Peace at last! All is well in Gay world now that Taylor Swift and Katy Perry have publicly and officially embraced in Swift’s pro-LGBT video of her new single “You Need to Calm Down”. The video and song’s value are twofold. On the one hand, the song very explicitly talks about her own personal feud with Katy Perry, which unfolded in what seems like ages ago. On the other, it’s a rally to support LGBT rights.
@hayleykiyokoLet’s go through the Katy Perry-Taylor Swift situation first. A tweet single-handedly ended it all which, thanks to the media, quickly spiraled into an all-out beef involving two female artists. It was one of the most public and controversial feuds, but not the only one we have had in recent years. Why, though? What is it about female artists that prevents them from getting along
@taylorswiftSwift has an answer to that and she’s pointing fingers at the haters who obsess over indulging in other people’s personal life and living for celebrity drama. Also, the media feeds into this fascination. The lyrics of this song sing: “We see you over there on the internet / Comparing all the girls who are killing it / But we figured you out / We all know now we all got crowns”, by that we are lead to believe Swift has much about had it with media pitting women against each other. It’s not that they can’t get along. It’s that the media portrays it that way and some people can’t get enough of that. But guess what? Art and music aren’t competitions. That being said, Swift is now undefeated champion at peace-making. Nobel Peace Prize, anyone?
The end to the feud was hinted at when Swift when Perry shared a plate of chocolate chip cookies on Instagram, but this video confirmed all rumors of a make up when Swift appears dressed in a french fries box costume seemingly looking for something. She finds it: it’s Katy Perry dressed in the hamburger costume she wore to the Met Gala after party, and as they embrace, so do the gays.
@katyperryThis leads me to the second reason why the video is so valuable. “You Need to Calm Down” deals with a much broader context, the context of a polarized country with clashing values. On one side, you have protesters that challenge same-sex couples, characterized as dirt-poor, white angry men, very angry men with signs of references to non-existent arguments in the Bible. Yeah, you need to calm down.
You just need to take several seats / And then try to restore the peace/ And control your urges to scream/ About all the people you hate /’Cause shade never made anybody less gay.
On the other side, you have the LGBT community fighting for equality and legal recognition as couples featured on this video as a myriad of gay icons, gay symbols, and just overall gayness fills the screen. From Queer Eye’s Fab 5, to RuPaul, to Ellen Degeneres getting a tattoo, to drag queens, to Jesse Tyler Ferguson getting married to his real life husband, to Taylor Swift and Katy Perry themselves and even Ryan Reynolds painting a picture of Stonewall. “Now our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treats all of our citizens equally.” The video the urges viewers to sign her petition at Change.org in support of the Equality Act, which now sits on the Senate. It’s time to reconcile. It’s to declare, peace at last.
@antoniRead more:
The Stonewall Riots: How A Bar Became The Battlefield For LGBT Rights
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