Taylor Swift’s Team Is Straight Up Not Happy With the New York Times
Following a lengthy opinion piece in the New York Times speculating about Taylor Swift’s sexual identity, CNN reports that the singer’s “associates” are straight up not happy, quoting a person “close to the situation.” “Because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics,” the anonymous source said. “This article wouldn’t have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans. There seems to be no boundary some journalists won’t cross when writing about Taylor, regardless of how invasive, untrue, and inappropriate it is — all under the protective veil of an ‘opinion piece.’”
Somehow, during this routine push back against inappropriate speculation, Shawn Mendes caught a stray. Just imagine, Mendes was probably minding his own business, reading a script for Lyle Lyle Crocodile 2 perhaps, when his phone started blowing up with Google Alerts. He might have even seen Taylor Swift’s name in connection to his own and thought that their “Lover” remix unexpectedly broke some new record. But alas…
Referencing Mendes is particularly odd, not only because it distracts from Swift’s camp’s main point, but also because the argument it’s meant to invoke is untrue. People speculate about male celebrities’ sexuality all the time. In fact, the author of this opinion piece on Swift also wrote a similar piece on Harry Styles, speculating about his sexuality in 2022. That doesn’t make it right, but it debunks the notion that this is an ethical lapse that Swift is uniquely a victim of. But most importantly, what will this new feud mean for the newsprint imagery on the cover of Reputation (Taylor’s Version)?
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