Taylor Swift has become a household name that you can’t hide from (especially now with the Canadian leg of the Eras Tour kicking off in Toronto) and that seems to really bother a lot of people. In fact, I’m sure the mere existence of this article in this week’s issue even has some of our readers rolling their eyes.

Before I move forward with this article, I think it’s important to state my position. I am, yes, a fan of Taylor Swift. However, I do think that the thought process I’m about to walk you through is a decently fair one, and has nothing to do with my love for Taylor Swift and everything to do with my passion for respect and accepting differing opinions.

I believe the single thing that bothers me the most is how when posed with the question, who is your favourite artist, most of the time, if someone names an artist that you yourself don’t listen to or favour, the normal response is, “Oh, I don’t really listen to them but that’s cool.” However, the second you name Taylor Swift as your favourite artist to the wrong person it’s met with, “I hate Taylor Swift so much,” followed by more spiteful comments regarding her fan base and songs.

I think what most people don’t understand is that I have no problem with you disliking Taylor Swift, I just have a problem with the fact that you can’t respect that I like Taylor Swift.

Let’s break it down.

There are a lot of artists with massive followings, right? Beyoncé, Drake…name any artist with a huge fan base, and you’ll find passionate supporters ready to defend their favourite artist against any criticism. But for some reason, Swifties seem to get a whole different kind of hate.

When I actually have conversations with these individuals who like to spew hate, they will tell you they dislike Swift for one main reason, that reason being because, “All of her songs are about breakups.” Once again, I want to reiterate that it’s okay to not like her music, however if you did listen to her songs, you would find some with much deeper meanings and stories behind them.

Another thing that I believe contributes to this hateful fire is the classic “gatekeeping” attitude. Some people can’t handle the idea that so many people love Taylor Swift. They think it’s “uncool” or too “mainstream” and makes you “basic,” but I think sometimes it’s OK to accept that some people are just pleased with life’s simplest things.

I understand not being a fan of a certain artist or their music, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, our opinions make us who we are at the end of the day. But learning to respect what others find comfort and love in is an important understanding to have.