madi b.

in the wise words of taylor swift, “a man is allowed to react, a woman can only overreact.” they cut the camera to her while she was still in shock & she took a sip of her drink. that is not even a reaction. this whole situation has blown out of proportion throughout the media. you’d think things would’ve gotten better for women in the past five years since she said this, but that’s not the case. this has made one thing abundantly clear, women are not allowed to react when they are blatantly disrespected. even if they don’t react, they’re still overreacting, since there is this perpetuating stereotype that women are “dramatic & emotional.” she’s just sitting there trying to enjoy her night that she was attending because of HER accomplishments & the records she broke with her movie about her life-changing, record-smashing tour. yet, she was only mentioned once, only ten minutes in, to be devalued to her relationship & to poke fun at the ways the media has been tormenting her for years. you can not tell me that is funny. she’s been through hell throughout her career, she’s heard these jokes a million times—she’s over it. she shouldn’t have to laugh at a joke that offended her to appease anyone. personally, i’m extremely proud of her for not feeling it was necessary to be a people pleaser & laugh, which is what she typically would’ve done int the past. that shows growth, that shows that she finally recognizes her worth. she finally realized that she doesn’t have to put up being painfully disrespected. she’s allowed to think a rude joke isn’t funny, it just made her uncomfortable. if she looks uncomfortable, it means he crossed the line, regardless of if you think it was funny or not. it’s evident that this was an under reaction. she kept her composure & responded to the situation perfectly. however, even though she responded perfectly, she’s still getting tremendous amounts of hate for this. this makes it abundantly clear that men in this society will always have it out for women who are successful—especially when that success was created all on their own, since women are not allowed to be successful in their eyes. that is blatant misogyny, just like the joke they think she is a horrible person for not laughing at. of course they think the joke was funny, they’re a bunch of misogynists themselves.