It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I'm a huge fan of Taylor Swift, though it took me a little while to come around on her when she first started. Miss Americana, the recent Netflix documentary, takes us through Swift's career from the beginning, stopping at key moments to dig a little deeper and to get some commentary from Swift. She says very early on that her guiding principle has always been wanting people to think she is good at what she does. She is clearly very driven, motivated, talented, and has a support network that was dedicated to helping her develop that talent (her parents moved with her to Nashville when she was young so that she could pursue her music career). As she has grown older, Swift has seemed to gain some perspective on how fragile basing your life on that guiding principle is.
Looking back on the incident when Kanye interrupted her VMA acceptance speech, Swift says that when the crowd started booing, she, in the moment, thought that they were booing her. She says that when your whole "moral code" (she uses that phrase more than once, even though I'm not sure that's what I would call it; I would call it more a sense of self or a personal ethos) is based around wanting people to like you, having a whole roomful of people booing is your worst nightmare. On the one hand, anyone who is any sort of high achiever and largely bases their worth on achieving their goals can relate, and can think of points where they've been devastated at a failure or perceived failure. On the other hand, when you're a performer, everything you do is so much more public and so much more closely scrutinized. You can see where maybe you'd have to get to a point where you rethought how much you needed everyone to like you just to survive.
The film is largely about how Swift has learned to do that. Two key points that come up are her struggle with disordered eating and her recent decision to become politically active after spending years avoiding talking about her political views. She says that she has had to learn the hard way that she feels much better and has much more energy in her shows when she isn't starving herself, but that that means having to learn not to care so much when, say, a tabloid reports that she looks pregnant based on an unflattering photo. Politically, she says she was warned from very early on that she didn't want to get "Dixie Chicked" based on the backlash the Dixie Chicks received when lead singer Natalie Maines spoke out against then-president George W. Bush. We see advisors warning her when she wants to speak out against a Tennessee senatorial candidate who has a record of supporting anti-woman and anti-LGBTQ policies; one even asks her if she would be okay with half as many people coming to her shows. She says in frustration that it has begun to feel hypocritical to get onstage all, "Happy Pride Month!" if she isn't willing to actually DO anything. She ultimately does release a statement in support of the candidate of her choice. She has had to learn to let go of her need to be liked by everyone in order to be healthy and live her values.
What the film is, then, is the story of how a high-achieving young woman who is prone to people-pleasing has established a career and learned to do things more on her own terms. I thought it explained a lot about her. It was relatable, yet also shed light on how someone who has achieved that level of success has a different mindset and different priorities than the average person (even the average high-achieving person).
No comments:
Post a Comment