I am on record as someone who detests Taylor Swift's music, but I have no personal animus against the woman herself. I met her when she was on the cusp of superstardom, and the fact that I didn't realize that she was a celebrity suggests a down-to-earth nature. One could say that I like her as a person while hating her music, so I was taken aback by the fact that alt-right racists and neo-nazis have latched onto her as an 'Aryan' icon. I imagine most of them harbor fantasies of killing Kanye West onstage for being a dick to their 'goddess'... well, they harbor fantasies of killing any African-Americans they encounter, just as their cohort Dylan Roof did.
Why is Taylor Swift the recipient of this 'Aryan' ardor? Sure, she's tall, thin, and blonde (personally, I don't find her all that attractive- I find her too 'angular' for my tastes, though I can see her as a jolie laide archetype), but I think there's something deeper at the root of this infatuation... Just as Taylor Swift was embarking on her career, there was an explicitly neo-Nazi white nationalist pop duo made up of blonde pre-teen twins whose adult male fans had an unhealthy sexual obsession with the underage 'Olsen Twins of Hate'. The girls of Prussian Blue eventually gave up the hate thanks to Dylan and weed, leaving horny white supremacists without a fantasy object for a while. As right-wingers are masters of psychological projection, it didn't take long for them to project their white-power/masturbatory fantasies on the politically unfathomable Ms Swift.
I feel sorry for Taylor Swift, it's not her fault that the haters gonna 'bate, 'bate, 'bate, 'bate, 'bate.
I'm still waiting for Swift's crossover--Britney Spears style, from being not a child and most definitely a woman even if her songs still seem petty. I like what she's been doing in her videos--she projects girl solidarity even though she is the epitome of the "cool girl". Her stuff isn't going to get confused with Tori Amos or Sarah MacLachlan any time soon. Her image isn't SJW--but a highly individual get-back mechanism. Stuff like "Bad Blood" borrows from the idea she will over time get around to fucking your shit up even if she does not openly acknowledge that the situation of all females is fucked and in need of boot to ass correction.
ReplyDeleteI do not know what the Aryan youth think she means to them as a posterbabe, since it is obvi that they are never never never never getting together. But I hope she has a way to meme-check their support-boners into loserbits.
I do not know what the Aryan youth think she means to them as a posterbabe, since it is obvi that they are never never never never getting together. But I hope she has a way to meme-check their support-boners into loserbits.
ReplyDeleteNice homage there... most of her stuff seems very solipsistic, I wonder if she'll outgrow that tendency.
I bet her jaw dropped open in surprise when she heard about this.
ReplyDeleteI'm just guessing because she has a very well-practiced surprised look.
Now, f her career ever tanks, she has a built-in audience. She could be the next Charlie Daniels or Hank Williams, Jr., going on Fox to complain about our wimpy foreign born President. It's okay - somebody has to do music tours in North Carolina.
I kinda lost track of modern music before Taylor Swift became a thing.
ReplyDeleteStill playing my Ramones, etc. Sometimes Jesus and Mary Chain when I feel like getting modern.
~
Daughter said "hey,an old beatles song"
ReplyDeleteI asked"what,they have new ones?"