Taylor Swift Explains Why She Is a Feminist

Taylor Swift admitted that she is a feminist after more than a decade of heart-breaking love ballads and unfortunate luck with men.

The country music singer, who was recently recognized shopping in the feminist section at a Manhattan book store, opened up to the Guardian about her take on feminism and how her friend, Lena Dunham, put it into perspective for her.

“Becoming friends with Lena — without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for — has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so,” she explained.

Dunham initially reached out to Swift through Twitter, where she apparently asked her through a private message if the two could become friends. Female companionship has since become more important to Swift, at this point in her life, than pursuing another relationship that she doesn’t have time for. 

“It just doesn’t seem like a possibility in the near future. It doesn’t ever work. What works is having incredible girlfriends who I can trust and tell anything,” the seven-time Grammy winner insisted.

The world can anticipate how Swift’s new friendship will support her creative vision and way with lyrics, since she appears to be shunning relationships with the opposite sex. As for now, the long-time discussions pertaining to her views on feminism can finally end. Swift said:

As a teenager, I didn’t understand that saying you’re a feminist is just saying that you hope women and men will have equal rights and equal opportunities. What it seemed to me, the way it was phrased in culture, society, was that you hate men. And now, I think a lot of girls have had a feminist awakening because they didn’t understand what the word means. For so long it’s been made to seem like something where you’d picket against the opposite sex, whereas it’s not about that at all.