Dear Taylor Swift:
Congratulations! You’re in style, at the top of the charts and sold-out everywhere. I mean, you needed to be an octopus to carry your haul of gongs from the BMAs. There’s no blank space to your trajectory. I like nothing better than seeing a woman shake off the haters and live her wildest dreams.
Heaven forbid I’d ever be mean enough to attack a woman.
Especially one as powerful as you.
But Sweetie, I’m concerned. Power does strange things to people. It slants a world view. Removes natural filters. Causes bad blood. Makes some say unfortunate things
like their high-powered careers aren’t hard.
Yes.
You said that. BBC Radio 1. Nick Grimshaw. “It’s not that hard. I’m telling you now it’s really not.”
It’s kinda like those size-negative-four models who claim to eat french fries every day. They flash their not-jiggly asses and drop turds like, “I never work out.” Or those fifty-something actresses who attempt to etch shock into their frozen faces while they claim to fear plastic surgery and cosmetic enhancement.
And then there’s the Common Woman.
You probably modeled your fearless career after Gwyneth Paltrow, didn’t you? Most promising young thing in Hollywood near the end of her teens. The pinnacle of her profession at just twenty-six. She stood on the Academy Awards stage in her pink Ralph Lauren confection. When she waved her little gold man, she had every right to believe she’d never have to begin again.
I don’t blame her. I know I’d feel that way.
I thought I understood. I was one of the people who put her there.
Because before she started spewing her One-Percent Snobbery all over the universe, before she gooped up the world with thousand dollar crap that cost fourteen cents to produce, before she compared herself to the Common Woman and thus highlighted how uncommon and unique and special she thinks she is, I actually liked the bitch. I lined up to see her movies. I cheered when she won awards. Before I knew we were never ever getting back together, I believed she might actually sit down and sip herbal tea with me sometime.
These days, I wish she’d suffocate in a cupping accident.
Yeah, I know. I’m an idiot. I shouldn’t think like I’m 22.
But that’s the thing about us idiots. We’re fickle. And needy. Even demanding. Sparks fly and scorch us with the belief that we’d be BFFs with our idols, if only we had the chance to meet. Strip away the money, the connections and the platform, and we’re all the same.
Only we’re not.
Clearly.
Because I’m required to work my ass off for the dollar bills that trickle into my bank account. I toil alongside many who will be paying off student loans to a ripe retirement age. Only we won’t be able to retire. We’ll work multiple jobs to pay our rent—no staffed mansions for us!—and wake up every morning gobsmacked by how hard it is to make a living, no matter how many people remind us we’re living our dream. I don’t have anyone who can spend mega-bucks to get my dream started, you see. Today wasn’t a fairytale for me.
I’m not like you.
So please.
Keep writing heartbreak songs to convince women everywhere that you know them all too well. Embody the seeing-red revenge anthem and give shafted people something to sing.
But don’t rub people’s noses in how hard your career ISN’T.
Especially if you don’t want your former fans to burn pictures of you and sing We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together when you’re forty.
Sincerely,
Andra Watkins
Taylor Swift GIFs from blog.wcgworld.com, swift-gifhunt.tumblr.com and ww2.kqed.org. GOOPie GIF from bustle.com.
49 Comments
Delivered with passion and delivered well.
Or with grouchiness. I’ve really never been a fan, and I’m weary of seeing her every time I open my computer or hearing her every time I wind up with a rental car that lacks satellite radio. I know the reason I’ll never have a best selling book…….I don’t ‘get’ what the masses like.
Clueless. She’s absolutely clueless. I wonder if she’s ever worked a shit minimum wage job in her life.
Given that her parents moved them to Nashville and invested in a record company when she was 14, I doubt it.
That I did not know… and I’m with you — I used to love Gwyneth Paltrow. Someone needs to have a firm talk with Blythe Danner about how that girl was raised!
Mmmmmm, how many ways can I say Right. On!!
Showing up grouchy is showing up.
Yeah, “Right On!”…just remember how difficult it is dealing with all that staff…
Oh come on. She has staff to deal with the staff.
I love Taylor, and honestly, the reason she said that – is because for her? It isn’t hard. I think she’s adorable and her music is fun. It speaks to the 23 year old that I was almost a decade ago. I think whoever is running the business side of her world takes care of her. But from interviews I’ve read and videos I’ve seen, I don’t think she’s incredibly analytical or creative. Her ideas aren’t super brilliant, and when she talks about things, she just runs through facts instead of coming up with new ideas from the facts.
I think she’s very cleverly managed and has a bazillion dollars to fuel her PR machine. I absolutely get a rush from doing what I love. No question. Even when I’m curled up on the floor sobbing over how hard it is. Doing what one was meant to do strips the raw-toothed edges from the hard.
Maybe I should learn something from this. I try very hard to present myself a certain way, regardless of what my reality is like on a particular day. Sure, I have writing things to celebrate here and there, but I don’t share the hard much. I try to focus on where I want to be instead of wallowing in where I am. Probably makes me look like I don’t need the help like others do. If that’s what I’m supposed to learn from this rubbing me the wrong way, great.
Thanks for commenting, Chrissy. I’m looking forward to meeting you next week.
If having a father with an excellent job and the funds to move the family to Nashville and invest $120,000 in a record company that just signed your daughter is EASY, well then it is! Not everyone is as fortunate as Taylor. I’ve heard indie artists that could sing and write circles around her, but they don’t always have the financial backing or the luck of a Taylor Swift to make it “big”. They bust their butts every day to find gigs and recognition. No, it is NOT easy. The entertainment and arts fields are hard to bust into and they can also be fickle. Taylor will be recounting how “tough” the industry is when she’s 50 and no one wants to listen to her music because there will be many more blonde country/pop singers by then that youth want to listen to on their iPod. I used to think Taylor was a pretty smart cookie, but that was just a plain, dumb remark. Then again, celebrities are not living in reality with the general public or how difficult life can be.
I joke that every time I go to Nashville, it’s the City Where Everywhere’s a Stage. A stage when I get off the plane. A stage in every coffee shop, restaurant and grocery store. Stages in building lobbies. Stages in hotel bars.
What makes me bitter is this: I now fully fathom how much money it will take to convince masses to read my writing. I now understand how everyone would rather download shit for free or through Kindle Unlimited than buy it, even if it is less than five bucks. I now get just how impossible it is to make people care. And I DON’T have $120K to invest in jump starting anything……not that THAT would be anywhere near enough today. I now completely, utterly understand what’s necessary, and I have no fucking idea how to scrape together enough dollar bills to make it so.
I’m frustrated for you that it’s been so difficult, Andra. I’ve had a couple of friends (who read my blog) tell me that I should write a book. It’s a great idea, but I don’t have much of a pot to pee in, so how would I even get started or fund anything? I’ve come to understand the difficulties of getting started from your posts and also from following an indie artist and watching my friend’s daughter try to make a living in theatre. I have no answers for you, only a heartfelt word of encouragement to keep writing because you are really good at it. If for no other reason, do it for yourself.
I appreciate that, Mary. Unfortunately, I am cursed with ambition and big dreams. Writing for myself won’t pay the bills, though everything I write is for me.
Very nicely put.! I too was a fan of Gwyneth’s – now I could care less. And I had not heard Taylor say that…it makes me sad 🙁 Btw..nice use of the word gobsmacked 🙂
Gobsmacked is one of my favorite words, Rose. 🙂
Mine too 🙂
I adore her, but I rarely pay attention to what any “star” has to say…unless they say something I agree with. 😉
Okay, let me clarify….I adore Taylor Swift – I have never been a fan of Gwenny. Probably the reason I’m such a fan of Taylor’s is because I remember when her first few songs came out and my young daughter came to me and said, “Momma, she speaks for me, she is saying how I feel.” and she was not wearing inappropriate items, nor doing inappropriate things. It was a relief to have someone fairly “normal” that my baby girl could sing along to with her fantasies and her heartache. My baby girl is no longer a girl and is a young lady…but those memories of her crying and laughing to Taylor’s songs…they will stay with me. 🙂
Oops, I also want to say…you speak for ME! And you are very important to me…on a personal level and as my author. I cry at the beauty of your words, I cry at the heartache in your writings, I laugh, I giggle, I ponder. YOU are my Taylor Swift and I so wish that other people would listen to me when I tell them how wonderful you are and how you have made me a better person. I wish, I wish, I wish…
This comment made me cry. Thank you.
Tons of people relate to her, Lori. Her songs are catchy and fun, and they usually deal with things girls and women of certain ages can identify with. I get it. She’s even morphed into an adult singer who can wear revealing things and still look classy (unlike some people who can’t stop sharing pasty shots while they’re high. Cough.)
No. This is more an “understand how hearing you say that makes people feel about you” post. I’d give anything to be able to make a living by writing books. With every day that passes, I watch that dream slip into the ether. I’m working harder than I’ve ever, ever worked. I’m lonelier than I’ve ever, ever been. Wherever I wind up, I will never, ever say this is easy. Saying her career is easy is piling on for people like me. It’s braggy and boasty and bitchy and vile. She should keep that stuff to herself.
And your comment made me cry. I adore you and I would be so devastated (cause, let’s face it, it’s all about me) if you stop writing.
I’m not going to stop writing. I have a lot going on behind the scenes, and some of that stuff is stressing me out more than writing right now. My writing revenues are triple last year at this time, which isn’t saying much, lest anyone think I’m raking in the bucks. I’m still spending way more than I’m making. I still must sell 2/3 of my books myself to scrape by, because if I relied upon online sales alone, I would’ve quit by now.
I just fear my writing isn’t universal enough. I look at what people connect with online, and I mostly scratch my head. I just don’t get it. And that means a lot of people don’t get me.
I’m glad YOU get me.
I hear you on this. I’m not published, but if I ever do, it’s not like it used to be. I have a friend who is published and sells books from her website and still has to lug her books around and hustle a sale whenever she can. It is sad that our love for our craft doesn’t mean everyone else will love it. And don’t get too universal — you just might lose yourself.
But….Pepper Potts?!
I actually had to Google that. So, yeah. That’s the impression those movies make on me. I’ve loved Robert Downey Jr. for most of his career, but I don’t see those movies. I wish I could go to the movies in 1999.
I should send you all the awesome shirtless pics of the guys from the movies so you can get a better “impression” of them. That’s how I got Krista to see them!
I watched part of Ironman on a flight once. And anyone who has a computer can’t escape the shirtless pics.
heh, they’re not for everyone, but since I grew up with those comics it is cool seeing the characters run around up on the big screen!
Zing Gwynnie! Zing Tay Tay! Two points for Andra! Btw, we were on the road the other day when we passed a car from TN with the license plate Andra17. By the time I realized what it said. We had already passed so I didn’t have a chance to take a pic.
They laugh all the way to the bank, so the joke’s clearly on me.
An Andra Watkins lives in Jackson, Tennessee. HE’S in high school, and he’s a mite darker than me. Maybe you saw him. 🙂
I wish it wasn’t so hard. Damn I used to like a lot of people before they became one of us.(or not really) Nice job of gobsmacking the whole crowd.
Anything worth having is hard, John. That’s where sincere appreciation comes from. 🙂
I think you have it right.
Well, that was my laugh of the day. Thank you, for that little gift. I do hope Ms. Swift gets to read it at some point and yup, respond. I’m sure any of her social brood will be out with their little knives at you soon enough. You can take, em, though. Hell, you walked more than Taylor and Gwynnie combined, I’d lay a new nickel on that fact.
As long as it’s a Lewis and Clark nickel…….. 🙂
Gwyneth Paltrow drives me insane… Taylor Swift I pretty much ignore but your words make me sit up and take notice every time, Andra. Great post today. 🙂 For a little bit of good news I just got a notice from my Library and they ordered 2 copies of NWOMF to fill my request for a book they didn’t have in their inventory. Every order counts,right?!
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It takes time to build that particular list, but it’s so important. I’ve already had several San Diego area readers contact me because of that library’s investment.
I hope she takes you up on that tea drinking invitation. Although, I better be there with you two to make sure HER tea doesn’t have extra ‘additives’ in it!
I’d rather just sip gin and tonics with you. 🙂
And she made the Forbes list of Most Powerful Women yesterday. My twitter feed was filled with #PowerfulWomen – but with Swifty’s pic plastered all over it. Sigh.
My money would be on you in a fight, Nancy. You’d totally take her.
I don’t have much patience for mock humility, and that’s what both women have tried to peddle. Has anyone seen Meg Ryan in at least ten years? You know how to finish the sentence, “The higher they climb…” 🙂
thank you for this public service announcement on behalf of all/most other women, andra. (and don’t forget her ‘naughty bits steaming’ procedure. what? not every woman does this weekly?
Since I don’t follow Taylor Swift or really care about her career, I have no frame of reference. However, hard work and striving always must be respected.
Hard work must always be respected.
To be fair, if you read more of the interview in the original BBC article summary of it, she goes on to say that, compared to the “average person,” her life really is pretty sweet, so she doesn’t feel justified in ever complaining about “how hard” it is. And I totally agree with her there!
Here’s the original BBC article about the interview: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/32881051/taylor-swift-pop-stardom-is-made-out-to-be-harder-than-it-is
Comments are closed.