Is Taylor Swift promoting domestic violence?
Warning: this blog is likely to make some people very angry. Feel free to comment on the blog and add your two cents.
I am a huge fan of Taylor Swift. I think she is one of the greatest song-writers of our time. Everything that girl touches seems to turn to gold, but her latest video, Blank Space, has me reeling.
In Blank Space, Taylor is shown playfully pursuing a fast and furious love affair, which she predicts will end in one of two ways: “It’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna go down in flames. You can tell me when it’s over if the high was worth the pain.”
After a few minutes of watching the happy couple chase one another around and play happily ever after, the object of Taylor’s affection seems to be texting someone else. At that point, Taylor physically attacks her young prince, screaming, crying and pushing him across the room. She proudly sings about how she is drunk on jealously, drops his phone in the pool, cuts his clothing into pieces before setting them on fire, vandalizes his walls and smashes his luxury car with a golf club.
By the end of the video they are back to making out and Taylor is winking playfully at the camera.
Um. Hello. Behaving like a jealous banshee is completely unacceptable behavior. Smashing property, pushing someone across the room, taking and destroying their phone; these are all behaviors that constitute domestic violence. Taylor is holding up this type of romance as an ideal. And she is promoting entering into a series of fast and furious relationships. “Got a long list of ex-lovers. They will tell you I’m insane. But, I’ve got a blank space babe, and I’ll write your name.” Sounds like entertainment for the bored.
Taylor is sending the wrong message to people everywhere. The ideal romance does not include jealousy, violence, control and manipulation. The behavior displayed in “Blank Space” is absolutely unacceptable and probably criminal.
According to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, more than 10 million men and women are victims of domestic violence every year, which is defined as the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. 2014 marked a number of high profile domestic violence cases by professional athletes including Ray Rice and Greg Hardy. The NFL is looking at overhauling their procedures for how they respond to incidents of domestic violence, but what role do celebrities, like Taylor Swift have in the national dialogue about domestic violence?
