Joanna Newton: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. And welcome to the first segment of just Joanna. Michelle and I have decided that we want to come on the podcast occasionally and give you shorter snippets of things that we are thinking about. And if you're a Swifty, you have probably listened and heard and seen all of the tech talks about Taylor Swift's new album, the tortured poets department.
Joanna Newton: I've been listening it to all. it all week. Me and my daughter have been listening to it. My husband's even listening to it. Um, and really enjoying listening to the new album. Now, if you're a fan or if you're not a fan, um, this is her brand new album. That's Talked about being really personal and right now everyone's trying to figure out who the muses of each song Is it Joe?
Joanna Newton: Is it Maddie? Is it somebody else? What's going on here? Of course the songs [00:01:00] about Travis are Getting played by everyone and everyone's excited about but for me listening to this album It's so much more than about romance drama throughout the album There are themes that Really, really go a lot deeper than just that.
Joanna Newton: Not that that relationships aren't important, but there are certain topics and themes that go throughout the album that have really made me think about my life and business and all of you, all of our listeners. And what I want to talk today is about Taylor Swift and the price of fame and also anti culture.
Joanna Newton: Sorry. And also anti hustle culture as seen through the Tortured Poets Department. You know, the first thing that I want, want to hit on is, you know, if you don't even know Taylor Swift, you've probably heard stories about her, [00:02:00] right? People make tons of jokes about how she can't keep a man, that she, you know, is a serial Dater that she drives all of the men crazy.
Joanna Newton: She even wrote a song about this blank space is about her being the stereotype that people talk about her being. She has been highly criticized her entire career. And a lot of this, the themes in this album talk about the criticism that she received just by being her. There's a song called, but daddy, I love him.
Joanna Newton: And it's all about. Um, people being critical of the, the man that she's choosing to be with and, and the way that affects that relationship, how it affects her and all of that, you know, that, that they're super, super critical of, you know, what is happening for her. Um, in another song called Who's Afraid of Little Old Me, um, she talks about the scandals being [00:03:00] contained and how the bullet just grazed her and how all she has to do is keep her good name.
Joanna Newton: Right? That there's this. great importance on her being and appearing perfect. And, you know, this is a theme that we see for all kinds of female celebrities. You know, think, think about Britney Spears, right? She was, you know, criticized for being too sexy when she came out. She was criticized for her relationships.
Joanna Newton: She was criticized when she gained weight. She was criticized for everything. every single decision that she made. And in some ways that criticism and in many ways likely drove her to other bad decisions and other things that were self sabotaging in her life. And really in this album, you know, Taylor Swift is talking about the pressure of fame and the way In which she's self sabotaged in so many ways in her personal life that have hurt [00:04:00] her.
Joanna Newton: And that just makes me think about, you know, a couple different things. One, like the price of fame is high, right? When you're out in the public, you are You know, people are going to be hypercritical of you judge the things that you do. And I think this is something that women just experience at a much higher and more detailed rate than men.
Joanna Newton: You know, when male celebrities have multiple partners, um, you know, move on quickly after they leave one person with another, they're not often criticized, right? They are literally seen. As well, I'll use another Taylor Swift song, They're Seen as the Man, right? Taylor Swift has a song called The Man when she talks about if she did, if she was a man, she would be the man because that type of behavior, getting, getting a new, getting a new partner and a new love interest, you're seeing as like, Awesome.
Joanna Newton: And if you're a woman and you do that, you're seen as a [00:05:00] slut, right? There's a insane double standard there. And as a woman in the public, and especially these celebrities and musicians, you know, they're getting criticized. left and right for everything, for their size, their weight, their haircut choices, the clothes they choose to wear, the men they choose to be with.
Joanna Newton: Any of those things are just hyper, hyper criticized. And you know, Create, you know, as the album title goes, a tortured poet, right? Like Taylor Swift at the end of the day, she's an artist and is being tortured by the world around her, the people around her, the circumstances around her. Um, one of the lines from who's afraid of little old me that really sticks out to me as in the chorus, she says, I was tame.
Joanna Newton: I was gentle till the circus life made me mean. Right. We are affected by our circumstances and the world around us. [00:06:00] And that criticism comes in and affects our sense of self except affects our sense of self worth. And. Um, you know, can, can really damage that, that internal, that internal self. So if you're listening to the album and all you're hearing is this like boy drama, which is totally there, don't get me wrong, I think there's this other layer of the price of fame, how critical everyone is of her and how that affects her life and how that affects her ability to have a healthy.
Joanna Newton: So, um, I'm going to be talking about the importance of having a real relationship. You know, and for, for those of us, right, we don't have the fame of Taylor Swift. We don't have the eyeballs on us like Taylor Swift. But if you are working a corporate job, you're working a business, you know that as a woman, your choices are being watched.
Joanna Newton: And the decisions you make, like People are being critical of them. Um, you know, things I've done in my life. I've talked, talked on this [00:07:00] podcast about, you know, my husband deciding to stay home and for me to be the one working. And that's something I've faced direct criticism over. And, and for me, the way I've gotten over that is the more confident that I have become in that decision, honestly, the less.
Joanna Newton: criticism that I have faced personally as I've gone, as I've gone in that direction. One of the other kind of big themes that I see, you know, in, in this whole concept of the price of fame is the reality that What you're feeling, what you look like you're feeling on the outside and what's actually on the inside are Oftentimes two different things and if you've heard the song I can do it with a broken heart I you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Joanna Newton: This song is about going on stage and doing a performance Right? And looking so happy, [00:08:00] so excited, hitting every mark, doing the work, and being completely devastated on the inside. Now, we don't know exactly, I guess. I don't think Taylor Swift has confirmed the exact thing that this is about, but the general public believe that This song is about doing the heiress tour after she broke up with her, you know, very long term, um, boyfriend of like five or six years and having to go out on stage and act like nothing is wrong, you know, smile, wear the clothes, look good.
Joanna Newton: glamorous, do all the dance moves, right? She couldn't very well just not go. She had a sold out stadium that people paid, you know, thousands of dollars to be there at the concert and, you know, had to go out on stage and, and do the work. To me, this song is heartbreaking. It's like really upbeat and fun in a lot of ways, but the actual lyrics are, are heartbreaking.
Joanna Newton: You [00:09:00] know, she's talking about being a tough kid and being able to handle it and fake it till she makes it. And even when she is, you know, dying and broken inside, she's hidden all the marks. She's doing all the things. She looks fantastic. And the whole crowd just wants more and thinks that she's having a great time.
Joanna Newton: Fantastic time. And one of the things that's kind of broken my heart a little bit about this song, maybe that's a little bit extreme, is on TikTok, the people are taking the, the trends of, you know, talking about, you know, I cry all the time, but I'm so productive, right? They're taking this line. Um, and it's kind of starting to become this like corporate America anthem.
Joanna Newton: Like I'm dying inside. I'm painful, but I can get so much done. And of course it's done in tongue and cheek, but I think in some ways it's starting to be used to like glorify hustle culture and glorify this idea of dying inside [00:10:00] while still getting up and, and doing the work. And the idea that you can't take a break.
Joanna Newton: You, you can't. You know, take the time that you need to take care of yourself and then you just have to keep going and keep working. And that's such a big thing that's expected of us in, in corporate America. You know, bereavement leave in, for most companies, you get like a extra day off if someone dies.
Joanna Newton: You know, so if someone really close to you dies, you have one day, other, you know, you can use your PTO or take unpaid leave or something like that, but you know, the amount of time that we get to handle our internal struggles and, and misses and you know, the question I think you have to ask yourself is if you're struggling, you're dealing with something and you're still going to work, you're still doing those things.
Joanna Newton: Like is it really worth it? Like, is it worth, you know, dying inside to go work? a job that [00:11:00] might not even be that fulfilling. This is not nearly as extreme as giving, you know, a performance on the heiress tour after breaking up with the love of your life. But I remember when I was pregnant, I, um, my company was doing these, the sales training and everybody had to pass this sales training to like keep their job.
Joanna Newton: This was something that they instituted. And the, uh, The week, my last week before I was due to give birth to my daughter, um, was the week they were starting the like final sort of passing, like that you have to do a test. You have to do this live fake sales call to pass the test. And mine was literally scheduled for the, my last day of work.
Joanna Newton: So it was my last day of work before giving birth. I was very, very pregnant. About to pop. And I did this assessment call and I crushed it, of course. Um, and [00:12:00] I did really, really well, you know, past it all fantastic. And one of the funny things is, was because, you know, if you've ever been pregnant, um, you know, as the baby gets bigger, it can be really hard to breathe.
Joanna Newton: The baby, like, It's like pushing into your diaphragm and makes it really hard to actually breathe. And so I was super out of breath. So there were times during the call that I had to like stop and like, and like take an awkward breath. And for the longest time, I was like, War, that is a badge of honor. I was literally about to give birth, couldn't breathe, and I pushed through and I crushed this assessment.
Joanna Newton: And I've told that, you know, that's kind of a story I've told a lot to be like, wow, you know, like Taylor Swift said in a song, I'm a real tough kid. I can handle this shit, right? Like I saw that as me handling my shit. When the reality is like I [00:13:00] was. Going above and beyond, you know, for a job that at the end of the day, you know, is not here anymore for me anyway and wasn't going to be for a long time, you know, I was giving my all to people who at the end of the day weren't going to be there, you know, and I wasn't building anything for myself, taking my energy away from growing my daughter.
Joanna Newton: To being proud that like I did this assessment, you know, when really probably my employer should have been like, Hey, you've been here forever. Like, you know what you're doing? Like, you could do this later, right? And not really worry about me passing. Um, given the situation I was in, but, but regardless, like this badge of honor we wear in corporate America or as entrepreneurs of I hustle so hard.
Joanna Newton: I don't sleep. I, you know, Work even when I'm exhausted. I work even when I should be resting. I work even when a family member has died or my heart is broken. Like we just [00:14:00] don't value rest in the way that I think TikTok has taken the song and turned it into this like sort of corporate anthem of of hard work instead of really what it is, a uh, song of heartbreak that she had to keep going, even though, you know, she was dying inside and the things that, and how all of that affected her.
Joanna Newton: Um, so those are just my thoughts this week on the tortured poets department, completely random and I'm sure I'll have more, but I think those themes of, of, Um, you know, the cost of fame being that the hyper criticism that women who put themselves out there face and the fact that we shouldn't be just killing ourselves for, you know, jobs at the end of the day don't actually truly matter.
Joanna Newton: Really ring true through out the album and through what is [00:15:00] going on. Well, thank you for listening to my little segment of Just Joanna. If you enjoyed this, please follow her first. We put out episodes every week for female entrepreneurs looking to figure out how to put themselves first in their business and life.
Joanna Newton: We have a ton of episodes so far, so you can go listen to more and I can't wait to see you in the next show.
