AIBU to think Taylor Swift is being carefully repositioned and we’re not meant to notice?

[MidnightTheory]

I can’t shake the feeling that there’s a very slow, very subtle shift going on with Taylor Swift’s brand.

She built herself up as pro-choice, feminist, outspoken and a liberal figure. But since this whole NFL era, it feels like the edges are being sanded down. It’s not loud, not obvious, just little things like the relentless focus on her cheering in the boxes, the glossy all American girlfriend framing, the way the messaging has become more family-friendly, less political.

It’s clever because it’s incremental. Nobody suddenly says that she’s gone conservative, but drip by drip she’s aligning with NFL values which are patriotism, wholesomeness and big money sponsors who want safe.

I'm not a massive swiftie, but I have enjoyed her music, and maybe I'm a bit of a cynic but isn’t this how brand re-positioning works? Quiet, steady, so by the time you realise it’s happened, it already has.

AIBU to think we’re watching that play out in real time and it could backfire badly? Especially if the upcoming album turns out to be very beige?

The fact you don't connect with her song writing doesn't alter the fact that she's regarded as one of the best lyricists of our generation and her music is loved by people worldwide.

If you think she's average looking then I guess you must be used to hanging around with extremely beautiful people so good for you I suppose. I'm not a fan because of her looks.

What's your problem with other people liking something?

I agree @Tastaturen. She’s dull, I think. Not my generation, though.

I dont like what I've heard. Totally fake and all about image and money. Not impressed.

The best thing about @slippedawaylikeabottleofwine is that they've managed to get the August lyrics wrong. It's August sipped away like a bottle of wine. You do realise that line's alluding to cunnilingus, right?

not long ago she was dancing around with drag queens (no trans identifying females, note),

Didn’t she have a trans man play her love interest in the Lavender Haze video? She’s also supported openly lesbian artists like Hayley Kiyoko and Tegan and Sara, having them appear in her performances. It’s one of the things I like (or have liked) about her, that she didn’t just only constantly shout out gay men and drag queens which is what a lot of female pop stars do when they’re trying to frame themselves as LGBTQ allies, ignoring gay women.

I've sometimes wondered this about Greta Thunberg: that there's somebody older than her who is managing her, telling her what to say, and when to say it, like the minister James Hacker being micromanaged and "house trained" by Sir Humphrey Appleby. I think she was "repositioned" during lockdown: climate change briefly lost its place as a big threat to frighten the public with. She didn't even pop up to say "you see, it's not so bad after all, when you can't travel anywhere". It's also very possible that Boris Johnson was "repositioned" while he was in hospital: it's obvious that he didn't support lockdown at first, but somebody whispered in his ear, and bullied or bribed him to support it.

Call me a tinfoil hatter or conspiracy theorist, but I think that many celebrities and politicians have an image which is carefully crafted... by somebody else.

I think she's a solid person who wouldn't change her Democratic views bc of her fiance's world. I'm not a crazy Swiftie, although I really enjoy many of her songs. The reason I like her so much is because she's clearly a good person. She turns off the surge pricing for her concert tickets and she makes a huge effort to employ people of colour and people of different body sizes, and to give them stage roles next to her.

She's also really intelligent.

Any framing is by the media.

I’ve never understood her virtually cult following tbh so if she takes a back seat good for her and me!

Yeah not sure where they are getting that afaik she does not have a trans sibling

She's definitely not Christian conservative or centre right. She's a Democrat and pro-choice. She grew up in Pennsylvania, and only moved to Nashville for work. She's not from that southern right-wing background. If she was, she wouldn't have so many dancers of colour on stage with her.

Perhaps she’s growing up. I settled down with a man who was very different to the ones I chose as a young ‘un because I realised if I always did what I’d always done I would always get what I’d always got.

The issue is that anyone who sticks up for Palestine is immediately shouted down as an anti-Semite. And America has a large Jewish population.

I think her gesture to Dave Portnoy was a clever piece of cross-aisle politics. The next day, she publicly endorsed Kamala Harris.

He's not MAGA at all, and Swift wouldn't marry anyone who was, I'm sure. She's very clearly a Democrat. I don't know why some here are so keen to portray her as right-leaning.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/travis-kelce-makes-it-very-clear-where-he-stands-politically/ar-AA1t5Bsj?apiversion=v2&noservercache=1&domshim=1&renderwebcomponents=1&wcseo=1&batchservertelemetry=1&noservertelemetry=1

And with jealousy.

The fact that everyone here can agree that yes she is a target for bullying from the US president and the White House and yes she would have an actual target on her back from speaking out - particularly post Charlie Kirk yet still thinks she should speak out is absolutely baffling to me.

no one should a) feel forced to talk about politics WHEN THEY ARE NOT POLITICIANS and b) when that could very easily get them killed. We’ve seen them target her via Vienna. We’ve seen what happened in Southport. Quite frankly the girl deserves a break. I wouldn’t want to be under as much pressure as she is for all the money in the world.

She wasn't going to be physically harmed for standing up to Spotify or Scooter Braun. Remember she sued that bloke for groping her years ago and only wanted a dollar compensation so she does take on some causes. We don't know what she financially supports privately either. A+ listers can give large amounts of money to charity without anyone knowing bar a couple of accountants.

Bit different when it's the middle east, the Vienna terrorist plot, MAGA or anyone with guns (ie, the USA). I'd probably keep my mouth shut too.

My username outs me as a Swiftie, in that I enjoy her music and she writes a bloody good line. I’m also 53 although happily not divorced so ticking at least some of the cliché boxes.

But Taylor to my mind has never been anything other than pretty bland politically.

In action she is liberal (the diversity of her backing singers, her donations to food banks in Eras tour cities) but she’s hardly edgy musically or in her lifestyle.

She is a savvy businesswoman but she’s middle of the road in her love life and what she sings about. I can’t see her quitting to become a tradwife but it’s obvious from her lyrics that she’s always wanted a happy relationship!

She’s a privileged artist whose parents moved heaven and earth to help her break into music.

She’s made missteps on her ‘feminism’ (the ‘fat’ scale quickly corrected in the Anti Hero video, for example).

For everyone saying her audience is 10yo girls, well, I’m not sure they’re in a position to understand or influence the Palestine debate, and those of us at the other end of the audience demographic have probably made up our own minds a long time ago (if indeed we have an opinion at all).

FFs, there's no way she's gay! She's spent years and years in relationships, including a six-year one that she kept mostly under wraps, and now she's marrying a man. She's so wealthy that she could have a child on her own, no problem, if that's what she wanted.

People go crazy where Swift's concerned. She's right-wing, she's calculating, she's gay...when she is quite obviously a straight, Democrat lefty who's just doing her thing and who seems really nice - i.e. turning off the surge pricing on her concert tickets and making sure most of her dancers are people of colour and different body sizes. If she was all about "milking" people, as someone upthread said, why would she turn off the surge pricing?

The world cannot BEAR the sight of a young, pretty, successful, wealthy woman. It makes the collective brain short-circuit.

I think she's just reconsidered her desire to be political, for the obvious reason that she's realised you can't win with the left. She can stick her neck out and endanger herself, and people will still complain that she's not doing enough, because she didn't support their cause de jour, or give her opinion in the exact way they wanted her to.

If you're a fan, she's been hinting at this for a while in her music. There was that line in Anti Hero about her political advocacy era being "covert narcissism disguised as altruism". Another line in Sweet Nothing about all the "voices that implore, you should be doing more" and how "I'm just too soft for all of it". Then there was that other song, Dear Reader, which seemed to exist as warning to her fans to stop viewing her as some sort of political saviour. It felt like she was telling them to grow up a little, and stop with the hero worship, in that one. I can't remember the lyrics exactly, but it was something along the lines of "you should find another guiding light, but I shine so bright".

All those examples were back in 2022. She's kept quiet on the political front since then, except for a rather milquetoast endorsement of Kamala that made it feel like she was as unenthusiastic about voting for her as anyone, but was going to grit her and teeth and do it as the lesser of two evils. Taylor has always had quite a good grasp of the public mood. In 2019, she was the only celebrity not virtue-signalling, so she made a movie about her "political awakening" and some gay ally / feminist songs, and dipped her toes in the water. But by the time the next album came around, the culture had shifted back to a "celebrities shut up about politics challenge" place, so she went quiet again. Probably with some relief, once she'd had a taste of the purity spiral that inevitably results from speaking up.

I don't think she's rebranding as a conservative, personally. But I do believe she has savvy PR people, and they know a centrist position would be better for her career. Sometimes it's smarter to say nothing and let everyone assume you're on their side. Swift has taken that approach for most of her career and people used to mock her for it, but I bet they're seeing the wisdom in it now.

Fair enough. I do think she has written some good songs but it did suprise me that she comes up with stuff like Me! And So high school as a 30 something year old. But I always liked her early variety of songs, especially Mary and The Best day.

She's mid '30's and may want a family-
I don't think that she is right wing but I don't know if she can remain the poster child for the 'cat lady' independant women who doesn't want kids cliche mentioned by Vance that she leaned into.

So High School is about the experience of feeling like a giddy teenager whilst actually being much older. It wouldn't make any sense if it was written by someone actually in high school.

As for Me! in my opinion it's a catchy pop song. Not everything she does has to be deep and meaningful. However, it's also important to note that although she has many fans in their 30s and 40s she also has appeal with tweens and younger. Some of her songs are going to be written for them- catchy, empowering, fairly simple musically and fun. My 5yo loves dancing to Love Story, Me! and several others, she has heard TTPD, doesn't relate to most of it, and it is slightly jarring to hear her sing "I'm so depressed I act like it's my birthday..." I'm sure lots of parents of young girls will be happy to have some songs on LoaSG that their kids will love too.

If only Taylor had written a passionate instagram post about Gaza - people would stop dying instantly 😏

The whining about famous people not involving themselves in politics is so pathetic. If you want to stop something bad from happening in the world, find a way to use your own agency to do it, rather than expecting people in the entertainment industry to make vacuous statements about it.

Exactly this!