Taylor Swift took the high road on Friday, March 30, by defending Hayley Kiyoko, who said in an interview that the Grammy winner sings “about men in every single song and video.”
Kiyoko — who identified herself as gay in an interview with Elle in 2017 — spoke with Refinery 29 about her frustration with the music industry: “I’ve had several music industry execs say, ‘You’re doing another music video about girls?’ I literally looked at them and was like, ‘Um, yeah … Taylor Swift sings about men in every single song and video, and no one complains that she’s unoriginal.’”
The comment prompted loyal Swifties to slam the “Girls Like Girls” singer, 26, for dissing the “Delicate” songstress. But Swift shut down any brewing drama by sharing her opinion in response to a Tumblr user who defended Kiyoko’s comments.
“I think people are actually misinterpreting the quote. I don’t know if it is being taken out of context or what, but if you read the interview itself, I don’t believe she was calling Taylor unoriginal or boy crazy. She was just defending her choice for wanting to make videos with female love interests,” the commenter wrote. “It is actually very similar to when Taylor back in 2014/2015 would say in interviews how she believes people are sexist when they call her out for writing about her exes but don’t call out people like Ed Sheeran or Bruno Mars for writing about theirs. She wasn’t calling out Ed or Bruno at the time, yet rather criticizing how the media and the public handle the situation. Hayley appears to be doing the same.”
The “Gorgeous” singer, 28, gave a seal of approval by writing back, “Exactly. We should applaud artists who are brave enough to tell their honest romantic narrative through their art, and the fact is that I’ve never encountered homophobia and she has. It’s her right to call out anyone who has double standards about gay vs straight love interests.”
Kiyoko isn’t the first musician to seemingly slam Swift: In September 2015, The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards referred to the “Bad Blood” singer as “just a flavor of the month.”
