Maggie Nelson likens Taylor Swift to Sylvia Plath, contrasts them with Kamala Harris during presidential run

Maggie Nelson is certainly a pop culture icon in her own right. The American writer is known for her unique literary perspective from which she examines an array of issues, including feminism, queerness, philosophy, and art.

Nelson is also admittedly a mega Taylor Swift fan, and recently likened her favorite songstress to Sylvia Plath. In fact, Swift and Plath are the topics of an upcoming essay Maggie Nelson has penned titled The Slicks, which is set to release this month. In an interview with Dazed Digital, the renowned author explained the premise of her soon-to-be-released work,

“Yeah, the first line of it says, ‘Above all things, Sylvia Plath desired fame. Jacqueline Rose tells us, as she says at one point in her journals, ‘It’s sad only to be able to mouth other poets. I want someone to mouth me.’”

She goes on to add,

“So it starts with Plath, and I go through her vast ambitions and other things and go on to Swift, who also started very young, wanting people to mouth her and yet, you know, Plath didn’t survive to see her fame, but Swift is living it.”

The upcoming essay also has a direct correlation to Maggie Nelson’s newest book, Pathemata, or The Story of My Mouth?, which is what ultimately inspired her to write the piece.

Maggie Nelson compares Taylor Swift to Kamala Harris

Maggie Nelson then continued by questioning how ambition can affect a woman’s path to success in today’s society. She used Taylor Swift and Kamala Harris as contrasting examples while arguing that women who express their ambition overtly are seemingly more likely to succeed.

“I was writing the essay the entire way up to the election [which Harris lost] and there was almost a heart-in-your-throat kind of way of writing through it. A lot of people made this point about Harris – that she didn’t ever say ‘I want it’. It was given to her by [Joe] Biden standing down."

Maggie Nelson went on to say,

"There was something about that which obviated the entire problem of ‘I want this big thing’. I thought that was fascinating. I heard some people saying ‘Well, that’ll give her a better chance because if she actually wanted it, people would hate her for it.’”

Nelson posits that Swift has achieved her current level of superstardom thanks in part to her unapologetic drive, but also due to her vocal belief in herself in the public eye.

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