One thing you need to know about Ms. Taylor Alison Swift is that she, and she alone, decides when it’s time to get over her hurt feelings. And she’s not over what went down between Kim Kardashian and her.
Taylor Swift is my favorite sports team. With that in mind, we could be here all day while I explain to you the full context of why Swift just released a diss track against Kardashian, a.k.a. “In this essay I will…” Except that would invariably annoy you because we would get deep in the weeds. So let’s keep it top-level, but something you need to understand about Swift, which is a huge reason why I love her music, is that she is extremely protective of and tender with her feelings via her songs.
I bring this up because, for some people, after you understand what is going on, your first reaction might be, “She needs to get over it, good grief.” Let me tell you why she doesn’t, preemptively: Women are told, to an alarming degree, to dust themselves off, laugh it off, and move on when their feelings are hurt. It’s incredibly dehumanizing. You know who will stay in the mud of her hurt until she’s ready to get up and walk in the sunshine again? Taylor Swift. Musically, she nurses every grudge, wounded feeling, and perceived slight until she decides she’s done. Frankly, I love it because, in my own life, I’m not allowed to do it. It’s a bit of fantasy, and one I appreciate.
Anyway, there’s a new track on Pt. 2 of Swift’s latest album called “thankK you aIMee” No, your eyes do not deceive you and I’m suddenly writing as if it’s 2002 and this is AIM. The letters “K,” “I,” and “M” are spelled out, so obviously, the super sleuths among us realized who this song is really about: Kim K, obvs.
So here’s the backstory: at one point, Kim K. was a fan of TayTay, remarking in 2009 that “Love Story” was her most-played song. The two even posed together at public events a few times throughout the years, so you know, they at least could tolerate each other’s existence. However, that all changed in early 2016 when Kadashian’s then-husband Kanye West (head of him?) sang, via his song “Famous,” “I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / I made that bitch famous.”
This is gross for a variety of reasons, but lest you forget, Ye stumbled onto the stage of the VMAs in 2009 during Taylor’s acceptance speech declaring Beyoncé should have won the award. Whether or not you agree with that statement, Ye’s stunt generally humiliated 20-year-old Swift and made a complete jackass of himself. Even then-President Obama agreed. Anyway, back to 2016.
Taylor insisted she didn’t approve the lyrics and would never be OK with being called a bitch by someone else. Kim said she did and calls Taylor a snake via social media. Kanye also uses a naked Swift mannequin in his music video for “Famous,” which was sexist, gross, and violating then, just like it’s all those things now. Then Kim K. releases a video tape of an audio exchange between Swift and Kanye supposedly backing up her side of the story: that Taylor approved the lyrics and thought they were great. It was a whole thing. Swift felt that this incident was the catalyst for a “career death,” and she essentially went into hiding, not being seen by the public for a year.
She emerged in 2017 with the reputation album, reclaiming the snake imagery, referencing how much she doesn’t like Ye in a song, and for anyone else, that would be it, right? Feud over! However, this is Taylor Swift. She’s incredibly extra. She waits for the right time to strike, and until then, she nurses her grudges tenderly.
Kim K, for her part, thought this was done, declaring the feud “over” from her perspective. Swift, however, laid in wait until 2020 when she decided to release the unedited footage of her conversation with Kanye West. Yup, turns out that the footage Kim released was edited. Taylor did not agree, nor was enthusiastic about the idea of Kanye telling the world about a sexual relationship between the two. She unveiled the unedited footage of the conversation on Instagram, writing in the caption of her Story:
“Instead of answering those who are asking how I feel about the video footage that leaked, proving that I was telling the truth the whole time about *that call* (you know, the one that was illegally recorded, that somebody edited and manipulated in order to frame me and put me, my family and fans through hell for 4 years)…
People.com
After that social media bomb was dropped, Kim returns to Twitter to try to do damage control:
“To be clear, the only issue I ever had around the situation was that Taylor lied through her publicist who stated that ‘Kanye never called to ask for permission…’ They clearly spoke so I let you all see that. Nobody ever denied the word ‘bitch’ was used without her permission,” tweeted Kardashian.
People.com
After that, Taylor was done publicly speaking about Kim K … until now. Kim for her part, has tried to say nice things about Taylor since then, in her own way, so you know, using her music in the background of a social media post, and saying she likes her music on a podcast appearance.
Something to note here is that Kim K. is famously friends with Taylor Swift’s public enemy number one: Scooter Braun. So don’t forget that association most likely played a role in Swift’s long-game approach with Kardashian. No one gets to associate with Braun and think they’re not on Swift’s list, too.
Like I said at the start of this, the only person who gets to decide when Taylor Swift is gone being hurt and angry with the situation is Taylor Swift. The anti-Kim song is catchy, and frankly, we need more messy celebrity feuds in this world, so I say let them fight. However, my money has, and always will be, on Ms. Taylor Alison Swift.
(Photo by Graham Denholm/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management; Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)
