This might come off as pretentious or whatever, but I don't care. I've been a fan of Taylor since 2015, but I became disillusioned in 2023 and stopped calling myself a fan in 2024, and only now can I put into words why. For context, I've spent my academic career becoming a historian, specifically of authoritarian movements and the cults of personality of authoritarian leaders. Watching Taylor blatantly rewrite history when it came to her relationship with Joe - that she had always felt stifled by that relationship, that she didn't mutually agree to be private with him, that we don't have multiple on the record interviews (including her own song lyrics) from across many years about how much she resented the media prying into her relationships and her distaste for how media and the public alike were voyeurs, and she wouldn't blame Joe for not wanting to deal with any of that - and seeing not only swifties accept this blatant rewriting of the narrative, but follow and build on it, with her encouragement, completely turned me off from Taylor. It sounds so silly, but if people are this willing to suspend their critical thinking and reject the evidence witnessed by their own eyes and ears over a fucking celebrity singer who at the end of the day does not wield legislative or military power, then where do they draw the line? Sure, they call themselves democrats and shake their heads at Donald Trump and say "of course I hate him and everything he stands for," but seeing how easy it was for them to be manipulated into believing something so blatantly untrue - that Joe had always been terrible from the very beginning, and it's "so obvious" in hindsight - it made me think that if Trump or whoever else came along presented an ideology packaged with palatable language and appealed with a targeted appeal at these people, they would fall for it without a second thought. I already see it in how they talk about Travis and Taylor's relationship (about "real men" and her being a "princess" finally being treated "right") and how they're making allowances for Taylor's willing association with Trump supporters. It horrified me and it felt like an Orwellian nightmare where Taylor got up on stage and said "We've always been at war with Eastasia," and the swifties just nodded along and changed out their signs and banners. Again, I don't give a shit about Taylor herself or her relationships, but the implications for what easily-manipulated people like her fans (who number in the millions) would willingly accept if presented in the right way. A pretentious thought, I know, but that's how I feel.
no you're so real for this. taylor's storytelling has been her biggest strength but when she's being a personal history revisionist to other people's detriment, that's not NOT like conservative movements that invent their own "alternative facts" to justify their angry accusations at, and abuse of, others.
I was thinking Orwell before I got to that part of your ask: The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
While Taylor is not an explicitly political figure (anymore), she DOES have a frightening reach when it comes to shaping culture. She has eroded the meaning of feminism (it's when a white woman does anything and gets asspats for it), rewritten her personal history and allowed it to incite her most unhinged fans in campaigns of hate and harassment, normalized hanging out with maga, humanized the billionaire class during an all-out class war, and normalized damaging ecological impact as long as the jet is a taking a girlboss to her next party, concert, or true love.
here i'll throw in my own pretentious allusion: when i think of foucault's the panoptican, i could literally imagine taylor believing that's what her fame is like. but girlie, you chose fame at every step of the way. maybe your parents pushed it early on but every time you made an appearance, went to a recording studio, or planned a show, you chose it. stop acting like you're a doll other people pick up and manipulate like a marionette. you. chose. this. and you reap the unprecedented wealth and power it comes with.
