NWANONYIRI: People are too obsessed with Taylor Swift
Growing up, I thought every Taylor Swift song was an instant hit. From "Bad Blood" to "Blank Space," like any other average 9-year-old girl, you could not convince me she was not a lyrical genius and an icon ahead of her time.
Yet, as I get older, I realize that I often see and hear about her in areas that are not relevant to her. Besides being someone I cannot escape, Swift is a well-known global pop star who needs no introduction and has ensured that for the last few months. Somehow, the media ties everything back to Swift.
After attending this year's 81st annual Golden Globe Awards, Swift made headlines without even saying a word. A night for celebrating talented actors, directors, producers and other musicians became consumed by a Swift frenzy of constant media reports and camera panning.
Actress and comedian Ayo Edebiri won her first Golden Globe for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series, Musical or Comedy for "The Bear." This was a huge win for her as a breakout actress, and one of the first articles documenting this was about Swift.
Headlines about the achievement read, "Ayo Edebiri Shouted Out Assistants During Her Golden Globes Speech — And Taylor Swift Loved It" and "Taylor Swift Loved This Moment in Ayo Edebiri's Golden Globe Speech," from Glamour and Billboard, respectively. The headlines talked more about Swift's reactions than Edebiri's success and journey as an actress. Swift's "reaction" was a combination of her nodding and clapping.
I could not help but think it is an absolute head-scratcher and bizarre to center someone else's moment around another person's reaction.
The mainframe of Swift's career is making pop music, mostly about her current and past boyfriends. One of these boyfriends, Travis Kelce, demoted to "Taylor Swift's new boyfriend", is a two-time Super Bowl winner for the Kansas City Chiefs. Swift began attending the games leading up to Super Bowl LVIII in support of Kelce when fans noticed she took up more screen time than usual for any other celebrity.
Despite all the other big stars attending this year's Super Bowl, Swift remained the center of attention. People were more concerned about who Swift was with rather than other events taking place that night.
So, why flock to Swift? There are many other recognized, talented and successful musicians. Why does the media choose to focus solely on this pop star? In short, it is what people want to hear, and that is the problem. Nobody can resist the classic combination of blonde hair, blue eyes, red lips and white feminism more than Americans. For years, people have put white celebrities on a pedestal, especially women, and searched for both beauty and innocence within them.
Like Swift, we have seen this act with "blonde bombshell" Marilyn Monroe, whom people grew obsessed with due to her irresistibility and humility. Monroe advocated for other Black artists, such as Ella Fitzgerald, by refusing to enter segregated venues. It is no surprise that Swift's public relations (PR) team took a page out of Monroe's book, only for it to backfire.
Recently, Swift has been close friends with Black rapper Ice Spice after her ex-boyfriend and musician Matty Healy laughed at racist comments toward her on a podcast episode hosted by comedian Adam Friedland, comparing her to a "chubby Chinese lady" while mocking Chinese and Hawaiian accents. Quickly after the incident, Swift released a remix of her song "Karma" with the rapper, and they have been inseparable since then. But she never addressed the situation regarding Healy.
Users on the social media platform X clapped back in an uproar, stating, "Taylor Swift failing to address the racist comments (Healy) made toward Ice Spice and then finding a way to profit off of her with a new collab is a textbook example of white woman feminism." Another user said Swift's PR team "works harder than the devil."
Swift is no more or less human than the rest of us. Being close to someone like Matty Healy in the first place speaks volumes about her character, even if we do not know all the behind-the-scenes details.
The media has glorified and made a spectacle out of someone who may be misleading in character and a poor representative for the general public. What she has done at football games and award shows is not always worth making news headlines out of. I value Swift's lyricism and support for other celebrities, but people need to realize that it is the bare minimum for a pop star.
Uju Nwanonyiri is a sophomore in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in journalism and media studies and public health. Nwanonyiri’s column, “Debrief Discussions” runs on alternate Wednesdays.
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