By Kara Lewis
After a week of cryptic hints on social media, Taylor Swift dropped a new single last week. The song, titled “Look What You Made Me Do,” inspired a debate on Twitter just minutes after its release.
Though it’s fueled by a dance-y, techno beat, Swift’s newest hit has a dark message. She strikes back at the media and at Kanye West, vowing to get revenge. It also seems to be a response to those who call Swift a “snake”: her video teasers for the song featured an angry, slithering serpent.
Some labelled the song “victim-playing,” while others applauded Swift for owning her infamous reputation. Either way, with lyrics that mention back-stabbing, karma and even Swift’s own death, one theme of the song is clear: the singer isn’t afraid to call herself crazy, or play along with the stereotype. In fact, the role of the villain helps revamp her career. She used the same tactic three years ago to write her single “Blank Space” from the perspective of a heartless, serial dater.
In fact, many famous women have recently used this career move. In her 2016 stand-up special Baby Cobra, comic Ali Wong jokes about trapping men into relationships and marriage, specifically wealthy men. She plays the crazy, gold-digger stereotype, while also ridiculing it. Ironically, the financial success of Baby Cobra and Wong’s show Fresh off the Boat means that she’s far from a gold-digger.
Writer and actress Rachel Bloom also embraces the stereotype of a crazy ex-girlfriend on her show, aptly called Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. She plays high-powered New York City lawyer Rebecca Bunch, who spontaneously follows an ex-boyfriend to a small town in California. With over-the-top musical numbers and relatable jokes about social media creeping, Bloom makes us laugh at the crazy ex stereotype, but also approaches it with complexity. She even remarks in the show’s theme song that “crazy ex-girlfriend” is a sexist term.
The recent success of thriller novels like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl shows that people love it when women play the villain. Swift, Wong, Bloom and others are more than happy to oblige, and educate along the way.