When you hear Taylor Swift, what is the first word that comes to mind? Is it “happiness,” “hate,” “contempt,” or “love”—or do you just not know what to think? Why do girls and boys tend to have such differing opinions about her? Let’s find out!
We asked around and found a lot of interesting answers varying from people saying that they love her to others saying they hate her. 8th grader Vikram Rao says that he likes Taylor Swift “because her music is good.” PE coach Margaret Arnett says “No, [I don’t like her] because that’s all anybody wants to listen to in PE class.”
Many boys think that girls are absolutely obsessed with her. 6th graders Lawson Powell and Zach Alpert say this description applies to “most girls.”
Why don’t boys like her? 7th grader Graves Fairman blames social reasons, not musical ones, for boys’ dislike. “I don’t think [it’s] because of her music,” he says. “I mainly think it’s because of the fact that all the girls listen to her. Sometimes some boys think it’s a little weird to listen to something that all girls listen to.”
Teachers also disagree heavily on the topic of Taylor Swift. Drama teacher Adam Fry is a fan. “I like her voice; I think she has a really good singing voice,” he says. “I like the fact that she writes her own songs, and I like the fact that her music continues to evolve, from country to pop.” However, he also agrees that girls are obsessed with her.
Spanish teacher Shannon McDonough, on the other hand, is not a fan. “Do I listen to her personally? No, I don’t,” she says. “I wish I heard more students listening to a wider variety of music though.” She believes that “there is some rejection . . . from boys who don’t want to seem girly.”
Personally, we expected the answer to this question to be very one-sided, but we were wrong. We expected most boys would tend to dislike her, while most girls would tend to love her. People think that Taylor Swift’s music is more relatable to girls. Some think that girls are too obsessed with her, while others believe that her music sounds good to everyone. In reality, many boys like her music but don’t listen to her because many girls do.