by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Since Tik-Tok apparently reads my mind, I was recently pushed a video by the service of a young woman complaining about “male Taylornators.” This leads me to wonder — who “owns” Taylor Swift?
It’s comical what a cliché Tay-Tay’s fanbase is. In general, Tay-Tay is the Donald Trump of servicing her base. Her sweet spot is a well educated liberal woman who talks a good game about “slaying the patriarchy” but in the end settles down and pops out a few kids, anyway.
As such, the idea that Tay-Tay would have to suffer the slings and arrows of the dreading male gaze is something that makes her fan base freak out. Tay-Tay is ethereal and eternal. She’s sexless and yet sexual. Tay-Tay would never betray her fan base by, say, doing a sex scene in a Hollywood movie to further her career. (Playing a horny cat — ok.) Tay-Tay has a boyfriend but her heart belongs to Karlie Klose. (Or something.) She talks about “romance” in her songs but nothing as dirty as lust.
While it would be a push to call me a “Taylornator,” I do think Tay-Tay is a good-to-great song writer and singer. And I’m a red blooded American male — when I see Taylor Swift, I see a hot blonde. It does not escape my attention that she’s very modest and even her most reveling attire looks like it would be the swim attire of a middle age housewife.
The surreal thing about all of this is the existential predicament to places Tay-Tay in. As far as I can determine, Tay-Tay is extremely sensitive. So, I can’t imagine she would devastate her rabid fanbase by letting slip a little T&A in service of her Hollywood career. Hand in hand with this is — it’s very unlikely Tay-Tay would team up with someone like Megan Thee Stallion or Lizzo while screaming at the top of her lungs about her banjo picking WAP.
I’m not suggesting Tay-Tay change. She’s quite successful as she is. I know I’m an interloper in the over estroneated hot house that is Tay-Tay’s fan base. It’s not my place to tell her what to do with her career. I guess it’s just mildly sad that Tay-Tay will never, ever take her Hollywood career to the next level by letting lechrous men like me see a peek of a bit more skin than she has to date.
