LISVETT SERRANT/startraksphoto.comTaylor Swift doesn't just make great points about love found and lost.
The Grammy-winning singer was also spot-on when she pointed out that, while celebrities in general end up subject to intense scrutiny of their personal lives no matter what they're producing on the screen or in the studio, female celebs get the brunt of it.
"I think with every celebrity story there has to be a 'Yeah, but...'" Swift told Esquire in a new interview. "Take Beyoncé: She's incredibly talented, gorgeous, perfect role model for girls, empowering women all over the world. 'Yeah, but...let's try to pick at her marriage.' I think that every celebrity has that. And predominantly women, unfortunately. I would date someone, figure out we weren't compatible or figure out we didn't work out, and then we'd break up.
"That seems like a very normal thing for a young 20-something to do, and that is my biggest scandal."
For real, just how unusual was Taylor's turn-over rate back when she was dating? Not very, right? Speaking of which...she hasn't been spotted with anybody in a while...
"I think it's healthy for everyone to go a few years without dating, just because you need to get to know who you are," said the 24-year-old, who just last night released the latest single, "Welcome to New York," from her upcoming album, 1989. "And I've done more thinking and examining and figuring out how to cope with things on my own than I would have if I had been focusing on someone else's emotions and someone else's schedule. It's been really good."
But Taylor admits that she can only do so much when it comes to the media coverage of her, her music, her personal life and how her music relates to her personal life.
"The only thing I can't control is the spin in the press," the "Shake It Off" singer acknowledged. "And so if I know I can't control that, I have to let it go. In some ways, though, you can control it. I really didn't like the whole serial-dater thing. I thought it was a really sexist angle on my life.
"And so I just stopped dating people, because it meant a lot to me to set the record straight—that I do not need some guy around in order to get inspiration, in order to make a great record, in order to live my life, in order to feel okay about myself. And I wanted to show my fans the same thing."
Pulling the plug on romance altogether seems rather drastic, but Taylor has had reason to use the S-word—sexist—a lot lately.
Claiming her songs are only about ex-boyfriends is "a very sexist angle to take," she told Australia's Jules, Merrick and Sophie show on 2DayFM.
"You have more and more people paying attention to what you're doing and you've been doing it the same way your entire career as a songwriter..." she said. "They use kind of you writing songs about your life as a way to play detective and for me I have a really strict personal policy that I never name names, so anybody saying that a song is about a specific person is purely speculating."
At least there are no two ways to interpret what the object of her affection is in her newest tune—Taylor is most definitely madly in love with New York.
"My life has changed drastically in the last year and a half," she also told Esquire. "I never thought I'd live in New York, because I thought I'd be too overwhelmed by how busy and bright and crazy the city is. Then all of a sudden, this year, all I wanted to do was live in New York. I never thought I would be so happy being completely unattached to anyone romantically."