Taylor Swift’s new album is predictably at the top of the charts, but some of her most devoted fans are not pleased with her departure into what’s been described as the “trad life.”
“Taylor Swift is handing the conservative agenda on a silver platter to the masses,” TikTok influencer Liittle Debbie said in a lengthy critique of Swift’s newest and much-hyped album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
“You cannot convince me that the master lyricist of our generation, akin to Shakespeare, that the Easter egg master of our generation, is not aware of what her entire optics and lyrics and album and everything is giving at this very moment,” she added.
In her viral video, the influencer insists the album is not “satirical,” as some desperate Swifties have suggested as a way to explain away Swift’s apparent turn from feminist hero to suburban romantic.
For her part, Swift has described the project as a labor of love.
“We knew that we had to bring the best ideas that we ever had,” she said during her appearance on the “New Heights” podcast, hosted by her fiancé, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, and his brother, Jason. “I also know the pressure that I’m putting on this record by saying that, but I don’t care because I love it that much.”
“This is the record that I’ve been wanting to make for a very long time,” the pop star added.
To some fans, that statement was practically an admission of betrayal. Liittle Debbie accuses Swift of “aligning” her brand with the NFL, “one of the most racist and problematic industries in our country,” she adds, and of “creeping [her] way down the conservative pipeline.”
The proof, in her view, lies in Swift’s high-profile engagement to Kelce.
“She’s aligning herself with him,” the influencer argues, incredulous that the same conservative commentators who once derided Swift as a “childless cat lady” have also celebrated her engagement. To her, this represents a horrifying shift from Swift being a girlboss to a white picket fence proponent.
The TikTok creator points to some of the lyrics in “The Life of a Showgirl” as proof.
In the song “Eldest Daughter,” Swift admits, “When I said I don’t believe in marriage, that was a lie.”
The lyrics to Swift’s new track “Wi$h Li$t” only pour more gasoline on the fire of outrage:
“They want those bright lights and Balenci shades/And a fat ass with a baby face/They want it all./“Hope they get what they want/ I just want you/ Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you/ We tell the world to leave us thе f*** alone, and they do, wow/ Got me dreaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop.”
The influencer hears those lines as evidence of something sinister, saying Swift’s supposed desire for a “racially homogenous neighborhood” and a glorification of marriage and motherhood represent abandonment of her childless cat lady fans.
To many observers, the outrage says more about the culture than about Taylor Swift.
For years, progressive fandom has treated female pop stars as symbols of what women should be. The idea that one of them might want to write about — or simply want — domestic life, love, or marriage is being perceived as an attack on that ideology.
Longtime Swifties know the singer has been a hopeless romantic for most of her career, and that singing about fairytales and daydreams of being rescued by a knight in shining armor have featured in tracks spanning her entire catalog of music.
In “Starlight” (2012), the singer fantasized about running off, getting married, and having lots of children. “We’ll have 10 kids and teach them how to dream,” Swift sang.
Perhaps this latest album feels more urgent, not just because conservatives are finally back in charge of the government, but also because Swift is closer to that kid-filled happy ending than ever before. After a string of bad relationships, she’s now engaged to a man who is clearly smitten. Her engagement photo announcement was incredibly traditional. This album, coupled with the much-maligned “optics,” likely signals the end of Swift’s girlboss cat lady days.
Her fans, who had bought into embracing eternal singlehood, feel betrayed.
But there are some supporters arguing that Swift’s seeming to head down the trad wife road doesn’t prove she’s an anti-feminist, because true feminism was always about having the choice. And the billionaire singer flat-out said it was “shockingly offensive” that anyone suggested she was quitting music during this next phase of life.
Whether she has the 10 kids and basketball hoop in suburbia and releases a bunch of songs about parenting remains to be seen. But Swifties may want to get used to the fact that their favorite singer is changing — or else find a new cat lady idol to worship.