SHE'S SO BAD BUT SHE DOES IT SO WELL: The affect of Taylor Swift's sexual transition on selected Filipino female fans

ABSTRACT

Parungao, A.M.B. (2016). SHE'S SO BAD BUT SHE DOES IT SO WELL: The affect of Taylor Swift's sexual transition on selected Filipino female fans, Unpublished Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.

At twenty-five years old, Taylor Swift is one of the most celebrated artists of the millennial generation. More than a musician, she is an opinion leader. She ranks second in the musicians with most number of music video views on YouTube, and is the most followed person on Instagram with 78.5 million followers to her name. Swift particularly has a cult following among young women all over the world because of her lyrical content and music videos. Her first singles were composed of stories of young love and heartbreak and as she grew older, have developed into accounts of her sexual awakening.

This led me to investigating the affect of Taylor Swift’s sexual transition, specifically on how selected female Filipino fans who grew up listening to her in their adolescent years, perceive their own sexuality. The transformation was assessed by dissecting her music videos through a semiotic analysis and were viewed with a Third-wave feminist lens. As a Filipina Swiftie, I engaged in reflexive-dyadic interviews with fellow fans to discuss in-depth how our life histories interplay with influences from Swift’s musical content. The results of which were evaluated in terms of the Social judgment theory.

The results proved that despite the differing love histories of each of the respondents, Swift’s content helped normalize a single definition of sexuality for them that is along the lines of empowerment and identity, or how a woman represents herself as a reflection of what she has been through.

Keywords: Taylor Swift, music videos, sexuality, audience reception, adolescence, affect, Third-wave feminism, semiotics, reflexive-dyadic, life history, Social judgment theory