Being political tends to come early on in one’s career if he or she is genuine about it. It happened with Bob Dylan, Patti Smith, Joan Baez, The Clash and even The Beatles (so decidedly lovelorn for the first half of the 60s). In the pure pop realm, Madonna has been just about the only person to start out and remain unabashed in her bleeding heart politicism. Lana Del Rey, somewhere in between pop and folk and baroque, at least jumped on the bandwagon immediately after Trump’s election with tracks like “When The World Was At War We Kept on Dancing” and “God Bless America — And All The Beautiful Women In It” on Lust For Life. But with Taylor, the sudden barrage of politically “calculated” moves (this latest being designed to coincide with Pride, just oh so conveniently a couple months before the release of her seventh record, Lover) feels less like it’s coming from the heart and more like it’s coming from a business-attuned mind.
Perhaps intuiting that the tween and teen audience is growing older, therefore less devoted, Swift is turning to the next logical progression in her fanbase: the gays. Except, if she had heeded a true gay man’s advice with regard to whose taste it is always best to appeal to from the get-go, she would have taken a page from Samantha Jones, who famously said of the fame trajectory, “First come the gays, then come the girls.” But since Swift is doing everything backwards–choosing to become political at a time that has merely suited her–shows a complete lack of having the courage of conviction it takes to be political from the outset. While her single has been unanimously praised as a return to form after the intense pile of shit that was “ME!” (so yeah, anything is going to feel like a return to form), it appears as though no one cares about the fact that this was never her “form.” The pop hooks and melodies, sure. But certainly not lyrics like, “You are somebody that we don’t know/But you’re comin’ at my friends like a missile/Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD? (you could be GLAAD)/Sunshine on the street at the parade/But you would rather be in the dark ages/Makin’ that sign must’ve taken all night.” This is a person who took so many years to publicly speak out against anything at all as a result of having the type of admirers that wanted to view her as their Aryan goddess. The person who wouldn’t specifically speak out on the white supremacists that found a platform to vent their simultaneous love for Taylor and hate for gays on her The Swift Life app back in 2017. Possibly fearing a loss of a very significant portion of her paycheck. But now it looks as though she fears a greater loss in revenue in not “standing up for what’s right.”
So if she must join the bandwagon that dictates we must all be liberals (because if we’re not then we’re raging Nazis determined to stamp out all freedom despite the liberal mindset of late ironically doing just that if anyone expresses the “wrong” opinion), she’s at least going to make it mostly about her. Because the way she relates to centuries-long persecution against LGBTQs is by talking about how much she’s been condemned by trolls on the internet (plus Kim and Kanye of course). Thus, “You are somebody that I don’t know/But you’re takin’ shots at me like it’s Patrón.” Criticizing the work of a pop star is just a hair different from, I don’t know, actually being killed for your identity. But Taylor claims she can relate to all the ills of the LGBTQ community and that people shouldn’t come for her “friends.” Even though, mind you, she’s not trying to mess with anyone’s “self-expression.” It’s a bit of a mixed message and one that doesn’t exactly connote that Swift is firmly Team Gay just yet. Much like her nemesis/current cookie-baking “ally,” Katy Perry, who also seems to like the “gay thing” for its presumed colorful fabric palette more than anything else.
Even so, Swift really wants to make this new component of her twenty-first century identity believable, ergo a fresh performance at Stonewall Inn on Friday. Had she ever been to Stonewall before then? Debatable. But what does it matter when Pride has become more about corporate “with itness” and getting fucked up to a danceable playlist? On that front, Swift fits right in with the “new narrative” that neatly paints straights and corporate oppressors into the portrait.
So maybe Swift should take a bit of her own advice from the title of the song in terms of inserting herself into a fight she’s a bit late to. A musician is allowed to–and should–evolve, of course. Yet when they do so at such a rapid and overly taylored moment, it doesn’t come across as being a “champion” (actually RuPaul’s “Champion” is a better gay anthem) so much as a poseur. Then again, maybe one should just “calm down” and take advocates where they can get them. So who’s next? Selena Gomez? The last apolitical pop star standing (Miley and Ari already long ago falling down the trend rabbit hole. Or butthole).
