Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is Taylor Swifts new album. It is a rework of her previous album Fearless that she released as a young girl in 2008. She rerecorded this album and named it Taylor’s version because she wanted control over her music as well as how her music was produced. In the past she was always instructed on what to do and had little say in the way her music was produced and how they were distributed. Taylor repeatedly states that this album was her taking back control of her music that she has lost over the years. Taylor swift’s music producers and the people she “trusted” were subalterns and did not allow her to have say in her own work. This relates to this class on a various amount of ways. They looked at her gender and used that as an excuse for mistreatment.

I think this example is one that closely correlates to a lot of things we learned in this class. I think Taylor’s career is a fantastic example of a single story. She is an artist who has been in the spotlight since she was a young girl and every boy seems to have an expectation from her and expect her to do certain things. As she got older we have seen how seen more into her life and seen how our misconceptions are extremely toxic and how we were quick to assume. We have also seen in her career that men have controlled her and treated her poorly. In the past year she has spoke up about this mistreatment and advocates through her music so that nobody else will have to deal with it as well. This album speaks to what we learned in class because it is an example of pursuing what you want while living your most authentic life.

Economic/social hierarchy is something we often see in big cities. People who live in the same city can have completely different lives because of how much money they have. In big cities there is often people on two side of the economic spectrum. Your economic and social status can give you entirely different life than someone who lives a couple streets over from you. According to the American Psychological Association the “class” you are can alter the way you act towards others and your overall happiness. They discuss how things such as money can be a major source of stress on people and those with less live under more stress. This goes to show you never know how someone is living right down the street from you.

In Toni Morrison’s Recitatif what I just discussed was shown between the relationship of Roberta and Twyla. On page 7 where they run into each other in their conversation alone you can see how different their lives are because of money. A particular instance that comes to mind is when Twyla references “smart IBM people” and “rich IBM crowd”. She is referring to them as somehow superior to her because of social and economic status. When she runs into Roberta to describe where she is at in her life right now, she’s describes her as someone most likely to be associated with IBM. These two girls grew up together in the same exact position, in the same place yet their futures are so different. Another way the two are different are because of their marriages and the way they are with their kids. This reading is a great example of how you can live in the same city as someone, grow up with them and end up in very different places in life. The way Twyla and Roberta describe their life and the tone of their words there is a clear and concise difference on how the two view the world.

Bloomberg.com. (n.d.). Retrieved February 07, 2021, from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-01-24/class-divided-cities-new-york-edition

DeAngelis, T. (2015, February). Class differences. Retrieved February 07, 2021, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/02/class-differences