Taylor Swift has been the butt of many jokes for the majority of her career. Most recently, Netflix released their hit new show, “Ginny & Georgia.” The last episode of the first season had the two main characters, Ginny and Georgia, argue about relationships. The teenage character, Ginny, fired back at her mom by stating, “What do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift.”
This is not the only clip that has gone viral from the show. Another clip shows the main character Ginny and her love interest, Hunter, arguing about who is more oppressed. Both come from a biracial background and believe they face more discrimination than the other. Hunter throws in the phrase “Oppression Olympics” to describe the argument. This scene went viral because of the offensive and unrealistic points that both sides bring up about their respective races. The show tries to bring important social issues such as race and sexism, but the execution fails terribly. It has received heavy criticism for this.
Swift did not remain quiet. She took to Twitter to react to the sexist joke. Her tweet read, “Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hard-working women by defining this horse shit as FuNnY. Also, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you. Happy Women’s History Month I guess.”
The media has portrayed her as a woman who jumps from relationship to relationship. This negative portrayal is due to the fact that she is a famous woman constantly in the public eye. It is almost impossible for her to keep her dating life private when she is surrounded by constant paparazzi. As Marilyn Frye writes, women are like birds in a cage. They are trapped within barriers of oppression and judged by society.
Swift is young, and it is only normal for her to have an active dating life. It is considered acceptable for men to date any number of individuals before finding the right person, but when a woman does the exact same, she is instantly viewed as a “slut” by society.
This slut-shaming and application of double standards is dehumanizing, and it are especially prominent in Hollywood. At award shows, actresses are not asked about their skill sets like their male counterparts are. Instead, they are immediately asked about their hair, choice of wardrobe and other superficial topics. It is extremely degrading, and Taylor Swift has a right to voice her opinion and call out the media.
But Swift should not have remained silent after her fans started attacking Antonia Gentry, the lead actress who plays Ginny in the show. She was doing her job; she did not write the joke. Gentry, a biracial Black woman, has been torn apart by Swift’s fans, with many pushing that the actress needed to apologize to Swift. The attacks from Swift fans turned even uglier as they began to spam her Instagram posts with racist comments. Swift did not intervene. Her silence contradicts the message of her tweet calling out the Netflix show. It seems as though the only type of feminism she is actually adhering to is white feminism.
The Netflix show “Ginny & Georgia” is not the first show to make these degrading jokes about Taylor Swift. Other examples include shows such as Degrassi: Next Class. During one episode, a character says, “Taylor Swift made an entire career off her exes.” The media continues to viciously rip apart and dissect Swift’s relationships. They have created a false portrayal of Swift, and it is abhorrent.
The demeaning sexist jokes need to stop. Even if the phrase was not intended to be a joke, its execution was poor. The show attempts to bring issues of inequity to light but fails to give appropriate reactions to them or present the bigger picture. When the audience cannot fully comprehend the writers’ message, the dialogue and scenes are seen as offensive.
Women in Hollywood will never be accurately represented when sexist jokes are allowed to be made. Swift spoke up for herself, but allowing the lead actress to take the hit for the offensive joke was wrong. The actress had nothing to do with writing the joke into the script. If Swift truly believed in feminism, she would not let her fans tear other women apart—especially when the comments turned racist. As women, we should be empowering one another rather than following patterns and participating in sexist jokes about other women.
