Personally, I have nothing against Taylor Swift.
She’s a fairly attractive, nearly middle-aged lady with some musical talent who somewhat inexplicably became a shiny object that an enormous number of women became obsessive about. This has made her into a famous billionaire who is influential enough to, at least temporarily, suck women into the NFL because she’s dating a member of the Chiefs.
Does she deserve the level of success she has? Probably not, but you could say that at least to a certain extent about most celebrities. Does she agree with people like me politically? No, but at least she’s not obsessive and obnoxious about it. So, if anything, it would be tempting to say that Taylor Swift is moderately less annoying than a lot of other celebrities.
Yet and still, she’s one of those people, like the Kardashians, Andrew Tate, and Prince Harry along with his shrew wife, that you’d generally prefer to never hear anything about. Despite that fact, we’re all constantly getting bombarded with little nuggets of information about their lives even if we don’t seek it out, don’t care, and don’t want to know.
Well, little Miss Popular got booed at the Super Bowl, which seemed to surprise her and terribly upset some people:
In fact, Glamour actually released a hysterical article called, “Why Taylor Swift Getting Booed at the Super Bowl was Even More Chilling Than You Think.” The general thought process – and it’s being generous to call it a thought process as opposed to just disjointed feelings the author had and wrote down – is that everyone has to love Taylor Swift or it’s misogyny or something:
Since Donald Trump took office, there have been several times I felt chilled by the rapid increase in misogyny seeping into our culture. But watching Taylor Swift at Super Bowl LIX booed by a crowd of thousands on Sunday night was a new low.
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 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.
...Perhaps the moment would have felt less visceral if not for the fact that less than an hour earlier the crowd had exploded—this time with applause—to see Trump on that same screen.
...To me, the disparate reactions felt like a message. That the Super Bowl, one of the biggest cultural events in the country, has been reclaimed by Trump and the type of toxic masculinity he appears to be the beacon of. And he and his supporters seem to be living for it.
Just look at the president’s response shortly after he left the game. Not only did he acknowledge that Swift was booed by the crowd, he delighted in it. As he had many, many times before (including saying he “hated” Swift after she endorsed his 2024 rival Kamala Harris) the president weaponized his massive following against her.
“The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift," Trump the president wrote on Truth Social. "She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!"
By calling her out, Trump looked to play by the now-standard Internet misogyny playbook. It wasn’t enough that Swift was publicly mocked, now he needed to troll her about it, attempting to humiliate her even further.
...In an era where Trump is singlehandedly dismantling decades of diversity, equity, and inclusion that generations of women, people of color, and queer people have fought for, the Super Bowl felt like a microcosm of a larger problem. Not only does it feel like Trump and his ilk want Swift out of football, it’s like they want to return our entire country to a time when they were in control, had all the power, and could say whatever they wanted without repercussions.
First of all, it’s worth noting that Taylor Swift has essentially become the face of the Kansas City Chiefs over the last couple of years, so it’s not exactly a shocker that Eagles fans or people that don’t like the Chiefs booed her at the Super Bowl.
However, it’s also very much worth noting that Taylor Swift made the CHOICE to involve herself in the last election. Of course, everyone has that choice, but it’s much riskier for celebrities and athletes. As Michael Jordan once famously quipped:
Guess what? Republicans also go to NFL games and when a celebrity who very prominently endorsed Kamala Harris comes up on the screen, they may be tempted to boo. That’s why it’s smarter for celebrities who want to build a broad fanbase to stay out of politics entirely. It’s also worth noting that celebrities may be able to help sell products but going by the 2024 election, there’s not a lot of evidence that they move the needle politically on the big stage.
Admittedly, Kamala Harris was a dud of a candidate, but if celebrity endorsements could have gotten her over the hump, they would have. Among many other celebrities, she was endorsed by Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Downey Jr., Beyoncé, Madonna, Eminem, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johannsen, Julia Roberts, Jennifer Aniston, Leonardo DiCaprio, Rihanna, Katy Perry, Harrison Ford, Lizo, Billie Eilish, Bruce Springsteen, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Lebron James. Yet, Kamala Harris lost the popular vote, the Electoral College, and white women while Trump was surprisingly competitive among young voters and Latin men.
In other words, the American people don’t give a damn what celebrities like Taylor Swift think about politics – and they shouldn’t. Celebrities and rock stars may be rich and famous, but as a group, they know far less about politics than the average person because they live their lives completely insulated from the reality that most people have to live with.
Taylor Swift is never going to get on the New York subway by herself, sweat the cost of groceries, or wonder if she can afford her car payment. Even if she was conservative, she lives in a highly censorious, intolerant far Left-wing world that would make it nearly impossible for her to have opinions that go too far outside of the Hollywood norm.
In other words, athletes, celebrities, and rock stars don’t have anything particularly intelligent to say about politics, the public doesn’t pay any attention to their endorsements, and the more they get into politics, the more it potentially detracts from their careers. So yes, it’s a free country and celebrities can do what they want just like everyone else, but the best thing these pampered stars like Taylor Swift could ever do is just, “Shut up and play.”
No, Eagles fans BOO anyone rooting for the other side, particularly "stars" who are shallow and supported KC. and Kamalalalala in this case. And cheer President Trump because they voted for him, and rejected Taylor's endorsement of Kamalalalalalalalala
Well said!