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Many of Swift’s fans have been distraught and voicing their very strong opinions about her decision to allegedly date Matty Healy, the controversial lead singer of the hit band The 1975. “Her white woman feminism is getting old.”
Miss Americana: Taylor Swift
Swift began her activism journey in 2018 with an Instagram post. Her words were strong and impactful, notably saying, “I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.” After that post, she continued to advocate for marginalized groups in several ways, including but limited to, using her large platform to encourage action, making songs and videos to give a voice to these groups, and even donating her money. She lost some fans in the process, including Donald Trump claiming he liked her music “25 percent less.” Swift later went on to release her Netflix documentary entitled Miss Americana which followed Swift’s journey in deciding to use her political voice. However, as time went on, fans noticed Swift’s absence during major political issues that occurred as the years went by. It began to seem like her activism was a phase.
Matty Healy
Matty Healy, frontman of the popular band The 1975, has garnered significant attention for his controversial actions and statements. One of the reasons for his notoriety is his penchant for making provocative and offensive remarks during interviews and on social media. He has been criticized for his insensitive comments on political issues and for allegedly engaging in cultural appropriation. A great concise article on his specific controversies is on BuzzFeed.com, entitled “This Is Why Taylor Swift’s Fans Are Disappointed By Her Involvement With Matty Healy.” After learning of her controversial behavior, loyal fans of Swift couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her involvement with him, especially after her era of loud activism. In short, Swift tends to model the behaviors of a “White woman feminist.”
White Women And Convenient Activism
Over the years, several privileged white women have proven their bias when it comes to activism. An example would be, your white female co-worker is complaining to you about being underpaid, and is asking you, a POC to stand with her because you are both women. However, when you, the POC asks her for help because your natural hair is being discriminated against, she responds with “That’s not my area of expertise.” It’s the idea that they only seek justice when it specifically pertains to them. Swift has exhibited this type of behavior on many occasions. For example, after being notably silent throughout the year, on March 1, 2021, she tweeted, “Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back,” Swift wrote. “How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse shit as FuNnY. ALso, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you.” She added a broken heart emoji then continued, “Happy Women’s History Month I guess.” Her most loyal fans of course sided with her, and many went on to attack the black actress who said the line on the show. Of course, Swift does not control her fans and may not have known what they were doing, but it was as if she just dropped a bomb and then left. Swift has a pattern of being really loud about things that directly affect her, and very quiet about the things that don’t. And yet, it seems as though she still wants to uphold that perfect political hero title, and it just doesn’t work like that. She and some of her friends including Blake lively, Ryan Reynolds, and Gigi Hadid’s ability to look the other way regarding Healy’s controversial behavior is extremely questionable and begs the question if they are more like Healy than we originally thought.
What It Means
At the end of the day, Swift is in her own superior league when it comes to making music and performing and no one can take that away from her, no matter who she dates. We don’t know these people, and who they decide to hang around has no effect on us. However, for someone like Swift with such a strong and loyal fanbase, one may fear that her compliancy will normalize Healy’s controversial behavior. Some of her fans are already shipping them on TikTok and saying that those who don’t support Swift’s relationship “aren’t real fans” therefore silencing other fans, specifically fans of color, who choose to speak out about their disappointment.
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