Taylor Swift is the most famous woman on earth, and she didn’t get there by accident. Her albums repeatedly reveal a highly intelligent, highly calculating woman who plans out her power moves years in advance. When asked what advice she would give to those seeking a career like hers, she responded, “Get a good lawyer.”
Before you condemn her methods, let’s take a look at some of the major women in Scripture and see what they have in common with Taylor Swift.
My favorite Bible character is Judith. In case you haven’t read the book recently, Judith is a wealthy and beautiful widow who saves her people with her feminine charms. We are told that “Holofernes heart was ravished with her and he was moved with great desire to possess her” (Judith 12:16). As a result, he “drank a great quantity of wine, much more than he had ever drunk in any one day since he was born” (v. 20). This weakness of character was the downfall of Holofernes. Once Judith was finally left alone with her enemy, he was passed out from overconsumption of alcohol. She beheaded him, loaded the head up in her bag, and headed back home.
In the Book of Judges, we find Jael luring the general Sisera into her tent, saying, “Turn aside, my lord, turn aside to me; have no fear” (Judges 4:18). Once the warrior was asleep, she drove a tent peg through his head. In Genesis 38, Tamar is praised by Judah after she succeeds in seducing him, bearing a child, and securing her rightful place in his family, as well as in the lineage of Jesus. Esther, like Judith, receives an entire book of the Bible describing how she devises a multi-day master plan to charm the king, save her people, and have their archenemy executed. Ruth, a model of fidelity, secures her future and provides for her mother-in-law by perfuming herself, crawling into Boaz’s bed, and appealing to him to marry her.
All of these women use their feminine wiles to achieve their desired end. This brings me to one of my favorite lyrics by Taylor Swift: “What if I told you none of it was accidental, and the first time that you saw me, nothing was gonna stop me? I laid the groundwork, and then, just like clockwork, the dominoes cascaded in a line. What if I told you I’m a mastermind?”
Taylor Swift understands what she is doing. She also knows that her methods aren’t innovative. “All the wisest women had to do it this way.”
The reality of being a woman is that you are the weaker sex. A woman will never succeed in a sphere dominated by men if she takes the same approach men do. In the words of Swift herself, “If I was a man, I’d be the man.” But she isn’t a man. So instead, she plays like a woman, and she’s winning.
In the online world today, we see a massive movement of men who are fed up with feminism. They have been belittled and ignored for too long, and they’ve had enough. Influencers like Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes demean and belittle women. They advocate for women’s complete domination by men. What these men don’t recognize is that they are still vulnerable to the oldest tricks in the book.
As long as a man is dominated by his passions, he will always be vulnerable to manipulation by women. King Ahasuerus had Queen Vashti deposed because she didn’t submit to his authority when he asked her to show off for his friends (Esther 1). Esther used her beauty and charm to bring him around and give her exactly what she wanted. These men see women as sexual objects, which means that as long as a woman can appeal to his sex drive, she has power over him.
I have sympathy for the men out there who are fed up with feminism. As a woman raising four boys, I have plenty of qualms about a culture that will accuse a man of the worst faults with no evidence. My plea to men is not to underestimate the power of women. Follow the example of men who fight to gain power over themselves rather than over others. If you excel in virtue and self-control, then you will be the strongest man in the room. If you give in to your urges, then the weakest woman can bring you down.