It’s been impossible to avoid the news that Taylor Swift and her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn, broke up a few weeks ago. It was stated that the relationship had simply “run its course.” This came as a shock to many and has prompted many different reactions. For a long time, Taylor was known as the artist who wrote songs about her exes and she has spoken up about it, stating that it is sexist to only talk about her writing songs about exes, when many male artists do the same and aren’t reduced to that. As that discussion became more prevalent, the conversation surrounding Taylor’s music shifted and in recent years, she has been less frequently reduced to just writing about her exes. However, she also never broke up with someone during that time, having been with Joe the entire time. The question now that they split becomes, how much has this narrative changed and how much has it stayed the same?
While Taylor’s fans had a wide range of responses to the breakup, only a few should be looked at in this instance. Primarily, some fans responded by saying Taylor wouldn’t be able to perform some songs from her last few albums anymore, because they are about Joe. This is an example of people reducing Taylor to her relationships. While she does write songs about her relationships, they do not instantly lose value when those relationships end, as many other fans pointed out. She’s even expressed this herself in regard to her song All Too Well. At one point, that song was painful for her to sing because of the memories, but the fans love it so much that it evolved into something she loves to perform and hear everyone sing along to. To suggest that some of her work is no longer usable because a relationship ended is proof that some people have not moved beyond reducing her to her relationships.
Another example of a harmful comment made due to the breakup is a conversation Howard Stern had with Nick Cannon on his show. Stern asked Cannon who he would have another baby with (Cannon already has 12 kids with six women) and if he would have one with Taylor Swift. Cannon immediately responded that he would. This came only a couple days after the breakup was announced. While these sorts of comments aren’t common and this is a specific bad instance, it is proof of these sorts of narratives continuing to exist. People had only known about the breakup for a couple days and were already discussing who Taylor should be involved with next.
It is very important to acknowledge, though, that Taylor is incredibly powerful and has great control over her image and what information is shared about her. It is likely that the news of this breakup came out now for a reason, since it was during a week-long gap in performances of the Eras Tour. Additionally, Taylor was seen out to dinner in New York City with Jack Antonoff a couple nights later. It is not common for her to be spotted in public and this was likely planned to take the attention off the breakup news.
There are a couple important takeaways from this. Taylor Swift is one of the richest and most powerful celebrities in the world and yet, these narratives can still find her. Dominant ideology can still link the conversation around Taylor Swift to the men she’s associated with. This can have an effect on society as a whole, instilling patriarchal ideology further, due to how impactful media is. However, as a rich white woman, her control over her image makes it so these conversations are not damaging to her image at the end of the day. This is not to say she can’t be personally impacted by negative comments like the ones listed above. But, she still maintains a very well crafted image and doesn’t have to blatantly comment on conversations like this. Therefore, while these conversations do perpetuate a prevailing ideology, people like Taylor Swift will not truly be impacted by them or have to make moves to stop them entirely.