Kid Rock is facing backlash after a lewd tweet slamming Taylor Swift's politics.
Kid Rock is facing backlash after a lewd tweet slamming Taylor Swift's politics.
Swift recently talked about why she's been more vocal about politics in a new interview with Vogue for their September issue, and on Friday, 48-year-old Kid Rock questioned her motives.
"Taylor Swift wants to be a democrat because she wants to be in movies….period," the openly conservative musician tweeted. "And it looks like she will suck the door knob off Hollyweird to get there. Oldest move in the book. Good luck girl. -Kid Rock."
A number of people have defended 29-year-old Swift on social media, and called out Kid Rock for previously performing in front of a Confederate flag.
Swift's shift toward political activism started with the midterm elections last October, when she shared a post supporting the Democratic candidates in Tennessee.
"In the past I’ve been reluctant to publicly voice my political opinions, but due to several events in my life and in the world in the past two years, I feel very differently about that now," she wrote on Instagram. "I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country. I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent."
After her first post saw a spike in voter registration, Swift shared additional messages encouraging early voting and discouraging "fear-based extremism." Most recently, in June -- the beginning of Pride Month -- she introduced a petition in support of the federal Equality Act that would amend the Civil Rights Act to outlaw discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
In her interview with Vogue, Swift talked about why she's decided to speak out about issues that are important to her.
"Maybe a year or two ago, Todrick [Hall] and I are in the car, and he asked me, 'What would you do if your son was gay?'" Swift recalled to the magazine. "The fact that he had to ask me . . . shocked me and made me realize that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough. If my son was gay, he'd be gay. I don’t understand the question. If he was thinking that, I can't imagine what my fans in the LGBTQ community might be thinking. It was kind of devastating to realize that I hadn't been publicly clear about that."
Still, she anticipated the backlash.
"Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn't a straight white cisgender male," she said. "I didn't realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I'm not a part of. It's hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake that you just freeze. Because my mistakes are very loud. When I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It's clickbait, and it's a part of my life story, and it's a part of my career arc."
Swift also candidly talked about experiencing sexism in the industry.
"I think about this a lot," she acknowledged. "When I was a teenager, I would hear people talk about sexism in the music industry, and I'd be like, 'I don't see it. I don't understand.' Then I realized that was because I was a kid. Men in the industry saw me as a kid. I was a lanky, scrawny, overexcited young girl who reminded them more of their little niece or their daughter than a successful woman in business or a colleague. The second I became a woman, in people's perception, was when I started seeing it."
"It's fine to infantilize a girl's success and say, 'How cute that she's having some hit songs,'" she continued. "'How cute that she's writing songs.' But the second it becomes formidable? As soon as I started playing stadiums -- when I started to look like a woman -- that wasn't as cool anymore."
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