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CRITICS: "YNTCD is a cringeworthy attempt to write another “Born This Way.”
posted by mrjacsSTAFFMOD on June 14, 2019 at 4:30 PM
Taylor Swift’s New Single Is a Teachable Moment About How Not to Be an Ally
The singer’s would-be Pride anthem is a cringeworthy attempt to write another “Born This Way.”
Taylor Swift released the second single from her just-announced forthcoming album Lover on Thursday, and the gist of it is classic Swift: “You Need to Calm Down” tells Swift’s haters that their mission to diminish her brilliance is doomed, that she’ll always prevail over petty insults, and that she and her friends are having much more fun than their detractors. This “haters don’t get to me” message is so central to Swift’s modern oeuvre, I’m starting to suspect she doth protest too much.
Still, even though Swift has advocated for the Equality Act and put her money where her lyrics are with a donation to GLAAD, gays have reason to take particular affront to this careless pat on the head. It is not a particularly radical stance for a celebrity to be anti-homophobe in 2019, yet Swift is promoting “You Need to Calm Down” like it’s going to be the straw that breaks homophobia’s back. Eight years after Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” which came from an artist who was out as a bisexual woman at a time when the gay rights movement had far less mainstream traction than it does now, “You Need to Calm Down” looks even more pathetic. Witnessing a relative newcomer to LGBTQ allyship have this daft single marketed on Apple Music as a “Pride-ready” anthem with a “protest message” doused in “synths, glitter, and sass” is like watching a straight bachelorette party go nuts at a drag show. Straight people will interpret it as supportive and affirming, but for many queer people celebrating Pride Month, it feels hopelessly, insultingly out of place.
https://slate.com/culture/2019/06/taylor-swift-new-song-you-need-to-calm-down-queer-baiting.html
PITCHFORK: https://twitter.com/pitchfork/status/1139567187474210817
LOL. I can't at how the world loves Gaga again 
Reply by PlasticPrada
on June 14, 2019 at 6:09 PM
The Swifties in the replies
I didn’t even notice the gay pride stuff in the song. I guess I can see the BTW similarities as they both are pretty try-hard and pandering.
Reply by Cherry
on June 14, 2019 at 6:25 PM
Born This Way was actually genuine. You know Taylor does not casually say things like "have several seats" or "shade" in conversations unless she's gal-palling with Todrick (which itself opens up a can of worms about her appropriation of black queer culture).
Reply by PlasticPrada
on June 14, 2019 at 6:57 PM
Idk I never liked BTW. I thought Hair was much more genuine and was always the better “be yourself” anthem between the two. Should’ve been a single. But yeah YNTCD is not genuine either.
Reply by Cherry
on June 14, 2019 at 7:56 PM
Funny, we're completely opposite. I've always hated "Hair."
Reply by Gfe
on June 15, 2019 at 9:12 AM
but Taylor's new song sounds nothing like Express Yourself.
Reply by Cherry
on June 15, 2019 at 1:09 PM
You need to calm downnnnnn. You're being too loudddddd.