I was a Swiftie Blog once upon a time. @taylorswift actually follows this blog, so I hope maybe she’ll see this. But in any case I am done with the Swiftie fandom — and here’s why.
I so, so, want to embrace Activist Taylor. I remember 2012-2013 when the Haylor hate was at its peak and everyone and their mom was slut-shaming her for being a normal woman in her 20s and dating. I was there when the chaos of the Kimye/Calvin drama went down in 2016. And everytime I would cheer her on when she finally came out and called out everyone for their sexism, and the media for shaming her for having the audacity to have a few boyfriends.
I don’t think artists need to be activists, unless they put themselves in that role. So when Miss Americanas came out and she went on her Lover/Activist era, I was here for it. I even turned a blind eye when she inadvertently sic’d some fans on a young, black actress when she called out that Ginny & Georgia joke.
But when you take on the activist role, and spend a whole documentary talking about how you want to bring about positive change, you can’t associate yourself with someone like Matty Healy. You don’t get to cry on camera about how upset you are with Trumps racism and then turn a blind eye when you’re dating someone who enjoys watching WOC get brutalized in porn. You don’t get to have your activist era and then go home to someone who called a fellow artist an anti-Indigenous slur while making fun of their weight and ethnicity. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
Taylor doesn’t owe me anything. She doesn’t owe me an explanation and she’s not responsible for Matty Healy’s grotesque behaviour. But I don’t owe her anything either.
I think it says a lot about someone when you try to be an activist to score some quick publicity points and then associate yourself with someone as vile and racist as Matty Healy.
It is exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero.