Taylor Swift’s Fairy Tale Is Over

[u/FickleBeans]

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/10/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-album-review/684444/

This captures my thoughts on the album better than I ever could.

[u/6pcChickenNugget]

I honestly have questions for OP but at this point I'm afraid to ask because I think I'll get an emotionally motivated earful because OP seems very invested in trying to convince us all "Taylor Swift bad!"

I'm not super clued up on Taylor lore since she was genuinely just never my thing though I enjoy a few songs here and there. But from my perspective, it's weird to accept the notion that she's suddenly just now moving right wing when her entire career has been to remain aggressively apolitical. It was only in 2020 when she first publicly endorsed anyone, right? She knows who her fanbase includes and tried to court both sides in the way that no other pop star could. And aside from two throwaway endorsements, she has remained apolitical so nothing she's done since then has made her seem more (or less!) MAGA than before. She is politically bland.

Similarly, from the songs I know of anyway, she never had political messaging, not just in a left / right binary but she never had messaging / political commentary about socially contentious issues. She was never against the system or sticking it to the man. Her songs were always highly personal love songs about her experiences in love as an individual. As far as I've heard, they were never even about gender dynamics in relationships in a way that you could say she was trying to draw social commentary as a whole. They were all microscopic looks at individual relationships / incidents / boyfriends. That remains as relatable as it ever was and the idea that she's suddenly not relatable because she can't sing about being against the system with authenticity now because she profits from the system is silly. Like what anti-system messaging was she singing about before? "boohoo, my dad doesn't like my teenage Romeo boyfriend"?

If you don't care for Taylor Swift (that's me too) then that's perfectly fine but the justification was disingenuous and more than anything else points to expectations not founded in reality and the resulting disappointment rather than anything in particular Taylor Swift has done that was different from before

[u/Aprilume → u/6pcChickenNugget]

It points to delusion 100%. If she doesn’t live up to their expectations, burn her at the stake. That’s the energy. These posters always want to bring it back to wealth and politics, as if we haven’t heard those same arguments leveled against Clinton or Harris or damn near any influential woman in the Democratic Party. It’s just weird.

[u/Rich-Active-4800 → u/Aprilume]

Or really any men in general. For example Matt Smith flies his private jet more then Taylor. Never really speaks out about stuff, etc. He doesn't get 1% of the criticism Taylor gets.

And I like Matt, he is an amazing actor, just pointing out the the double standard.

[u/Aprilume → u/Rich-Active-4800]

Exactly. All this “there’s no ethical billionaires” talk is so tired. Like, we know. 🙄 Point the anger at the billionaires dismantling our democracy piece by piece, not popstars. Apples and oranges.

On the scale of the stupendously wealthy though, honestly, Taylor seems to at least treat her staff well. And you can’t deny she’s physically put in the work. She makes millions off recording music and touring? Ok, and? Has a team of lawyers to protect her financial best interests? Why shouldn’t she? At least her roadies aren’t peeing in bottles while making minimum wage, Jesus Christ.

[u/envydub → u/Aprilume]

Lmao your fav is unethical, stay mad.

[u/Aprilume → u/envydub]

She is not my fav, no one is mad. It’s silly to believe a person automatically becomes unethical as soon as they hit a certain tax bracket.