Why even devout "Swifties" are trashing Taylor's new album (The Life of a Showgirl)
They say misery loves company, but in the world of women we often demand it.
“They wanna see you rise, they don’t want you to reign.”
It’s a memorable line from arguably the best track (“Father Figure”) on Taylor Swift’s hotly anticipated new album The Life of a Showgirl, which debuted to surprisingly negative reviews last week.
Saying Taylor has been one of the biggest artists for years feels like an understatement at this point. She’s simply in a league of her own, reaching levels of fame known only to the likes of dead superstars like Michael Jackson and Princess Diana. And what was already a phenomenon tipped into overdrive throughout the past two years with the Eras Tour, a famous new boyfriend, and now the ultimate prize in girl world: an engagement. TLOAS was supposed to be the cherry on top of these crowning achievements.
People hating on Taylor Swift and her music is nothing new. While her fanbase is rabid and operates more like a cult than anything else, she’s always attracted her fair share of criticism. In fact, she was even sort of canceled at one point - a fact that seems to be memory-holed for most (but certainly not by Taylor herself).
What makes the detractors of TLOAS interesting is the number of outright fans (“Swifties”) breaking rank and daring to criticize their dear leader for this body of work. Traditionally, anti-Swifties have come in a few shapes and sizes - Men, Inc. being the largest.
(Insert the always needed “NOT ALL MEN” disclaimer for the inevitable easily sidetracked readers) It is an interesting fact that few men listen to women artists at all.
For some reason, Taylor really grinds the gears of a certain subset of men. They love to point out that she’s “not hot,” or make fun of her lyrics for being unsophisticated, or accuse her of not being able to sing. It’s worth mentioning that Donald Trump is one of those men.
These kinds of men are peculiar. Beauty is of course subjective, but Taylor is an objectively attractive woman. I will concede her styling choices (bangs, whimsical dresses, and red lipstick amongst her favorites) are more for the female gaze. But it’s odd for this to attract such anger. Men are much uglier all the time and I’ve yet to see women mad about that. It’s more like these men are mad that Taylor isn’t vying for their attention or approval than anything else - and that’s apparent outside of her modest dressing choices. Taylor is also representative of what these kinds of guys hate most - she’s a girlboss. She’s a billionaire who gets to live out their bachelor dreams, dating whichever celebrity she sets her eye on at the moment and letting them go as soon as they no longer please her. And she does all that while flaunting the fact that she’s in her thirties, proudly owns and loves multiple cats, and openly likes and supports other women. The audacity.
There are of course smaller Swift hate groups. Extreme progressives have disliked her ever since a B got added to the front of her net worth. They’ve been tracking her jet usage and telling anyone who will listen “there’s no such thing as an ethical billionaire!” for years. Fringe fundamentalists on the right have also had their beef, claiming she’s too sexy for their children’s consumption (as if that’s not something they can simply control) or that her lyrics have become too edgy - regularly incorporating everything from F-bombs to fucking imagery. You also have some weird inner music fan club battles where the women who predominately make up the fan base of other popular female singers - from Charli XCX to Beyonce - hold online turf wars debating who the true queen is.
But no group has been more galvanized in their dislike of Taylor than MAGA Republicans - a feud that dates back to 2018 when, for the first time in her career, Taylor weighed in on a political matter. At the time she endorsed Phil Bredesen, a former Democrat governor in Tennessee, in his US Senate race against Marsha Blackburn, a Republican Congresswoman at the time. Full disclosure: Phil Bredesen was the first Democrat I ever voted for and a much more sensible choice in that race. He was a pro-2A Democrat, an extinct breed nowadays, and had been a pretty good and moderate governor in the state. Many things can be said about Marsha but sensible and moderate are not amongst them. But I digress. Trump and the GOP saw this as war and Swift became persona non grata in right-wing circles from that point forward.
Given the backlash, Taylor seemed to lean into her newfound left-wing identity for a while. She started making bangers promoting the LGBTQ community like “You Need To Calm Down” and releasing feminist anthems such as “If I Were A Man.” But she stayed out of explicit advocacy for the most part. She seemed to have learned the old Michael Jordan lesson of business: Republicans buy shoes too. Aside from a late and lukewarm endorsement of Kamala Harris last year, she’s pretty much bowed out of politics altogether at this point - a fact that has enraged progressives. Remember, silence is violence in their books.
Despite these opponents, Taylor has had more fans than she could count and they’ve been steadily in her corners for decades now. However, given the reaction to TLOAS, that seems to be changing and she currently appears to be dropping fans as fast as she picked up news ones during the Eras Tour.
Before I jump into my analysis on why that is, I will say I don’t know that I can be totally objective here. My first internship in college was for Taylor Swift’s management, back when she was on her first album, and I went on to intern for Big Machine Records A&R department after that. I don’t know Taylor, I’ve only met her in passing, but I do have more personal experience around her than most and I have to say I respect the hell out of her. She’s genuinely brilliant, kind, humble, and one of the hardest workers you’ll ever meet. I think she deserves every bit of success she’s found and I think the commentary around her latest album has a lot more to do with the line I quoted at the top than it does the art itself.
Still, I will give people this. It’s not her best. I’ve heard some fans say this seemed rushed, that she’s too surrounded by yes-men at her current heights to get the edits she needs, that she’s terrified of losing the crown to younger talents like Sabrina Carpenter and is trying to mimic them instead of being her authentic self. That all tracks. Aging as a woman is hell in this society but it’s especially harsh in the spotlight and the industry has historically not been kind to women past their prime (or even really ever lol).
While non-fans often mock Swift for being a lightweight lyrically, they actually just reveal their own surface knowledge of her work. Yes, radio singles like “Shake It Off,” or “We Are Never Getting Back Together” are not particularly deep, but name a radio smash that is. Upbeat, low IQ hits are for the masses….because they are marketed to the masses. On the contrast, Swift albums like Folkmore or Evermore (personal favorites) never produced radio hits but have some of the most poetic, moving lines to be found. They can stand up against anything produced this century. Swift didn’t become a billionaire because she can write a catchy banger. She got where she is because she has a unique ability to connect with people on a different level through her words.
TLOAS is definitely more of a catchy bangers album. Genre wise it’s in a completely different orbit than Evermore or Folklore or even The Tortured Poets Department. It’s called versatility people. Swift herself has noted that some of her albums are written with quills while others are written with glitter gels pens. As fans rushing to Swift’s defense have pointed out, TLOAS is definitely a gel pen album and isn’t she entitled to that? Can’t she just be happy and vocally enjoy her moment at the top of the world?
But I don’t think that’s the problem. Lover was also a gel pen album, definitely her best in the category, but it still had lots of depth. TLOAS is just not that good. And by “not that good” I’m saying in comparison to her other work - it’s definitely still enjoyable and has a few hits on it. Being the biggest musician alive means you’re of course going to be compared to yourself, and that can increasingly be a very high bar to meet.
That’s my (as best as I can make it) objective review of the material, which is a needed framing because we are about to head into a twilight zone.
People, the left lost its mind some time ago and if you thought their sweeping defeat in the election last year was going to bitch-slap some common sense back into them you could not be more wrong. All across TikTok as we speak, women and men and zeys are coming online to talk about how “problematic” TLOAS is.
They are literally calling it a “MAGA album,” saying it’s fascist propaganda, accusing her of racism and misogyny, and claiming she’s pushing a “trad” narrative. I don’t know how anyone does it with these people, I’m tired just reading their comments.
Let me make sure we’re all tracking here. They think a 35 year old billionaire, who proudly calls her cats her children and who has dated half of Hollywood is now trad simply because she’s happy in her heterosexual relationship and looking forward to marriage and a family with her guy?
And she’s racist because she’s imaging her babies will look like her and her husband - who happen to be white?
They’re insufferable. And as someone who would really like the MAGA reign of terror to end, it just really pisses me off the be quite frank. Can neither side be normal for even one week?!
The left being nuts isn’t new, I know, but they always manage to take it to even lower lows and I can’t help but watch slack-jawed each time.
The last ingredient we have to discuss in the TLOAS haterade cocktail is also unfortunately not new - and it’s the fact that a lot of women simply cannot be happy for other women.
Taylor has no doubt been an inspiration to millions of women - many of whom connected with her because they also felt like the outsider. When Swift first debuted it was an authentic schtick. She was a little awkward, it was conceivable how the hot guy at school might look past her for the less bookish cheerleader type. Even as her fame, wealth, and power grew, it was an image she stuck to. Some have even suggested her wardrobe choices were made intentionally so that she’d continue to fit in with average women and not be intimidating to them.