A Feminist Analysis of "Fifteen"

Taylor Swift's song, Fifteen:

I love country music. I love it with a burning passion. And inside of my love for country music also comes a love for Taylor Swift. I like her because she is my age, her songs are extremely easy to play on the guitar so I feel like I have some musical talent, and I can relate to most of her songs. Her song Fifteen is now climbing the charts. This is a fine song, and some of the things in it were true in some degree to my life. When I was a sophomore at a new school, I just wanted to be wanted (“when all you wanted was to be wanted”) instead of feeling isolated and friend-less. However there are a few lines of this song I disagree with.

After my “very first date” with a boy who “had a car” I did not “feel like flying” and never thought “he was the one.” In fact, I stopped liking him after our second date and told him I just wanted to be friends. The assumption with this section of the song is that fifteen year old girls will fall for anyone because they're so unaware. Oh, silly girl, you and your blonde curls think you love him, but one day you will learn. Yes, I have had some friends who have fallen for their first boy, but not because they were being ditzy.

The one line that really grinds my gears is "Abigail gave everything she had to a boy, who changed his mind, and we both cried.” First of all, if anyone of my friends had sex, the last thing I would do is cry, even if they regretted it. At this point (I’m 17) if one of my friends got laid I would congratulate them. I would be proud. We would not cry about it. If they were upset and cried, I would tell them sex may be a big deal in our culture but in truth it really is not. I would not join them in said crying.

This also implies that "everything she has" is her virginity, her purity. Does Abigail have anything else? Maybe a killer sense of humor or good history study guides. Can she make a three-pointer on the basketball court? And then if Abigail did not actually bone this guy but instead gave him her humor and study guide, did her and Taylor cry after he did not think Abigail’s jokes were funny and study guide sucked?

Taylor Swift is a huge influence on teenage and preteen girls (and boys!) and I really hope she uses her influence wisely instead of making it all seem like girls are ditzy and are not smart enough to not sleep with stupid boys.