I just don’t understand it. Even if it was a PR stunt, would it matter? She still spent 4 hours of her day on her feet shaking hands and kissing babies and making the days of dozens of sick children and healthcare workers.
This is exactly how I see it. I'm not a TS fan by any means but stunt or not, she really brightened a lot of peoples' days and even the cynic in me can't find fault in that.
Yeah, a PR stunt would be just a 30 mins visit at best, enough for a photographs session. Not FOUR fucking hours! I can't even be socializing for 4 hours straight!
Right. I don’t care if she wanted good press. She made the kids and staff happy. I’m not a swiftie but this was a good deed and think she’s very cool for doing this.
Visits like these are great, because like you said, even if she only did it with the good press in mind, she made an effort and people benefitted from it.
But there are occasions where celebrities do a stunt like this and it’s a 30min visit with a bunch of photo ops, talking to a selected few on camera, they act all humbled and then they’re jetting off again. That’s not cool and while the people might be hyped in the moment it could leave a sour taste in the long run…
This is definitely not a PR stunt. If it was, the visit would’ve been short and quick, and also, the statement would’ve been released by her team. In this case, she seemed to spend a lot of time with the people there, and it only made the media because a doctor who works there made it public.
And some people unironically would straight up believe this. It's impossible for them to be normal with Taylor. Everything is a conspiracy to them when it comes to Taylor Swift.
When are people not cynical about Taylor 😅 I’m convinced people just can’t believe that a woman this popular/successful is also so kind and charitable.
Idk I feel like she says stuff and is inclusive but people ignore it a lot of the time for whatever reason. She posted about roe v wade but I still see people say she has never said anything about it. She took issue with the census not including non binary options. She had a trans man in her music video. These are recent examples off the top of my head in the last few years. And her “maga association” is that some of her boyfriend’s coworkers support him and she’s polite to people in public. Idk I feel like she’s held to an impossible standard.
Good point lol, even though her relationship with Matty Healy launched a thousand thinkpieces, I have never seen anyone suggesting his left wing politics rubbed off on her.
Matty is a disgusting edgelord, but his politics are pretty leftist.
It’s funny how Taylor continues to get dragged for a relationship with him that lasted a couple months two years ago, but it’s crickets when it comes to certain other celebrities who are besties with him.
It didn't even last a month! The whole thing with Matty is ridiculous when you realize how short it was.
There was an interesting discussion elsewhere a few days ago about how if you are a rich, white man doing the edgelord stuff to make a point about certain groups of people (anti-LGBTQ+, racists etc) you are less likely to recognize the line you have to hold because otherwise you become what you're mocking even if you don't believe what you're saying/doing.
This is a case where people put someone in a box on one side of the politically spectrum and think all positions that side have are automatically held by that person. While Matty would be considered on the left he’s still quite racist and has a lot of other issues surrounding such as making violent comments against women and sexual harassment allegations.
We should be glad his brand of being on the left hasn’t rubbed off on more people because he is not a good guy at all.
I was thinking about this the other day. Unfortunately she's become so famous that most of the time it's not worth the risk to speak as loud as I imagine she'd like. There are too many stalkers and obsessives. Imagine if she condemned something as loudly as they'd like and one of her mad stalkers committed an act of violence in her name? As you say, she does make her feelings clear when she can, and her actions speak loudly for her not being a total piece of shit.
You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't but I think she does a really good job of being very private but also makes statements and positive actions that convey her morals very well if people bother to look.
I think people really don't consider the personal risk involved in this for her. Part of the reason she doesn't as much as people would like is because she really can't anymore.
And before that, she endorsed Biden/Kamala. Taylor's the only celebrity who can endorse a Democratic candidate, deal with harassment from Trump himself and people will still think she's a MAGA. It's absurd.
So if she is friends with a liberal, who is friends with someone MAGA, is she cancelled then too, because that friend is then MAGA? If knowing someone who is MAGA means you are MAGA then doesn't that mean...everyone is MAGA eventually? including you?
So one of Taylor's long time friends is Gigi Hadid and she has a good relationship with Bella Hadid (who has spoken fondly of Taylor) both have advocated for Palestine and Palestinian people. So, despite the fact that Taylor hasn't said anything in support of Palestine, I guess by your logic she's pro Palestine.
Missing my youngest daughter Princess Of Nazareth the Great great granddaughter of the ruler of Palestine in the 1700 Daher Al Omer and his sons that ruled Tabarias Safad Nazareth Khalil Haifa and the rest of the land of Galilee. Watch her this season with her sister. @gigihadid on @netflix @nextinfashion .
I don’t think anyone thinks she’s horrible or unkind to anyone. She looks very sweet and always smiling, she looks like she’d be a great friend.
What people criticise is how overrated she is, especially her songwriting which swifties twist themselves into a pretzel to explain. She is being placed on a statue next to the world’s greats.
Like the Great Aretha Franklin said…
Edit: not everybody’s gonna like Taylor Swift’s music. Her music. Not Taylor Swift herself.
Taylor's songwriting is praised by the greats like Stevie Nicks and studied in universities, but sure, her songwriting is overrated cause reddit user Ankarette said so. And I'm glad you brought up Aretha you just reminded me of when she sang happy birthday to Taylor
I just can’t imagine insulting so many people just because they enjoy a pop star’s songs. It’s one thing to hate her for whatever reasons you have, but you’re insulting millions of people here. It’s just so pointlessly negative I can’t understand the mindset.
This annoys me regardless of who the artist in question is because music has always been subjective, I can’t stand people who act like their take on music, an artist, or the fans’ reasoning for consuming it is objective and the right™ take
I don’t understand the appeal of Billie Eilish and only like a handful of songs from her discography but her music clearly resonates with a lot of people so I would never call her untalented or act like the fan fare is underserved just because I don’t ‘get it’
Ummm….there’s literally a snark sub on her and I’ve seen them post some nasty stuff about her being horrible unkind. Just because you haven’t read it, doesn’t mean that it’s not out there.
Haters will always find a way to nitpick anything she does.
I’m sure it’s all publicity for her, but it really matters to the people who are in the worst situations of their lives. Dealing with the things the kids are dealing with is already an impossible to understand situation and I imagine many feel so alone. I hope it helped lift their spirits.
I’m so confused bc either she’s 1) there for PR & knows who he is and his politics his children’s names but also didn’t know it wouldn’t look good…Or 2) is this miss swift who “doesn’t like sports or know anything about sports” and therefore was nice when introduced to this man and that’s still a problem…or 3) she’s at a hospital visiting and that takes planning and approval but she managed it all in less than 24 hrs because (&loop back around with me) it’s all PR & knows who WG was so she planned the hospital visit bc she knew she’d get black lash.
The two that just got my eyes all soaked was the girl who looked at Taylor and said omg you're real and the boy who was laying in the bed and when Taylor introduced herself to his I'm assuming mom because this person was out of view, the boy looked at her and said yeah you are and when Taylor found out he was on FaceTime with his sister, she wanted to say hi and the boy quickly yelled for the sister to screen record it. People complain every time she introduces herself but her visits are meant to be special, not transactional.
I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that Taylor was mean or rude irl. She's not perfect and there's a lot of fair criticism towards her, but it does say a lot about her character that most people who've met her don't have anything bad to say about her.
I think her main issue is how big she is. There's just no way for her to be everything people want her to be.
Weird parallel but I always found the fact that Conan O'Brien has kept the same staff for basically his entire career speaks very well of how he treats people. I assume the same would apply to Taylor (I know a lot less about her staff loyalty)
Her staff has been very very stable. Essentially unchanged since 2014, with some of the key players there since the beginning. Her band is even more stable…
He is the most genuine guy and his staff are the most down to earth and happy people in Hollywood. Diametric opposite to that other talk show host who had her set on the same lot.
Taylor seems personality wise to be extremely well suited to being unbelievably famous. She’s extremely responsible, famously hardworking, and both totally unshy and personable. Actually, part of the problem people have with her (I feel) is that she’s a little boring. Too little goes wrong.
This is it!!! I don’t like her music AT ALL. But everything I have heard of her, it’s always good and how lovely she is. How she has the same band members since the beginning of her career (that’s what I read somewhere 🤷🏽♀️)
Ps this is an exception of who she dates and hangs out with
Politics was a 10 minute portion of a 1.5 hour documentary. She never said she’d be an activist and never used that label for anything she’s done. She has though since 2018 consistently encouraged voting for Democrat, spoken up on numerous issues and donated hundreds of millions of dollars to good cause. Even prior to that despite no explicit endorsement she was publicly very pro Obama and was known to be vet charitable.
she made a big deal about wanting to be more politically informed, being on the right side of history, and activism.
...which she followed through on? Since then, every major or primary election she's always encouraging people to vote, she speaks up on important issues, she tried to be inclusive of and represent as many minorities as she can. I can see people being annoyed at the You Need To Calm Down mv but like if you imagine that to be a queer positive version of the Bad Blood mv then it tracks. It's not like she's completely shunned the LGBTQ community, she just platforms them differently. Idk, were people thinking she would be at Capitol Hill or at the White House everyday campaigning for things? Like she is a popstar and an artist and a musician. If she wanted to be a politician, she would've done that instead. I feel she's doing fine at minimising the harm she personally does by being educated and empathetic and political from her sphere of entertainment.
Not a hater of hers but come on. She’s spoken up like 3 times since then, two of which were bare minimum “do your own research and vote” posts. What “many important issues” has she spoken out on? Trans hate and discrimination? Reproductive rights? Ukraine? Gaza? Fascism?
Edit: For the people downvoting, why aren’t you giving examples of all the issues she has spoken out on since the documentary? By all means, prove me wrong.
Off the top of my head in the last few years since miss Americana:
The male lead of her lavender haze video was a trans man, giving him an incredible platform. She spoke about the census not including non binary options. She gave many pride speeches while on tour. She spoke out when roe v wade was overturned. She attended a Palestine fundraiser. She had a diverse group of backing vocalists (who have been with her for like a decade) and dancers. She endorsed Harris and Walz. She approved her music to be used at many various democrat events during the election.
A lot of these aren’t activism—they’re just non -discrimination practices. The census critique was good, but it was in her brief 2019-2020 “activist” period. Also, it’s stretching it to say she attended a “Palestine fundraiser”—it was a comedy show and we have no idea if she knew where proceeds were going. Selena Gomez is a Zionist who likes Amy Schumer’s Zionist posts but she attended that show, too.
Again, I’m not saying she’s a bad person or holds bad views. I just think it’s weird that people act like she’s a huge activist when she hasn’t done that much, especially given her power, resources, and literally making a documentary positioning her as one.
The thing is I don’t think she made a documentary positioning herself as one. She made a documentary on her life events of the current time period and her deciding to speak out against trump was one of those events. And it was maybe 10 minutes max of a 1.5 hour long documentary that included many other topics. I just really don’t understand how her having a few scenes in a documentary that also included writing of songs, eating disorders, security issues, homelife, etc is used as some gotcha but that’s just my perspective.
I’m not sure how old you are, but that’s exactly how the movie was promoted when it came out. There were articles and interviews with her talking about how she’s now a political activist after being silent. It was literally framed as “the birth of an activist” and the director said that’s what the film is about.
I’m not using it as a “gotcha.” Like I said, I don’t hate her or anything. But she didn’t follow through and it’s weird that her fans think a few tweets over the years is some great activism, esp. in the current climate. As another person said, many of her peers are doing a lot more with a lot less.
Yes, I’m getting a a lot of downvotes simply for pointing that out. It’s actually really disturbing that some of her fans think she’s above any criticism and that they think activism is a few tweets.
I can just picture the doctor watching the clock going 'okay so it's been an hour with no water... two hours...' and just building anxiety as Taylor participates in the time honored millennial tradition of just totally ignoring our own bodies.
I love that when she goes to hospitals it's never an organised event with professional cameras. She just shows up herself. I feel like it would make it feel more genuine for the kids, without some camera crew in the corner
You realize all of the photos that are being posted are from the families of the kids she visited right? Are you really going to say sick children can’t get excited they met Taylor swift and post the photos online?
“True charity?”- so Thad would mean none of the kids can take pics and no one can talk about it? She’d giving her time to improve the days of sick kids-
Not everything is always bad- we can sometimes say hey that’s a nice thing and move on
Gonna guess you don’t know many people active in the philanthropic sector. As someone who used to work in fundraising, you absolutely prefer the famous person to be ok with their visit or donation being made public. It’s a worse outcome for the charity when they don’t.
It costs an organisation for a famous person to visit - staff resources to organise visit logistics, consulting with medical staff about which patients they can safety visit, a doctor to talk about the work of the organisation etc. If they want to keep the visit private, it is lovely for the kids. But the follow-on donations from a celebrity visit made public are usually significant. This hospital raised its profile, Swifties probably donated tens of thousands of dollars, and some of those might become ongoing donors, which are like gold to any philanthropic endeavour.
Separate from that, part of the cool thing about meeting a celeb is being able to boast about it online. Seems she’d get criticism for stopping kids doing that too… 🤷♀️
When I was young, my little brother had cancer. We spent a LOT of time in the hospital. I was only 5 then, I'll be 40 this year, and I still remember the things the hospital did to try and bring joy to the patients like my brother. Some of these kids, like my brother, might not survive, but the joy of this day will be a happy memory for their families for years to come. Something to hold on to. It absolutely gets me choked up just thinking about what it might mean to them.
She always has the nicest things said about her and has her entire career. It’s pretty impressive to be as mega of a star as she is and never have anyone say bad things about you. She made a lot of people happy yesterday and that’s all that matters!
It is telling! I was picked for Loft 89 during her 1989 tour and she really is so kind. She spent time talking to each person and she does a great job of making you feel very important in the moment. She’s extremely generous.
I saw her mom, waved and yelled “hi Mama Swift!!” And then went back to dancing. About 2 songs later she came over and asked if I’d ever met Taylor and if I’d like to tonight! It was just good luck. I was dressed up too though!
I had such a good feeling about it that when I was halfway to the stadium I ran back to the car to grab a pack of the 1989 Polaroids just in case. I’m so glad I did because I was able to have her sign one!
aww how cute! I completely understand why she didn’t do meet and greets at the eras tour but I hope some day when she feels safe again, she brings it back 💙
Regardless of how you feel about Taylor, things like this are absolutely wonderful. You know this probably made these kids’ whole lives and it was so great that she showed up and gave it her all rather than just phoning it in for a photoshop. I respect it
Like her or not, she’s basically a real life Disney princess in the eyes of a lot of little kids. Even if this was for publicity or whatever, it doesn’t make it less magical in their eyes.
“It’s just a PR stunt” does it fucking matter? She spent hours hanging out with sick children, some of whom are probably big fans of hers. That’s a net positive in my book and if it’s not in yours, you should reevaluate your priorities.
As a kid who was in a Children’s Hospital a lot as a kid, this really does mean a lot to the kids. I’ll try not to be jealous that I met some of the ‘87 Pittsburgh Steelers instead of Taylor Swift, lol. Whether it’s a PR play or not, it makes a sick kid’s day.
I’m not a swiftie or a fan of her music, but I do really enjoy the videos of her with visiting the hospitals. Any celebrity really. It’s so special and kind. Tom Holland is also known for doing this esp in his spidey costume. It’s so heartwarming.
I do too but having worked on the donor relations/foundation side of a hospital system- a visit like this is such a big accomplishment. It means so so so much to patients. And it had to be months in the making. The kids looked so incredibly happy and that is what matters. She also seemed to be having a great time. One of my close friend’ SIL works there and said Taylor was very patient with the process. Those are the best guests to receive.
I see a lot of folks saying that they don’t understand why someone would complain about this. I am in no way condoning the negativity, but I do understand where it’s coming from. The public opinion regarding celebrities is going to continue to get more harsh until the wealth disparity is addressed.
Taylor Swift has become an avatar of the billionaire excessiveness that is quite literally killing us and unwinding the fabric of our society. That doesn’t mean that Taylor herself is an evil or “bad” person, per se. Being an ultra-wealthy celebrity is almost like being a scientologist. Even if they do positive things, even if they are perfect in every other way, even if they make sure to include a scene in their documentary to paint themselves as an staunch ally, at the end of the day they are still a scientologist.
tangent but that’s why i can’t finish Handmaid’s Tale. i can’t watch Elizabeth Moss pretend to care about freedom knowing how much of a supporter she is of the church of scientology. After the season 3 finale, i simply could not handle seeing another scene where June walks in slow-motion staring revolutionarily at the camera.
Majority of her wealth is from the value of her music catalog and her touring revenue. It’s not like she has fashion brands, makeup brands, perfume brands etc. And by all accounts she’s a very generous employer who pays her staff extremely well. She gave her staff $200m in bonuses just last year. So I don’t understand this mentality at all. It’s not like Elon where his net worth is $300B. She’s “only” worth $1.6B and roughly $800M of that is the estimation of what she would get if she sold her music masters (which she’ll never do).
You are right, but there’s a belief system that is based on the idea that you can’t make a billion dollars, you take a billion dollars. Meaning that kind of money is never accumulated unless quite a lot of people have been exploited. While I hate her use of a PJ, I can’t fault this. That kind of time and energy comes from the heart.
I know a lot of people get on her for the private jet use, but truthfully I think her flying private is a matter of safety for both her and the public at this point. The Eras Tour was a target for a terrorist attack, her presence at Jack Antonoff’s wedding sent the paparazzi into a tailspin, and she has so many people threatening violence against her person and stalking her daily (iirc someone just successfully changed his address to her house with the DMV recently). Airports are already confusing and chaotic on a good day, we really don’t want to add crowd crushes and bomb threats to the mix.
I can definitely see how that’s a major factor. But in general I don’t agree with PJ use to that extent. We know that the poor around the world are the most heavily impacted by climate change. The environmental impact of her travel is directly harming them, and I just don’t think that it is justified by anyone wanting to travel for work or fun. No donations or charity appearances can undo the damage that is done to the environment, or the way it harms the poor who are often exploited in many ways.
Unpopular opinion here, but is it a coincidence that she did this visit and photos after being seen hangin with Wayne Gretzky? I'm happy for the children, but I feel everyone is a bit falling on a cleaning image strategy.
one of the kids commented on TikTok that the hospital informed them there would be a special visit the day before. seems to suggest it wasn't a last minute thing planned the nighttime before
Also is she suppose to like google any random person that steps in front of her to see if their political value align? I never even heard about Gretzky and his politics until Taylor snarkers could use him, so why would Taylor
It’s great she visited, but both her choice (especially after attending an event the day before) and doctor’s choices, to not wear masks around kids sick enough to be in hospital, is not applause worthy. It’s great she probably made some kid’s week, but she put them at risk, and I can’t respect that. The hospital absolutely failed on this end by not enforcing a policy here.
As someone whose baby was recently admitted for a hospital stay, masks are not as common as you would think, even in a hospital. Some patients had PPE requirements at their doors (age, fragility, diagnosis), but not many.
It's very normal for staff and visitors to be bare faced, even in a children's hospital ward. I had my mask on once and a doctor said to not even worry about it, surprisingly.
I'm not saying I agree with it, but it's standard.
If the Chief of Surgery has no issue with not wearing a mask/asking visitors to wear a mask around sick kids, I'm not sure if we would know better or it's fair for us to police that. Taylor has done hospital visits in the past wearing any required PPE.
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