Ginny and Georgia star Antonia Gentry thanks fans for support after Taylor Swift criticism – Daily Mail

Ginny And Georgia’s Antonia Gentry has thanked fans for their support of her and her show, after Taylor Swift criticised it for airing a ‘deeply sexist’ joke about her.

The actress, 23, took to Instagram on Thursday to share a moving post in which she reflected on how her character Ginny allowed her have ‘a voice capable of impact’ and help others ‘feel seen’ when she didn’t as a young girl.

On Monday, the Shake It Off hitmaker, 31, tweeted out a statementagainst Netflix after airing a ‘degrading’ joke about her dating history on the show, which sees character Ginny telling her mother: ‘You got through men faster than Taylor Swift.’ 

In her lengthy statement thanking fans, Antonia wrote: ‘Thank you for the love and support you have shown me and our show, Ginny and Georgia, over the last week. 

‘I never would have imagined something like this as a young girl — that is, having a voice capable of impact.

‘It is so meaningful to see the hundreds of messages from fans in my inbox who feel seen, heard and understood because of the show and its characters. It has also been fun to hear from those who were just happy to be along for an entertaining ride. 

‘As someone who grew up feeling voiceless and unimportant, and who did not see herself reflected on screen, Ginny Miller was finally a reprieve.’

Reflecting on her character, Antonia went on: ‘Finally a character who was just as confused and imperfect as I was gets a chance to exist. 

‘Ginny Miller, though fictional, is a character who reflects all of life’s contradictions and imperfections. 

‘I fell in love with playing as Ginny Miller because she is a character who dares to be flawed, a character who tries her hardest to melt into the world around her seamlessly, but is consistently told no. 

‘She is a character among many in the show who implicate us all. She shows us our own biases, prejudices and injustices. 

‘She loves, she lies and she stands up for what she believes in — even though she may not have all of her facts straight.’

Antonia went on: ‘She makes mistakes — morally, mentally, physically, emotionally — and not just within herself, but within the broken world she lives in.

‘I am so delighted to work with talented, earnest and honest women who aren’t afraid of pulling back the curtain and exposing all of life’s intricacies — the good and the bad, all with a glass of wine in hand, and a tongue in cheek. 

‘To all of the people who have sent hundreds of messages about feeling seen for the first time, whether through Ginny or another character in Ginny and Georgia, thank you for your voices and inspiration. With so much love, Toni <3’

Taylor hit out at streaming giant Netflix for airing the joke about her just one year after teaming up with the popstar on her incredibly successful documentary Miss Americana. 

The singer took Netflix to task in a furious tweet, accusing the streaming site of ‘degrading hard working women’, while describing herself as ‘heartbroken’ to see the joke airing on the same platform that helped to create her biographical documentary.  

She went on to take a swipe at Netflix, pointing out: ‘Also, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you,’ before adding a broken-heart emoji, and noting the irony that the controversy was kicking off on the first day of Women’s History Month.’

Taylor’s rant at Netflix comes just hours after fans began voicing fury over a joke that features in the final episode of Ginny and Georgia – a dramatic comedy written by a woman, Sarah Lampert, which focuses on a mother and daughter and debuted on the streaming site on February 24. 

In the episode, teenager Ginny Miller makes an off-the-cuff comment about Taylor’s dating life while arguing with her mother Georgia about her relationships. 

After Georgia questions her daughter about whether she has had sex with someone, Ginny yells back: ‘What do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift.’   

Fans of the singer were left in an uproar over the script line, with many taking to social media to lambaste writers for using Taylor’s romantic history – a topic for which the singer has faced much speculation and controversy – as the butt of yet another joke. 

It was also argued by a few people that Taylor is being subjected to severe gender bias. Multiple Twitter users insisted that the same kind of joke would not be made about a male popstar with a similar dating history, a subject that Taylor herself has touched upon in past interviews. 

One user quoted a 2014 interview in which Taylor noted that male musicians like Ed Sheeran and Bruno Mars do not face the same criticism that she does when they pen songs about their exes, saying: ‘No one says that about Ed Sheeran, no one says that about Bruno Mars, they’re all writing song about their exes, their current girlfriends, their love life, and no one raises a red flag there.’ 

In 2019, Taylor said that people focused so much on her dating life and ‘s**t-shamed’ her as a means of minimising her success, telling Apple Music’s Beats 1: ‘When I was like 23 and people were just kind of reducing me to, kind of making slideshows of my dating life and putting people in there that I’d sat next to at a party once and deciding that my songwriting was like a trick rather than a skill and a craft.

‘It’s a way to take a woman who’s doing her job and succeeding at doing her job and making things. And in a way, it’s figuring out how to completely minimise that skill by taking something that everyone in their darkest, darkest moments loves to do, which is just to s**t shame. 

Many joined Taylor – who has been dating boyfriend Joe Alwyn since 2016 – in pointing out the irony that Netflix aired the joke, despite partnering with the singer on not one, but two exclusive shows: Miss Americana, and the broadcast of her Reputation stadium tour in 2018. 

Miss Americana, in particular, featured several scenes in which Taylor addresses the double standard and misogyny that exists in the music industry.

In it, the popstar says at one point: ‘I’m [trying to] deprogram the misogyny in my own brain, toss it out, reject it and resist it. There is no such thing as a s**t, there is no such thing as a b***h.’

Some noted that this is not the first time a Netflix original show has poked fun at Taylor’s romantic life, with one Twitter user calling attention to a line from Degrassi: Next Class, in which a character accused the hitmaker of ‘making an entire career off of her exes’ – referring the fact that Taylor is known for writing songs about her past partners. 

Taylor has a long history of using her romantic relationships as inspiration, with her earliest albums featuring songs about her high school boyfriends and crushes. 

As she rose in fame, her high-profile relationships became internet fodder. A number of her songs are believed to be about her famous exes, though she has never explicitly stated whom each song is about. 

Taylor’s 2008 hit ‘Forever and Always’ was allegedly inspired by her breakup with Joe Jonas, who famously dumped her over the phone, while she is thought to have written ‘Back in December’ in 2010 about her ex Taylor Lautner. 

When asked his thoughts on the song in 2016, Taylor replied: ‘That’s what she does.’  

Taylor’s ex John Mayer also spoke publicly about her allegedly writing a song about him, telling Rolling Stone two years after the release of her 2010 song ‘Dear John’ that he was deeply ‘humiliated’ by it, calling it ‘cheap songwriting.’ 

Meanwhile, her 2012 album ‘Red’ is thought to have been inspired by her heartbreak over her brief relationship with her ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal. Six years later, she revealed it was her only ‘true breakup album’, despite many of her songs being about lost love and past relationships.  

The singer’s relationships with Harry Styles, Conor Kennedy, Calvin Harris, and Tom Hiddleston have also allegedly inspired her music, though most of her recent love songs are believed to be about her beau Joe. 

Not only is Joe her muse, but he is also her collaborator. On her latest albums, ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’, Joe is credited as a co-writer on a total of five songs under the pseudonym William Bowery. 

‘He’s always just playing instruments and he doesn’t do it in a strategic “I’m writing a song right now’ thing,”‘ Taylor told Apple Music of Joe. 

‘He’s always done that. But do I think we would have taken the step of, “Hey, let’s see if there’s a song in here. Let’s write a song together?” If we hadn’t been in lockdown, I don’t think that would have happened, but I’m so glad that it did.’