Taylor Swift: The Jade Lady and the Dancer

Taylor Swift lies in the bathtub, wearing a metallic swimsuit that shows off her sexiness. Taylor Swift leans her hands against the wall, revealing her entire hip.

Taylor Swift Photo: AFP

Taylor Swift wears elaborate lingerie like a Victoria's Secret angel.

Taylor Swift is no longer a gem?

Promotional images for her upcoming album, The Life of A Showgirl (an equally provocative title: The Life of a Showgirl), have once again landed Taylor Swift in controversy.

In the tracklist, the second track of The Life of A Showgirl is named after Elizabeth Taylor , the legendary Hollywood actress with eight marriages and seven husbands in her life. During her lifetime, she was criticized with the phrase "debauched love life".

By playing with the theme of sexuality, Taylor Swift is clearly ready to give up the nickname "American Sweetheart".

Taylor Swift promotes new album

After the "darkening" phase with the snake image in the album Reputation, this may be the biggest controversy in terms of image building in Taylor Swift's career.

Some praised her boldness, others missed her sweet girl-next-door image, the innocent fairytale princess of her twenties. Hadn’t she asserted her feminine power without the need for provocative images? Why did she have to follow trends?

And the true disciple Sabrina Carpenter

At the same time, the singer considered Swift's true disciple, Sabrina Carpenter, the pop phenomenon of 2024, released the studio album Man's Best Friend, a product that made people wince right from the cover art and title, not to mention the suggestive lyrics and frank sexual manifesto.

Sabrina Carpenter causes controversy

Is she attracting the "male gaze"? Is she degrading women?

Even those who understand that Carpenter is being sarcastic and poking fun at the depiction of female submission, which is common in male-dominated cultures, argue that it does more harm than good: Carpenter is only reinforcing gender stereotypes.

It seems like more than 30 years ago, when Madonna released her personal photo book with a series of artistic nude photos, when the pop queen's music video Justify My Love about women's sexual fantasies was released, banned for "fully exposing a treasure trove of deviant behaviors", then re-examined as an expression of "true feminism", the audience gradually became accustomed to normalizing the fact that every woman should have the right to control her own body.

But no.

There is controversy whenever a pop artist chooses to reveal their thoughts on sexuality or explore the dimensions of sensuality. More or less, the subject is still considered taboo by audiences.

Lisa and controversial image

Remember two years ago, when Lisa broke the ideal image of a K-pop idol by performing at the Crazy Horse Club with strippers, she immediately became the target of criticism from many people. If it was just love/hate, that would be fine.

But a series of comments on social media asserted: Lisa is becoming a tool for the rich to entertain. They predicted that she would soon be discarded by the tycoons when she passed her peak and was no longer of any use.

In the name of protecting a woman’s future dignity, people believe they have the right to objectify her in the present. And most importantly, many of those commentators are women.

Which brings to mind Madonna's sarcastic remark about sexism: "Be the kind of woman men want. But more importantly, be the kind of woman other women feel comfortable around."

Indeed, from Madonna to Britney Spears, from Miley Cyrus to Lisa, from Taylor Swift to Sabrina Carpenter, whenever a female celebrity (especially those who used to have the image of a goddess or princess) explores other limits, the question "what can women do with their bodies" is brought up for debate as if it were new.

While with that question only each woman can answer for herself.

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Hien Trang

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/taylor-swift-ngoc-nu-va-vu-nu-20250907092625.htm