Wherefore the nipple bra?
Also: a great book, the slut-shaming of Taylor Swift, and avoiding despair.
Welcome to my weekend roundup!
It’s a quick one this week. Tbh, I’m dashing this off before heading to the beach with my family. Read on for some not-very-family-friendly-fare—everything from nipple bras to the “slut-shaming” of Taylor Swift.
I’m listening to…
Taylor Swift’s “Slut!” It’s a previously scrapped track on her re-recorded version of 1989. The song is “ehh” but the subject matter!
In the liner notes accompanying the album, Swift explains that at the time she “had become the target of slut shaming” for “dating like a normal young woman” and her songwriting was portrayed as “a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath.” In response, Swift says she “swore off hanging out with guys, dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era.”
Sounds like Taylor could use a copy of my book.
In the New York Times, Lindsay Zoladz points out that, while Swift was indeed targeted with slut-shaming, the term itself was rarely “hurled explicitly in her direction.” Zoladz notes that “her whiteness protected her from certain kinds of scrutiny—contrast the perception of Swift with that of Amber Rose, who in 2015 organized her own version of a ‘SlutWalk’ protest in solidarity with survivors of sexual assault.” Despite the song’s title, “Slut!” is less “riot grrrl” than “dreamy, mid-tempo reverie.” But, as Zoladz says, it’s an “honest snapshot of who she was at a certain moment in time—a young woman, wielding words, still figuring it all out.”
I’m hoping…
April Fool’s came early with this Skims ad. Do… people… want… nipple bras? This “invention” makes me think of how foundation washes out your face so you need blush and contouring to bring it back to life. Bras are partly a “modesty” measure to conceal nipples—now we’re adding nipples to our bras?
Or I guess it’s a way to wear a bra and make it look like you’re not wearing a bra? Which is reminiscent of the marketing of the no-makeup look via makeup. Relatedly, check out The Unpublishable by
, one of my favorite substacks, which tackles the absurdity of the beauty industry.
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