Taylor Swift is not a feminist

When asked by The Daily Beast  whether she thinks of herself as a feminist, Taylor Swift unsurprisingly sidestepped the question with, "I don’t really think about things as guys versus girls. I never have. I was raised by parents who brought me up to think if you work as hard as guys, you can go far in life."

At this point, I don't expect pop stars to proclaim any sort of alliance to feminism. I know it can be a career killer, especially for a very young, very mainstream star. I also know that enough women -- famous and not -- don't identify as feminists for myriad reasons, some of them even valid. What's disappointing is that she doesn't seem to know what feminism is, thinking it a matter of "guys vs girls," and that just working hard enough is always the answer. (How's those bootstraps holding up?)

Yeah, she's young, and maybe a little ambushed by a question she didn't have a well-rehearsed answer for, but it's still a little disheartening. The Frisky's Jessica Wakeman had the best response:

"Are we surprised that Taylor Swift doesn’t really consider herself a feminist? Not really. But it’s still completely dismaying that “guys versus girls” and that when women don’t succeed it’s because we just didn’t work hard enough is apparently what she thinks feminism is. It’s actually about men and women being equal to each other and deserving the same opportunities; it’s also about women being able to make choices for themselves. Call the Feminism PR Department, we have a pop star to educate! In all seriousness, though, I do suspect feminism within the pop music industry can be hard to come by. At the very least, the messages are complicated — Beyoncé, anyone? Taylor has been pursuing her career since she was about 14 and she’s probably drank the industry Kool-Aid about how she has to be marketed — sweet, innocent, uber-feminine, wearing dresses — to appeal to tweens and teens (and the parents who buy their music for them). Still, she’s 22 now and has been exposed to a lot in these past few years. I do not expect that Taylor Swift would have the politics of Kathleen Hanna, India.Arie, Ani DiFranco or even Alanis Morrissette. But I do wish she could correctly identify what a feminist is — even if she does not want to identify as one."

Or this from a commenter on Jezebel:

"No, she doesn't have to be a feminist, but by continuing to be misinformed, she's using her fame as a platform to spread more misinformation on what feminism is. She can identify however she wants, but saying dumb stuff like "guys versus girls" is just promoting the feminazi stereotype."

Taylor Swift has huge fanbase, most of them young girls, and yes, she has the right to eschew any label she isn't comfortable with. But spreading the same timeworn lies about feminism is pretty disheartening.