Reputations

In the death of her reputation she felt truly alive.

“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now” (Ooh, look what you made me do)
“Why?” (Look what you made me do)
“Oh, ’cause she’s dead!” (oh!)

Taylor Swift is likely the closest person I have to an idol. Not only do I remember her music coming out and remember falling in love with her for the first time then fading out and coming back and falling in love with her for a second time in my preteen years. But I remember how I felt the first time I watched a video of hers. How I felt the second and millionth time. How she was always there, her songs were and still relatable in one or many ways. Taylor is My Queen. I am a proud and Loyal Taylor Swift Fan.

For a while I was sad Taylor wasn’t the “old Taylor” (I know fellow Swiftie’s I’m sorry it was a dark place) it wasn’t exactly that she wasn’t the old Taylor because deep down I knew that she was still the same amazing Taylor I fell in love with as a child; I just didn’t grasp the concept because of my own life. Follow me here, I know it may seem confusing. It was not until I watched the Miss Americana movie that I even began to understand slightly. The album Reputation (released November 10, 2017) Taylor officially “killed” her old selves. Well I didn’t understand the whole part of track 6 on the REP album (Look what you made me do) where she seriously KILLS all the other versions of herself!!! Then how everything always says “in the death of her reputation she felt truly alive” well all of it finally clicked the other night, ironically I was listening to “Look what you made me do” while having an MRI. It got to the part where she was killing off all the other Taylors and it struck!

BAM

What is a reputation? Paraphrased the reputation is what someone believes of someone or something. Does not mean it is correct. Someone posted this thing on Pinterest about the cover of the REP album and it really makes a lot of sense. The picture is black and white, and one side of the background is clean the other is covered in her name; one side representing her actual reputation and the littered side representing what people have made her into.

How does this relate to me?

I’ve mentioned before that I was a pastor’s daughter. I have also mentioned I was the stereotyped as perfect angel who could do no wrong, who thought she was better than everyone kind. I also mentioned more than a few times how I tried to destroy that stigma for myself. The higher the horse the harder the fall. For me I doing all the crap I did to break the stigma actually taught me it was okay, no not just okay but better to be myself completely even with the flaws than to be someone I wasn’t. What does this have to do with Taylor Swift? Well she helped me because she was brave enough to do it herself. She killed the reputation and labels and she fought for herself. There is also this quote that says something to the effect of “if you aren’t happy with yourself kill yourself, at least the part that you aren’t happy with” in that song Taylor shows it in a way that makes it real and easy to understand. Kill the piece you don’t like, kill the fake. Start fresh. I know there has to be other artists who have done similar but as I mentioned Taylor is My Queen. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this post and I hope it makes some sense I know my posts can be scatter brained sometimes well most the time. I love you guys!

As always Stay safe and feedback is always welcome!

Hailey Marie