeo / I was a scarlet letter / Because I've had like, 6 boyfriends / Which isn't even that many / Slut shaming is a real problem"
Swift has said she doesn't consider herself a feminist. "I don't really think about things as guys versus girls. I never have. I was raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life," she told The Daily Beast last fall.
But Beyer said she considers the notion of girls and guys being equal to be a pretty feminist idea - and she said the fact that Swift is her own boss and writes her own songs and doesn't care what her ex's think is pretty feminist.
Even if Swift never sees it that way, Beyer said she would be happy just to get a tweet from the pop star.