Last night, Taylor Swift made a rare political statement on Instagram. In it, she endorsed the Democratic candidate for Tennessee’s congressional race, Phil Bredesen, and, in turn, denounced the Republican candidate, Marsha Blackburn. Unsurprisingly, it’s a move that’s upset many conservative men.
“What I used to love about Taylor Swift is she stayed away from politics,” Charlie Kirk, the founder and president of Turning Point USA, said on Fox & Friends today, before suggesting that Swift didn’t actually write her Bredesen endorsement and that she had been fed false information. And according to The Daily Beast, members of conservative 4chan chatrooms are calling Swift’s pro-Bredesen statement “traitorous” and posting disturbing memes of the singer burning.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) is also giving his two-cents—particularly about Swift’s fans, who he seems to think are all under the age of 13. “So @taylorswift13 has every right to be political but it won’t impact election unless we allow 13 yr old girls to vote,” he wrote on Monday morning. “Still with #MarshaBlackburn.”
Huckabee has since received a flurry of responses taking him to task for his comment, including from Paramore’s Hayley Williams.
“And here we have a man in power mocking a woman’s value and impact out of what i can only assume is fear. not fear of an election result but fear of a powerful woman who’s power he now realizes he can not benefit from,” Williams wrote. “and who in their right mind underestimates a 13 year old girl anyway?!! who publicly mocks a woman’s political standings by dubbing an entire generation powerless? you don’t know the impact you have with your words… what fires you’ll start. use ‘em wisely.”
Some Twitter users, like Williams, criticized Huckabee for mocking 13-year-old girls. Others pointed out that, with Swift having debuted her first album in 2006, many of her fans are well within voting age.
Swift posted her message about the upcoming midterm elections on Sunday night, saying that she’s choosing to break her silence on politics due to “several events in my life and in the world in the past two years.”
“I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG,” Swift wrote, in part. “I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent. I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love.”
Taylor Swift has built a career on writing deeply personal song lyrics about her relationships, friendships, reputation, and more—but there’s one aspect of her personal life she’s always kept private: her political opinions. The singer is famously apolitical, and many have criticized her for not endorsing a candidate in the 2016 election.
That changed today, though. The singer just posted a lengthy message on Instagram that explained why she’s been silent until now, as well as making it unequivocally clear which way she’ll be voting in the upcoming midterm elections.
“I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections on November 6th, in which I’ll be voting in the state of Tennessee,” Swift wrote. “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.”
One of those events Swift may be referring to is Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court yesterday. The timing is notable given that last year Swift won a symbolic $1 after a former radio DJ was found guilty of groping her during a 2014 meet-and-greet.
But it seems sexual assault isn’t the only reason Swift’s been moved to speak out. “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,” she wrote in her post. “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.”
Swift then made it very clear who she will and will not be voting for in the upcoming midterm elections. “I cannot vote for someone who will not be willing to fight for dignity for ALL Americans, no matter their skin color, gender or who they love. Running for Senate in the state of Tennessee is a woman named Marsha Blackburn. As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn,” she wrote. “Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me. She voted against equal pay for women. She voted against the Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which attempts to protect women from domestic violence, stalking, and date rape. She believes businesses have a right to refuse service to gay couples. She also believes they should not have the right to marry. These are not MY Tennessee values. I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives.”
She ended the message by encouraging her fans to vote. “Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values. For a lot of us, we may never find a candidate or party with whom we agree 100% on every issue, but we have to vote anyway,” Swift wrote. “So many intelligent, thoughtful, self-possessed people have turned 18 in the past two years and now have the right and privilege to make their vote count. But first you need to register, which is quick and easy to do. October 9th is the LAST DAY to register to vote in the state of TN. Go to vote.org and you can find all the info. Happy Voting!”
The guy who left the voicemail didn’t address Beth Fukumoto by name.
“Hey, C*nt,” he said.
Fukumoto, a member of the Hawaii legislature, was in an airport when she heard the message and its warning: “We know where you live. We know what you drive. We’re on you,” the caller said. “Just wait. We can’t wait.”
As a lawmaker, Fukumoto, 35, had gotten used to fielding (and ignoring) angry messages and threats—particularly after leaving the Republican Party and becoming a Democrat. But when she heard that voicemail, “I just immediately started shaking,” she says.
“I definitely spent some time before running for Congress [this year] deciding if it was worth it, deciding if elevating my profile was a good idea, because of this kind of stuff—and because how easy it would be to just walk away.”
After weighing her options, Fukumoto did end up waging an unsuccessful Democratic primary bid for a U.S. House seat. She shared the unsettling voicemail with Glamour to highlight the toxicity that can plague women officials and candidates—and even make them think twice about getting in the ring.
Fukumoto says she’s seen plenty of crassness and creepiness as a young woman in politics, like donors who hint they expect a little side action for cutting a check. And yes, even threats.
She’s not alone.
In a record year for female political contenders—and in the era of #MeToo—women on the trail are besieged by comments that go from sexist to scary almost daily.
Cynthia Nixon, the actress and activist who just lost her primary challenge to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, says she found herself the target of a kaleidoscope of slurs. “This kind of misogyny is hardly limited to political candidates. Running for office just makes it that much more visible. The reality is this is what women have to deal with every single day,” Nixon told Glamour via email ahead of the Sept. 13 vote.
“In a strange way, I think my family was probably more prepared than most for the ugliness that comes with a political campaign. The fact is, when you’re a woman on television, and a queer woman no less, people say some pretty nasty things about you. So this isn’t entirely new to us,” said Nixon, who wed longtime partner Christine Marinoni in 2012.
PHOTO: Getty Images
Cynthia Nixon rallies before the Sept. 13 New York primary election.
A few graphic examples—and there are plenty to choose from—show Nixon’s policy tweets on healthcare and immigration drawing uncouth, ungrammatical responses like, “Oh shut up you ugly Dike,” “FUK YOU SCUM BAG FAG SLUT,” and “rabid despicable bitch.”
But the trolls, she told Glamour, didn’t win: “For every person who’s insulted me online, there have been countless more women who have come up to me on the street or on the subway to say, ‘Thank you for running. I believe in you. I know you can do it.’“
Responding or confronting a commenter engaging in verbal sexual harassment and hurling insults can be tempting, but Jessica Proud, a New York-based Republican strategist, says how she would advise a candidate to handle a misogynistic attack can depend on the source.
“You shouldn’t punch down. If it’s an isolated incident [involving] a voter, I don’t think it’s politically useful to engage,” she said, but there are occasions that merit a witty response—ideally “served with a smile.” (Case in point: Michigan gubernatorial hopeful Gretchen Whitmer, who mocked her hecklers in her own version of Jimmy Kimmel’s “Mean Tweets.”)
If the attack comes from “someone of prominence” or a direct opponent, however, Proud said it may be necessary to call it out sternly or have an ally do so.
Fair or not, she added, women have traditionally risked looking “weak” for making an issue of sexism on the trail—and that risk extends well beyond the campaign trail.
Tennis superstar Serena Williams, for example, got denigrated after arguing with, and demanding an apology from, a U.S. Open umpire who issued her a series of violations. (Williams lost the competition, but won some accolades for speaking up after an incident some observers said grossly entwined sexism and racism in the sport.) In business, women have long paid a price for objecting to verbal abuse from male bosses and colleagues.
Even the highest-profile female figures, elected or not, have to deal with sexist slurs: After a male Congressional candidate called Melania Trump a “hoebag” who “works by the hour,” the first lady’s office told Glamour the remarks were “disturbing and despicable.”
Christine Jahnke, a political communication expert who has advised former First Lady Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, has seen some head-spinning stuff while working with Democrats and progressive groups. The author of “The Well-Spoken Woman,” Jahnke recalls an incident in Indiana, where a candidate she advised arrived to campaign at a veterans’ hall and “some old guy comes up to her, looks her in the eye, and says, ‘Are you the stripper?'”
The best thing a woman can do, according to Jahnke, is have a cool-headed, practiced response ready to go when someone does take that cheap shot: “What you don’t want to do [is] lash out in a way that will be perceived as ‘angry’ or out of control,” she said—and that’s not always easy, because attacks rooted in gender can be distracting and distressing.
In some cases, the vitriol even crosses continents.
Cristina Osmeña, a Republican House candidate challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier in California’s 14th District, came to the U.S. at age six when her family left the Philippines to escape the Marcos regime. When a newspaper there profiled her in February, noting her deep political roots, she was appalled to see a commenter dismiss her as a “little brown fvcking machine.”
“Since this is the first time I have run for office, and this happened early in my campaign, I really wondered what I had gotten myself into,” Osmeña, 49, told Glamour. “I stopped reading the comments sections of articles for awhile. I spent about half a day seething over the comment, regretting putting myself in the limelight, [and] then I let it go and moved on… I did not respond publicly. I internalized it.”
As to any future woman-bashing she may encounter, “If delivered to me anonymously, as mean comments often are, there is not much recourse,” Osmeña said, but “if in person, I would call them out pretty quickly.”
Vermont’s Christine Hallquist also made international headlines this season as the first transgender candidate to secure a major-party nomination for governor.
Christine Hallquist
In a phone conversation with Glamour shortly after the primary, Hallquist said she’s mainly gotten a warm reception from Vermonters on the trail. She mixed humor with a bit of pity in discussing the people “with issues” who go to the trouble of sending her hate mail.
“It comes from men, and here’s the most common thing that I believe a woman hears: It says, ‘You’re ugly.’ I get so many of these ‘you’re ugly’ things: ‘You’re ugly as a dog,’ blah, blah, blah,” Hallquist sighed. “I’m like, ‘First of all, I’m 62 years old. I get to be ugly!’ … What the hell do you expect? I’m not 20.”
Hallquist said she warned her campaign team that “the more we win, the more we’re going to get attacked. The more successful you are, the greater the threat you are. Read that as success, not failure.” But despite trying to frame even negative attention as a good sign, Hallquist, as the Associated Pressrecently noted, has started taking precautions after receiving death threats.
Violence, threatened or otherwise, aside, the rules of engagement in politics can be blurry.
When Gov. Cuomo used Cynthia Nixon’s stage career to suggest she wasn’t qualified for real-life leadership, was that inherently sexist? Could he—or would he—have attacked a male rival that way? Or when President Donald Trump mocked Nevada Rep. Jacky Rosen as “Wacky Jacky,” how did that measure up to his jabs at male critics like “Crazy” Bernie Sanders or “Cryin’” Chuck Schumer?
In the #MeToo era, women are frequently heard saying they feel more empowered to call out misogynist talk. But are they dealing with more of it? Are things worse this year, with record numbers of women running—and winning nominations—for federal and state office? Are more people making gender-based remarks or threats? Are they more violent?
Tough to say, per Kelly Dittmar of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers.
Past female candidates certainly got told, implicitly if not literally, to get back in the kitchen, and “that represented only a fraction of the bias and sexism you might hear in more private spaces and, of course, that might have been in voters’ minds,” Dittmar told Glamour.
Now, “all that stuff that may have been said in bars, at dinner tables, or even just in someone’s head can be said [online] without much consequence,” she said. “Measuring frequency of attacks would be near impossible because of the scope of what we’d be counting.”
As to intensity, it’s also hard to judge, since threats also aren’t new to women in politics: “I think most about an interview with Shirley Chisholm where she talks about how close one man came to stabbing her in the back,” Dittmar said, referring to the first black woman elected to Congress.
Strategically, Dittmar said, “there had [been] a concern in past elections that if women called out sexism they were ‘playing the gender card’ and trying to garner sympathy.” Today, “I think it is harder to make that case (not that people will not…) without some backlash.”
When it comes to issues of sexism and misogyny on the trail, Dittmar said, “the positive note about this year is we are talking about it and, importantly, not accepting that it is just the cost of being a woman or a person of color in American politics.”
For Fukumoto, looking back on her experience in electoral politics, she says it “helped me a lot to have other women sort of come alongside me and just say, ‘That’s happened. I don’t talk about it, but yes, it’s happened.’ [That] kind of whisper network has been supportive. So knowing that you’re not alone, and knowing that other people are dealing with it, too, is very helpful to remember.”
After the ugliness, the threats, the drama she’s seen in politics… What’s next? Right now, working on a podcast and processing what she’s seen and heard.
“I’m going to wait to see what the opportunities are,” Fukumoto says. “I think I’m going to maybe run for City Council.”
In a pivotal election year, Glamour is keeping track of the historic number of women running (and voting) in the midterm elections. For more on our latest midterm coverage, visit www.glamour.com/midterms.
Celeste Katz is senior politics reporter for Glamour. Send news tips, questions, and comments to celeste_katz@condenast.com.
Typically, political protests aren’t really something you need to dress up for—it’s just important that you’re comfortable and warm. Of course, if you’re Bella Hadid, then it’s an entirely different story (see: when she dropped by a protest wearing a red-carpet-worthy gown and a fur-trimmed white coat).
It all happened on Friday, according to People, when the model headed to the opening of the Tag Heuer’s flagship store in London (she’s the face of the fancy watch line). She did her ambassador thing, peaced out, and then swung by a demonstration outside of the U.S. Embassy.
The demonstration was organized after President Donald Trump declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel. Those at the protest were holding up signs that said “Free Palestine”—a debate that Hadid has close ties to: Her dad, Mohamed Hadid, is of Palestinian origin.
Here is the outfit in question:
PHOTO: GORC/GC Images
She posted on Instagram about the protest with an emotional caption summing up her feelings:
“?I’ve been waiting to put this into perfect words but I realized
there is no perfect way to speak of something so unjust. A very very
sad day.Watching the news and seeing the pain of the Palestinian
people makes me cry for the many many generations of Palestine. Seeing
the sadness of my father, cousins, and Palestinian family that are
feeling for our Palestinian ancestors makes this even harder to write.
Jerusalem is home of all religions. For this to happen, I feel, makes
us take 5 steps back making it harder to live in a world of peace. The
TREATMENT of the Palestinian people is unfair, one-sided and should
not be tolerated. I stand with Palestine. There is no hate against
anyone… There are no sides… All religions living side by side..
Now it is Just one man..it has always been a factor of trying to bring
peace… Where is the hope..?”
When director Sofia Coppola took the stage to introduce a Glamour Women of the Year honoree and friend (whom she directed in this year’s “The Beguiled”), she described her as “one of the great classic actresses of our era.” Obviously, she was talking about Nicole Kidman. Name a more iconic duo, we’ll wait.
Already an Oscar winner, Kidman won an Emmy this year for her wrenching portrayal as a victim of domestic abuse in “Big Little Lies,” in addition to being a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador.
Upon going up to accept her award, she noted that Coppola was “an example to all of you who want to be female directors that you can do it. Sofia is female power.” And then she turned the spotlight on everyone else in the room and watching at home: “Let’s use this moment to celebrate what makes us, us.” She also gave a touching tribute to her husband Keith Urban, acknowledging that having a strong man on your side can be an asset as good as any other. “As much as I’m a strong woman, I need help and I need support.”
But she ended the night urging people not to seek comfort solely with people who are too much like us. “I truly believe that we must share the good love that we receive whenever we see it’s needed,” she said. “It’s about building bridges, because bridges bring about new adventures and change, and that’s what we need—change.”
Read Nicole’s entire speech, below.
Thank you, Glamour, for this wonderful honor. This has been the most
extraordinary year. I use that word extraordinary in all of its
meanings. We’re in uncharted waters.
But as we take tonight to celebrate—and I bow down to the other
honorees for their phenomenal contributions to art, culture,
exploration, human rights —I want to take a moment to say this is a
celebration of us. What makes us us.
In my household growing up, everyone was equal. Maybe it was because
it was a house full of scientists and academics. Or because it was the
’70s in Australia and it was a time of demonstration and change. I had
a feminist mother, but I also had a father who was supportive and
loving. It was so much about union and support. I was very fortunate
to be the recipient of these parents – supportive, empowering,
encouraging. That was their love…what we call in my home now good
love. And that is something I want to pass along to not just my own
children, but to those around me.
I’m a sister, I’m a mother, daughter, I’m a wife, I’m a career
woman…I’m a mother to four loving children, daughter of a formidable
mother and father and wife of a truly good man. It is who I am, why
I’m standing here tonight. And I am aware that not everybody has been
as lucky as I have been.
As much as we gravitate, with all of this going on in the world, to a
safe place, to the people most like us—the people whose gender,
sexuality, race or politics we share—I’m convinced the galvanization
of all of us together is essential. I truly believe we must share the
good love wherever we see it’s needed.
One of the first things I learned in my work with UN Women to support women survivors of
violence is how critical the solidarity of others is. The feeling that
they are not alone. That there is help. So let’s speak out. Let’s
offer our support and create change. It is about building bridges.
Bridges bring understanding, empathy, bring change…
I feel deeply indebted to the people in my life who made me, me. It
has led me to this point, to this year. To my life and my purpose in
life. I suppose what I want to say is thank you. Thank you for
supporting and embracing me, for allowing me to fail and to fall down
and get back up, brush off my knees, even if they’re bloodied and
fly. Thank you for the good love. I promise to pass it on.
