Content Warning: Mentions of SA & racist language
Bad news for Swiftie fans: after splitting from her six year-long relationship with Joe Alwyn, Taylor Swift’s got a new love interest — and he isn’t that great. The award-winning pop star is now dating Matty Healy, lead singer of English pop rock band, The 1975. Instead of the couple being met with overwhelming support from Swift’s fans, they faced immediate backlash, and the reasons behind these negative reactions are pretty justifiable, if you ask me.
One incident with Healy involved him doing the Nazi salute at one of his concerts as he sang the line, “‘Thank you, Kanye, very cool.'” While the line is one of Donald Trump’s tweets and is (supposedly) intended to be politically ironic, that doesn’t justify this kind of behavior. What’s worse? Healy posted on his Instagram story with a screenshot of a Wikipedia search for “list of Jews” days after International Holocaust Remembrance Day. How thoughtful of him, right?
Additionally, Healy’s been known to start his performances with seemingly questionable statements. For instance, he started off one performance by saying, “I don’t think it’s a racist thing to say…” before being cut off by the band segueing into one of their popular songs. Many fans have proclaimed that it’s just satire, but with recent news, those icky jokes of his were glimpses of his true colors.
Despite having songs that speak on social issues like in their hit, Love It If We Made It, Healy has been criticized for using more racist language against the hit musician, Ice Spice. This is especially evident on The Adam Friedland Show where he called her things like “one of the Inuit Spice Girls” and a “chubby Chinese Lady.” He also went on to mock API accents, and the episode was so offensive that both Spotify and Apple removed it from their content. He later went on to apologize for his comments, but if anything, it doesn’t really seem all that genuine.
And if that doesn’t sum up how terrible Healy is so far, it only gets worse. Much worse.
On the same episode of The Adam Friedland Show, Healy spoke on how he was caught masturbating to Ghetto Gaggers moments after his friends left his house. He shared the anecdote while laughing, saying, “I think it literally was Ghetto Gaggers on the TV — somebody just getting, like, brutalized…” He proceeded to mimic choking noises while his friends were only concerned by the fact that he Airplayed the videos on his TV. All around, the conversation was full of jokes, despite how disturbing this story really is.
To clarify what exactly Healy was watching, Ghetto Gaggers is a pornography site that features white men degrading and hurting women of color. Like almost all pornography, the site is extremely dangerous, as it involves misleading young women from poor economic backgrounds into a series of sexual torture. The fact that Matty Healy openly admitted to watching it in such a blasé manner further proves his true intentions.
Reddit user Mizzymichie, went on to discuss their concerns, saying, “This man is vile. This is not him playing a character as his defenders like to claim. It is not satire. He gets off on racial hate porn and like all sh*tty white men, he hides behind his edge lord humor/commentary to pull an uno reverse that doesn’t work.”
Given how increasingly problematic Matty Healy is, Swifties were not happy to hear thatis Taylor Swift dating him, but were further disappointed that she chooses to remain silent. For an artist who’s known to speak on social issues ever since the 2016 election, it’s quite hypocritical for her to remain passive now when her boyfriend is the sum of all those things she’s spoken against.
“Anyone who can make light of, excuse, or willfully ignore this sh*t is complicit and just as bad as him,” Chaudgarbage chimed in on the thread on Healy’s behavior. “This is abhorrent and vile, and it says a LOT about the people who choose to maintain friendships/relationships with him.”
The situation also brings to light how many white celebrities speak on social matters yet are complicit when it comes to taking action, and Swift is a perfect example of the problem with white feminism. She advocates for social justice but conveniently turns a blind eye when these offensive actions are happening right in front of her.
The fact that she’s also been friends with Healy for nine years brings into question if she witnessed Healy’s offensive behavior behind closed doors. Still, if that weren’t the case, these kinds of problematic actions are hard to miss when it’s circling all over social media, so I’m sure she was bound to come across some kind of news about him.
Even if she speaks on the matter and separates from Healy, the damage has already been done, and it only shows how she’s only politically and socially “active” when it comes to boosting her career. Sorry Swifties, but maybe it’s time for the end of an era.