No shade here! Demi Lovato is setting the record straight after she was accused of throwing shade at Taylor Swift over her $250,000 donation to Kesha, who is the middle of a legal battle against music producer Dr. Luke.
"Take something to Capitol Hill or actually speak out about something and then I'll be impressed," Lovato tweeted after news of Swift's donation went public. In a series of tweets, Lovato continued to preach about women's empowerment and her frustration over the lack of support shown towards women in their time of need.
After venting her frustrations, Lovato took to her personal Instagram account to explain her pervious tweet, claiming that her passion got the best of her, but hopes her comments does not take from the importance of providing support for sexual assault victims.
"As most people know, I tend to get fired up about the things I believe in, and although my heart and intentions are always in the right place, unfortunately sometimes my passion gets the best of me and causes me to say things that I probably shouldn't say," she wrote on Instagram. "And when doing so it takes away from the real reason I am speaking up in the first place."
The former Disney Darling stressed that the "focus should be on the topic of victims of sexual and physical abuse being afraid to come forward with their stories."
"They're more likely to face retaliation and harassment than to see justice being served," Lovato said. "Especially women. It baffles me that when it comes to serious issues like equality and abuse, too often women are not taken as seriously as men. All I want to see is women coming together and actually making a difference. A real change and shift in society."
"Everyone has their own way of giving support to others, and at the end of the day, helping victims is all that matters. Ultimately, the message I want people to hear is it's okay to come forward with your abuse and if you do decide to take action, you are not alone," she continued.
The lengthy post was accompanied with a powerful graphic which depicted the amount of rapes that go unreported alongside the amount of accused rapists who go to trail and serve jail time for their charged crime.
A photo posted by Demi Lovato (@ddlovato) on Feb 22, 2016 at 4:02pm PST
Lovato's previous comments, which many of Swift's fans thought were directed to the "1989" singer-songwriter, suggested that she was unimpressed with how Swift decided to show support to Kesha. Swift's devoted fans quickly accused Lovato of being selfish by trying to steal the spotlight away from Kesha.
In an attempt to clarify her comments (the first time), the 22-year-old "Confident" singer took to one Swift's fan Instagram account and defended herself, explaining that she wasn't trying to start a feud with the "Shake It Off" singer but only trying to bring awareness to the women's empowerment movement.
"How the f--k am I making this about myself? At least, I'm talking about it. Not everyone has 250k to just give to people," Lovato wrote, according to JustJared. "At least, I speak up about s--t that's uncomfortable to talk about rather than trying to be politically correct 24/7 ... There's no "rivalry" I just give more f-s than other people and would rather start a dialogue ABOUT WOMEN COMING FORWARD ABOUT BEING RAPED than throw money at one person."
She added: "I didn't shade Taylor. If you take it that way then fine. I'm just tired of seeing women use 'women empowerment' and 'feminism' to further brands without actually being the ones that have the uncomfortable conversations. I get shade and I don't give a f- because someone has to be the one to take it. At least, I'm getting my hands dirty."
