Please Picutre Me In The Trees

In an alternate version of 2020, Alyssa and I would be getting ready right now for the first night of @taylorswift Lover Fest West at SoFi stadium. This was the outfit I planned to wear, that I took for a trial run in February when Alyssa and I went to a Lover-themed night at a club in LA. People around the world are facing far greater losses and I sit with that every day. Still, I won’t lie and say I’m not mourning the lost opportunity of seeing my idol perform because I am. I’m mourning that Alyssa and I don’t get to celebrate a girls’ night out a month before what should have been her wedding.

So many of our dreams for this year have been taken from us and, even worse, so many lives. That’s what I love so much about music, most especially Taylor’s—it’s there to comfort you during times of uncertainty and chaos and fear and loss. It brings us together when the divide feels greater than it’s ever been.

This year is hard. It’s okay to not be okay. We’ll get through this together 💗

Last night was an embarrassing night for Swifties and I say this as someone who has been part of the fandom for over 14 years. Stop projecting your fear of losing an award show you claim doesn’t matter onto Taylor. You can’t tell from a short video clip of her mostly-covered face that she’s disappointed and worried every time another artist wins and she doesn’t. It’s like the fandom is collectively stuck in this mindset that only Taylor deserves to win and if she doesn’t, then Taylor’s life is going to be ruined. Taylor will always be an incredibly talented artist whether she wins awards or not. As Aaron said, so many great artists have never won a Grammy or even been nominated for one. That doesn’t diminish their talent and ability to make music that moves a generation of people.

Taylor deserved AOTY for folklore. And the artists who won the other categories she lost deserved their wins. Taylor is the most talented artist of our generation, but it’s doing others a disservice not to respect music outside of hers. She is not the only person producing music that is well-written and well-received by fans and critics. Bias is a difficult thing to understand and look past. But so many Swifties showed last night how deeply their bias towards Taylor is ruining their enjoyment of life and music and award shows. Awards shows are supposed to be fun! They’re a time to recognize how music unites us and uplifts us all. How it brings us together during the good times and the bad, most especially over the last year. For someone as accomplished as Taylor, winning more awards or losing them isn’t going to change the trajectory of her career. But for a lot of these artists who are newer to the business, winning these awards will have a tremendously positive impact on their careers and they deserves that.

Last night this fandom forgot that entirely. We let our bias divide and cheapen and ruin what should have been a moment to support ALL artists, not just Taylor. I love her to death, but by god she’s not the only one making great music.