Saying nothing is saying everything. In today’s hyper-digital world everyone says everything all at once. When it comes to celebrities their silence speaks volumes.
Dolly Parton, who died in August, gave millions of dollars silently to various charities and organisations and after her passing people praised her charity ‘Imagine Library’.
The charity gives all children up until the age of 5, one book a month to encourage reading as Parton’s father was illiterate.
Along with this praise came critique though, chronically online individuals complained that she did not openly support Palestinians or comment on the UN-declared genocide happening in the middle east.
Dolly Parton could not defend herself, but this brought to light a rather common issue facing the internet right now; people can’t shut up.
Taylor Swift tends to get a lot of backlash no matter what she does. The billionaire is renowned for her song writing and teen anthems. Having worked in the industry for 22 years Taylor Swift has faced many controversies. Most baseless and senseless and forgotten to time but a recent reoccurring one has been dwindling in the air since last year.
Swift released the album “The Life of a Showgirl” on the 3rd of October last year. The album includes many songs addressed to her now-husband Travis Kelce. One of the songs garnered a lot of complain, the song “Wi$h List” , in it Swift details peoples wants and goals in life and compares them to her own, simple enough right? Apparently not according to internet goblins.
The lyrics “I just want you – have a couple kids – got the whole block looking like you” . The lyrics are nothing too special just her wanting to have kids with her husband. But according to internet sleuths, this is obviously a hint at eugenics. Apparently, wanting kids to look like your partner means you believe in eugenics.
It is comical the reaches people go to, to seem cooler or edgier. That’s not the only controversy with the song, for wanting to settle down obviously means Taylor is turning into a tradwife.
Tradwives are women that act in their ‘traditional gender’ role, meaning; staying at home, baking bread in a flowery dress, homeschooling their kids and leaving everything ‘important’ to be done by their husband.
I severely doubt Taylor Swift has suddenly decided to abandon her entire career that she has spent over two decades curating for her husband, I personally think she just wants to take it a little slower.
Much like the eugenics and tradwife assumptions made by chronically online folk, there was another comment made, but this time about her merchandise. Her song Opalite includes the lyric “You were dancing through the lightning strikes – sleepless through the onyx night”. Her team used said lyrics to create a necklace with lightning bolts on it. But once again the internet went in a different direction.
The lightning bolts looked apparently similar to the historical symbol used by the Nazi’s in World War two. Her team had to bring out a statement stating that that was not the inspiration.
It is ridiculous – why do people keep assuming Taylor is secretly a right wing grifter? During the 2020 election in the United States, Taylor posted a picture of herself with a plate of decorated biscuits saying Vote Biden. She received thousands of death threats because of it.
Whenever she mentions something political, she gets death threats and even attempts, so why would she comment on anything? If you knew anything you say would be twisted and could end in you possibly dying, why would you talk at all?
But this silence causes the other side to complain you don’t talk enough; how dare you not comment on every little thing – must mean you’re a MAGA bandit.
Swift has taken actions against Trump’s social media team after her music was used over videos of ICE officers brutally detaining people. Would someone who supports him, really take actions against him?
As the mid-term election comes to a close in the States, many different celebrities have taken to social media and used their platforms to encourage people to go vote. Once again, Swift has not commented, but that is not a surprise. In comparison, Olivia Rodrigo has been very vocal about her support for democratic organisations and received a lot of backlash but unlike Swift this has not discouraged her. This does not mean Taylor Swift did not vote, it likely just meant she did it privately.
She got married recently and herself and her husband in collaboration donated over $26 million to charities in celebration of their wedding. In comments online about said donation, people complained. They didn’t donate enough, they didn’t choose any Palestinian charities, they didn’t choose this that or the other. They donated to food charities and hospitals that help people in New York City, where they were getting married.
Now, flash forward to now. Swift has released the deluxe album of Life of a Showgirl, including four new songs. Of course this has once again garnered controversy.
The song ‘Patient Zero’ is a song about a toxic ex. Naming herself Patient Zero of this man advising future girlfriends to stay away and that she’s experienced it all from him. People took this song title and twisted the meaning, they said it is once again an issue. The News organisation PinkNews covered the song saying it was talking about the AIDs epidemic. Saying the song was insensitive towards to community.
Taylor has been a supportive ally to the LGBTQ+ community for over a decade, why are people suddenly deciding no matter what she releases it immediately means something cruel.
In a world indifference to suffering, why are we picking on such nothingburger topics? There are many things that one can complain about, namely in regards to her private jet usage and overconsumption habits by releasing multiple variants of her albums without differences so why not comment on actual issues.
It seems as though, people would rather create fake issues than actually sit down and look at the real ones. Seemingly these fake issues overshadow actual problems and allow real news stories about people to fall between the cracks.
When it comes to celebrity drama, especially drama that deals with complex political and personal topic the masses can misconstrue any and all opinions. People love the drama and complaining about people they will realistically never meet. The holier than thou attitude that many such online individuals possess tends to cloud their view that despite their fame and money, these celebrities are people.
All this to say, this does not mean people should not be called out for obvious displays of hate, it just means battles should be picked.
