Taylor Swift is making a fierce connection with women everywhere in her new lyric video. On the heels of highlighting her own frustration with inequality and sexism in her professional life in her Netflix documentary Miss Americana, Swift is underlining the issue even more emphatically in a new animated music video. Taylor Swift’s "The Man" lyric video takes on workplace sexism and speaks to the power of women uplifting each other.
Swift’s animated lyric video of "The Man" — a track about sexism off of her latest album, Lover — made its YouTube debut on Friday, Feb. 7. The video begins with a cartoon woman walking down city streets alone, who is soon overpowered by giant men striding past her and nearly stepping on her.
As the chorus begins, the woman finds herself lost in a crowd of men, trying to navigate her way. She stops; standing and looking around at every man passing her. Representing Swift’s own experiences with sexism in her industry, the woman in the video has to work harder than the men to get to where she needs to be.
The woman finally runs from the crowd into an alley, where she finds a ladder to climb up. Once she makes it up the ladder, she reaches a sea of staircases, surrounded by more men. Running from staircase to staircase, the woman’s journey feels endless.
After she’s intercepted again, she finally falls from a rooftop, soaring toward the ground, before a hand catches her midair. The hand belongs to another woman, but she’s as big as the men around her. After countless struggles, the woman is finally being lifted up, literally, by a powerful woman, who sets her on the right path and gets her out of the maze. The last few moments see the woman walking amongst other women, headed toward a towering city.
"The Man" lyric video is another nod to Swift’s involvement in politics and inequality issues recently. Her LGBTQ anthem, "You Need To Calm Down," is another great example of Swift’s political awakening. Her new Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, revealed a new song that Swift wrote, called "Only The Young," that also takes on some heavy political issues. The documentary focused heavily on Swift’s recent decision to become more vocal about her political position on important social issues.
Swift revealed to Variety that she wrote "Only The Young" after midterm elections. “It was hard to see so many people feel like they had canvassed and done everything and tried so hard. I saw a lot of young people’s hopes dashed," she said. Because she feels many basic human rights are in jeopardy, as well as major issues many have fought for and lost, Swift’s "Only The Young" hopes to inspire young fans to go vote in 2020’s presidential election, because every vote counts.
With Swift taking on issues such as sexism in the workplace, the importance of equality, and galvanizing young people to vote, it looks like she’s found her political voice. While sexism in the workplace is still rampant, Swift’s message about women’s empowerment is inspirational.
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