Pop-Culture | Posted by Amanda C on 08/22/2011

Teardrops On My Car – or, Why Taylor Swift Doesn’t Seem To Drive Much

There is no shortage of coverage on Taylor Swift. In the music industry, in teen magazines, on TV, or even (yes) feminist circles – she’s a cultural icon; how could we not talk about her? I think of her as a guilty pleasure. I think her songs are catchy and cute and though her obsession with boyfriends and her slut shaming are certainly far from feminist, I don’t think that listening to Taylor Swift songs spells doom for the feminist movement. It’s impossible to cover all the feminist/antifeminist implications of Taylor’s music in a single post. I just want to point out a pattern I have noticed over the course of her three albums: she mentions driving a lot. This is not a phenomenon unique to Taylor or even music in the…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 12/15/2010

Taylor Swift: Possible Feminist?

yup. read it.

I love Taylor Swift. According to iTunes, I have listened to her latest CD, Speak Now, 31 times. I have bought every magazine that featured her on the cover in the past two months and read each interview multiple times. I stalk her Twitter account. Basically, I have become a fangirl stereotype.

I know. You’re probably thinking, “Wow, another teenage girl who likes Taylor Swift. How out of the ordinary considering that she is ranked #12 on Forbes’ Powerful Celebrity List and seems to win something at every award show she attends, whether she was nominated or not.” But this has been an interesting experience for me because I have never really looked up to celebrities.

When virtually all of my friends went through a fanatic phase for a certain…

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Feminism | Posted by Bre K on 12/14/2010

Eliminating Gender Expectations Starting with the Dorms

“So how is your Women Gender Studies Class? Have you stopped shaving your legs yet?” smiles and bickers a “fellow” male hall-mate of mine as he takes a seat on the couches in our dorm lounge. Oh boy, time to deal with sexist jerks that actually make me want to pretend I am a man-hating feminist stereotype. Since one guy in my dorm found out I was in Women Gender Studies 101, I’m now suddenly responsible for representing all the feminist women out there. But wait, there’s more. Signing up for this class also automatically comes free with the constant taunting and degrading comments from him and a flurry of conformists in the dorms.

“So do you hate men?” Snickers one of the three guys. Somehow every time one of the guys…

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Feminism, Pop-Culture | Posted by Maren H on 02/23/2010

Taylor Swift: Not A Feminist’s Dream

Taylor Swift

Inspired by AutoStraddle’s article.

Now, let me begin by saying I don’t hate Taylor. She plays her own instruments, writes her own song (a fact that at times is painfully obvious) and if she learned how to sing live, she would be a perfectly mediocre musician. She’s perfectly lovely, never rude to anyone (ever) and I also support any woman who follows her heart and manages the difficult task of succeeding in the music business.

However; the fact that she won album of the year at the Grammy’s this year, an honour that had previously been bestowed upon the likes of Ray Charles, U2, Norah Jones, Bob Dylan, JOHN FREAKING LENNON, Michael Jackson, Alanis Morissette, the list goes on, and the fact that the legend, Stevie Nicks, was reduced to singing back…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by DrewsieDrewsie on 12/15/2009

A Feminist Analysis of “Fifteen”

Taylor Swift’s song, Fifteen:

I love country music. I love it with a burning passion. And inside of my love for country music also comes a love for Taylor Swift. I like her because she is my age, her songs are extremely easy to play on the guitar so I feel like I have some musical talent, and I can relate to most of her songs. Her song Fifteen is now climbing the charts. This is a fine song, and some of the things in it were true in some degree to my life. When I was a sophomore at a new school, I just wanted to be wanted (“when all you wanted was to be wanted”) instead of feeling isolated and friend-less. However there are a few lines of this…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 11/10/2009

Taylor Swift’s SNL Monologue

In case you missed it…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 09/21/2009

TaySwift v. Kanye

So, I didn’t actually see the epic show down between Kanye and Taylor Swift. The VMA’s aren’t really my thing. But you better believe I youtubed it as soon as humanly possible and came up with this:

And I get that everybody was pissed off on behalf of Taylor Swift. I mean, what a terrible situation. There you are, thinking this is a great moment in your career, and then this asshole comes on stage and not only insults you, but leaves you in front of an audience of millions, just standing there. I mean What. The. Hell. Kanye, that sucks. 

But I mean, Kanye has proven that he’s a jerk before. Remember in 2006 at the EMAs when his ‘Touch the Sky’ video lost Best Video? He crashed the stage during…

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Pop-Culture | Posted by Julie Z on 08/19/2009

The Art of YouTubery

YouTube has always been fascinating to me. 

For one, I really like basking in human stupidity in order to feel better about myself, and youtube is a particularly excellent way to do this. 

But also, YouTube has launched careers. It has connected people to their favorite celebrities, proving that they are not in fact robots (for the most part). And, though this is the least utilized aspect of YouTube, it’s a way for aspiring artists to showcase their work, or to just have fun.

Show Me The Money

Heyyy it's Freddddd

Let’s consider Fred. Lucas Cruikshank, who created the character of Fred Figglehorn, is going to be a sophomore this year. He also has a freakin empire because of this channel – a series of videos based on a 6-year-old with anger management issues. He…

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