Taylor Swift calls out Netflix for joke about her dating life in Ginny & Georgia
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Last year, Taylor Swift premiered her documentary Miss Americana on Netflix, giving an intimate glimpse at many of the challenges she’s faced throughout her career, from having the responsibilities of being one of the world’s biggest pop star while her mom’s battling cancer, to dealing with scrutiny from the press. Swift gets very candid about how much that mistreatment affected her, so it took her by surprise when she found out that new Netflix show Ginny and Georgia includes a (very outdated) joke about her dating history. As you can imagine, Swift is not pleased.
On Monday, Swift tweeted out about her disappointment over the joke, writing, “Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse shit as FuNnY.” She also directly called Netflix out for allowing this to happen after her Netflix documentary tackled why these jokes are harmful: “Also, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you. Happy Women’s History Month I guess.”
The show hasn’t received favorable reviews, but even before Swift tweeted about the joke, Swift’s fans made sure to tank Ginny & Georgia’s ratings even further, as Insider’s Grace Panetta noted on Twitter. Netflix hasn’t responded as of yet, but whoever’s handling Netflix’s socials is dealing with the wrath of Swifties all day.
108 Comments
I watched the little intro thing that netflix plays for this show and it seemed like it sucked. Netflix is really cranking out these shitty drama things lately
so thrilled that they cancelled GLOW for gems like ‘emily in paris’ and ‘ginny and georgia.’the only good thing about netflix now is its decent list of international shows.
I wish people would stop making these types of statements. They didn’t cancel GLOW for any of the shows you said. They would have been in production regardless.
hey, the only group of fans more likely to become irrationally fierce in defense of their hero than Taylor Swift’s, are Alison Brie’s.
The one it showed me was her standing up and schooling her teacher on her first day of class with a speech about how sexist and racist the class syllabus was, which just reeked of woke “that happened” nonsense.So if the show is more of the same, they absolutely deserve to be called out on this.
Yeah that’s the one. The whole show just seems like very low effort writing
Well, now I wanna hear this joke.
It’s in the screen cap of the tweet. It’s about as lazy a joke as can possibly be imagined on the subject.“What do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift.”
Really? Why? I mean even if you don’t agree that the joke is sexist or degrading and even if you hate Taylor Swift more than any single person on earth, she is right, isn’t she? The Internet was swamped with those kinds of jokes and hot takes for the past 10 years.
How could anybody find it funny or anybody, outside of Taylor Swift, find it interesting?
I’m guessing hulk6785 is making a Streisand Effect-type comment.
Curiosity.
“Well, now I wanna hear this joke.”
Do you not see the tweet with the screenshot?
Its captioned on the screen with the tweet Swift made
Thank you to Taylor Swift for letting me know that a Netflix show I’ve never heard of made an obvious joke at your expense.(Maybe they’ll do the Disney Plus thing, and put a disclaimer in front of the episode.)
Or digitally add hair, a la Splash.
Just to note, there are plenty of decent Taylor Swift jokes out there that aren’t at her expense.
It’s a lazy joke, but I don’t see how it’s “deeply sexist.” It’s okay to take a pitch from time to time. Not everything is a federal case.
It’s sexist because it’s only viewed negatively because she’s a woman.And you know it’s a negative because no one makes the punchline “you go through men faster than Leonardo DiCaprio goes through the newest models”. And that’s not mentioning the whole, she’s been in a serious relationship for years now.
And you know it’s a negative because no one makes the punchline “you go through men faster than Leonardo DiCaprio goes through the newest models”.Jokes like that are made about DiCaprio all the time. In fact one was made at the Golden Globes Awards last year by Ricky Gervais.“[The Irishman] wasn’t the only epic movie,” began Gervais. “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood [is] nearly three hours long. Leonardo DiCaprio attended the premiere, and by the end, his date was too old for him.”
No, that’s a joke about Leonardo DiCaprio dating younger women, which, depending on their ages in comparison to his, could also be a valid critique. That’s different than making jokes about a woman dating a lot of men, which many of us have done, for the mere point that she dated a lot of men.
Who’s viewing it negatively here, though? The fact that Leonard DiCaprio came to your mind when thinking of a counter-example (which is who I thought of, too, while I was reading the article) is sort of evidence that people do make those punchlines. It seems kind of puritanical to view consenting adults dating a lot as negative.
Because Leo is seen as a playboy. Even the jokes are based on him not wanting to settle down.When the joke is about Taylor it’s that she can’t keep a man.That’s the sexism. The joke isn’t that Leo can’t keep a woman, it’s that he doesn’t want to date anyone near his age.
“Why do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift,” does not sound like a joke about Taylor Swift not being able to hold on to a man.
Makes Taylor Swift sound like a delicious curry.
If this was 15 years ago, sure, I would agree with you (but 15 years ago we probably would have referenced George Clooney). Now, in 2021, Leo is seen as a child who won’t grow up and can’t handle a partner who is his equal. He’s the butt of the joke.
We should all be so “mockable.”
Except the joke didn’t say anything about her not being able to “keep a man”. If anything, the joke and its context seems to reference the character as being a player, and therefor in control of the romantic situations being referred to.But, regardless – fuck this show on its bad writing alone, fuck netflix for a myriad of reasons, but also fuck Taylor Swift.
It’s hard to “keep a man” when he knows your next billboard hit will be about him.
It wasn’t implying that she can’t keep a man. Saying she goes thru men implies that she dates them and she ends the relationship. Whether or not that’s the fact of each relationship’s end, that’s what “going thru men” usually means. You have to be looking really hard to find this to be anything but a joke, not a sexist attack. Taylor’s not a little girl. She’s an adult. Instead of being so angry about a silly joke, a little self deprecation, or just ignoring it, would have made the whole thing go away.
You’re a very dumb person
But people do make those jokes about Leonardo DiCaprio, that’s probably why you thought to bring him up.
Is this supposed to be a joke? People make that punchline about DiCaprio all the time.
What about “you go through men fatter than Leonardo DiCaprio at age 40?“ is it still okay to use that one?
Yeah – ‘sexist’ seems a stretch. I guess you can’t really get offended by ‘lazy’. I’d have just left it at “2010 called…”, which is a perfectly suitable riposte, with a soupcon of irony.
Just you wait until I attain high offense and make bad jokes a federal offense. All those cornballs laughing at their own puns, we’ll see who laughs last!
Obviously Reed Hastings watches every second of every show to ensure they all have the same stance about pop stars, so it’s odd that he would allow these two things to co-exist on this tiny platform.
God I’ll be happy when her fanbase ages out of marketing relevance. Imagine harassing some corporate social media team because a terrible show made a bad joke about a singer whose music you like.
Wait’ll you hear about Kpop stans.
Wait, what’d they say about Neil Diamond?!
Neil Diamond? It’s Bobby Sherman or nothing!
I find it odd that a 24 year-old is constantly having her ‘failed relationships’ referred to. We’re they all supposed to end in marriage? How many ‘failed relationships’ has Leo DiCaprio had now that he’s 39? Why is it that his numerous relationships are never referred to as failed but those of a 24 year-old girl, are? – Alex, Marietta, United States, September 2014
Not that odd if you consider that Swift’s made many songs detailing all these ‘failed relationships’. Analogy would work better if Leo made many or even some semi-autobiographical movies about the people he has been with.
People always say this as if no other songwriter has ever written songs about their failed relationships. (I mean, that’s what well over half the songs out there are about, FFS.)
Oh shit, I agree with a Daily Mail comment.
It would probably help if she didn’t use her breakups as writing fodder time after time. Plenty of men and women run through partners. People do make jokes about both genders contrary to what other people like to say. Taylor happens to sometimes make it a bigger deal by making it part of her persona. People make fun of Drake for the same reason.
A lot of people wouldn’t have careers if they didn’t use their breakups as fodder.
Its no judgement. I just think making this a gender thing ignores why Taylor, specifically, hears jokes about her love life more than most.
TBF, there are a whole bunch of reasons to make fun of Drake.
No argument there. But, Drake specifically hears jokes about him being a simp or a manwhore quite often. I know I hear them.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s failed relationships are constantly referred to. The guy is a huge movie star but his string of girlfriends is like his defining feature.On the other hand, Swift has been with her boyfriend for four years now, so this joke is pretty stale. It would be like saying someone goes through girlfriends like George Clooney (who’s been married for six years).
She’s 24?
The date on that quote is 2014 so…no.
Leo, I feel is a bad example, it’s a well used joke that he does not date women over 25
TBF, that’s most single men here in LA that are in “the biz”
While I agree that the ongoing conversations about her relationships are gross, so are the ones about Leo. Also, Taylor is 31…not that it makes a difference.
People got a lot of opinions on this… all I can say is that if I was in the public eye and some show made a lame ass joke about me that feeds into some annoying tabloid narrative from years ago, I’d have a thing or two to say about that as well and might not feel particularly inclined to hold back on my anger.Not a lot of empathy online though. What else is new, right?
Why should I give empathy to a stupid joke that no one except her and her stans would ever take seriously? This isn’t a new joke. It’s not a overly harsh joke. It’s a true joke. And it’s a joke that would have just passed by if she continued to ignore it. She gave the joke more power than it ever would of had. Celebrities life is fuel for jokes. Shocking!
Well, I don’t know about you, but empathy for me isn’t a thing I just turn on and off at will. I’d rather have it than not have it. I can easily see myself (and really, most people) reacting in a similar way. I love empathy. I always aim for empathy. I happen to have it for her. I find very much preferable to malice or resentment.
this comment is shockingly masturbatory
So is your face.
Fair enough. Probably right.
Well, I don’t know about you, but empathy for me isn’t a thing I just turn on and off at will.Empathy is a thing that everyone turns on and off at will. We choose what to be empathetic to all the time. Nobody mourns The Rock scratching his Bentley. Nobody feels bad for the Nazi punched in the face. No one weeps for their hairdresser’s dad who spent his whole Saturday fishing and didn’t catch anything. The majority of people apparently don’t empathize with a rich, famous, privileged white woman being the subject of a bad joke about the subject matter that made her famous.All of that is fine, and I’d wager you feel the same way about the first three.
“Why should I give empathy”Why not? You gave this article your interest. Empathy ought to at least be that easy.
And this one time, Bill Cosby made a movie that was so bad he bought every print of it to try to keep anyone else from seeing it!
Empathy isn’t about hearing about a situation and asking “How would I respond to something similar?” Empathy is about putting yourself in someone else’s shoes and considering something from their perspective and not your own. That’s where you failed.
It might’ve been true years ago, but no one talks about her dating life anymore. The joke is stale af.
“Boy howdy, get a load of that slut dating 2, maybe even 3 different guys a year” is actually a pretty harsh joke to regularly aim at a teenager, regardless of their level of celebrity. I get why she’s still irked by it a decade or so on, and I’m glad she’s showing her fans in the same situation that it’s okay to tell these assholes to fuck off.
I remember Tina Fey & Amy Poehler made a joke about Taylor the first time they hosted the Golden Globes, and all hell broke loose.She had just broken up with Conor Kennedy, and Amy and Tina told her to stay away from Michael J. Fox’s son, who was escorting nominees onto the stage.She later said “there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women”. Help? I guess she wanted Amy & Tina to fix her up with Sam? That comment doesn’t even make sense. Taylor needs to find her sense of humor. Or maybe figure out why anyone mentioning her romantic life causes her so much angst.
I’m not saying a celebrity should have to put up with egregiously sexist or racist jokes at their expense but if you’re a mega-star like Swift part of the trade-off for the fame and adulation and millions and millions of dollars is putting up with being made fun of sometimes. This particular joke is lazy, hacky and outdated and I don’t even disagree with calling that out… But she went overboard with the outrage. Her prerogative, just seems like an overreaction to me over something nobody would have even noticed or thought twice about.
I think, in Swift’s shoes, many wouldn’t waste a precious moment on such a stupid joke like this. This stupid joke landed more attention and staying power from this controversy, and it’s not like many make that joke any more.
Maybe some mega star having a meltdown over a mild joke on a TV show no one watches just isn’t the sort or thing we all show up and dump sympathy on.
Sure, but the “and this, on International Women’s Month, how dare you” angle is kind of lame. I’m in two minds about this, but I think there is maybe some implicit slutshaming in the joke, but equally I’m not sure that it even suggests that having multiple partners is a bad thing, just that it’s something Swift was known for and actively played into in like 2014 that has stuck in the public’s perception of her.
Fuck off, Taylor.
i mean i can see both sides of it, but this really seems like punching down for swift. framing it as sexist is weird considering the show is created by a woman and seems to be largely starring, written by and directed by women. certainly women can be sexist, but it feels more like simply a lame joke than openly hurtful to anyone except swift specifically….also she’s really streisand-effecting this, noone would have heard about this or cared otherwise.
I get what she’s saying, but she also made her dating life a big part of her songwriting for years. (Has Tom Hiddleston’s profile recovered from that embarrassing period?) Hard to put that genie back in the bottle, although I can understand where she’s coming from—she’s older now and I can’t blame her for wanting to leave that stuff behind.
“Has Tom Hiddleston’s profile recovered from that embarrassing period?”Seeing as it didn’t dip in the first place…
i think it’s one thing to be like ‘this is annoying and corny. bad, dated joke.’ and another to be like ‘for shame on this entire enterprise for this vile sexist transgression on international women’s month! my legion of fans, attack!’
Considering Tom Hiddleston is starring in a Disney+ show about a Marvel character who’s been in half a dozen movies, I think he’s doing alright.
Yeah this reminds me a lot of when Amy Schumer took great offense at some college kid making a joke about how she sleeps around.
Taylor Swift has leg insurance.Once you get to the point in life where you feel the need to take out leg insurance, pretty much any comment you make about people less well-off or successful or famous than yourself is punching down.And furthermore, her legs are just normal tall skinny person legs, not the goddamned Koh-i-Noor or anything. And why would you even need to insure your legs unless you’re an athlete? I’m not a doctor or anything, but I’m pretty sure you can sing without legs.Leg insurance. I mean, come on.Besides, Swift has to know the power of her fan base, and I can’t remember exactly but didn’t we just learn some kind of lesson about not riling up obsessive fans and pointing them towards something?In closing, Taylor Swift has always weirded me out and I now feel vindicated.
As a leg man, I’m glad to see a TS leg truther out there. Long, yes. World class, no. NTTAWWT.
leg insurance comes for us all.
“I don’t see the sexism… now let’s talk about Taylor Swift’s legs and how much she creeps me out for 75% of my post.”
Yeah, fuck whomever thought this was a joke worthy of on-screen time, but at the same time this is such a stupid hill to pick a battle upon. Swift’s attempts at political statements are always aggrieved, but this is such a petty thing to waste time over.
When you’re a public figure, haters are gonna hate.
The best thing you can do is just shake it off.
It seems more like she’s being a thin skinned lose
To be fair, I’ve known many women to be horribly sexist against their own gender. I’m sure that’s still a problem in Hollywood, even if not always intentional.That being said, none of this applies here, imo. It’s a stupid line with a lazy celebrity reference.
so a woman feeling `put upon is low, but a woman writer is okay with that?
Still remember when she got all pissy about Tina Fey and Amy Poehler several years back.
This is the second article I’ve seen about this Swift-Netflix kerfuffle and somehow neither of them mention that earlier controversy over the Fey & Poehler joke, which just strikes me as weird because they’re almost exactly the same.
I mentioned this very omission on another site that’s also covering this topic. It’s definitely odd to forget to mention it. Swift getting all huffy with Fey & Poehler was the first thing I thought of when I read about this.Not to mention Swift’s reaction is hypocritical as she’s used her very own songs to target other women (Katy Perry and *especially* Camilla Belle). She certainly wasn’t thinking of female solidarity when writing either.In other words, she can dish it but not take it.
Even weirder is that Fey & Poehler literally just hosted the Globes again last night, which is where they made the original joke! You’d think people would be quick to make that relevant connection here with all the familiar characters in the news at the same time.
Lorelai Gilmore would never.
This is like when country singers get mad when people make jokes about pickup trucks in country songs. She got famous making songs about breaking up with people, and now she’s mad that she’s known for it.
There was a great Buzzfeed piece a few years back about how Taylor Swift has spent most of her career using victimhood as a marketing schtick, from the Kanye West stuff to all of her (often dubious) inferences to bad boyfriends. This feels very much in line with that. I’d be more inclined to agree with her criticism if the joke wasn’t riffing on a storyline that Swift herself pushed to her advantage for years.
Feel like there is nuance to be had. (This joke didn’t get it.)
You can joke about Swift’s breakup process includes writing a song about the guy and leave out however many guys there happen to be.
Back in the day, Julia Roberts was the butt of these jokes, but that had more to do with the Keifer Sutherland thing.
So leave, Taylor alone. Unless she starts up with Liam Neeson, in which case, that would mean he’d been with Helen Mirren, Julia Roberts AND Taylor Swift.
Most people aren’t rich, famous, and powerful enough to have a documentary made about themselves, which seemingly exists only to tell people how to think about them. And yet most people can figure out how to brush off a banal, outdated, but ultimately harmless joke without going full attack mode.Taylor Swift has used her massive platform in a lot of very positive ways, but this isn’t one of them.
I haven’t been following TSwift’s activism very closely, but does she ever use her platform to fight against sexism that doesn’t directly affect her? In my view, her recent activism (i.e. supporting Democrats, that “You Need to Calm Down” video) have been opportunistic, lending a helping hand far past the point of it being useful or entailing any kind of significant risk for her brand. That, above all, is what makes me dislike Taylor Swift’s public persona—she wants to appear as though she is using her platform for equality when she’s really just using it to benefit herself. Granted, you could make the same accusation of most celebrities, but there are a lot of celebrities whose advocacy spread beyond their immediate circle.But as I said, I don’t follow her closely and would be happy to be proven wrong.
I don’t see the problem with this. Its not a terribly funny joke but that doesn’t make it sexist. Maybe she just needs to stop taking herself so seriously, who says people can’t make jokes like that?
So Netflix is supposed to get into the business of censoring one artist, to keep another happy?Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen
“Extremely Rich And Privileged Musician Angry At Tiny Obscure Joke Made About Her”
I fixed your headline for you.
I read something she wrote that isn’t Taylor Swift’s writing even her pompous self righteous public persona writing wouldn’t use the phrase hard working woman about herself that’s hard working man the theme to the movie blue collar which was the movie elysium or wake up in valhalla from the movie gladiator I’ll ignore the echo from the movie a life less ordinary the song was the girl in elysium walking across the terrace of the house on the orbiting habitat she was a white brazilian that’d be a house somewhere on the coast of brazil one of the rich enclaves mirrors of malibu los angeles in south america near sao paulo or rio so that’s a hellfire missile strike from a predator drone on her in brazil and a reply in malibu the missing full stop at the end is a microdot so that’s the murder from the paul newman cold war spy movie I’d add that I hadn’t seen a taylor swift music video in years and didn’t realise she’d gotten fat and her voice was going except that would be just mean and besides everyone else thinks that anyway bye bye malibu bye bye good lookin’ brazilian bitch bye bye new york bye bye ms. swift I promise never to think of you when you’re gone ms. gomez ms. emma stone I’ll miss here’s to the psychopaths the only ones who’ll live through this ooh a hellfire missile just for me and here I am without a high powered rifle dearie me how unfortunate hope the siberian killer makes it you should have seen her just amazing
Where do I apply to be Taylor Swift’s thicker skin? For a mere 50% of her income and assets, I will become the new butt of every single Taylor Swift joke, with the option generously granted to all joke-makers to either pretend that I’m a functional Taylor Swift clone, or to tailor (sorry) the jokes to be about my own personal foibles instead. This service also comes with a 100% guarantee that I won’t get butthurt and confrontational unless and until said jokes rise to the level of actionable defamation. Obviously Swift and I will split the proceeds from any successful defamation lawsuits 50/50. Fair’s fair.
Judging from Swift’s conduct herein, I have to assume this job posting exists. So… anybody? Website? Phone number? P.O. Box? Pre-printed applications and questionnaires? Help a poor, anonymous pleb out – but really, in a way, you’ll be helping a rich and successful celebrity, so never mind about me. Do it for her!
I get there are a long standing societal assumptions about prolific partners for women as opposed to men, but I thought a staple of current feminism was about owning the power of sexuality?She is negating that power by seeming to be ashamed of her past (while writing umpteen “empowerment” songs about it). Not to mention, it just said “go through men” not “slut it up around town like a whorish prostitute” or something gross. The amount of men she’s dated isn’t outlandish by any modern young person’s standards, just public as hell.
I’m sure even rich, beautiful, celebs get insecure, but the whole fake outrage of this just screams “look at me” marketing, tbh.
I’m not comfortable with people saying shitty sexist things on TV for laughs and I’m also not entirely comfortable with Taylor Swift deciding what conversations I’m allowed to have about Taylor Swift. In short they should cancel the show and her record contract so that I don’t have to think about this. I said good day sir!
It’s not even a good joke.I mean, if you’re going to make a joke about Swift’s dating life, you make a joke about how she’s going out with someone just to get material for a new breakup album.This is just lazy.
WTF are “ratings?”
And traffic’s all backed up this morning due to a mattress on the freewayA mattress? Uh Oh Taylor Swift must be in town!