This past week, the queen herself rose from the death of her reputation to slay us all with her power and talent.  I have always been a fan TSwift, and I know that is a delicate subject.  But there really hasn’t been a time when I couldn’t relate to one of Taylor’s songs.  She beautifully articulates the heartaches and hopelessly romantic daydreams we are all too afraid to admit.  No matter how we feel about her singing abilities, her song writing has built her an empire she deserves.  Now, this isn’t a post dedicated to fangirling over Taylor (but if you wanted that I could most definitely oblige).   The Reputation era has been a dramatic one, full of more revenge than anyone could expect.  But Taylor, and my recent attendance of her world tour,  poses important questions with this album:

who are we vs. who does the world think we are?  and do we care?

We’ve been taught since we were little to protect our reputations.  To be careful of our actions and their consequences or else the outside world might begin to look down on us.  For a long time, that was something I was always concerned with: the perceptions of others.  College helped me overcome the negative side of that, but perception will always be something I am concerned with.  I have an entire instagram feed to prove it.  Hundreds of perfectly posed, pastel photos to show you a life I designed. It’s not entirely fabricated, though.  There are truly spectacular days here. And when it comes down to it, the reputation doesn’t matter quite as much because the person matters more.

That is something we can learn from every single disney princess: our reputations matter not if our hearts are true. But how would you define the reputation of each Disney princess? What’s the one word impression you give to each one?  What qualities do you search for, what actions help you reach that conclusion?  I would bet that they are almost all positive descriptions.  We are able to overlook the negative in their stories because Disney tells us to.  Because they are heros. However, if you asked the people within their stories, we’d probably be given a variety of answers. Snow White was accused of murder,  Cinderella was a maid, Belle was seen as a weirdo. I doubt the Evil Queen mentioned Snow’s kindness when trying to wreck her reputation.

But a disney princess doesn’t care about the shine of their tiaras or glass slippers.   That’s why we should admire them.  Cinderella danced the night away not caring about the entire kingdom staring.  Belle choose to look for inner beauty instead of seeing the monster she was trapped with.  Each princess rises above their individual feats to pursue goodness and truth and the well being of their kingdoms.  We don’t have an entire kingdom to protect, though, just a reputation.   Except we shouldn’t worry about reputations at all.  I should worry about how I treat people. About the quality of writing I produce and how alive it makes me feel.  About how fun I think it is to plan my instagram, not for the affirmation I receive from others, but for how truly pleased I am by the aesthetic.

So call it what you want, but that is what Taylor and every princess boldly demonstrates.  They know people throw rocks at things that shine, but they keep shining.  They are unapologetically themselves, pursuing goodness, and rising above the reputations the world creates for them.  So, shouldn’t we do the same?

Is it cool that I said all that?  I know that it’s delicate…