An Open Letter to Taylor Swift

Dear Taylor Swift,

Where do I start? I don't even know. You criticized Amy Poehler and Tina Fey's Golden Globes joke about you and then cited the quote, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” Really?! Really?! (Please imagine me saying that in my best Amy Poehler Weekend Update impression.) Okay. So you must be an expert on helping other women. Here are a few song lyrics you've written:

"She wears short skirts, I wear T-shirts, she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers."
"She's not a saint, she's not what you think, she's an actress, whoa. She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress, whoa."
"It seems that I was uninvited by your lovely bride-to-be. She floats down the aisle like a pageant queen. But I know you wish it was me, you wish it was me." (This is a whole song about ruining another girl's wedding.)

So are these examples of women helping other women? Please clarify. To me it seems like your music puts down other women, women who aren't like you. 

Let's talk about Amy and Tina's joke that offended you so much. Here's a recap. Tina said, “You know what, Taylor Swift? You stay away from Michael J Fox’s son." Amy replied that maybe you should "go for it," and Tina replied, "No, she needs some me time to learn about herself." First of all, this was probably one of the least offensive jokes of the night. It also included some very good advice that you might consider following. In fact, you criticized Amy and Tina for not helping other women, but I think they were quite helpful to you. I don't see why this joke warranted such a severe condemnation from you. Who are you to decide who should go to hell, anyway?

Let's further explore the idea that Amy and Tina don't help other women. I'm going to focus on Amy because I know more about her. I love reading quotes from Amy Poehler because she's so wise it sometimes makes me want to cry. There are tons, but here's my favorite:

"I get worried for young girls sometimes. I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart and independent, and not so withered and shriveled." (Seriously, this makes me want to cry I love it so much.)  

She created a website, Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, and this is their mission:

"Smart Girls at the Party is a rapidly expanding online network that aims to help the process of cultivating the authentic selves of young women and the young at heart....Smart Girls recognizes that young women—and their interests—are multi-faceted. We change the world by being ourselves, and being ourselves is a life long quest."

She gives fabulous, heartfelt advice in "Ask Amy." She interviews girls with a wide variety of interests and talents in "Smart Girls at the Party." She reaches out to girls in an attempt to help them embrace their best selves. Maybe you should check out her website. She's also made tremendous gains for women in comedy. She is a founder of the Upright Citizen's Brigade (one of my favorite places in the world; I love UCB). She was a pioneer on SNL. She's not afraid to look silly and throws herself into everything she does. And let's talk about Parks and Recreation. She created a character who is quirky, optimistic, determined, intensely passionate about something (local government), and smart. Her character could easily have been the object of ridicule, yet Amy manages to portray Leslie's unique qualities as strengths. It's actually cool how much she cares about government. Here's an excerpt from Tina Fey's book, Bossypants, about Amy Poehler (it's a good book, by the way). I love this; it's a perfect example of Amy breaking barriers for women in comedy.

"Amy Poehler was new to SNL and we were all crowded into the seventeenth-floor writers’ room, waiting for the Wednesday read-through to start. There were always a lot of noisy “comedy bits” going on in that room. Amy was in the middle of some such nonsense with Seth Meyers across the table, and she did something vulgar as a joke. I can’t remember what it was exactly, except it was dirty and loud and “unladylike.”
Jimmy Fallon, who was arguably the star of the show at the time, turned to her and in a faux-squeamish voice said, “Stop that! It’s not cute! I don’t like it.” Amy dropped what she was doing, went black in the eyes for a second, and wheeled around on him. “I don’t fucking care if you like it.” Jimmy was visibly startled. Amy went right back to enjoying her ridiculous bit. (I should make it clear that Jimmy and Amy are very good friends and there was never any real beef between them. Insert penis joke here.)
With that exchange, a cosmic shift took place. Amy made it clear that she wasn’t there to be cute. She wasn’t there to play wives and girlfriends in the boys’ scenes. She was there to do what she wanted to do and she did not fucking care if you like it."

Basically you could learn a lot about supporting women from Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.