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Watch Taylor Swift Shut Down ‘Sexist’ Music Critics

1 minute read
By Eliana Dockterman

Taylor Swift, a newly outspoken feminist, is defending her decision to write about past relationships. During a Sunday appearance on the Australian radio show Jules, Merrick & Sophie, Swift pointed out that she is unfairly criticized for her lyrics, while men who write about exes are not:

You’re going to have people who are going to say, “Oh, you know, like, she just writes songs about her ex-boyfriends.” And I think frankly that’s a very sexist angle to take. No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says that about Bruno Mars. They’re all writing songs about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life, and no one raises the red flag there.

And unlike some other pop stars (we’re looking at you, Robin Thicke), T-Swift says she tries to keep the identities of the people she’s writing about a secret. “I have a really strict personal policy that I never name names. And so anybody saying that a song is about a specific person is purely speculating.”

So who knows who she’s really singing about in “Out of the Woods.” (Though everyone’s still pretty sure it’s about Harry Styles.)

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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com