Taylor Swift has — after so many others — responded to the seeming (in the scheme of things, very small) mess she, herself, created on Twitter. It all started after she wrote a vastly defensive Tweet to Nicki Minaj, who’d criticized the lack of acknowledgement black women get for the culture they create, following her VMAs snub for her “Anaconda” video.
In Minaj’s original series of Tweets, she’d never mentioned Swift, but Swift wrote back, with misplaced sanctimoniousness, “I’ve done nothing but love & support you. It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot,” to which Minaj responded, “Huh? U must not be reading my tweets. Didn’t say a word about u. I love u just as much. But u should speak on this.”
As Flavorwire Music Editor Jill Mapes noted, Swift’s response was one of privilege — the privilege to overlook the crucial crux of Minaj’s statement for selfish purposes, and very mildly aim insinuations of bad feminism at Minaj.
Somewhere in all of this, Katy Perry tried to have a say as well.
Now, after the Internet reacted to Swift’s post with some proper annoyance with its seeming ignorance, Swift’s first response following the initial debacle shows a lot more self-awareness (it even employs poetic repetition!):
UPDATE: Nicki Minaj has responded to Swift’s apology: