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Lana Wilson's Miss Americana

Miss Americana is a documentary film surrounding pop star Taylor Swift. It chronicles the struggles Swift went through leading up to her album reputation being released, her life behind the scenes on tour, her journey to stardom, and behind the scene studio footage creating her album, Lover. The scenes surrounding the pop star aspect are all interesting and entertaining to watch, but the most compelling parts of the film are about Swift finding her own voice.



Early in the film Wilson highlights Swift's struggles from online hate and bullying. At one point we learn about the years 2016-2017, when the entire internet would tweet about Taylor's career being "over", her body type, her "obsession" with writing break-up songs, and pretty much would make fun of every aspect about her. Several clips from news outlets and talk shows play, showing TV anchors joining along with the trend, bullying her on national television. Swift speaks about the effect that all of this hate had on her, causing her to go into hiding where no one saw her publicly for a year. She speaks out about body shaming and opens up about her eating disorder. She turned the hate into something positive and made her album, reputation. We see her take back her voice and learn to love herself for who she is, all while encouraging other people to live their truth and ignore the bullies.

Maybe the most important aspect of the film chronicles Swift's decision to go public about her political opinions. She speaks about how in the past she felt like she shouldn't speak about politics because she was just a singer and didn't think anyone wanted to hear about her opinion. She felt like she shouldn't push her opinions on other people. But as she grew older she realized that she couldn't stay silent on certain issues. Many people on her team, including her dad, opposed this decision. We see scenes of them begging her not to go public. The most striking scene of the film shows Swift getting emotional while speaking with her dad. She says she can't sit back and watch injustice happen when she knows that she can make a difference. This is something that has obviously been weighing on Swift's mind for some time and we see the moment when she releases her public statement and that weight is lifted off her chest. As the film goes on, Swift appears more self-assured in her opinions and more confident to speak out about injustice.

The reason I point out these aspects about the film, is that I like the fact that this documentary starts out just being about Taylor Swift as the biggest star on the planet and evolves into a much more important topic about speaking your truth and being vocal about what you believe in. This is the true purpose of this documentary. Wilson shows another side to the singer and highlights important issues including bullying, sexism, and speaking out on injustice. I want my documentary to initially be about my golf team and my last season, but hopefully will turn into some commentary about sexism in golf and what it means to be a woman in golf.

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