T-SWIFT KNOCKED OFF HER PEDESTAL: Do We Hold Women To A Higher Standard Than Men?

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“While Justin Bieber is constantly at fault, people find so much more joy in the demise of Taylor Swift, who is comparatively faultless” – Writes Tara Watson

Yesterday we all heard about Taylor Swift‘s spectacular fall from grace. The rumoured video footage of Swift agreeing to the lyrics in Kanye West‘s ‘Famous‘ was released via Kim Kardashian‘s Snapchat and it was even more incriminating than expected.

It seemingly proved that Swift had in fact okayed the lyrics that she later claimed were offensive. She also cited them in her 2016 Grammy Awards winning speech, as an example of people trying claim her success as their own.

She knew the lyrics and can even be heard saying she considered the words “I think me and Taylor might still have sex” as a compliment. At least in some part, it does appear Swift had lied. We know this now.

However, what most people didn’t hear yesterday was that while this revelation came out, on stage in New Jersey on his present tour, Justin Bieber was given a gift from a fan. There’s nothing strange about that, but he responded by kicking it in their face and biting back with: “I probably don’t want that shit!”

This is unsurprising behaviour from Bieber. It’s an action we have almost become desensitised towards, as his douche-baggery knows no bounds.

But it’s indicative of our culture that a man can be rude, ungrateful and arrogant daily and that makes no news what-so-ever. However, when a women who rarely puts a foot wrong finally comes undone: she is the bloody Antichrist.

Check out some of the responses on Twitter, they paint Swift as a legit psychopath:

We put Swift so high on that pedestal that it was impossible for her not to fall off.

Sure, she did some of this to herself. She was always first to play the victim card. For example, the time she picked a fight with Nicki Minaj over Minaj’s comments on racial favoritism at the MTV VMAs.

But we forget, this ‘new Taylor‘ came after years of being slut-shamed by the media and public. Her rotation of boyfriends was exploited as public fodder and she was constantly portrayed as a desperate clingy, dare I say ‘crazy ex girlfriend‘. The kind that can’t keep a man – as if that is all that life is worth.

Her 1989 comeback was spectacular and she came back with a vengeance. With her return, she inspired countless young girls to shake off the haters and date as many boys as they like without judgement.

 

Along with this, Swift regularly makes charity appearances, visits children in hospitals around the world (including just recently in Australia) and always seems to go the extra mile to make time for her fans. These fans are now uniting behind Swift with the hashtag #IStandWithTaylor.

Let’s take a look at Bieber by comparison. Over the past year he has been in a fistfight in Cleveland; has been sued for plagiarism on his song ‘Sorry’; said via Instagram that he will no longer take photos with fans because he doesn’t owe them anything; and announced that he has cancelled doing meet and greets with fans as they leave him “drained and unhappy”.

Love u guys.. I'm going to be canceling my meet and greets. I enjoy meeting such incredible people but I end up feeling so drained and filled with so much of other people's spiritual energy that I end up so drained and unhappy.. Want to make people smile and happy but not at my expense and I always leave feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted to the point of depression .. The pressure of meeting people's expectations of what I'm supposed to be is so much for me to handle and a lot on my shoulders. Never want to disappoint but I feel I would rather give you guys the show and my albums as promised. Can't tell you how sorry I am, and wish it wasn't so hard on me.. And I want to stay in the healthy mindset I'm in to give you the best show you have ever seen 😉

A post shared by Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) on

Despite all this, Bieber didn’t become public enemy number one.

A man’s bad behavior is all too often tolerated, almost deemed as the norm, while women are expected to uphold a certain standard and are punished for not fulfilling it. This is even proven in a recent study by the NPR this year, that found in our careers women are held to a higher ethical standard than men.

While Justin Bieber is constantly at fault, people find so much more joy in the demise of Swift, who is comparatively faultless, and it’s a kind of relishing in someones downfall that is very rarely applied to men.

Swift is far from perfect and really stuffed up with how she treated Kanye and Kim and admittedly it’s going to be rough ride on the way down from her pedestal. But Bieber never got put on a pedestal in the first place, so he always had less to loose.