Taylor Swift’s “Mean” lyrics: https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/taylorswift/mean.html

For the artifact I will be examining for metaphoric criticism, I will be taking a look at the lyrics to Taylor Swift’s song “Mean”.

Context:

For the context of the song, Taylor is singing about a person in her life who has been negative towards her, in possibly an abusive way. She gives examples of how this person has used words to hurt her and question her talent. The person she is singing about has humiliated and shamed her. However, towards the end of the song, she is in a place where this person can’t harm her anymore because she has become somebody and all that person will ever be is mean.

Metaphors:

Some metaphors in the song include: “You, with your words like knives and swords and weapons that you use against me”; “You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard calling me out when I’m wounded”; “You, with your switching sides and your wildfire lies and your humiliation”; “somebody made you cold”; “Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me”.

Most of these metaphors are related to how this person is making her feel negative about herself. She is using language that evokes a strong negative reaction to describe the “meanness” of the person in the song.

Message/Ideology of Song:

I think the overall message of this song is that no matter how horrible and mean someone is being to you, as long as you keep your head up one day you’ll be able to rise up and overcome the negativity, and all that person will have is their meanness. Towards the last few lines of the song she goes from equating this person with tearing her down and making her feel bad to someone who is “a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life and mean”, indicating that that person is the one losing in the situation. This song is really encouraging to people who have experienced people like this in their lives and urges them to ignore it and stay strong because better things will happen to you.

Taylor Swift albums
Taylor Swift – Speak Now
Credit: Big Machine