Honestly, the headline says it all. Taylor Swift‘s documentary Miss Americana hit Netflix tonight, and I watched it immediately. A lot happens in it, which will make you feel things from pure joy to extreme sadness. She even announces a new song, which is available on YouTube right now. It came out about an hour ago. I could waffle on for ages here, but I’m going to get straight to it. Not because I want to aggressively share my thoughts with you, but because I really want to hit up Spotify now and spend my weekend listening to each and every Taylor Swift album.
OH, also – there’s no mention of the whole Scooter Braun / Scott Borchetta thing, probably because the documentary was already filmed when that went down.
Also, SPOILERS. I don’t know if you can spoil a documentary, but I’m going to whack a spoiler warning here just in case. If you haven’t watched the doco yet, scroll far, far away from this yarn.
Let us begin.
- When Taylor was a wee lass, she used to journal her life with a quill. An actual quill. She had a glass quill with an ink jet.
- When Taylor didn’t get a major Grammy nomination in 2018 for Reputation, she was stoic. She replied: “I just need to make a better record” and “I’m making a better record”. And she started writing Lover.
- Watching Kanye cut off Taylor at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards is still as painfully cringe as the first time, fuck.
- At the time, Taylor thought people were actually booing her – not Kanye.
“It was so echoey in there. At the time I didn’t know they were booing him doing that, I thought they were booing me. For someone who has built their entire belief system on getting people to clap for you, the whole crowd booing was a pretty formative experience.”
- Taylor said it was a catalyst for a lot of “psychological paths I went down, and not all of them were beneficial.”
- After achieving her career goal – Album of the Year at the Grammys for the second time – Taylor felt alone. Not going to lie, this bit crushed me.
“I just wondered… shouldn’t I, shouldn’t I, shouldn’t I have someone that I could call right now?”
- Taylor didn’t start eating burritos ’til about “two years ago”.
- She knows not to look at pictures of herself every day because it can trigger her. At one point, her insecurities twisted into something else, and she just stopped eating. She thought it was normal. But she understands now that what she had was an eating disorder.
“There’s always some standard of beauty that you’re not meeting. ‘Cos if you’re thin enough then you don’t have that ass that everybody wants. And if you have enough weight on you to have that ass then your stomach isn’t flat enough. It’s all just fucking impossible.”
- When writing Reputation, Taylor felt really alone, bitter, and just felt like a wounded animal lashing out.
- Joe Alwyn is sort of in this documentary. But also isn’t. Their relationship is private and it’s staying that way.
This is about as much as you see of him. - Someone got full on engaged during a meet and greet.
- Some guy broke into Taylor’s apartment and slept in her fucking bed.
- Taylor Swift deals with a lot of bullshit.
- Taylor was publicly apolitical because that’s what she thought people wanted. That sort of idea was grilled into her as a country artist. She was told not to be like the Dixie Chicks, who spoke out against President George W. Bush and got absolutely destroyed for it.
“A nice girl doesn’t force their opinions on people, a nice girl smiles and waves and says thank you, a nice girl doesn’t make people feel uncomfortable with her views. I was so obsessed with not getting in trouble, I’m just not going to do anything that anyone can say anything about.”
- Taylor said her sexual assault trial really changed her life, and it made her want to use her voice to stand up for others. Her team didn’t think expressing her opinions was a good idea. Like they really didn’t want her to do it. Her dad really didn’t want her to ‘become’ political. But the tipping point was when Marsha Blackburn ran for Senate in her home state of Tennessee. The below quote is the conversation she had with her dad.
“It really is a big deal to me. She votes against fair pay for women, she votes against the reauthorisation of the violence against women act which is just protecting us from domestic abuse and stalking, stalking [points at herself], she thinks that if you’re a gay couple, or even if you look like a gay couple, you should be allowed to be kicked out of a restaurant. It’s really just basic human rights and it’s right and wrong at this point. I can’t see another commercial and see her disguising these policies behind the words Tennessee Christian values, those aren’t Tennessee Christian values. I live in Tennessee, I am a Christian. That’s not what I stand for. I need to do this.”
- When told that the president could come after her for speaking against republicans, Taylor replied: “Yeah, fuck that, I don’t care.”
- She had a glass of wine (possibly more) before sharing that Instagram post against Blackburn.
- Taylor was really fucking pissed when Blackburn was elected.
- She casually announced a new song called Only The Young. And hell yeah, it’s political.
- She likes to paint other people’s nails.
- Taylor Swift isn’t going anywhere.
Miss Americana is streaming on Netflix now.
