Taylor Swift has addressed the comments singer Hayley Kiyoko made about her only singing about men, saying she was misunderstood.
“I’ve had several music industry execs say ‘You’re doing another music video about girls?’,” Kiyoko said in an interview with Refinery29.
“I literally looked at them and was like, um, yeah … Taylor Swift sings about men in every single song and video, and no one complains that she’s unoriginal.
“I’m not over-sexualizing my music. I make out with women because I love women, not because I’m trying to be sexy. That’s not to turn heads — that’s my life.”
The singer has been applauded for embracing her sexuality, and has been heralded the ‘lesbian Jesus’. She’s nominated for ‘music artist’ at this year’s British LGBT awards.
However, some of Taylor Swift’s fans took Kiyoko’s words as an attack on the singer, so she took to Tumblr to defend her.
“We should applaud artists who are brave enough to tell their honest romantic narrative through their art, and the fact is that I’ve never encountered homophobia and she has,” wrote Swift.
“It’s her right to call out anyone who has double standards about gay vs straight love interests.”
It’s not the first time an artist has spoken out about the double standards of the music industry when it comes to sexuality – earlier this month, Years & Years‘ Olly Alexander revealed he was advised to “not say anything” about his sexuality during media training early on in his career.
Meanwhile, Taylor Swift has been accused of being responsible for the cancellation of Donald Glover‘s ‘Deadpool’ TV series, with Glover’s brother citing her episode cameo as ‘the last straw’.