Taylor Swift opened up about being slut-shamed and the double-standard for women artists

When Taylor Swift was stepping onto the mainstream pop-music scene in her early 20s, the public wasn’t too kind to her. In a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music’s Beats 1 show, Swift explained that she experienced a form of slut-shaming as a young artist because she dated (and sometimes merely sat next to) high-profile men. Because of her links to these guys, Swift’s musical talent was reduced to a byproduct of her public image.

“I was 23 and people were…making slideshows of my dating life and putting people in there that I’d sat next to at a party once and deciding that my songwriting was a trick rather than a skill and a craft,” Swift told Lowe when he asked when the bad press hit the hardest.

Swift said that when she sees similar slut-shaming headlines about her fellow female creators, she’s sent into a “sad place.” She says it’s disappointing that society has not moved on from believing that women artists are wrong for wanting love, money, and success.

“Women are not allowed to want those things the same way men are allowed to want those them,” she told Lowe.

Furthermore, Swift said that she’s spent her entire career trying to prove that she belongs where she is, and has now accepted that this is just part of life. She’s neither blindsided by these comments nor afraid of them anymore.

It’s sad that Swift is watching her peers go through the same treatment she endured for simply desiring love and success. The more we stand up and say that this form of slut-shaming is wrong, as Swift is, the less likely it is to continue to happen.