Their loathing of Taylor Swift had nothing to do with her womanhood.
Yesterday, Glamour published an article titled, “Why Taylor Swift Getting Booed at the Super Bowl was Even More Chilling Than You Think.”
The author, Stephanie McNeal, begins by referencing another Glamour piece she has written, about how “Misogyny Is 2025’s Biggest Trend.”
Since Donald Trump took office, there have been several times I felt chilled by the rapid increase in misogyny seeping in our culture. But watching Taylor Swift at Super Bowl LIX booed by a crowd of thousands on Sunday night was a new low.
McNeal makes an attempt to account for the obvious — that Caesars Superdome was full of rowdy, inebriated Philadelphia Eagles fans who loathe their opponent’s most famous representative.
It was just a football game, people might say. Or Swift — who is famously dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — got heckled by some rowdy Eagles fans excited to be at the biggest sporting event of the year. So? Don’t take it so seriously.
But no, she argues, their drunken howls must have been a deeper, eviler sign of a misogynistic wave that is crashing down upon us all.
But I was there at the game. When Swift’s face appeared on the Jumbotron, an almost instant — and distinctly male — dissent erupted from around me. Swift, of course, was there to support her boyfriend, and was far from the only celebrity in attendance. In fact, the screen showed a new famous person — from Paul McCartney to Anne Hathaway and Lady Gaga — nearly every time there was a break in the play with virtually no response from the crowd.
However, it should have been obvious to her that this “distinctly male dissent” was not an ominous sign of our repressive patriarchal society but standard hullabaloo by the majority of football game attendees. As fans had to shell out three grand or more to attend Sunday’s game, one can assume that the most avid (or most wealthy) were in attendance. And let’s not forget that the male voice carries better than the female voice, as lower-pitched voices have more resonance. (As a lifelong chorister, I can confirm this.) Any women who were cheering for Taylor would have been drowned out by the Eagles fans’ deep, low boos.
Their loathing of Taylor Swift had nothing to do with her womanhood. If Travis Kelce had been dating Post Malone, they would have booed him too.
President Trump (who deserves some credit for being the first president to attend the Super Bowl), of course capitalized on the moment to pat himself on the back and throw Taylor under the bus for having supported his opponent in the 2024 presidential race.
I love Taylor Swift. This is public knowledge. And I love watching football. (Which may not be public knowledge.) But I don’t think Taylor Swift’s receiving the heat of fans, who famously commit crimes after a big game, represents an “undercurrent of hatred” toward the “diversity, equity, and inclusion that generations of women, people of color, and queer people have fought for.”
McLean is right, though: “It felt like the bros were winning,” because the bros did win.
The devotees of the City of Brotherly Love celebrated their victory by starting fires in the street and pulling down traffic poles, as is traditional.