Transfer over Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen—American’s promenade has a brand new king and queen. Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are right here, and a right-wing political meltdown is within the works. Swift’s 300 million followers are protecting of her and completely gushing about this storybook romance. What’s a feminist to make of all this?
First, the meltdown.
By now, the furor from the far-right has reached comical proportions as Trump, the MAGA crowd, and Fox Republicans have twisted their knickers into knots over this pair. There was a time when sane Republicans may need loved the uber-American spectacle of a beautiful, blond, red-lipstick-wearing pop star courting a hunky Tremendous Bowl-bound soccer participant. However not these Republicans, and never these celebrities.
It has been advised that all the relationship is a Pentagon plot and that the playoff recreation to get Kelce to this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl was rigged to make method for a Biden endorsement by Swift. Networks have been criticized for exhibiting Swift within the stands an excessive amount of as a substitute of exhibiting the sport, although precise footage revealed Swift onscreen for 44 seconds through the three-plus hours Chiefs-Ravens playoff recreation. Fox Information particularly threatened Swift’s American followers to disregard her political decisions. Even George Soros received in there someplace—and that’s only a few of the selection bits.
Swift is an exceedingly well-known, rich, impartial, well-liked lady who has been within the public eye for 18 years. Her work and her public statements reveal a maturing lady who writes and sings about feminine empowerment, sexual harassment and gender politics (“I’m so sick of operating quick as I can / questioning if I’d get there faster / if I used to be a person”!) having a voice, and naturally the difficulties of boyfriends and breakups.
Swift has come out for the rights of homosexual folks, abortion selection, voter registration efforts (a newly anti-Republican place), varied Tennessee state Democratic candidates, and Biden in 2020. The fitting is aware of she’s not on their facet. In fact, they’re out to get her. The fitting going after a powerful liberal lady in coded, anti-female language is nothing new nowadays. MAGA is aware of its model and its script.
Many ladies know that on the lookout for like-minded males in 2024 is tougher than ever.
And people followers?
They’re each protecting of Swift and positively giddy over this romance, and there’s extra to it than the standard fascination with superstar romances. Swift’s politics aligns left-of-center on the values chart—and that’s exactly the place increasingly more ladies discover themselves.
The world over, ladies are transferring additional and additional left, as evidenced by polls, voting, social media, celebration affiliation and extra.
However males, particularly youthful males, are veering proper simply as quick, if not quicker. We’re experiencing profound divergences alongside gender strains on practically each matter. Women and men—particularly youthful women and men—more and more differ not simply of their politics however of their attitudes towards Black Lives Matter, podcast listening preferences, positions on gun possession, social media use, and even the very matter of gender.
More and more, the precise positions and beliefs ladies discover engaging are repelling to males, and vice versa. Take heed to Joe Rogan? Thumbs up for guys, no method for women. Assume gun possession is a plus? Positive, say dudes, overlook it, say women. And so forth. So, whereas looking for love is a reasonably enduring human high quality, many ladies know that on the lookout for like-minded males in 2024 is tougher than ever. And that features feminine Swifties, a lot of whom could also be on the lookout for a appropriate man, too.
Enter: Travis Kelce. Along with being a phenomenally profitable soccer participant with two Tremendous Bowl rings, his public positions put him left of middle. He took a knee in help of Black Lives Matter. He was in a Pfizer marketing campaign—a pro-vaxxer!—in addition to a Bud Gentle advert (bear in mind Bud Gentle and its trans-support kerfuffle?) Kelce’s SNL skits reveal a humorousness and, maybe, a gender consciousness that’s all too onerous to come back by in younger males (Straight Male Good friend?). In immediately’s world, these public affiliations distinctly separate him from the rightward drift of so many males.
Additionally atypical is his willingness to help Swift. He has repeatedly publicly applauded her successes. His journey to Buenos Ares to see her live performance, his celebration of her Grammy successes, his podcasts, and his social media posts are all unabashedly skilled and constructive about her. Whereas his (web) historical past just isn’t fully unblemished, it seems he’s a fairly sane, left-leaning dude keen and capable of be self-confident and help his extraordinarily profitable, wealthier girlfriend.
So possibly these legions of feminine followers are protecting as a result of they know the way ladies are taken down, not simply due to the standard fan-celebrity romance however as a result of a lot of them nonetheless hope there is a very good man on the market. Even when not a rich Tremendous Bowl ring-wearing soccer participant, how a few common dude who’s gender-aware, supportive of a powerful, impartial lady, and never within the Andrew Tate fan membership? Given the gender break up we’re witnessing, is a very good man on the market? Together with all of the Swifties, I’ll be watching.
Up subsequent:
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