POP CULTURE RUMINATIONS
Ariana, The Idol, Taylor, etc. etc.
A prelude: with the writer’s strike continuing and actors now going on strike as well, there are no new shows that are capturing our inspiration. Also, we’d like to be a little less reliant on television in general, since – as our pivot from Succession to The Idol taught us – there are highs and lows.
With this in mind, we are shifting gears and expanding our newsletter, with two new weekly segments: POP CULTURE RUMINATIONS & 5 THINGS I FOUND INTERESTING THIS WEEK.
The first one will come out on Mondays and — as the name suggests — feature our takes on the pop culture happenings of the week. The second segment will be out on Fridays & include a broader list of items such as podcasts, videos, art pieces, etc. that caught our eye that week.
And now, on to pop gossip:
#1: TAYLOR SWIFT & THE BETTER THAN REVENGE MATTRESS-GATE:
For non-Swifties: Better Than Revenge is a fan cult classic from her Speak Now album that’s directed at the girl who Joe Jonas dated after her. Much like Paramore’s Misery Business, the song has been criticized because it’s kind of sexist by modern day standards (the general message is that this girl is a skank who stole Joe Jonas from her) and features the (iconic) slut-shaming lyric: “she’s not a saint and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress; but she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress”. That particular line has become something of a guilty pleasure for Swift fans — like yeah, we know it’s a tad bit extreme, but damn it just hits so good.
Anyways, this has all come to a head because Taylor recently released her re-recorded version of Speak Now, in which she removed the mattress lyric and replaced it with (brace yourselves) “he was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches,” which is about the dumbest shit I’ve ever heard in my life. First of all, lyrically, Taylor wasn’t doing all that back when Speak Now came out. Her songwriting was a lot more colloquial, whereas this moth to a flame shit sounds like it could be straight off of folklore. Also, I don’t understand how we got to this point where we expect celebrities to moonlight as feminist activists and hold them to those standards. Yes, the mattress line is rude and out of pocket, that’s the point. Also, even if you take out the one line, the entire song is still low-key sexist and just generally mean, so even the gesture of changing the lyrics is hollow.
#2: ARIANA GRANDE & HUSBAND (whatever his name is) SPLIT