Taylor Swift--the "Pure Aryan Goddess"--Falls from Grace: Not married, no kids!

Once called "the Pure Aryan Goddess." she's now vilified as "unmarried and childless" at the geriatric age of 34.

Image: Wikimedia Commons.

She was once the Manosphere’s Aryan pin-up girl: blonde, blue-eyed, tall, beautiful, talented … rich. Then she backed Biden-Harris in 2020. The nerve!

But then came Travis Kelce, another icon, this time of manhood itself—even taller, strong, athletic, hyper-masculine, famous … rich. The Radical Right swooned!

Although no Jason Kelce when it comes to pushing back on someone like Harrison Butker or sexism enabler Patrick Mahomes (see below), Travis is no classic Manosphere male-self-worshipper, either. He does not, as does the arrogant Butker, take the position that a woman’s place— her rightful place, her proper place, the place she’ll find ultimate fulfillment—is in the home, having as many kids as possible, cooking and cleaning, and making certain that her hubby’s every wish, desire, and command is fulfilled and that he’s made to he is elevated to his rightful level of divinity. I say that because this philosophy is a quintessentially conservative religious one.

To be sure, this attitude is not as extreme some proffered by the even viler elements of the Manosphere like the Incels and Pick-up Artists—whose philosophies include prohibiting women from driving, voting, and having their own bank accounts and credit cards—or even more extremely advocating the extermination of all women who are not pretty enough to “breed with” and legalizing rape on private property.

But I digress.

So …

To sum up, after the Pure Aryan Goddess endorsed Biden-Harris, the Radical Right turned on her. Now this woman, who is classified as a generative element of the United States economy, who is a billionnaire and still a kind person, is anathema, Travis Kelce or no Travis Kelce.

Newsweek

Enter Newsweek magazine. Proving that a patina of respectability is hard to lose when you’ve been a media icon for decades, Newsweek, once a respected, fair-play United States media giant, has become what the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) calls an outlet for rightwing and racist screed. In 2022, SPCL wrote a deep-dive analysis in its Hate Watch section on the drift of the once-mainstream magazine into Radical Right ideology, while promoting the propaganda that it was still a reasonably fair-and-balanced publication. Its hand was tipped with the appointment of Josh Hammer as Op Ed Editor. Writes SPLC:

Newsweek’s opinion pages have embraced the radical right since Opinion Page Editor Josh Hammer took the reins in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. … Far-right figures have been elevated … and the publication has spread bigoted views and disinformation. … [There are] numerous conflicts of interest that the publication has repeatedly ignored.    

And SPLC bullet-lists Newsweek’s flat-spin crash. It’s not Taylor Swift who has fallen from grace but this magazine:

• Newsweek has openly campaigned for hard-right political candidates through its opinion section, such as Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters.   

• Newsweek has actively elevated racist voices that spread disinformation, including the far-right extremist Jack Posobiec. The publication also amplified election lies told by conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza and appeared to advocate for banning transgender adults from transitioning.    

• Newsweek’s opinion pages have frequently promoted lies about the 2020 election. 

• Newsweek has failed to disclose clear conflicts of interest, including Hammer’s financial support of Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters and a trip Hammer took to Hungary in collaboration with a group directly associated with the Hungarian government. 

• Newsweek heavily promotes “The Josh Hammer Show,” a radical right podcast which Hammer himself described as an effort to “build a political movement, rather than simply comment on the news.”  

“Taylor Swift Derangement Syndrome”—and a Whole Lot Else

Arwa Mahdawi, the brilliant columnist for The Guardian, writes a weekly entry called “This Week in Patriarchy.” Don’t miss it. This morning, opining that Newsweek has “Taylor Swift Derangement Syndrome” she writes:

Poor Taylor Swift. The pop star is a billionaire and one of the most successful people on the planet. She has an army of devoted fans who happily bankrupt themselves to follow her on record-breaking tours around the world. A German city just temporarily renamed itself Swiftkirchen in her honour. The Federal Reserve has credited her for boosting the economy. And yet, when it comes to the most important metrics of success, Taylor is a tragic failure: she is an ageing, unmarried wench who hath not brought forth a child into this world.

Such is the opinion of John Mac Ghlionn: a man nobody has ever heard of. In a recent op-ed for Newsweek, Ghlionn argued that Swift is a terrible role model for women because “at 34, Swift remains unmarried and childless … While Swift’s musical talent and business acumen are certainly admirable, even laudable, we must ask if her personal life choices are ones we want our sisters and daughters to emulate.”

Memo to John Mac Ghlionn: It’s none of your damned business what your sisters and daughters emulate. You’re not in charge here. And nobody should listen to you.

That’s because adult men with brains and a developed sense of humanitarianism and social consciousness never tell women what to be because they’re very, very clear they don’t know what they should be, only that things need to change to be fairer—and if you’re hearing instructions on what to be from a man, you can be damned sure he’s not there yet and is just recommending what’s going to work out for him and for the survival of male supremacism and NOT for any woman!

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Well, I’m pretty sure Taylor Swift isn’t going to be listening to John Mac Ghlionn, Josh Hammer, Andrew Tate, Harrison Butker, Jack Prosobiec, or Sen. Josh Hawley—or any of other self-worshipping prancers from the toxic masculinity cults in the Manosphere or the thoroughly misogynistic male supremacist cults presently goose-stepping their way through the Radical Right.

That’s a pretty good plan of action for all of us.

Some primers:

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