By Brian Richards | Social Media | December 4, 2017 |
By Brian Richards | Social Media | December 4, 2017 |
Last month saw the release of Taylor Swift’s long-awaited album Reputation. And not surprisingly, it didn’t take very long for her album to shoot up the charts and sell millions of copies in just the first few days. It also didn’t take very long for Taylor Swift’s many fans to go online, particularly Twitter and Tumblr, to proclaim her musical supremacy over all others and that no other artist could compare and that your fave could NEVAH! All of which can seem ridiculous to people for whom Taylor Swift isn’t their particular brand of whiskey. But then again, there are those who feel the very same way about Beyoncé and don’t really understand why everyone thinks she’s so great.
(hears the sound of wind blowing, leaves rustling, and distant footsteps growing closer and closer as both the Beyhive and the Beygency slowly approach, in full Search-And-Destroy mode for all those who dare speak against one Beyonce Knowles-Carter)
I, uh…I wasn’t referring to myself. I like Beyoncé. She’s awesome. What I had said was…I was referring to other people who feel that way about Beyoncé and don’t really like her. Not me. Other people.
(sees the Beyhive and the Beygency fall back and disappear once again into the distance)
(breathes huge sigh of relief) Anyway…like I was saying, there are those on social media who have felt even more of a need to expres their love of Taylor Swift and how amazing she is. One of them even posted a challenge on Twitter as to who could possibly be badder and better than Taylor herself.
Name a bitch badder than Taylor Swift ðŸ˜ðŸ˜›ðŸ˜¤ pic.twitter.com/AkSyQBUIME
— Nutella (@xnulz) November 10, 2017
Whether this person was totally serious or just playing around remains a mystery but in either case, there were plenty of people on Twitter willing to drop many a name for people they considered to be a badder bitch than Taylor Swift.
As a child, Harriet Tubman had her skull crushed in by a slave owner, was left w/o medical attention for 2 days, + then was returned to working the fields. She went on to rescue dozens of slaves + be the first woman to lead an armed assault during the CW. https://t.co/Swgus7BlRO
— Jane Coaston (@cjane87) December 3, 2017
During WWI my grandmother chased a German soldier out of her kitchen by repeatedly hitting him over the head with a frying pan. https://t.co/erk7rtCUOZ
— Luc Sante (@luxante) December 3, 2017
My Deaf grandpa who built US Navy aircrafts.
— Nyle DiMarco (@NyleDiMarco) December 3, 2017
At the time Deaf people were considered dumb. Not only did my grandpa prove them wrong, but he was the best and became the Leader. https://t.co/vVKm9o8xbP
Elizabeth Freeman was the first enslaved Black person to sue for freedom & win. She ended slavery in Massachusetts. https://t.co/kAi4vxzrLY
— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia) December 3, 2017
Lyudmila Pavlichenko. Russian sniper who killed over 300 Nazis including dozens of officers. When on a tour of the US, she was asked how many men she had killed, and responded, "No men, just fascists." Woody Guthrie wrote a song about her. https://t.co/koJUbG2r0b
— Buzzfeed Guy Debord (@BuzzfeedGDebord) December 2, 2017
Jyn Erso, a resistance fighter raised by Saw Gerrera who led Rogue One during the Battle of Scarif and who was instrumental in securing the Death Star blueprints that would prove monumental in the fate of the Rebel Alliance despite their initial lack of support. https://t.co/UVd84htQrS
— wikipedia brown (@eveewing) December 3, 2017
Lozen was a Chiricahua Apache warrior, prophet and medicine woman. She was able to use her powers in battle to learn the movements of the enemy & helped the Apaches successfully avoid capture. She fought side-by-side with Geronimo. https://t.co/d4paWeuDqj
— Rebecca Roanhorse (@RoanhorseBex) December 2, 2017
Yaa Asantewaa was Queen Mother of the Ashanti Empire and led her armies against the British in the War of the Golden Stool. Her Army was mostly female and they sacked the British fort at Kumasi, holding back British control over the Ashanti Empire until 1902. https://t.co/QnYWvifcOq
— Mrs. Loki Laufeyson (@AnotherNerd4) December 3, 2017
Rose Schneiderman was a 4'9" Polish immigrant & organizer who invented the phrase "the worker needs bread, but she needs roses too." She helped Jews escape the Nazis through letter writing campaigns. Her detractors called her the Red Rose of Anarchy https://t.co/6iBrKn21Vo
— 🌹nature dad (@InternetEh) December 3, 2017
zheng shi was a sex worker in Canton who was captured & wedded to a pirate lord and so quickly proved her ability to command that she took over and at one point commanded 300+ ships with 40,000 men and was so fearsome that she forced china and britain to let her peacefully retire https://t.co/uQXD8JsL1k
— being emo isn't a choice like being black or gay (@DOGGEAUX) December 2, 2017
Arsinoe, younger sister of Cleopatra, took control of her brother's armies when Caesar captured him and declared herself Queen of Egypt. She won two battles against the Roman army at Alexandria, at one point forcing Caesar to strip and swim for his life. She was eleven years old. https://t.co/5k0qX1YL22
— Cammie Campbell (@camcamdamn) December 2, 2017
Ok. Fine: I cared for my brilliant husband as brain tumor took his vision, short term memory, & core bodily functions through 13 brain surgeries; raised our 1 yr old baby alone. Finished PhD dissertation 8 months after he died. Published like mad & got tenure at R1. https://t.co/yvum8IslI7
— Danna Young🇺🇸✌🻠(@dannagal) December 3, 2017
At 15, @Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban for insisting that girls had the right to an education. At 17, she became the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in history. At 18, she opened a school for Syrian refugee girls in Lebanon. https://t.co/UjPdnoqc0o
— shauna (@goldengateblond) December 3, 2017
Has anyone said Caterina Sforza yet?
— Ana Mardoll (@AnaMardoll) December 3, 2017
When told her children would be executed if she didn't leave her castle, she apocryphally is said to have flashed her vagina at the besiegers and yelled that she was capable of making more children just fine, thank you. https://t.co/k0TKLdH3BE
My Grandma survived two concentration camps & rescued a friend who was about to be executed. She moved to DC knowing zero English & was always glam. https://t.co/qYaORWtWEb
— Elana Brooklyn (@Elana_Brooklyn) December 4, 2017
My mom, who in the 80s worked to pass the Ryan White Act, and regularly filled our house with queer & HIV+ kids & teens whose parents abandoned them or couldn’t care for them. https://t.co/wPphczKLZZ
— Lizzie O'Leary (@lizzieohreally) December 3, 2017
Rufina Gasheva was a navigator for the Night Witches, an all women combat bomber squadron that flew obsolete biplanes in night bombing raids against Nazi forces.
— Emily G, Cville. (@EmilyGorcenski) December 2, 2017
She survived being shot down twice, escaping a minefield the second time, and got married on the Front. https://t.co/spKwaNF88p
Julie d'Aubigny was a French opera singer/swordswoman in the 1600s who killed over ten men in duels over other women and once took holy vows so she could break into a nunnery, sleep with a blonde nun, then burned the church down and escaped with herhttps://t.co/SaGN3FuELu
— âš” Julie d'Atmabigny (@Swordwields) December 2, 2017
Jeanne de Clisson, murderous French aristocrat-turned-pirate who named her ship My Revenge after the French king executed her husband. She spent the next decade killing all the French crews she encountered, sparing only 1 sailor to relay her message of vengeance ☠ï¸âš“ï¸âš”ï¸ https://t.co/7JGPo3qNjj
— Greg Jenner (@greg_jenner) December 1, 2017
Hedy Lamarr, considered the most beautiful actress of the 1930s/40s and the inspiration for Catwoman and Disney's Snow White, perfected a radio system to throw Nazi torpedoes off course during WWII, which formed the basis of cellphone, WiFi and bluetooth technology. https://t.co/JRLhtyOj0b
— Music Box Theatre (@musicboxtheatre) December 3, 2017
Carlota, a slave woman, took up the machete in 1843 to lead a slave uprising at the Triumvirato sugar mill in Matanzas Province and was killed. She was one of the 3 leaders of the rebellion. Her name was later given to Cuba’s 1980’s operation Black Carlota in Southern Africa. https://t.co/b6i4dg1RT0
— George M Johnson (@IamGMJohnson) December 2, 2017
Khutulun was the great-great-granddaughter of Genghis Khan. She was a strong fighter and insisted that any man who wished to marry her must defeat her in wrestling, but any man who she beat would have to give her a horse. She wound up with 10,000 horses. https://t.co/TQTrKPN9EA
— Samantha Mash 🌲 (@anamericanghost) December 2, 2017
at a convention my mom walked past a very, very long line to meet chuck palahniuk and told the guy at the end of the line he didn't need to live this way https://t.co/swOmr8EmgT
— sorry im (still) like this (@hunktears) December 3, 2017
Me. Bet she can't fuck me up. https://t.co/995oeaGM8w
— Monique Judge (@thejournalista) December 4, 2017
— Clark Kent (@CK1Blogs) December 4, 2017
If there can be a movie about the woman who invented the Miracle Mop, played by an actress who is once again playing a character in her forties even though she’s still three years away from actually turning thirty, then we can definitely get a movie about any one of these historic women who got shit done. And I’d like to think that Taylor Swift herself, the same Taylor Swift who some people think is treated too much by the public as their own personal punching bag, the same Taylor Swift who some people think isn’t treated enough like a punching bag by the public, the same Taylor Swift who went to court against the man who sexually assaulted her, won that case, and made it clear that neither her nor any other woman deserves to be treated that way and that she would do her part to support other survivors of sexual assault, is reading all of these tweets. And instead of being petty and getting her feelings hurt, she’s actually nodding her head in appreciation of everything these women have done. And is both happy and grateful that they’ve been brought to the attention of so many other people like herself.
I think "Badder Bitches than Taylor Swift" should be a coffeetable book with all those bios of inspirational women.
— Keidra @ Mastodon (@kdc) December 3, 2017
If you’d like to read more about the women described in the above tweets, you can click on the links below:
Lyudmila Pavlichenko: click here, and also here.
Lozen: click here.
The Ryan White CARE Act and how it came into creation
Hedy Lamarr: start here and here, and you can see the documentary about Lamarr called Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story which premiered in select theaters and will also be seen as part of the PBS series American Masters.