Within three days of its release, Taylor Swift’s new album The Life of a Showgirl turned the internet into a battleground.
Netizens have been dissecting her songs and claimed the lyrics were promoting white supremacy, racism, homophobia, and eugenics.
“Taylor Swift is a very calculative sneaky white girl. She is such a white supremacist,” one commented online.
Highlights
- Taylor Swift’s new album 'The Life of a Showgirl' triggered heated debates online.
- Some claimed the lyrics were subtly promoting white supremacy, racism, homophobia, and eugenics.
- “Taylor Swift is a very calculative sneaky white girl. She is such a white supremacist,” one critic commented online.
Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has turned the internet into a battleground
Image credits: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott / taylorswift / Instagram
After Taylor Swift dropped her 12th studio album on October 3, the internet accused the singer, 35, of turning into a “MAGA trad-wife.”
Lyrics from the song WI$H LI$T, which includes Taylor singing about having babies that “look like” her partner, became a flashpoint.
Critics accused her of hinting at eugenics and racial purity.
Image credits: taylornation / Instagram
“I just want you / Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you,” Taylor sang in the chorus.
Netizens immediately lashed out and claimed, “it does sound like she's romanticizing gentrification, homogenisation etc.”
“Taylor Swift is handing the conservative agenda on a silver platter to the masses,” said TikToker Liittle Debbie in a video that garnered 3.1 million views.
The singer was accused online of promoting white supremacy, racism, homophobia, and eugenics
Image credits: TAS Rights Management / taylorswift / Instagram
“At this point, all queer people and people of color should just stop listening to her music. This quote is just one of many examples where we can see she is not a girl’s girl, her support for queer issues was never sincere, and her blatant racism is finally coming out,” another commenter said.
“Her lyrics now have no depth and only catering to a group of people in the US who are actively trying to hurt minority groups. Every sign is pointing right….” they continued.
Meanwhile, people questioned why Taylor was being seen as a “trad wife” for simply wanting children.
“How did taylor swift putting out an album becomes alt right agenda of trad wife life and having white babies we have lost the plot,” one commented.
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Another song that triggered widespread discussions was Cancelled!
“[Being canceled is] something everyone goes through now,” Taylor said about the song in her Official Release Party of a Showgirl film.
“It’s not just like a public figure type whatever, it’s like people gossiping about you in your town, negative comments you read on your Instagram,” she continued. “You can literally feel canceled by any sort of social backlash that you get.”
Netizens claimed one song appeared to be pro-MAGA, with Taylor no longer afraid of being “cancelled” for problematic opinions
Image credits: taylorswift / Instagram
Netizens claimed she seemed to be embracing the idea of being “cancelled.”
Despite Taylor’s public support for Democrats, many speculated whether the song was pro-MAGA and glorified being “cancelled” for problematic opinions.
“Taylor Swift says it’s okay now to be cancelled and that’s actually cool. And maybe if I’m cancelled, I can be her friend,” Liittle Debbie said in her viral video.
Elsewhere, the TikToker said: “Cancelled! is an anthem for those who are over being politically correct, and we’re breaking down the wall of shame [with being] cancelled.”
Another commenter said, “‘I like my friends canceled,’ is the most tone deaf lyric a white billionaire with MAGA friends could release in this climate.”
Taylor was criticized in the past for maintaining her friendship with Brittany Mahomes, wife of NFL star Patrick Mahomes.
Brittany stirred controversy after liking an Instagram post about the 2024 GOP platform in the past.
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The song Fate of Ophelia also saw criticism for blending a Shakespearean tragedy with Taylor’s own modern love story.
The video was symbolic of how her fiancé Travis Kelce saved her from the “fate” of Ophelia, a character from Hamlet whose love for the protagonist drives her to insanity.
Image credits: taylorswift / Instagram
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Some felt the music video was reinforcing patriarchy.
“I refuse to listen to a song that implies Ophelia might’ve reconsidered k***ing herself if she had just dated a quarterback,” one commented online.
Critics claimed Taylor was comparing herself to Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriends in the song Opalite
Image credits: TAS Rights Management / taylorswift / Instagram
Yet another song that some saw as problematic was Opalite, with some claiming the song was possibly racist and even included a dig at Travis Kelce’s ex-girlfriend Kayla Nicole.
“But my mama told me, ‘It’s alright / You were dancing through the lightning strike / Sleepless in the onyx night / But now the sky is opalite,’” read the lyrics of the song.
While explaining the lyrics, Taylor said in a recent interview: “I learned that [opalite is] actually a man-made opal, like opal can be man-made, just like diamonds, and so, Travis [Kelce]’s birthstone is opal.”
She said she “loved the stone” and “fixated” on the idea of happiness, like opalite, being “man-made” too.
“I thought it was kind of a cool metaphor that it’s a man-made opal, and happiness can be man-made, too. That’s kinda what the song is about, the juxtaposition of those two,” she said.
“I thought it was kind of a cool metaphor that it’s a man-made opal, and happiness can be man-made, too,” Taylor said about the lyrics
Image credits: taylorswift / killatrav / Instagram
Netizens claimed there was more to the lyrics of Opalite, with some speculating whether the lyrics were coded with messages about Travis’ ex-girlfriends.
Opalite showed that “Taylor Swift was really jealous and insecure about the fact that her boyfriend had previously only dated Black women,” one TikToker claimed in a video.
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The videomaker pointed out that Travis had dated Black women like Kayla Nicole and Zuri Hall before his romance with Taylor.
She claimed that the onyx vs. opalite imagery was about race, because onyx most popularly comes in shades of black but can also be in shades of brown or white.
Meanwhile, opalite is usually seen in milky white colors or a creamy blue.
“Travis Klece was sleepless with all of his exes in the Onyx night, but now with Taylor Swift his sky is Opalite,” the TikToker said.
Taylor is “using the lyrics of the song to talk about how she is so much better for Travis than his girlfriend is,” a content creator said
Image credits: TAS Rights Management / taylorswift / Instagram
Dr. Victoria Alexander-Thompson, an Instagrammer with 46.5K followers, claimed Taylor was “using the imagery of Onyx, which is typically black, and Opalite, which is typically white” to make a racist point.
Taylor is “using the lyrics of the song to talk about how she is so much better for Travis than his [ex-]girlfriend is,” she said.
Victoria claimed the song was playing into the trope of white men dating Black women until it’s time for them to settle down and start a family with a white woman.
“This might be Taylor’s most white supremacist album yet,” one netizen commented online
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