[ SECRET POST #6882 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6882 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.




__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.



__________________________________________________



06.























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 36 secrets from Secret Submission Post #983.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think some people are being a bit smug with their "I'm so smart, here to put down a pop star!"
But at the same time, I really get why people are being harsh on the allegory in "The Fate of Ophelia".

Taylor Swift for a while now has been trying to sell herself as cultured and a deep thinker, and it's this gift that allows her to be a pop star.
And while I have a lot of compassion for girls and women who feel like they have to fight tooth and nail to be taken seriously, it's also annoying when someone is trying present themselves and their work as deeper than what is really there.

Taylor's gift is in being able to tell stories that were obviously personal to her yet were also able to be relatable to a lot of listeners. She also is good at putting a song together that is accessible to large crowds.

I thought it was obvious her strengths don't lie in allegories given that one of the first times I saw criticism directed toward her were her sloppy allegories in "Love Story".

I personally really hate her using Ophelia and her fate to compare to her dating experiences.
Like, the point of Ophelia's fate was that patriarchy fails her and the only sense of choice she had was when and how she died.
Taylor using that to flip the story to be about her finding love is...complete Pick Me behavior.
"Instead of killing myself because the men in my life made me feel powerless and crazy, I found YOU. A man who saved me from a sad fate where I die alone because no man loved me enough. Thank you for picking me!"

IMO overall I'd rather see people break down why her music wasn't working for them than to not see it. I've seen both Taylor fans and non-fans critique the new album. It's been a mixed bag too TBH. I've seen people be really harsh on it, but also people be really into the songs.
Taylor Swift is a big star so her works can generally bring out a lot of discourse from many places.

[(Anonymous)]

An intelligent and nuanced explanation of the situation? In MY F!S? Get outta here! /s

I have no dog in this pony show but that helps me understand things very well, good job nonny.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a casual Taylor Swift fan (don't own any of her stuff, but I listen to her on Spotify) and that song is CATCHY AS HELL.

I know her lyrics aren't necessarily perfect in a literary sense; Ophelia wouldn't give a shit about some guys team and vibes, but my god, that's a great pop confection.

[(Anonymous)]

That couldn't have been "the point" of Ophelia's fate, because the concept of the patriarchy and feminism didn't exist when the play was written. It could be an incidental point you can support with evidence, but it wasn't Shakespeare's intent to criticize the patriarchy in name or concept.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a long-time fan of hers, and I honestly agree with what you're saying here.

For the sake of playing devil's advocate, though, I will say that there's actually something interesting to me about arguably the world's current most famous person comparing herself to a female character who was failed by the patriarchy and went mad. Because I think if I had to deal with existing in the eye of the cultural storm the way Taylor has for so long now, I would've probably gone mad. Like, "Please hospitalize me, I'm a danger to myself" unwell.

Yes, Taylor has a LOT of power, and a LOT of control in many ways that normal people will never experience. I'm not saying she isn't privileged. I'm subsisting on disability in an apartment that is one step up from a slum. I can't even afford a car, or a home that isn't most likely poisoning me with lead and asbestos. I am disempowered and feel helpless in a way Taylor Swift probably can't even imagine. But there is undoubtedly a kind of terrifying disempowerment that Taylor Swift feels, too; the disempowerment of being a female performer on a global stage, feeling dehumanized and objectified and misconstrued on a scale that I can't even fully imagine.

I mean, I feel like if Britney Spears wrote a song likening herself with Ophelia, that would be an incredibly potent statement about the miasma of misogyny-infused cruelty one swims in when one is female and famous. Taylor Swift is not Britney Spears, and has not had to suffer the ultimate denial of her personal autonomy that Britney did, but Taylor has existed for nearly two decades in the eye of the hurricane that tore Britney apart until the extremity and the abuse of it all had addled and diminished her enough to render her cageable. So I do actually feel like Taylor Swift comparing herself to Ophelia has the potential to be extremely valid in that way.

Buuuut. I don't really feel like all that much of this^ is present in the song The Fate Of Ophelia. The argument can be made that it's a more apt analogy than it seems at first glance, but the song itself is very much, as you say, a song about being saved from emotional hopelessness and desolation by romantic love. Any exploration of what it was that drove Ophelia/Taylor to madness/the brink of madness is only touched upon with a glancing generality.