Too Much of a Woman

Like so many teenage girls, I have an undying love for Taylor Swift and her music. She is a poet who touches our lives with the music she writes. As a little girl, I would sit and listen to her songs for hours, but over time, this gradually changed.

The media, specifically the men in media, called Taylor “bossy,” “cruel,” and “sassy”—all words traditionally used towards women. All negative words. Taylor was too loud, too controversial, too much. As a naive young girl, I believed this, and I began to adopt these attitudes. Unknowingly, I had agreed with the men. Taylor was too self-driven to be successful. Too bossy. Too sassy. She was too much of a woman.

Only recently has my love of Taylor and her music returned. Admittedly, her album Folklore is hard not to love. However, with the return of my love came a realization. Misogyny had made me dislike Taylor.

I did not dislike Taylor because she was too much, too loud, or too controversial. I disliked Taylor because she was a feminist. She was a woman who had a dream of success and worked hard to achieve this dream. Because of this, the world, especially men, hated her. She was outspoken. She was loud and talked about issues. In interviews she would speak about the immense sexism in the music industry. She would publicly shame men for their wrongdoings. Because she shamed men, the world shamed her. Taylor was a feminist. And I was easily influenced.

Misogyny clouds vision. It fogs the world with misconceptions and false realities. Taylor has taught us all that words are our most valuable asset in combating a world still ruled by patriarchal attitudes. In order to get what we want, we have to be like Taylor. We have to use our voices. In order to be successful, we need to advocate for our beliefs. We need to advocate for change. We need to advocate for women.

The world is still controlled by misogynistic values, which constantly guilt women. These values admonish women for being self-driven, always labeling them as “too much.” Everything a woman does is in excess. Everything she does makes her “too much of a woman.”

We need to challenge accepted norms that being too much of a woman is anything other than extraordinary. Women are powerful and resilient. Femininity is power, and being too much of a woman is exactly what I hope to emulate as I journey into adulthood. I hope more young girls find themselves spellbound by Taylor’s lyrics and powerful messages to be brave enough to be too much.