Taylor Swift, progenitor of the celebrity #girlsquad movement, officially initiated Blake Lively into her benevolent blonde power circle this week. Swift announced their friendship in an Instagram post of the two jumping mid-air in what appears to be an amusement park.
Yesterday was such an amazing day off, she wrote in the caption. Roller coasters, kangaroos and LOLs with @blakelively.
The Internet rolled its eyes: Sure, Taylor Swifts excessive earnestness and wrangling of celebrity sister-friends is charming, but is there no end to this parade of besties and #squadgoals and LOLs?
The eye-rollers are now rushing to Swifts defense after Camille Paglia, the mordant cultural critic, hilariously skewered the pop stars obnoxious Nazi Barbie routine of wheeling out friends and celebrities as performance props in a larger essay criticizing the girl squad craze. (Squad as a pop termonce had a hard, combative street edge, but today its gone girly and a bit bourgeois, Paglia wrote in The Hollywood Reporter.)
Paglia argued that Swift and other women in the entertainment business who are at the mercy of swarming, intrusive paparazzi culture could benefit from feminist solidarity, though they wont find it in the narrow gender factionalism that thrives on grievance. She cited a pap shot of Swift in 2013, post break-up with Harry Styles, as a dramatic example of their vulnerability.
She went on:Given the professional stakes, girl squads must not slide into a cozy, cliquish retreat from romantic fiascoes or communication problems with men, whom feminist rhetoric too often rashly stereotypes as oafish pigsIn our wide-open modern era of independent careers, girl squads can help women advance if they avoid presenting a silly regressive public imageas in the tittering, tongues-out mugging of Swifts bear-hugging posse.
The Nazi Barbie routine barb aimed at Swift may seem harsh, but Paglias shrewd critique is entirely valid. For all of Swifts talk about girl power, theres very little feminist substance to the #girlsquad movement on social media.
Rather, its cutesie, hashtag activism. Whether Swift develops a lasting, meaningful friendship with Livelyas shes seemingly done with Karlie Kloss, Lena Dunham, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many othersthe image of sisterhood shes projecting is more popular girl with her posse than genuine female solidarity.
Paglia has previously criticized other pop stars use of props, like the cutesy toys in Miley Cyruss infamous VMA performance several years ago: Intended to satirize her Disney past, it signaled instead the childishness of Cyrus notion of sexuality, which has become simply a cartoonish gimmick to disguise a lack of professional focus.
In retrospect, Paglia was right about Cyruss lack of professional focus. Shes grown up slightly since then, but sex continues to be the focus of her public image, along with her personal identity. Shes come out in support of feminist causes like Free the Nipple, but she hasnt come out with a new album in two years.
Paglias latest essay is pretty straightforward: Theres nothing wrong with girl squads, but theyre easy to make fun of. If Swift and others want to be taken seriously as feminists and artists, they might want to start by rethinking their #squadgoals.
The post Why Camille Paglias Nazi Barbie Takedown of Taylor Swift Is Spot-On appeared first on CelebrityVirals.com.
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