Some Reactions To Taylor Swift's Kanye Song

So if you haven't heard by now, at last weekend's VMAs, Talyor Swift performed a new song about Kanye interrupting her during last year's show. The song was.. meh, but something about the entire situation was icky. I'm not a Kanye apologist, but the song and the choice to unveil it exactly a year since the "incident" was pretty patronizing. And it plays out some old tropes about and race and privilege. From Alas, a Blog:

"Taylor Swift’s paean to being Kanye’s “victim” makes me want to roll my eyes at her routine as well as some of the reactions to it. Because if this what happens when someone is rude to a white woman in public we really haven’t come past race at all. Not even a little bit. In fact, while we’re on the subject of coded language and images let’s talk about the phrase “White Women’s Tears” and why it seems to be both problematic and accurate in this situation. There’s a case that could be made for inherent misogyny in the way the phrase is used. After all Taylor’s feelings were undoubtedly hurt and she’s got a right to express that pain right? Right. So, as a musician she expresses those emotions in the way that best suits her and we shouldn’t read more into it than her telling her side of the story."

Jezebel also had a pretty lengthy discussion about Taylor's performance, and reactions varied wildly from "Leave Taylor alone!" to this, which reiterates what Alas, a Blog was saying.