Taylor Swift Versus Kanye West (And Maybe Kim Kardashian too)

I usually only post about Taylor Swift's songs, but this drama with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West has gotten out of control and I feel like I need to say something about it.

Let's first analyze these people are.

Swift grew up in the north, Wyomissing, Pennsylvania where her mother stayed at home and father was a financial adviser.  West grew up in midwest in Chicago with his mother where she worked at the University.  Both were interested in music at a young age, West hip hop and Swift country. Kim grew up in west in LA, and did not necessarily excel at anything. Which by the way is fine, most people are in her boat. She became famous with a sex tape. Swift and West are both really smart and started picking up their poetic and musical talents in their teens. I would call both of them musical geniuses, on par with many other musical geniuses. They have both won Grammy's, West 21 and Swift 10.  With all their success their worlds were bound to collide at one point.

The collision
In 2009 Swift won Best Female Video for "You Belong With Me" over Beyonce's "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)". West did not feel like Taylor should win the award so what did he do, interrupted her acceptance speech and told the whole world about it.  He also felt like Beyonce should have won the Album of the Year in 2015.  He walked on the stage with Beck who won the award, but walked off.  Later he told people that Beck should give the award to Beyonce.

What causes a grown man to act like this? One thing is that he thinks the music is better.  And maybe to him it is.  He has different musical tastes, grew up with different music in his life.  I do not know if he has ever listened to country or alternative rock.  They are different genres of music.  The second reason he acts like this and I believe the most important is he is egotistical and lacks social skills.  It is one thing to have a difference of opinion and express it, it is another to act on it at inappropriate times.  To storm the stage after another artist has won an award is plain rude and shows lack of basic social skills.  He could say something later in an interview, aside from the stage of the award.  But he did not.  He thought his opinion was so important he had to rush the stage.  In his mind he was the only right one and it did not matter what he did, because he was the most important person in the room, and his opinion was the one that mattered.  What did he think was going to happen? Was he trying to force Taylor to give her award to Beyonce, have the organizers of the VMA's give the award to Beyonce instead?  It did not work and he looked like a fool.

Swift went on to write a song called "Innocent" about West. In the song she says "It's okay, life is a tough crowd/32, and still growin' up now/Who you are is not what you did./You're still an innocent." She basically was telling him he had not grown up, but if he was sorry he could get over it.  The whole song is saying, yes you screwed up, "lost your balance on a tightrope", but he could have another chance if he was truly sorry for what he did.

Did Swift forgive West?  Even though she said she did, she did not really.  I would not have either, what he did was mean.  He had shown his out of control angry side and I would not want to be near that again. In 2015 Swift invited Beyonce and Jay Z, two good friends of Wests to her birthday party.  During this time Jay Z encouraged Swift to be friends with West and truly forgive him. Jay Z may have felt some pressure to encourage this because West was mad about not being included in the party. Under the advice of Jay Z and because she was being the bigger person she tried to make peace with West.  And it seemed to work for a few minutes until that fateful day when West struck again.

The Second Incident
The second incident involved the lyrics and music video to the song, "Famous" from the Life of Pablo.

The song, "Famous" came out and the lines included, "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/Why? I made that b*** famous (God d***)/I made that b*** famous".  This lyric is saying Swift owes West sexual favors because he made her famous.  In the music video West depicts Swift naked in a bed with him, something she never gave her consent for.  The lines in the song are very inappropriate, but the music video takes it one step further and is beyond excusable.  If someone circulated a picture of what they thought I would look like naked for millions of people to see, I would be beyond angry.  It is inappropriate and sexual harassment.

What caused West to think this about Swift?  Why is he trying to get under her skin?  It is explained by the second line.  He thinks Swift owes him something, that he made her famous.  In his erroneous line of thinking that means she should put out for him.  Let's pretend for a second that West is a saint.  That he is faithful to his wife Kim Kardashian.  Why would someone want to put a line in there like that anyway?  Why would you write a song talking about all the people you had slept with before your wife and who he will sleep with?  Aren't there some things that are better left private?

If I was Kim and my husband wrote a song like that I would have his head.  I would never allow it to see the light of day.  But Kim is stuck under the thumb of her husband.  He transformed her image, started picking out her outfits etc.  Why would she one be okay with her husband saying she should have sex with another person and two having him depict her naked in a music video?  What is West trying to get out of all of this? And why is Kim okay with this?  Kim is okay with this because she needs a man.  She is on her third marriage.  Her second marriage was a sham, she did not love the Kris Humphries.  She only did it for ratings.  She did not even try to get along with him.  Who starts their marriage living with another couple with a kid?  They needed time alone to get to know one another, not cameras for the world.  Her popularity stems from being a sexual object.  She needs the approval of men otherwise she is nothing.  She is not nearly as talented or smart as her husband or Swift, which is okay.  She needs to realize she can be as strong though.  She knows West has her in his pocket and pulls the strings in her marriage. If you have ever seen her show, you will know how obsessed her family is with their public image and the ratings on their show.

This is exactly why Kim leaked the conversation.  She wanted ratings, she wanted to be popular for taking down Swift.  Who yes has had issues with others in the past.  But who hasn't?  Kim never talks to Paris Hilton who made her famous.  But is Paris trying to take Kim down?  No.  Paris has better things to worry about like running a majorly successful company.  Why doesn't Kim talk to Paris?  Should we go find out and smear Kim with that? Just because Swift has problems with people doesn't mean she needs to be taken down Kim.  Honestly Kim could probably care less about Taylor's other problems, she wants ratings for her show Keeping Up With The Kardashians.  Sure Taylor might have been okay with some of the lyrics of the song, but the point is did she feel she had to be to keep in the good graces of West?  She was not okay with him implying she owed him sexual favors.  Swift is not in that kind of business. And the whole conversation was not released, just bits and pieces. There are parts of the conversation that would make a lot more sense hearing the whole thing.

West sees a strong female in Swift who is wildly successful as smart as him and maybe on track to beat his Grammy record, with music he does not like. This is the real story Beyonce is getting there, is he trying to take her down? No.  Because he likes her music.  West can not appreciate anything that is different than him.  He can not accept there is another world out there besides his own.  He sees Swift as a person he needs to put in her place.  She needs to know that she owes him.  He knows she only talked to him because Jay Z asked her too and he does not like that.  That is not good enough for him.  He wants Swift to know he is the man and he is responsible for her success. This is the real story.  I do not know why Swift is taking the brunt of this incident, when she is not in the wrong. People say she is playing the victim, but she is the victim.  She has been sexually harassed and the world should not be okay with that.  This man Kanye West is harassing her and everyone should support her, not celebrating in her demise.

Kim please stand up to Kanye, and realize you are your own person and do not need to put up with your husbands antics.  You are a stronger person and deserve a man that will treat you right. Put your husband in his place. Media please tell the story the way it needs to be told and stop trying to make women look weak. Talk about the misogynist messages in the song.  Stop asking them about their fashion choices and being okay with them being called bad names and humiliated. And stop pitting women against one another. Other celebrities, especially women, please stand up for Taylor.  Do not let men treat women this way. #heforshe

Lastly, Taylor if you are reading this.  I know you may have looked at my blog in the past. We all believe in you and you should not have to put up with his harassment from Kanye West. Keep being you.  Keep writing your insightful songs.  Yes they may be personal and they may be about others, but they relate to so many.  They help so many people out in life.  Thank you for sharing your soul this many years so others can be stronger.  Thank you for being famous because you are talented not for other reasons (cough cough, Kim).  The world needs you.  It needs your strength. It needs your sincerity. It needs your kindness. There will be people trying to take you down forever, but you are the stronger person. We need you. #IStandWithTaylor