Now that we’ve heard from the boys…

By Soncirey Mitchell
Reader Staff

Now that Reader Publisher Ben Olson and contributing writer Sandy Compton have given their two cents about Taylor Swift and her worshippers (see Nov. 17’s “Celebrity worship is peak cringe” and Feb. 7’s “On Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and world domination”), I have a confession to make. I don’t regularly listen to Taylor, but I am a “Swiftie.”

I grew up listening to music from the ’60s British invasion, classic rock and punk — all of which I still adore. None of those classic hits inspired an epiphany, but I still remember how my worldview shifted when I heard Taylor’s album Fearless for the first time at 8 years old. As a woman, the problem with growing up listening to albums that pretentious music connoisseurs dub “great” is that, for the most part, we don’t hear any other women.

A 6-year-old Soncirey before her Swiftie epiphany. Courtesy photo.

When I first heard Taylor’s “Love Story” — a retelling of Romeo and Juliet — I remember rushing over to my mom and yelling, “Girls can be in bands too! Did you know that?” It was the only song I had downloaded on my hand-me-down iPod Nano for the entirety of elementary school.

In retrospect, it’s sad to know I spent the most formative years of my brain development believing that only men could be musicians.

Taylor introduced me to Disney icons like Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato, and from there I was on a 2010s pipeline to Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kesha and Nicki Minaj. The songs I listened to on repeat weren’t necessarily quality music, but they’ve become the embodiment of a joy that unites almost all women ages 20 to 30.

In elementary school, singing along to Taylor became an avenue to form foundational female friendships. I recently returned from a bachelorette party full of anxious nerds — myself included — and despite our different backgrounds and ages, we were more unified than the Roman legions in testudo battle formation when we screamed along to Minaj’s “Super Bass” and the Hannah Montana soundtrack.

I can unabashedly hum or dance along to any Taylor Swift song at the grocery store, bar or beach and feel the collective joy and support of the women around me. Until the music ends, we’re all friends giggling at a slumber party well past bedtime.

Part of the power and appeal of Taylor Swift is that her music represents a return to innocence, before we women got older and realized that thousands of years of cultural norms and religious doctrine were working against us. When I hear “Love Story,” I’m an 8-year-old girl living in a new reality, because if Taylor can share her music with the world, what might I do?

I will sit down and listen to her upcoming 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, in honor of the optimistic girl I used to be and hope to be again. Whether or not I like the songs is inconsequential, because my friends and acquaintances and the little girls around the world that I may never meet will hear them and smile. When we have nothing else, let us have this one innocent joy.

Congratulations to Taylor on becoming the first artist to win the Grammy for album of the year four times, surpassing the likes of Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Stevie Wonder.