By Morgan Harlan | Staff Writer
Taylor Swift is, simply put, a badass.
After rising to fame as a 16-year-old country singer and songwriter, the now 29-year-old pop musician’s legacy and impact has continued to cement her as one of the world’s most popular musicians. Not only does she write all of her own music and remain in creative control of her work, but she also, most importantly, serves as a strong female role model for her fans.
In 2013, Swift was allegedly groped by Denver country DJ David Mueller during a meet and greet, when he reached under her skirt and grabbed her rear during a picture. Mueller sued Swift for defamation after she told the station about the incident, which resulted in him losing his job. Swift then countersued for $1 and accused Mueller of assault and battery.
In an interview with TIME Magazine, Swift said she was angry during the 2017 trial because Mueller’s attorney accused her and her team of lying and badgered her on the witness stand.
“I was angry. In that moment, I decided to forego any courtroom formalities and just answer the questions the way it happened. Why should I be polite?” Swift said in her interview.
The realness that Swift showed during her testimony was widely acclaimed because of her fierce stance against the defense attorney.
“I’m told it was the most amount of times the word ‘ass’ has ever been said in Colorado Federal Court,” Swift told TIME.
The jury ended up siding with Swift in her lawsuit and awarded her the one dollar.
Suing the man that groped her, for a single dollar, is indicative of Swift’s morality and character. Instead of remaining quiet and allowing Mueller to idly slip by, she held him accountable for his actions and proved her dominance in not only the music sphere, but also her role as being part of a counter-culture toward ending victim silence.
Ultimately, the dollar symbolically meant more than any amount of monetary compensation, because it proved an even larger point, she will not back down — others should and will not back down either. She put herself on public display to prove to the world that his actions were not acceptable, no matter the cost. Swift proved to women everywhere that taking a stance and choosing to have a voice is worth everything.
Swift was featured as one of TIME Magazine’s 2017, “Person of the Year,” as a member of the “silence breakers,” a group of women and men that came forward about their experiences with sexual assault during the #MeToo movement.
Since the 2017 lawsuit, Swift embarked and finished her Reputation Tour for her sixth studio album “Reputation.” According to Billboard Magazine, Swift’s tour broke the record for the most successful U.S. tour to date. In all, the tour had a revenue of $345.7 million. Swift’s career gross climbed to $935.4 million from 9,689,692 tickets sold. In addition, Netflix released a concert film of her Reputation Tour.
Swift has been nominated for 32 Grammy’s and has won 10. But, her biggest win to date was her award of $1 in a federal Colorado court room with her marvelous dedication to using the word “ass” and telling it like it is.
She sued a man for a dollar when her net worth is over $320 million. You’d be shamelessly wrong to say she didn’t deserve that dollar. Simply said, Taylor Swift is a badass that will continue to take over the world with one dollar and testimony at a time.
