"and at the start of the match they were loud enough to be picked up by the mics"

Jez just picks certain targets and decides everything they do is wrong and in some way oppressive. Taylor's a big one, Gwyneth Paltrow gets it, Lena Dunham. And then they'll pick somebody who's basically famous for showing her ass on a reality show and act like she's a flawless pop culture goddess.

No, not inherently invalid (cynically motivated: yes, probably).

I'm still just not grokking what you're putting down. Taylor Swift cannot write a song about New York City as a native of New York City because she is not a native of New York City. She cannot write a song about having dealt with oppression on the streets of New York City because she has not dealt with oppression on…

Thank you. I'm not even a TSwift fan, but I was rolling my eyes so fucking hard at this post. Does every song about a big city have to address real life, serious issues? I'm from L.A., and songs about the beach and Hollywood instead of gangs don't bother me. This post is such a stretch...also don't get why Jezebel…

"A subject like New York City" is, I think, the root of our disagreement. All of her songs, from what I've seen (I'm a recent fan, so that's like 2013 forward plus the ones I may have heard on the radio) are about her life. So, yes: buying a multi-million-dollar apartment in her mid-20s as an out-of-towner is the…

Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, to be exact.

Jesus Christ. It's a pop song, not an essay.

Only if Taylor Swift don't twerk. Cuz that's appropriation.

This. I don't like Taylor Swift at all but if she did what the author said, it would have sounded unauthentic. And worse of all, Jezebel would have killed her for it. She can't win. Another crap thing about Jezebel, the whole damn if you do-damn if you don't thing.

Even her shout out to gay couples—"you can want who you want/boys and boys and girls and girls"—is pat and sort of tacitly privileged, though it will no doubt be lauded for its progressivism. (And, to be fair, 12-year-olds in conservative households need to hear that shit from her, truly—I will definitely give her…

I suppose Katy Perry's "California Gurls" should have discussed water shortages, migrant farm worker's rights, rising rent and gentrification, and state budget shortfalls.

That's absolutely fair. But there's a big difference between "this song she wrote addresses x topics" conversations and "this song she wrote isn't about a completely different topic." The latter—this piece—is just nonsensical as "criticism."

Sorry, what? Songs about New York City are now only allowed to be on certain specified topics? I'm all for calling artists out on failures, but this is ridiculous. "She's singing about happy things! SHUT IT DOWN."

I'm sure ol' Jez would love it if Taylor Swift were singing about poverty, school budget cuts and the perils of being a person of color in New York.

The problem is she's forgetting her audience, her tweenage audience who is screaming for more songs about poverty, injustice, and I can't even.

Not to mention that I don't think stop-and-frisk or poverty levels are really Taylor's stories to be telling, and if she had tried to address it, Jezebel would be taking her to task for that.

"Someone should tell Taylor Swift about stop-and-frisk, or poverty levels, or the effects of school budget cuts, or people of color being pushed out of the neighborhoods they have populated for decades because of condos and Ted Talks."

You're demanding an awful lot from a bubblegum pop singer.

Is it wrong that I'm picturing this guy as Hagrid?

I've never served, but I did work in sales at a home improvement store for a bit...