Miss Americana Review
WARNING THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
I have watched this 3 times now and I feel it is now time for me to speak what I think about Taylor Swift’s Netflix documentary, Miss Americana.
First I wanna start off by saying that I have been a fan of Taylor Swift, or as we are known, a Swiftie, since 2007 when I first heard “Teardrops on My Guitar”.
So with that being said I can say that I feel even more closer to Taylor after watching this documentary, I love how she talks about her sexual assault case and being muzzled on her opinions on politics the personal experiences she went through after the events with Kanye West in 2009. For her talking about her eating disorder and just so much we didn’t know outside the news media’s biased.
So where to begin?
Being a “Good Girl”
I guess let’s talk about first is how she was under this mentality that she just wanted to be a “good girl” and fit in to the misogynistic stereotypes that floods the music industry where a woman who sings music shouldn’t have any political views, especially in country music where Taylor first started out and she just did everything she could to be that “good girl”. The fact she broke free from that is totally amazing and so inspiring and powerful that you can’t help but applaud her for it.
Sexual Assault
I honestly feel like a bad Swiftie for not keeping up on this, I was aware of the situation, I knew that she had been groped by a man in 2013 and there was a photo showing the guy doing so, and that he had sued her for $3 million and she countersued for $1 but I had no idea that she had been victim blamed and shamed during the trial and wasn’t being believed despite the fact there was a photo and seven witnesses. I am proud of Taylor for speaking out about how dehumanizing the process was and how she didn’t feel she had won despite the media objectifying her for her countersuit. I also like how she points out “What happens when you get raped and it’s your word against his?” This cannot be more truer and it just goes to show how much further we need to go in this world when it comes to wrongs and hearing victims when they say “Hey, this happened to me.”
Politics
So as everyone knows in the music industry, especially country music, women are expected not to speak about politics in any form and “not push their opinions” on others but the fact Taylor has subtly shown her political views for years it is astonishing how people were surprised she was against trump and today’s Republican party, what with her subtle hints of being support of LGBT+ over the years, such as the boy in her music video for “Mean” in from her 2010 Speak Now album, and her lyrics “And you can want who you want/Boys and boys and girls and girls” in the song “Welcome to New York” from her 2014 1989 album. It goes to show that Taylor has been slowly opening the door to her political views for a while, while being subtle about it. So the fact she opens up about how she was always being told to keep that voice quiet and not say anything to getting to the point where she couldn’t cause she had to stand up and be on the right side of history and fighting with her father and manager, who seemed to care more for the money then Taylor’s opinion to showing she did what she felt was right and didn’t even care if trump came after her (“Yeah fuck that, I don’t care .” Love her saying that!).
I love how she cared about her rights and other women’s rights not to be domestically abused and stalked and the rights of LGBT+ and how she felt it was cowardly of her to go to pride events and not stand up for us in the LGBT+ community while we have so many trying to come after us. It is absolutely beautiful to see this side of her that we didn’t ever get to see because she was being muzzled by an unjust music industry.
I also like how she turned the failure of not succeeding in the Tennessee midterm elections in 2018 into a positive even though she was crushed by it and it inspired her to write a song called “Only the Young” (watch the lyric video below).
In conclusion
I don’t wanna go too more into the documentary cause I honestly suggest people go and watch it for themselves to get Taylor’s full side of the story on subjects like Kanye West and so on but all I can say is this documentary was so awesome and inspiring and just really made me love Taylor more than I ever thought. I have always been inspired by her music cause it is so relatable which is why I am a diehard Swiftie but this documentary just adds more love for her as a person and more appreciation for what she does for all of us, especially her fans. So, and I know this is a very slim chance, if Taylor ever gets to read this all I want to say to her is: Thank you for being so open with your fans for so many years with your music and now this documentary and for making this gay half-Puerto Rican male feel not alone. You are amazing Taylor and I believe you will be around for years.
