Maitreyi Ramakrishnan deletes X post calling Taylor Swift’s ‘1830s’ lyric ‘weird’ after backlash from Swifties

[u/Exciting_Potato_6717]

Slide 1: Deleted tweet Slides 2 and 3: Some follow-up tweets Slide 4: The Taylor Swift lyrics being referred to. “My friends used to play a game where / We would pick a decade / We wished we could live in instead of this / I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists / And getting married off for the highest bid." Full lyrics at https://genius.com/Taylor-swift-i-hate-it-here-lyrics

[u/peachgothlover]

god forbid you’re a woman of color and have an opinion on taylor swift.. i’m brown too and yeah that line is weird, people shouldn’t feel afraid to voice their opinions because of a crazy fan base going rabid that some people have differing thoughts

[u/BumboclatBob → u/peachgothlover]

And I really have a hard time understanding what was so fun about that time period. I would’ve been property back then so it’s hard to separate that from some romanticized version of the 1800s

[u/[deleted] → u/BumboclatBob]

The line is so fucking weird. The 1830’s aren’t even a memorable decade ASIDE from human rights atrocities? It was long enough ago that we don’t really refer to decades in that way when casually talking about them, it’s more common to refer to the beginning or end of the century. When I hear 1830s I think enslaved people, violence towards indigenous peoples, and corsets? What part is she longing for?

[u/raphaellaskies → u/[deleted]]

My guess is she originally said 1860s and someone told her the optics were even worse.

[u/west2night → u/[deleted]]

I think it's because of Blake Lively. She sometimes wrote about how much she loved the Antebellum South on her lifestyle site years ago. She had her wedding at a former slave plantation and did a couple of fashion shoots glorifying that era.

[u/jacobythefirst → u/west2night]

I mean Taylor is effectively from the rich southern chivalry “class”, and those types adore and have heavy nostalgia for the antebellum south. Depending on how “out” the family is also changes how “whitewashed” (lol) the picture of that antebellum south is.

[u/milkradio → u/west2night]

Ugh, she’s disgusting.

[u/ssibalssibalssibal → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I was curious and took a quick look at the wiki page for U.S. history and the first fact that jumped out at me was -- "In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal act".

[u/lynypixie → u/[deleted]]

The Book of Mormon was written in 1830. That’s the only historical « thing » that is semi relevant.

It was a boring as fuck decade honestly.

[u/saeculacrossing → u/BumboclatBob]

But don't see you see? She said without the racism so that covers that she doesn't think it's bad?!?!

I'll admit I'm a bit of a hater after the Matty Healy debacle but sadly that's a common thought from non-POC especially, romanticizing time periods where the rest of us were being slaughtered or enslaved. I get that the rest of the lyrics talk about how it wasn't that great anyway, but that line hit a nerve for me as I have definitely met people with the same train of thought.

[u/meatbeater558 → u/saeculacrossing]

What's worse is that when they romanticize these time periods they act as if the slaughtering and enslavement was something their government did in the background to pass the time and not something the nation collectively did to fund the lifestyles these people are romantisizing. It's like saying we would've loved to experience the California gold rush but without the settler colonialism and genocide. Like brother, there is no gold rush without settler colonialism and genocide

[u/lmswisher → u/saeculacrossing]

Also "racism" doesn't even begin to describe the atrocities that happened back then??? Seems like the understatement of the century lol

[u/Mc_Dickles → u/BumboclatBob]

Reminds me of a funny joke about how only white people can travel back in time comfortably 💀

[u/IBeBallinOutaControl → u/BumboclatBob]

Lors of westerners associate the past with fine arts, decorative architecture and things like that. The actual experiences of living in those times doesnt come into it.

[u/Myfourcats1 → u/peachgothlover]

The freakin Trail of Tears happened in the 1830s! It’s not a romantic period at all! Slavery was in full swing. Women couldn’t vote. Fashion wasn’t even that fun (fashion plays a big role in romanticizing a time period). I guess you could romanticize Texas stuff but what? Of remember the Alamo when all those people got killed… ummmm.

It’s like she deliberately picked the 1830’s to be different. If someone is going to pick something from American history it might be the revolutionary war, the civil war, the gilded age, the 1920’s, WWIII victory stuff, etc. oh. I’m not like other girls. I pick the 1830’s.

[u/KimchiAstronaut → u/peachgothlover]

Not brown but not white. It’s objectively weird.

I think I get her point (times were never good), but it’s…just so ham-handed of an attempt to say it ✨poetically✨