Getty Image / Taylor Hill / TAS23
On Friday, Taylor Swift finally released the long-awaited ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ album to the world. Taylor described ‘Speak Now’ as an album “about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies” she experienced in between 18 and 20 years old.
That stretch of time included the 2 months when she dated guitarist John Mayer, a relationship that would lead to the song ‘Dear John’ on ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).’
Prior to the release of ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),’ Taylor sought to prevent cyber bullying by asking Swifties to be kind and not go cyber bullying John Mayer for a relationship that happened 14 years ago.
Taylor Swift on the release of ‘Speak Now’ TV before performing ‘Dear John’:
“I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19… I’m not putting this album out so you can go on the internet and defend me against someone you think I wrote a song… pic.twitter.com/cFQbKQk8vD
— Pop Base (@PopBase) June 25, 2023
Spoiler alert: her plea didn’t work.
After ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ was released at midnight John Mayer‘s comments on Instagram were flooded from Swifties attacking him for the relationship 14 years ago. Ironically, it was on an Instagram post from the recent Dead & Company concert with ‘Please Be Kind’ written in the sky using colorful drones. Swifties missed that message.
They wrote:
Not seeing a lot of ‘Be Kind’ going on here…
So many of the comments are the same. Same tone, same attacks, all of which Taylor herself said she didn’t care about because it was 14 years ago.
The best comments came from people who saw what was happening and hopped in teh comments anyway with things like “puts on hard hat… Hey John, great post!”
Someone wrote “YALL STOP THE BULLYING I CANT LIKE ALL THE COMMENTS.”
Perhaps the creepiest and lamest comment was also one of the most ‘liked’ with 1,000+ ‘likes.’ They wrote “I’m disobeying mother.” I shouldn’t have to explain the myriad of reasons that comment is creepy, you’re all adult enough to understand.
Hear me out: maybe, just maybe, we honor Taylor Swift’s wishes on this and avoid cyber bullying? In all cases. Not just when the person directly involved asked everyone to stand down. No cyber bullying going forward, full stop.