Hello, I'm Bonnie Erbe Welcome to TTC Extra.

Taylor Swift has just been named Time's Person of the Year for 2023 after a year full of accomplishments, including the era's tour, which grossed $780 million.

Her movie, which made 250 million.

The release of Speak Now and 1989 and her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelce.

She hasn't fallen out of the headlines for a year.

She's the first woman to appear twice on a Person of the Year cover since the franchise began in 1927.

Jessica, I am many years your senior and I grew up there wasn't this public yearning from women for women rock stars, women idols.

And now I don't know what's the attraction is exactly.

Maybe you can describe it for us.

I mean, okay, I'm going to be fully honest here.

I wouldn't consider myself a Swifty, as I think the fans call themselves.

But yeah, I definitely think there is this huge star and culture we felt, and it is a lot more positive than what I remember from the early 2000 when there was a lot of just tearing down women.

I do think with any celebrity, particularly anyone who's a billionaire, we should be able to be critical of these people.

Just because they have huge followings doesn't mean and they're nice, doesn't mean that we shouldn't be able to be critical and talk about them and their role in society.

I think we should be doing more of that as journalists.

Journalists covering culture as well.

But I will say, yeah, there is it does seem more positive than what we had in the early 2000, which is a lot of tearing down women like Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson.

I think we're reevaluate some of that, too, which is interesting.

I think there are more talented musicians.

I look back at some of the icons, female icons from my generation, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner.

I look at some of the young women like Beyoncé, like Alicia Keys, others who I think are actually more talented than Taylor Swift.

But she just combined not just her music writing skills and a good voice, but her business skills.

She has created this And her dancing skills and her showmanship.

Her shows.

Right.

So good for her.

And frankly, when we are so divided as a country, she doesn't get involved in any of the political stuff.

She's not out there, beating the drums on political issues and good for her for that, because we need something as a country that can unite us.

There's a lot that happened this year that I feel like was worth talking about and other people who would have been worth elevating.

So I think that seems like a real shame and kind of a waste of time.

I think of the Israeli woman who defended her kibbutz and the end was so successful in pushing back on Hamas.

I think of somebody like Riley Gaines, who has stood up for women's core rights to be able to have their own sports and has really created a movement and to pass laws around the country to make to keep women's sports female and to prevent men from taking women's scholarships.

Women like Prisha Mosley, who are now suing some of the doctors that mutilated her as a part of a gender transition that was begun when she was a young, confused, mentally ill teenage girl.

And she's now suing them and standing up for her rights and to expose some of the harms of gender ideology.

All of them would have been much better and had a much more powerful than I like Taylor Swift.

It seems like they were just wanted to end the same reason that the women's magazines put people like Taylor Swift on the cover.

I mean, they're doing that because a lot of people like to pick it up and leave through the pictures of her, whatever.

But to me, this used to mean something.

And I think this is kind of just stupid.

Well, first, I don't want to sort of throw shade on any of the extraordinary women musicians who have come in the past.

I mean, whether you're talking about someone like Linda Ronstadt or Carly Simon or even Madonna.

We have not ever lacked for sort of women being in the musical conversation and really being extraordinary kind of songwriters and pushers of the culture they weren't predominant as they are today.

I think Taylor Swift herself in the Time magazine article is really the one who identified this.

And I think this is what's important.

Women in the past relied upon men's dollars for their success because women now have their own sources of income.

There are more and more women who have wealth.

The reality is women are now supporting women artists.

So it is not simply that women entertainers need to entertain men to be successful.

They are now in a situation where they can entertain women on priorities and ideas and thoughts that excite women.

And this is why things like the Barbie movie was such a success.

Thank you for that.

That was very, very insightful and thank you for sharing the part of her article for Time magazine.

Thanks for watching TTC Extra.

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