Camille Paglia attacks Taylor Swift and the culture of girl squads

'If women in Hollywood seek a broad audience, they must aim higher and transcend a narrow gender factionalism that thrives on grievance'

Swift and some of the co-stars of Bad Blood at the MTV VMAs (Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

The writer Camille Paglia has criticised Taylor Swift and the notion of a 'girl squad'.

Writing for the Hollywood Reporter, Paglia penned an essay criticising the “hashtag summer craze” often associated with Swift, someone she says she hates to write about “because her twinkly persona is such a scary flashback to the fascist blondes who ruled the social scene during my youth”.

Paglia writes that "girl squads can help women advance if they avoid presenting a silly, regressive public image — as in the tittering, tongues-out mugging of Swift's bear-hugging posse."

In what appears to be a total misuse of the word, Paglia then launched into an inappropriate and seemingly unfair attack on Swift by using the fascist anti-Semitic party that terrorised Germany in the 1930s.

“Swift should retire that obnoxious Nazi Barbie routine of wheeling out friends and celebrities as performance props,” something she labels as “exhibitionistic overkill”.

Although recognising the idea of women sticking together as "a positive step towards expanding female power in Hollywood", Paglia claims the term 'squad' now represents something which has "gone girly and a bit bourgeois".

Swift isn’t the only female entertainer accused by Paglia of using the trend of girl squads and mentioned the “celebrity gal pals clustering around… Cameron Diaz, Lena Dunham or Tina Fey” as well as highlighting Adele recently being photographed enjoying dinner with the actresses Emma Stone and Jennifer Lawrence.

"Girl squads ought to be about mentoring, exchanging advice and experience and launching exciting and innovative joint projects," Paglia says.

“If women in Hollywood seek a broad audience, they must aim higher and transcend a narrow gender factionalism that thrives on grievance. Girl squads are only an early learning stage of female development."

Paglia suggests, instead, that women should learn from male friendships which she believes are an “immensely productive dynamic”.

“For women to leave a lasting mark on culture, they need to cut down on the socialising and focus like a laser on their own creative gifts.”

The girl squad theme is often associated with Swift’s award-winning video for Bad Blood, where several of her noted friends including Gigi Hadid, Cara Delevigne and Cindy Crawford feature as superwomen preparing for a revenge mission against another woman.

A representative for Swift has been contacted by the Independent for comment.