'Respect Taylor Swift'—Netflix Show 'Ginny and Georgia' Faces Joke Backlash

Taylor Swift fans are defending the singer after the Netflix series Ginny and Georgia made a joke at Swift's expense. "Respect Taylor Swift" trended on Twitter with more than 225,000 tweets including the phrase, while Swifties also hijacked the show's Google reviews.

In the final episode of the first season, "The Worst Betrayal Since Jordyn and Kylie," Ginny and Georgia, daughter and mother, respectively, are having an argument in which Ginny tells her mom: "What do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift."

Another show that has come under scrutiny for mocking Swift is Degrassi: Next Class, in which a character says: "Taylor Swift made an entire career off her exes."

Swift's fans are offended at the lines, pointing out that the singer has been unfairly criticized for her love life for the past decade, but Ginny and Georgia is currently facing the most backlash.

In response to the line, many Twitter users are also sharing clips of Swift discussing the misogyny she has subjected to.

One Twitter user who goes by 'The Swift Life' shared a clip of Swift's interview on 2DayFM in which she responded to critics who claim she only writes songs about her ex-boyfriends and said: "I think frankly that's a very sexist angle to take.

"No one says that about Ed Sheeran. No one says that about Bruno Mars."

Another user, @thelasttay, shared a quote from Swift's interview with Vogue, in which she says: "If I could talk to my 19-year-old self, I'd just say, Hey, you know, you're gonna date just like a normal 20 something should be allowed to, but you're going to be a national lightning rod for slut-shaming."

One widely shared tweet responding to the Ginny and Georgia backlash features quotes from the TV shows that have referred to Swift in a respectful way, including Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Good Place, The Vampire Diaries, New Girl, and 2 Broke Girls.

Swifties are also taking to Google reviews to express their anger at the joke on Ginny and Georgia, with one-star reviews far surpassing the number of five-star reviews, leaving the show with an average rating of 1.9 stars at the time of writing.

One recent review from Google user Becky Finlayson, reads: "It is astounding to me that in 2021, shows are still using Taylor Swift's dating life as a punchline. Even watching the scene, it seemed as if the actress delivering the line seemed wholly uncomfortable with it.

"I would expect so much more from FEMALE writers with FEMALE leads of a show than lazy, misogynistic, sexist writing. Taylor has had a normal dating life and has been with the same man now [Joe Alwyn] for four years. Even if she dated hundreds of men, her personal life should not be the subject of a 'joke'."

The writers of Ginny and Georgia, Debra J. Fisher and Sarah Lampert, are facing criticism on Twitter, with many Swift fans tagging them in 'Respect Taylor Swift' tweets.