Women are womening. To me, this means women are taking over the world and finally getting the credit that they deserve. However, with the growing success of women, critics are coming after them — not just women but things that women love, things that are mainly woman-supported and literature that encourages women to be everything they can be — from all angles.
“I hope you like feminist rants because that’s kind of my thing,” said Jessica Day, the title character of the hit sitcom “New Girl.”
Maybe women are not being burned at the stake for being witches anymore, but everyday things that are primarily women-associated are being demonized. Things like music, shows, food and establishments are being mocked for being basic or annoying.
For example, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have the two highest-grossing tours of the year, with Swift’s The Eras Tour set to become the highest-grossing tour ever! That is awesome, right? How could anyone look at Swift’s documented, and obvious, success and then say that she is without talent? It is crazy, but it happens every day.
“They’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one,” Swift said in her song “I Did Something Bad.”
There are countless social media accounts on every platform that are dedicated to talking about how annoying Swift and her fans are. When Swift first started appearing at her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s football games, rage ensued that Swift had taken the last segment of entertainment that she was not involved in.
The NFL started showing her at the football games, focusing on her reactions and showing her bonding with the Kelce family and other players’ significant others. This drove Swift’s haters insane because, suddenly, she was showing up in a place where she was not welcome. However, it has been documented by the NFL that a goal for this year was to get more women involved in football. Swift accomplished that goal for them.
There is no reason for Swift being at a football game, supporting her boyfriend — who pursued her — to bother this many people. At the end of the day, she is a normal person who happens to be amazingly successful and who is supporting her boyfriend, yet she is constantly criticized for screen time that she is not asking for.
This is not the first time that Swift has received massive amounts of criticism. Since her career took off, she has been asked in interviews more about her dating life than her career moves. In her song “The Man,” she talks about how, as a woman, everything she does is called calculated instead of smart. In a 2019 interview with CBS, Swift gave a powerful message about the differences in language used toward women and men in the industry.
Not only is Swift constantly called annoying, but during her Eras Tour, she was actually accused of witchcraft. The proof of this was simply the choreography that was done during her performance of the song “Willow.” The choreography consisted of Swift and her backup dancers dancing with pumpkins in capes. Somehow, that became witchcraft. Swift posted a video on Nov. 14 of her singing “Labyrinth” with the caption “Never beating the sorcery allegations,” poking fun at the accusations.
In 2023, witchcraft is still being thrown around as a way to demonize perfectly innocent things, like music or coffee. On TikTok, certain religious groups are accusing Starbucks of witchcraft. While there are other more serious things going on in relation to the company, like the boycotting because of the Palestine-Israel conflict, people are talking about the logo that was established at the company’s founding in 1971.
These groups are sexualizing and demonizing a drawing of a siren that the owners found in a book about ancient mythology. The reasoning behind the logo that I have found is that the owners wanted the siren in the logo to represent the enticing, irresistible coffee that they are selling. From a strategic communications major and marketing minor, I think that this is solid marketing. It communicates that they want to draw people into their business by referring to an awesome mythical creature.
However, the original image of the siren was more risqué than what is seen today. The original siren showed the split tail in its full glory and was also bare-breasted. The same groups that are trying to say that Starbucks partakes in witchcraft are pointing at this original image, saying that it was meant to serve the devil, with all sorts of conspiracies about if you flip it upside down, what you see and what it actually represents.
While statistically, Starbucks is patronized 15% more by men than by women, what do you think of when Starbucks comes to mind? Personally, I think of women, how awesome they are, how we need caffeine to function, that kind of thing. If you look at social media, jokes about Starbucks have been made for years, and they are almost always targeted at women or femininity.
They call pumpkin spice lattes basic and say girls who get Pink Drinks are annoying; men are criticized for getting anything other than plain black coffee because that is “for girls.” There is nothing wrong with liking something that is popular. Obviously, there is a reason that it became popular in the first place.
It comes back to things that, traditionally, women like being demonized: Swift, Starbucks, scrunchies, water bottles and more. Anything that becomes popular with women is subject to criticism. It is ridiculous. Stanley cups hold so much water, they come in such fun colors and I love drinking from a straw. I never understood the point of making fun of them. They are cups for drinking, but women happen to really like them.
Once you start seeing the way women are talked about, it is hard to ignore. We are no longer burned at the stake, but they continue to take women and things that women like and either directly accuse them of witchcraft, which is so 18th century, or just call them lame and basic in an attempt to make people feel bad about liking things. This is ridiculous and tiresome. Some of us just want to be happy.
