Taylor Swift and Katie Couric want Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to burn in hell. That’s how the internet is paraphrasing the way Vanity Fair paraphrased the interview in their upcoming T-Swizzle cover issue. Here’s the exact quote:
“You know, Katie Couric is one of my favorite people,” Taylor Swift tells Vanity Fair contributing editor Nancy Jo Sales on the subject of mean girls in general and in response to an incident at this year’s Golden Globes, where Amy Poehler and Tina Fey mocked her highly scrutinized love life. “Because she said to me she had heard a quote that she loved, that said, ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.'”
Whoever wrote that lede should teach a masterclass in trolling. The only way it could have created more controversial buzz is if it somehow managed to pull Lena Dunham into the mix. Even now it is causing feminist critics and websites to go Lord of the Flies-berserk on one another and the actual magazine doesn’t hit stands for another week. Of course, high-minded gender/sexuality studies critiques of Swift aren’t the only conversations happening all over the website pages today. Here, let me do some paraphrasing:
GertrudeSteinIsMyHomegirl: She has a lot of nerve throwing shade at the nation’s most beloved feminist actresses. Fey and Poehler gave us Liz Lemon and Leslie Knope. Taylor Swift gave us a bunch of heteronormative lovelorn lyrics with slut-shaming overtones.
SusanBTrippin’: @GertrudeSteinIsMyHomegirl: So she wrote about fairy tales when she was 16? So she processes her heartbreak through song? She’s the queen of her own creative empire at the age of 22! A woman in charge of her own musical destiny in a notoriously male-dominated industry! She’s generous with her fans and gracious to multiple charities, including plenty of LGBT ones. Give the girl a break.
SomeDude: I could rape her. That would probably help.
GertrudeSteinIsMyHomegirl: @SusanBTrippin’: Oh, so I guess I should celebrate the fact that she told The Daily Beast that she’s not a feminist? I should be glad that the message she’s sending to her millions of young female fans is that feminism is “men vs. women”? Hooray, patriarchal hijacking of our own vocabulary!
SusanBTrippin’: @GertrudeSteinIsMyHomegirl: No, but you should relax and realize she’s probably got an evolving view of feminism and gender and sexuality and all that complicated stuff like most of us did when we were college-aged. Just because she can’t answer questions like a gender studies professor doesn’t make her a foil to the female cause.
AnotherDude: @SomeDude: When you’re done raping her, send her to me and I’ll rape her. Two dicks + a swift beating = double dose of reality.
GertrudeSteinIsMyHomegirl: @SusanBTrippin’: Do you wear short skirts or t-shirts? I need to know because I’ve adopted Taylor Swifts rules of Good vs. Evil and I’m trying to figure out which category you’re in.
VincentChase!: The only thing hotter than hell is the fire of syphilis burning between Taylor Swift’s thighs, am I right? She’s an ugly slut, so who cares?
You think I’m kidding, but I’m not. Gawker comments:
Entertainment Weekly comments:
So, you know, let’s talk mean girls, let’s talk feminism, let’s talk responsibilities of female celebrities – but while we’re doing that, let’s not lose sight of the fact that we live in a culture where’s it’s perfectly acceptable to “joke” about beating and raping a young woman while calling her an ugly slut. Feminists have plenty of fights left to fight; maybe we shouldn’t kill each other over our opinions of a pop star.
In other words, let’s all take a page from Amy Poehler’s book. When The Hollywood Reporter reached out to her this afternoon, she said:
Aw, I feel bad if she was upset. I am a feminist and she is a young and talented girl. That being said, I do agree I am going to hell. But for other reasons. Mostly boring tax stuff.
