The Issue with Sexism and “Cancelled” Celebs.

binge drinking, cutting her phone line to seclude her from help, and most surprisingly, body shaming Taylor.

In the original cut of the music video, the word ‘FAT’ is displayed on a scale, while Taylor’s anti hero character shakes her head and smirks - this is where people started to struggle with the message portrayed in the video and called for Swift to remove this part (which she later did), but was this backlash fair?

Swift has openly discussed her struggles with disordered eating before, in her Netflix documentary Miss Americana, and therefore including the ‘fat’ comment in her discussion surrounding her negative self talk was arguably simply a further solidification of her experience with eating disorders.

On the other hand, in the same week, Kanye West made various comments surrounding the Jewish community, tweeting that he was going to go “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE”.

This lead to his empire seemingly disintegrating around him, with Adidas, the primary YEEZY retailer, cutting ties with him, Apple Music removing some of his songs from their ‘Essentials’ playlists, and various other companies and celebrities unfollowing Ye on social media.

Both very different issues that faced similar levels of backlashthis is where it begins to become an issue of deserved backlashdoes Swift deserve the same level of backlash for making an argua- into head first on his infamous social media rampages. Why was the reaction so similar?

Easy - sexism. Swift has been at the eye of a sexist storm for as long as I can remember, starting very early on in her career when she was dismissed by none other than Kanye West at a music awards show in 2009 - since then, and throughout history, women’s public blunders have been blown out of proportion, especially to Amber Heard, Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian, Britney Spears, Hillary Clinton - yes, these women did some things very wrong, unluckily for them, they were watched by millions as they did it. But they were definitely held to significantly higher standards than their male counterparts, who arguably did worse things in many situations (i.e. Kim Kardashian’s sex tape vs. Kanye West’s antisemitic hate speech). bly fatphobic comment that West got for making a highly antisemitic comment? Bottom line - no.

In the grand scheme of things, Taylor Swift’s fat shaming ‘Anti-Hero’ character shown in her music video has definitely done more harm than good - but she responded, made changes where necessary, and now this small two second clip can do significantly less damage than if it was left in the official music video.

Swift’s nod to the word ‘FAT’ in her music video may have been tasteless to some (myself included) but it’s a drop in the ocean that West has repeatedly jumped

NON-BINARY REPRESENTATION when compared to men’s public blunders. Think about Kanye West in various situations, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Liam Gallagher, Chris Brown, Johnny Depp, Travis Scott, the list goes on and on and on.

Now compare these men

However, West’s comments, paired with his inability to apologise publicly and change his ways, will continue to cause damage if left without consequence - though it seems consequence is finding him relatively easy this time around.

It has always been a beautiful reminder of the amazing types of people in the world, and for me, was a nod to the complexities that come with gender expression and exploration. In recent years, the representation of trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming queens has definitely increased, and noticeably - from the fabulous UK queen Bimini Bon Boulash (my personal favourite to the point my dog is named after them), the drop dead gorgeous US queen Gigi Goode, and the cur- rent queen on screen in the UK, Dakota Schiffer. Seeing so many beautiful gender bending icons is a normal phenomenon for myself and the queer community as a whole, but it begs the question - is representation in mainstream media increasing as fast as it is on this staple queer franchise?

Short answer, no, not really. Outside of Drag Race, I can’t remember the last time I saw an openly trans or non-binary character in a form of media which wasn’t pre-labelled as ‘queer TV’.

Recently, Heartstopper took the hearts of millions, and a trans woman was portrayed in that in the form of Elle, played by the wonderful Yasmin Finney, and it was a refreshing move because

Elle’s entire personality wasn’t centred around her trans-ness. However, where there is a step forward in queer media, like the lovely character of Elle, there is an arguable step back in the mainstream - where was the non-binary copper in Line of Duty? Or the trans heart surgeon in Grey’s Anatomy?

Simply including these characters in BBC 1 or ITV shows without centring their whole existence around being trans, or focusing their whole identity on their non-conformist ways, will be a massive step in the right direction - for both the youth of today, by normalising the sheer existence of different gender identities, and the older generations, by showcasing the major variety of different people who exist in the world today in the franchises they love.

I’m sure my grandma would have had significantly less questions about my non binary-ness or my sisters trans-ness if Kate Fleming and Steve Arnot were a crime fighting pair of trans coppers, headed by the gender non-conforming Ted Hastings, but that’s also because she was addicted to Line of Duty (if you can’t tell, I really miss Line of Duty for some reason).

All in all, Drag Race is obviously going to attract a more diverse range of genders, in both their audience and their contestants, simply because of the community that surrounds the franchise. But I am determined to see a character in a popular mainstream series who just so happens to be transgender, not just a transgender character who is there to check a box.

And hopefully it’ll be in Line of Duty, but that’s just wishful thinking from me.