Taylor Swift Shuts Down Sexist Interview Question About Marriage

Taylor Swift turns 30 in December. It’s a milestone birthday for anyone, but one that comes with a certain kind of baggage for women who are often bombarded with traditional expectations surrounding marriage and children—the sorts of societal pressures that aren’t foisted as strongly on men. When that happened recently to Swift in an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur, she didn’t stand for it.

After a reporter inquired whether 30 was a “turning point” for the star, and if she’s ready to move forward in her relationship with boyfriend Joe Alwyn and “settle down,” Swift shut that line of thinking down. “I really do not think men are asked that question when they turn thirty,” she responded, according to a Twitter account that translated her quotes. “So I’m not going to answer that question now.” (Coincidentally, she and Alwyn were spotted holding hands in Paris this weekend.)

As for her birthday, she did add that she’s looking forward to her thirties. “We are in our twenties looking to gain experience, try things out, fail, make mistakes,” she said later on in the interview. “I definitely plan to try and fail things in my thirties as well. But I expect that in our thirties we feel a little better of who we are. The closer I get to it, the more I feel it happens.”

Honestly, good for Swift. Over the course of her career, she’s frequently been subjected to sexist lines of questioning—the sorts of things a reporter would never ask one of her male peers. She’s notably been criticized for writing about her relationships and dating life for years, and has been classified as everything from a childish and boy-crazy to a vindictive scorned woman (who could forget “Blank Space?”). But she’s gotten more vocal about this kind of sexist treatment in the process.

In 2014, Swift addressed what she deemed to be sexist criticism of her songwriting, telling the Australian radio show Jules, Merrick & Sophie, “You’re going to have people who are going to say, ‘Oh, you know, like, she just writes songs about her ex-boyfriends’. And 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. They’re all writing songs about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life, and no one raises the red flag there.” They really don’t.

Swift is currently on a huge press tour to promote her single, “Me!,” and her upcoming album. She’s been on the talk show circuit, much of which has involved addressing past relationships. Let her latest answer serve as a lesson to any other future interviewers, though, bold enough to ask about her love life.