I regret to inform you that reactionary American conservatives are once again mad at Taylor Swift. And while I won’t be linking to the recent Federalist article attacking her (they don’t need your hate clicks), I did think it funny that a conservative writer who looks like a talking thumb decided to attack her looks this week:
Also, she is homely. https://t.co/FIiTK9N7cB
— Roger Kimball (@rogerkimball) September 25, 2023
Hilarity aside, it’s always telling when old men gnash their teeth at younger and more powerful women. I’m not a classic Swiftie — meaning, I’ve never been to one of her concerts, though pairing sequins and cowboy boots seems like a fun outing already, and I don’t know the words to most of her songs — but she’s fun, an economic powerhouse, and she thinks people should register to vote and otherwise participate in democracy, so you can imagine why hideous gnomes would be especially angry at her.
It is pretty sad when something as basic as voter registration makes the usual suspects become hysterical, a sad byproduct of a time when American democracy is in peril. But it’s also quintessentially American to respond to this gnashing of teeth with a bit of sass. And while I don’t hold much stuck in the idea that good things always come in a beautiful wrapper, there is something wholesome about a beautiful woman being disparaged by people who look like they are legally bound to stay away from schools and playgrounds.
It’s not that I think Taylor Swift will save us from ourselves — democracy is ultimately an unglamorous endeavor, which is also a good thing — but I do like the idea of using one’s popularity for good. Too many celebrities just want everyone to like them, which is the eternal curse of achieving celebrity in the first place. Taking a stand, even in a largely ephemeral way, is a brave thing when so many eyes are on you.
On some fundamental level, we do have a problem with feminine power in the United States, and the Taylor Swift case is one of the many ways this resentment gets exposed. I could provide plenty of examples in politics, though that just makes me depressed. Especially because I think American men are great and I hate it when they make me feel rotten and disappointed, as if feminine independence is a bad thing, as if we can’t be loved unless we are taking orders, our bodies bound to someone else’s will.
Emotions are definitely scary, and the kneejerk reaction to emotions is to paint them as frivolous
I think about this a lot when I think about the nature of true love, and how only free people truly know it. I don’t necessarily mean free in a physical sense — some of humanity’s greatest love stories have come out of gulags and concentration camps — I mean freedom of the spirit, of the mind. If we believe in that particular American ideal, we shouldn’t obsess so much over controlling that which we are attracted to.
I do think the hatred toward Swift has something to do with feeling attracted to someone who is fundamentally free. None of the men who erupt in hysterics over her popularity could ever be noticed by her — she’s too big for that. She also knows how to be emotionally honest and vulnerable in her songwriting, which is a great offense, because it requires a certain ease with yourself, something that these men painfully lack.
Emotions are definitely scary, and the kneejerk reaction to emotions is to paint them as frivolous. But I do think that a lot of our serious thinkers could stand to listen to a song like “Love Story” (yes, it’s one of my favorites, I don’t care what anybody says) and allow themselves to feel a little. Or maybe even dance a little.
Life’s too short to not have fun, and lack of fun turns people into ogres. And then, before you know it, you’re writing mean tweets for no reason at all, when you could be busy doing something wonderful.
Image: Paolo Villanueva
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