Late last year, Time Magazine named Taylor Swift the “Person of the Year” because duh. Any single person who, as a private citizen, can substantially move entire economies should be named the Person of the Year.
But one quote from the article stood out above all else, and it was in reference to the absolute hysteria that began when she hard-launched her relationship with Travis Kelce (oh, by the way – have you heard that Taylor Swift is dating Travis Kelce?).
When Taylor Swift attends a Kansas City Chiefs game she, understandably, becomes a point of focus in the broadcast. It’s like seeing the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot out in the wild. Of course we’re gonna look. But not everyone is so interested – some NFL fans have made it known that they don’t want to see a non-football person on their TV screens during Football Time™?.
When asked what she thinks of the attention she’s gotten on NFL broadcasts lately, Swift says: “I’m just there to support Travis. I have no awareness of if I’m being shown too much and pissing off a few dads, Brads, and Chads.”
And that is precisely the correct answer.
Why can’t we all have a little fun?
When the NFL dared to have a little fun with Taylor Swift’s attendance at a few Kansas City Chiefs games, NFL fans became incandescent with rage. And for what? The prospect of having to be momentarily exposed to someone that wasn’t their cup of tea?
“KEEP TAYLOR SWIFT OFF OF MY TV SCREEN. REAL FOOTBALL FANS DON’T CARE ABOUT HER.”
As someone who spent years working in sports entertainment, I’m a real, bona fide football fan. And I want to see Taylor Swift on my TV screen during a Kansas City Chiefs game. I think it’s fun when the announcers make little Taylor Swift song references throughout the broadcast. They’re having fun! Why can’t we all have a little fun?!
NFL fans will deride Taylor Swift fans for their fandom despite being the exact same amount of passionate, just in a different flavor. They’ll wield the term “Swiftie” as an insult, characterizing us to be unhinged zealots for being so invested in Taylor Swift culture – the costumes we wore for the Eras tour, the friendship bracelets, the interest in her life, etc.
NFL fans will deride Taylor Swift fans for their fandom despite being the exact same amount of passionate, just in a different flavor.
Meanwhile, Dads, Chads, and Brads have no problem wearing a jersey with their favorite player’s name and number on it. They are quite literally cosplaying as the football men they idolize. They’ll paint their faces and fly team flags and invest more emotions into the outcome of a football game than they invest into their marriage.
So why, then, are we demanding supreme seriousness from our NFL broadcasts?! The NFL is not some sacred institution that must be protected from Taylor Swift fans, and televised games are entertainment assets just like anything else in media — assets to which Swift has even added $330 million in brand value via her attendance.
So why are the Dads, Brads, and Chads really BIG MAD at Swiftmania invading their TV screens?
I posit that, as a society, there’s still a pervading belief that men’s interests are seen as good and valuable and worthwhile. Women’s interests, on the other hand, are seen as frivolous and lesser. Men’s interests are the default, the status quo. Their perspective must be centered in all media – films, TV shows, literature. Men’s interests define the mainstream.
Most films or television shows or songs that center women’s perspectives are classified as niche. They’re only for the girls ?. As a result, women grow up with plenty of practice empathizing with the perspective of male protagonists and male voices. But men and boys aren’t expected to do the same.
Ask the women in your life who their favorite musical artists are. You will most likely hear a mix of male and female artists. Now, ask the men in your life who their favorite musical artists are. If they say anything other than exclusively male artists, give them a goddamn cookie because they are the exception.
Zooming out a bit further, you also begin to realize that it’s not just women’s interests that Dads, Brads, and Chads disdain – but specifically young women’s interests.
Women’s interests, on the other hand, are seen as frivolous and lesser. Men’s interests are the default, the status quo. Their perspective must be centered in all media – films, TV shows, literature. Men’s interests define the mainstream.
This past Spring, as I was about to head out of town to attend the Taylor Swift Eras Tour, a 27-year-old male acquaintance remarked, “Taylor Swift? Isn’t she like a teenie bopper?” Sir, she is 34 years old. She is older than the man who made the remark, in fact. I remembered that interaction because of that bizarre irony.
Similar sentiments began emerging from other Dads, Brads, and Chads around me as the Swift/Kelce relationship hoopla began invading Chiefs games. And I began to realize: they think she’s still a teenager.
Plenty of Dads, Brads, and Chads have never updated their first impressions of 2008 Taylor Swift. They’re working off of outdated information. They missed the memo that she’s had 10 albums over the course of 15 years – an unbroken streak of hits without misses. I think it comes as a genuine shock to them to see the cultural capital she’s amassed over the years and how profound her impact has become.
“All she does is write about her ex-boyfriends!” says the most boring man you’ve ever met in your life because he heard someone make this claim once in 2014 and loves repeating it since it absolves him from the work of having to come up with a single original thought.
Do these people ever stop and think about the fact that most songs are about romantic relationships? Sure, every now and then someone will write a song about the boys being back in town or the Monster Mash occurring, but MOST songs are about love – pursuing love, being in love, or losing love.
So of course songwriters are going to write about their lived experiences in past relationships. Why is Swift the only one routinely criticized for this?
Still, some NFL fans don’t even want to acknowledge her success. They don’t want to hear that Taylor Swift’s concert at the Arizona Cardinals’ stadium brought in more revenue for the city of Glendale than the Super Bowl had just months prior. They refuse to accept the reality that a city is objectively better off hosting a Taylor Swift concert than the damn Super Bowl.
Because it would pain them to give Taylor her flowers, the Dads, Brads, and Chads will lash out in the same old tired, predictably misogynist fashion to try and discredit her success by attacking her looks. They have the audacity to comment on social media posts that she’s “mid,” an astonishing accusation from men who, without exception, look like potatoes.
Men will say Taylor Swift is “not even hot” when we all know that if Taylor Swift were a civilian out at a bar, those same men would be too scared shitless to hit on her. And in the off-chance that a civilian Taylor Swift ever hit on one of them, the ensuing boner would be so sudden and aggressive that it would land them in the hospital.
To be clear, what I am NOT saying is that if you don’t like Taylor Swift, you’re a misogynist. That’s false. You have every right to not like Taylor Swift’s music. That’s a valid opinion and you shouldn’t be judged for having it. I know she’s not for everyone.
What I am saying is that misogyny (whether conscious or unconscious or even internalized in women) is at the root of much of this discourse. If it wasn’t, these frothing-at-the-mouth NFL fans wouldn’t be so angry and their online comments wouldn’t be so vile.
But even with the case I’ve laid before you here today, I know I’ll never change the hearts and minds of men who are so committed to despising this woman. Until they confront the intrinsic misogyny that they claim not to have (“How can I be misogynistic? I have daughters!”), nothing will ever satisfy them.
So in the absence of that resolution, I think we Swifties would all be fine with this resolution instead: Let them cry.
To the Dads, Brads, and Chads out there, I have this to say:
Oh no! Did the football announcers spend 45 seconds out of a 4-hour broadcast talking about the biggest star in the world being in attendance at the game? ?
I hope Taylor Swift’s conquest of professional sports never ends. I hope she performs at the Super Bowl halftime show. I hope she buys an NFL team. I hope she becomes the new starting quarterback for the New York Jets. I hope she’s named the Commissioner of Football.
And frankly, all of those possibilities are far more likely than the possibility that the Dads, Chads, and Brads will realize that they’ve been overreacting to Taylor Swift this whole time.
Taypedia 