Taylor Swift's Song 'Lavender Haze' Challenges Discourse On Marriageable Age

The music video for Taylor Swift's 'Lavender Haze' was released on 27 January.

Taylor Swift released her album, Midnights on 21 October last year. Swift’s musings about staying awake late at night won the hearts of many and broke a few records in the process.

And with the release of her latest music video, ‘Lavender Haze’, we get a peek inside the world Swift is trying to build and continues to strive for – not only through her song but through her body of work. 

The Anti Hero-hitmaker has repeatedly managed to challenge paradigms. Be it through her decision to re-record her songs after losing creative rights over them or when she was mocked for writing songs only about her exes. 

There is something empowering in the way she subverted the ‘crazy-ex girlfriend’ stereotype and hit back, every time the media tried to criticize her.

As she inched closer to thirty and articles were churned out, on how she should settle down - she gave them a pointed answer. 

In an interview by a leading publication, Swift was asked if she would marry her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, now that she has hit a milestone age. She stated:

“I really do not think men are asked that question when they turn 30. So I'm not going to answer that question now.”

Taylor Swift, Singer

She is 33 now, but the question about her settling down still persists – the curiosity has only gained gravitas. 

But it's important to note that even those least interested in her music can’t help but recognize that she is a force to be reckoned with. But why exactly is that? Is it because of how well she expresses herself through her music?

In most instances, the answer would be reverberating, yes.

Be it through her song ‘Mean’ where she spoke about how her critics have often tried to “knock” her off her feet, or in ‘Shake It Off’ where she announced that she has no issues shrugging off all the negative critique. Her songs have always been chartbusters, despite all the negative attention.

In all honesty, her private life - who she dates, dated and will go on to date - will always be the talking point in the paparazzi culture. 

But she has been able to undercut the image of the ‘girl who only writes about her exes.’ And what's more?

She went a step further, re-imagining her life as the one deemed by the media. In the music video of ‘Blank Space’ she embraced the 'crazy-ex girlfriend' stereotype and made millions in the process.

During her Reputation era, she came up with a lyrical ballad called, ‘Delicate’, that highlighted her insecurities about being in a new relationship wherein most of the media attention she was receiving was negative – her hook line being – ‘Is it for the best? My reputation hasn’t been worse, so you must like me for me.’

While the media claimed that her Reputation tour did not go on to become a success, the album emerged as the highest-grossing North American tour by a female artist, two months before it even ended. 

And now with, ‘Lavender Haze’, she once again speaks about the unabated attention her personal life receives and how she is pigeonholed into categories of a “wife” or a “one-night.”

She sings:

All they keep asking me / Is if I'm gonna be your bride / I'm damned if I do give a damn what people say/ No deal/ The 1950s sh*t they want from me.

Taylor Swift has never been the one to mince her words.

She is blatantly hitting back at the way the media treats her and many other female celebrities. And like always, she subverts the label she has been burdened with.

From the ‘crazy ex-girlfriend’ to the ‘unmarried woman’ stereotype – she hits back with her music every time – and it becomes a hit because it reinstates experiences that women all over the world go through.