Taylor Swift won several awards at the iHeartRadio Awards last night, including best tour. She wore a blue/purple sequined romper, a look she’s done before, in years past, in eras past. And that wasn’t the only thing that felt old, like a rerun. Like we’ve been here before. 

During her acceptance speech for the tour, she opened on defence – the haters said this tour would suck and no one would come. Well hahahahaha. Basically. I mean, sure, you could argue that her remarks were in service of her fans and acknowledging their loyalty but there’s more than one way to do that, non? Watch below if you haven’t already: 

I’m not opposed to giving a f-ck you to the haters, stomping on a stage when people have doubted you – who doesn’t live for a good HAHAHAHAHA…when you’re an underdog. That’s the difference though, that’s the disconnect. Taylor sounds like she’s an underdog, like no one believed in her and the odds were stacked against her when, well, when have the odds been stacked against her? She’s not an underdog. She knows she’s not an underdog. She’s won TWO Grammys for Album of the Year! Positioning herself as one to highlight the support of her fans seems disingenuous to me and also a distortion of what an underdog actually looks like. If SHE’s an underdog who needs their help, how long does everyone else have to wait for help? There’s an “us against the world” mentality here that I’m not sure is sustainable. At what point does the message change from “you’re here because we’re trying to prove something” to “we’re all here because we want to be”? 

Hopefully the next era? The incoming new era? She’s not saying when that will be, though she does acknowledge that everyone’s looking into the clues, even the butterflies on her shoes are being taken as a sign of something. From snake to butterfly, that’s the metaphor. Um, I hope not. Because it’s an overused and corny ass metaphor. While we’re at it, same goes for the swan metaphor. Can’t she just be wearing butterfly shoes because she just wanted to wear butterflies?