"Writing about Taylor Swift is a horrific ordeal for me because her twinkly persona is such a scary flashback to the fascist blondes who ruled the social scene during my youth," Camille Paglia recently told The Hollywood Reporter.
The famed feminist and cultural critic, who wrote an essay on the subject of Swift and squads for the outlet earlier this year, called the singer out for creating an exhibitionist spectacle and contributing to regressive gender politics. She also said that Swift should "retire that obnoxious Nazi Barbie routine" and stop "wheeling out friends and celebrities as performance props."
Swift hasn't directly addressed Paglia's most pointed criticisms of her decision to include friends onstage during the 1989 tour. But while she didn't specifically fight back on the "Nazi Barbie" comment, she has called out the reasons she decided to include friends onstage during performances.
"It would be weird to not include my friends," the singer told Apple’s Beats 1 DJ Zane Lowe during an interview that aired on ABC earlier this week. "These are the people who helped me to get to the point where I could make this album…We have some of the most amazing memories around this tour."
She also said that, due to hectic schedules, combining efforts for the concert was often the only way they could meet up. "My friends would fly out, we'd all be in one place. It actually became a way for us all to get together when we’re all really busy."
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