What do the new Archbishop of Canterbury and Taylor Swift have in common? They have both been subject to some pretty unpleasant behaviour – online and offline – as women in the public eye.
The new Archbishop, Sarah Mullally, broke down at the General Synod earlier this year. She told the Synod, “I would love to encourage women, which I do all the time, but there continues to be institutional barriers, we continue to experience micro-aggressions,” before turning away from the microphone, fighting back tears. On the announcement of her appointment to the top Church of England job in October, those of us still on X/Twitter couldn’t fail to miss what one user called the “venomous reaction” from “hardcore Catholics” and “culture war atheists”.
On the same day the new Archbishop of Canterbury was announced, Taylor Swift was releasing her new album Life of a Showgirl. Swift uses her songs to fight back against those who treat her badly. In 2016 Kim Kardashian labelled Swift a “snake” on social media. Her 2017 video Look What You Made Me Do began with her getting back up after the “death” of her reputation – and featured over 100 snake images. In March last year, sexually explicit deepfake images of Taylor Swift exploded across the internet – one image was seen 47 million times before X removed it just 17 hours later.
Lessons from a three-hour church service
It's sometimes said that culture is like a river. To fully appreciate its flow, you need to get in it. …