In Taylor Swift’s new video “Blank Space” she mocks not only her own image as an obsessed ex-girlfriend but the trope of the psycho woman scorned. After the success of the misogynistic “Gone Girl,” a chilling narrative about a woman who fakes her own stalkings, abuse, and rapes, Swift’s video could not have come out a better time. The best-selling book/ movie and the song are strikingly similar down to specific passages. In “Blank Space” Swift sings:
Find out what you want
Be that girl for a month
Gone Girl has a famous so-called feminist passage (also a montage in the movie) about the Cool Girl:
Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want.
I hate Gone Girl but I love “Blank Space.” What’s the difference? “Blank Space” is a parody. My favorite part of the video is when Taylor slashes her guy’s shirt and when he puts it on, there are two holes for his nipples. I also like the poisoned apple sequence, recalling how old this story is, from fairy tales to the Bible. As long as the culture keeps dishing out misogyny, I’m grateful for the artists who call it out. Thank you, Taylor for filling in the blank space.