‘Cringe is unavoidable, I dressed as a housewife’: Taylor Swift speaks at NYU graduation

Taylor Swift has given a commencement speech for the graduates of New York University’s class of 2022.

In her emotive speech she told the graduate students that they must “learn to live alongside cringe.” Swift commented: “You will look back on your life and cringe retrospectively. Cringe is unavoidable over the course of a lifetime... You can’t avoid it so don’t try to – for the entirety of 2012 I dressed like a 1950s housewife!”

[jesuisshirley]

even the word 'cringe' will go cringe 🤩😍😍😍😍Taylor's word play is honoured too!

[TK]

Imagine Kanye West interrupts and takes the microphone from Taylor when she's just about to give her commencement speech and says: "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'mma let you finish, but Steve Jobs had one of the best commencement speeches of all time!"

[AdeJunaedi-ptff]

Bumi banjir berlebihan ...dikit berpikir tidak seenaknya membangun tidak memikirkan lingkungan hidup bisa tolong semua warga penduduk bumi di wajibkan buka tembok tembok ini semua pada di tembok .matahari kena tembok mantul panas meningkat .terserah ...sudah bosen tidak ada usaha ...tuh banjir terus meningkat .

[AdeJunaedi-ptff]

Enung tidak ke banjiran tidak kepanasan kalau melihat banjir kasihan ...rumah rumah kebanjiran ...hidup harus berusaha berdoa ....duh kasihan banjir panas meningkat . Enung enak tidak panas rumah tinggi atap banyak pohon ...enak adem banyak pentilasi udara tidak panas . Atap rumah lebih dari 3 meter ...banyak pentilasi udara ke luar masuk sirkulasi udara penting ...

[AdeJunaedi-ptff]

Kata keluarga sodara enak kerumah enung adem betah ....enak tidur enak makan ...ha ha ....rumah itu tempat tinggal harus nyaman ...bangunannya ....lebih 3 meter atap untuk sirkulasi udara
Banyak pentilasi sekeliling rumah pentilasi ...banyak pohon ...sekitar. ...adem tidak terlalu panas .

[mdrowe]

I’ve been a fan of Taylor’s since her Debut days in 2006 and have many fond memories associated with her music. Increasingly, though, there have been some things that have really given me pause.I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but these are issues I keep coming up against as a fan of Taylor’s music.

Are we really not trying to hold Taylor accountable for the time she took to Twitter to defend herself using feminism about a line in the TV show Ginny and Georgia yet remained silent when her fans unleashed racist threats of death on the actress (a woman of color)? This was two years ago and still no comment from her or her team, despite Tweets she made in 2020 around the time of the George Floyd protests promising to be “loudly and ferociously anti-racist”. The Ginny and Georgia incident happened less than a year later. As a result, her claims in that anti-racist tweet ring hollow, as does her claim to feminism. I am not saying she did not have a right to take issue with the line from the show, but she wielded her platform irresponsibly and in a way that endangered a young woman far less established in her career (and far less powerful) than Taylor, and that was wrong.

There was also her attempt to silence a blogger for saying she should denounce white supremacy in 2017. That was just not it. She could have sent the cease-and-desist to the white supremacists claiming that she shared their beliefs instead. That move was very disturbing to me and I feel like no one really talks about it, despite coverage of it by NPR, Time, Newsweek, NBC, and other major news outlets.

And then she told her fans to “Let (Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun) know how you feel” in response to the Masters Controversy, only to say nothing when fans released their addresses online and sent death threats to him and his children. It’s giving “I’m a super powerful person who gets my way by siccing my rabid fans on all my foes” and I am beyond grossed out by it.

Someone could have died. I have literally spoken with people whose argument was that Scooter Braun had that coming to him. Wtf? My impression is that he is a cog in a larger machine, not the problem in and of himself. Taylor signed a contract, after all, and from what I understand that is how contracts work. I respect the fight for an artists’ rights to their music, but I do not condone the takedown of another person, ESPECIALLY when death threats are involved and their HOME ADDRESS is being released.

Not that I think she’s actually reading this, but Tay, I have loved you for years (since Debut in 2006) and spent a lot of time, listens, and money supporting you, but at this point I’m feeling uneasy about your character. This is not a cute look. To her other fans, all the love to you, and let’s try and hold her accountable on our platforms, whether that be TikTok or IG or YT or Twitter. Being a fan isn’t just celebrating someone and kissing the ground they walk on. It’s a bit eerie to me that some peoples’ allegiance to her outweighs their principles of right and wrong. Again, I have spoken with people who actually DEFEND these things, believe it or not. 😭

Labelling me as a hater comes across as an attempt to dismiss valid concerns. I very much have my own attachment to her. Went to a concert at age 19 in 2011 and cried tears of joy when she came on stage. Her lyrics are beautiful and she is immensely talented. I have fond memories associated with the releases of each of her albums. But I know how these situations make me feel and I have trouble being fully present to appreciate her musicianship and lyricism like I used to. Can anyone relate to this? I have been treated really terribly for sharing this opinion. I just feel like there has to be room in this fandom for accountability, right? If she’s our “fave”, why can’t our fave be held accountable? It feels like the only two accepted modes of existing with regard to her are “Stan” or “pro-cancel-culture / hater”, and this feels very toxic to me.

She’s been heavily criticized for her silence, and in the ways she has responded to this criticism, I applaud her. In the situations where using her voice really counts, I have indeed never heard silence quite this loud. 😭

A lot of fans say “But she gets criticized no matter what she does.”If that’s the case, though, she might as well do the right thing. 🤷‍♀️ I feel that true fans should speak up when we see problematic behavior instead of sweeping it under the rug. She has voiced that being a feminist and anti-racist is something she is striving for, so we are wrong for not calling her out on that.

[khall]

Taylor Swift, the poster child of the 2020's "Dumb Blond".
If I'd pay'd for college and gave up 4 + years of my life to further my education, and THIS was the best they could find for a Graduation I'd be pissed.
Just sayin..