As a beta male with no privilege and power, I have to tell you, Taylor Swift's new video is confusing.

And revealing. The superstar, who is powered by a core reactor of grievance, has a new target in "The Man." And that target is men. So with the help of prosthetics and CGI, Swift transforms into a bearded lout and spends four minutes railing against toxic masculinity by training a bubblegum-pop bazooka at the patriarchy. This video is so ridiculously heavy-handed it should be called "The Faux Feminist Pandering."

But that's just the opinion of one beta male. Just about everyone else in the media is now singing Ms. Swift's praises as a brave, warrior princess. Give me a break. Swift is a brilliant artist, no question.

Unfortunately, she is also one of the greatest martyrs of our time.

The establishing shot of "The Man" has Taylor Swift - sorry, "Tyler Swift" - gazing out the window of his office skyscraper, before ambling toward adoring employees and basking in love, in an arms-outstretched and snarky homage to "The Wolf of Wall Street."

The message: powerful men are enabled by a cult of inured zombies blind to gender inequality.

Lyrics: "I'd be a fearless leader / I'd be an alpha type / When everyone believes ya / What's that like?"

From here, the video, with its big budget and myopic perspective, proceeds to unsubtly show how the kind of alpha males who have allegedly wronged Swift in recent months, including Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, behave. This includes smoking a cigar on the subway, manspreading, checking out the derriere of a yummy mummy who is pushing a stroller in the park, partying with douchebag bros, urinating on subway walls, yachting with nubile hotties in yellow bikinis, having tantrums on a tennis court, marrying a younger woman and, generally speaking, acting in accordance with jackass impulses.

Now, obviously, such toxic males exist. One now lives in the White House.

But what this video also proves is there are toxic females - and Taylor Swift is the leader.

If you analyze the "Easter eggs," if you accept at face value the narrative conceit - "The Man" gets away with things "The Woman" does not - what you are also doing is buying into Swift's rewriting of history. She left Big Machine, the label that signed her at 15 and turned her into a household name, last year of her own accord. She then joined Universal, knowingly ditching her catalogue. This didn't seem to be a concern - until she learned Braun was buying Big Machine.

And that's when Swift reverted to her factory setting of "victim."

Copyright and ownership may be a timeless issue in the music industry. But it's not a gender issue.

And that's why "The Man" is not a balls-to-the-wall takedown of inequality - it's a showcase for a woman prone to the relentless conflicts she starts and always struggles to finish to her satisfaction.

How many of Swift's many ex's have come forward over the years to lavish praise on her as an all-around wonderful person? Exactly. How many women has she tangled with in recent years, including former friends and other musicians? Precisely. Swift is one of the most popular artists ever and, yet, her career has cleaved to a radioactive sideshow of squabbles and interpersonal dysfunction.

It's not sexist to call her out on this; it's sexist to assume her enemies are automatically sexist.

I don't know one man who is remotely like "The Man." And I know a lot of men. I also don't know one woman who has the same persecution complex as Swift. And I know a lot of women. "The Man" attempts to lampoon gender double-standards while demolishing toxic masculinity. It tries to shine an antiseptic light on how men get away with cultural murder.

But what it really reveals is that Swift is a profoundly insecure and churlish gladiator who can't stop relitigating hostilities with the demons she created. If she were a librarian, she'd burn books and then blame the Dewey Decimal System.

Since those closest to Swift obviously refuse to be honest, here is some free tough love:

Taylor, the only reason anyone has ever asked about your past relationships is because you keep writing songs about your past relationships. The only reason anyone fixates on your feuds is because you give those feuds a starring role in your music and social media posts. The only reason anyone wonders about your emotional state is because you have commercialized and weaponized your emotional state.

None of this is because you are a woman. It is because you can't stop being the victim.

"The Man" is not a feminist roar from someone ready to destroy systemic injustice.

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It is the petulant, auto-tuned whimper of a diva who just can't stop trying to settle scores.

Vinay Menon is the Star's pop culture columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @vinaymenon

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