{"id":81461,"date":"2024-06-16T21:07:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T21:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/can-swifties-wake-taylor-up-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-06-16T21:07:17","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T21:07:17","slug":"can-swifties-wake-taylor-up-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/can-swifties-wake-taylor-up-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Swifties wake Taylor up? | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nKARACHI:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no denying that Taylor Swift has all the trappings of a successful musician. Subscribing to the 2024 criterion of success, she has to her credit impressive album sales, distinguished accolades, record-breaking streaming figures and an inviting cloak of rawness.<\/p>\n

For too long, men have flaunted their (numerous) sex and love escapades as a badge of honour. But with Taylor, it is not about righting the balance of entitled debauchery. It is about embracing vulnerability.<\/p>\n

\u201cI first listened to Taylor Swift in 2009,\u201d Naveen Shariff tells The Express Tribune. \u201cI was 11 years old. I\u2019ve grown up with her music, from playing Teardrops on my Guitar <\/em>in my room in Quetta to following her easter eggs leading up to her latest album releases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like many Swifties, the Red<\/em> singer always meant more to Naveen than a successful musician. \u201cShe was someone to look up to, who could use words much better than I could. Someone who helps me make sense of things like growing up, self-discovery, and boys.\u201d Like many Swifties, the 26-year-old fan based in Karachi is also more than just a fan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am highly disappointed in her silence as thousands of Palestinians are dying. I don\u2019t think it surprised me though.\u201d Emotions run high in all online fan communities but Taylor\u2019s admirers have long cultivated a reputation for being serious and too many. With the onset of Israel\u2019s ruthless military operation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank since October 7, many identities are experiencing a turnover.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels so weird to consume art by a person who is so aggressively ignoring a genocide,\u201d says Rabiya Raza, another Karachiite who brands herself a Swiftie. A dedicated fan since she was 12, Rabiya has been there to witness Taylor\u2019s various eras and their corresponding politics evolve. \u201cShe has been a large part of my upbringing and the way that I am. She\u2019s my number 1 artist on Spotify.\u201d<\/p>\n

The confessional singer<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s music embraces her love affairs, her guilt, and her grievances \u2014 a genre of writing that has often been classed as confessional poetry. Confession was formally linked to poetry first in 1959 by ML Rosenthal. While the American poet and literary critic was thinking more about the intimate liberties taken by Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and John Berryman, Taylor is only one more woman to become the modern-day ultra-feminine \u2018confessional singer\u2019.<\/p>\n

Thanks to patriarchy and market forces, confessions have been rescued from religious hysteria and rebranded as feminine hysteria \u2014 only more lucrative. The vacuous label notwithstanding, Taylor is undoubtedly the face of vulnerable art-making today, similar to Joni Mitchell (as well as Leonard Cohen and Frank Ocean).<\/p>\n

Yet unlike these other women and men, the Red<\/em> singer has the benefit of a massive clout. The odds of crossing paths with disgruntled Swifties on X\/Twitter are aplenty. From \u2018hexing\u2019 haters to excommunicating associates, fandoms create meaning as much as they consume. So when well-meaning critics or incels point fingers at Taylor\u2019s alleged mediocrity or her ritualistic airing of dirty laundry, Swifties are quick to rise.<\/p>\n

Then there is the politics. The singer-songwriter\u2019s legal dispute with Scooter Braun in 2019, owner of her former record label, Big Machine Records, transformed both her public persona and her fandom(s). A woman protecting her first six studio albums from the invisible grab of the market is a welcome sight. From 2021 through 2023, Taylor\u2019s decision to own what she made soon found her re-recording her early albums to phenomenal reception.<\/p>\n

Cue 2020 and a musical docufilm on the pop star finds a home on Netflix. Among its many soundbites, Taylor as Miss Americana announces that she wants to \u201cwear pink\u201d and tell you how she \u201cfeels about politics\u201d. But is the Fearless<\/em> singer only fearless within the ambit of white neoliberalism?<\/p>\n

#SwiftiesForPalestine<\/p>\n

In March, UN expert Francesca Albanese put out a statement, arguing that Israel has violated three of the five acts listed under the Genocide Convention. As the death toll crosses 37,000, the pressure against the apartheid regime too is mounting globally. #SwiftiesForPalestine and #SpeakNowTaylorSwift are some hashtags to have cropped up in solidarity with Palestinian resistance against Israel\u2019s long-standing settler colonialism.<\/p>\n

Taling about digital activism, Rabiya says, \u201cI think the pressure by fandoms on artists is warranted to an extent because there is no way anyone has no thoughts on the matter.\u201d Naveen echoes a similar frustration, \u201cFrom what I know of the company Taylor keeps, her silence is rather confusing. Her best friend, Gigi Hadid is Palestinian.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of her tour staff (dancers and performers) posted in favour of Palestine which makes it even more obnoxious as to why she refuses to speak up,\u201d she adds. Like the rest of the boycott calls in support of Palestine, consumption is a question of both ethical upkeep and defunding a genocide.<\/p>\n

Even then, for many principled pro-Palestine Swifties, doing the \u2018right thing\u2019 is hard. \u201cBefore the situation escalated, I would only listen to Taylor Swift for months and months. But since her silence has become such an issue, I have cut it down a lot,\u201d Rabiya explains. \u201cHopefully, I will cut it down a lot more. It\u2019s not right to support someone who is not using their platform to speak up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing the right thing<\/p>\n

Perhaps, the right thing to do is to do something. Anything. Back when X was the old, familiar Twitter in 2019, a stan account with the handle @LegitTayUpdates ended up in prison for months for refusing to join the Israel Defence Forces. With a bit of stealth, the 19-year-old Swiftie was able to dispense hot updates about her favourite celebrity despite being locked up for evading the draft.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, the young fan\u2019s views differ now that the fandom \u2014 and the world \u2014 must be more radically divided about Palestine. For millions of other fans, the ethical way forward is all attempts to resist their consumption of commodities \u2014 music and otherwise. To anyone who wishes to hold their once-beloved icons in this wavering, paradoxical light, one may afford the position of being a homo duplex.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Promulgated by the sociologist \u00c9mile Durkheim, the homo duplex is a \u201cdouble man\u201d with two opposing states of consciousness \u2014 one drawn to passion, the other to society. The homo duplex, the grey characters of life have long populated the best of art and literature.<\/p>\n

Moral ambiguity is also a privilege most celebrities are disqualified to claim. With the state of liberal discourse right now, Taylor is quite possibly a \u201ccloseted\u201d supporter of Palestine in some passionate Reddit thread. But for the Speak Now<\/em> singer, there is no being a double (wo)man. After years of modeling herself as political, it seems that Taylor Swift has just one state of consciousness that seeks to protect her music. Be it from Scooter Braun or the ramifications of having a spine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KARACHI: There is no denying that Taylor Swift has all the trappings of a successful musician. Subscribing to the 2024 criterion of success, she has to her credit impressive album sales, distinguished accolades, record-breaking streaming figures and an inviting cloak of rawness. For too long, men have flaunted their (numerous) sex and love escapades as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-06-15-at-14-04-031718571863-0\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-06-15-at-14-04-031718571863-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}