Taylor Swift Addresses Bisexuality Rumors
Swift laments that fans would "sensationalize or sexualize" her friendships with other women.
Taylor Swift has had to deal with a number of rumors about herself over the years, and the singer has finally addressed some past bisexuality speculation. Entertainment Tonight reports that in the liner notes on her new album, 1989 (Taylor's Version), Swift opens up about being faced with all types of "shaming" and rumors about her personal life. "I had become the target of slut shaming – the intensity and relentlessness of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today," she wrote.
"The jokes about my amount of boyfriends," Swift continued. "The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath. The media co-signing of this narrative. I had to make it stop because it was starting to really hurt." She went on to add, "It became clear to me that for me there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him. And so I swore off hanging out with guys, dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era."
Eventually, Swift developed a "squad" of high-profile friends, such as Selena Gomez, Lena Dunham, Hailee Steinfeld, Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevingne, Zendaya, and Hayley Williams, among others. "Being a consummate optimist, I assumed I could fix this if I simply changed my behavior. I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships," Swift explained, then going on to lament that even when just hanging out with her friends she was still subjected to unfounded gossip.
"If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize that – right?" Swift recalled thinking. "I would learn later on that people could and people would." She later addressed being an ally to the LGBTQIA+ community and thanked her fans for supporting her through her creative evolution. "You, who heard the wink and humor in 'Blank Space' and maybe even empathized with the pain behind the satire," she penned. "You, who saw the seeds of allyship and advocating for equality in 'Welcome to New York.' You, who knew that maybe a girl who surrounds herself with female friends in adulthood is making up for a lack of them in childhood. (Not starting a tyrannical hot girl cult)."
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