It’s a Sunday afternoon, and I wander into my house attempting to escape the September heat as my eye wanders to the TV screen. The first video shot of Taylor Swift cheering on her new boyfriend, Kansas City’s tight end Travis Kelce, at the Chiefs versus the Bears game in Kansas City flashes across the screen. The influential pop star makes her debut as Travis’ girlfriend at the game with high spirits and supportive energy, constantly interacting with other people in the box and clapping and cheering while keeping focused on the attention-grabbing game. 

As a huge Swiftie, I have followed Taylor’s many romantic relationships, including her seven-year romance with Joe Alwyn. I was exhilarated to hear that Taylor found someone who shared her same energy, supported her, respected her and her career, and seems to love her for who she is. Unfortunately, not everyone was over the moon about this new pairing. 

In fact, hateful comments on social media accused Taylor of damaging Travis’ career and affecting his game performance, even when she was not in attendance. Some have even argued that she is ruining the NFL and football altogether. 

When Travis had a poor game against the Philadelphia Eagles, X user DJ wrote, “The whole Taylor swift really messing up Kelce career.” 

Another user complained, “The Swift Affect…It’s a real thing.” 

Earlier in the season, when Kelce had a minor injury, Swiftie X user Veronica wrote, “not football fans already tweeting that Travis’ injury is [a] “taylor curse” while she’s literally not there and they won both times she was at the game…”

There were comments about how many boyfriends Taylor has had and about how her next album will just be breakup songs about Travis. 

These types of comments aren’t anything new for Taylor. She has been receiving misogynistic hate comments about her love life since she was a teenager. People always say the same things such as “she dates too much,” “she only writes breakup songs,” and “she’s too dramatic.” 

On February 24, 2023, on episode 10 of the show Ginny and Georgia, Ginny made a joke to her mom saying, “You go through men faster than Taylor Swift.” Taylor clapped back at their sexist joke by tweeting, “Hey Ginny and Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse s*** as FuNnY. Also, @netflix after Miss Americana this outfit doesn’t look cute on you. Happy Women’s History Month I guess.” 

Miss Americana was Swift’s documentary she released in early 2020. In Taylor’s prologue for her record-breaking album 1989 (Taylor’s Version), she wrote about being slut-shamed and how being titled a “boy crazy psychopath” really started to hurt, so she decided to make an album (1989) about getting over heartbreak, moving to New York, and enjoying spending time with friends. 

Unsurprisingly, people still criticized her and even sexualized her friendships with women. She also spoke about how it’s not fair that only women in the music industry get hated on for dating and men in the industry never pay the price. She even wrote a song called “Blank Space” about dating rumors and being shamed. A recent release called “Slut!” is about falling in love with someone but knowing she will have to deal with the stereotypes anyway, so it’s best just to ignore them and keep your love life to yourself. She writes in “Slut!”:  “I’ll pay the price, you won’t.” 

I’m very exhausted by people constantly asking me, “Why do you like her so much? She just makes songs about her exes anyway” or from seeing people make disgusting sexist remarks about her dating life or body.

I’m aware people are entitled to their opinions about Taylor. You don’t have to like her music if you don’t want to. 

However, the irritating part for me is how people treat me and what people say to me after they find out I’m a Taylor fan. Whenever someone asks me what music I like, I always hesitate because I know the biggest argument used against Swift is her dating life—as if her dating life is why I like her music.

When someone says something like that, it almost feels like a personal attack that I’m being accused of being boy crazy or shallow. It also reinforces the double standard around female and male behavior.

And before you say anything to me about how she just writes breakup songs, go listen to “marjorie,” “this is me trying,” “seven,” “Innocent,” “The Man,” or “Castles Crumbling.” The list could go on. Just because you may have only heard a couple of her hit breakup songs doesn’t mean she only writes about breakups. Plus, who cares if she writes about a breakup, anyway? It’s her life experiences, which she even sarcastically stated in an interview a few years ago, “Sorry, was I loud? In my own house that I bought; with the songs I write about my own life?”  

Taylor and her music are so much more than just who she dates. She is a kind friend and always brings smiles to her friends’ faces. She’s an impressive lyricist and an intriguing storyteller whose writing talent goes beyond breakup songs. She has a loving relationship with her parents who attend every show to support her. She’s a breathtaking performer who performs for three high energy hours straight. She has a beautiful relationship with her fans and wants to make sure they’re alright, like the one time in Rio de Janeiro on her Eras Tour when security refused to hand out bottled waters during a massive heat wave. Taylor decided to throw water to fans while performing, and the whole show kept begging the security to hand water out. She always speaks highly of her fans and is constantly gracious towards them. Once, she even went to fans’ houses and gave them Christmas presents. Taylor is also a huge advocate for women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Taylor Swift is a strong, independent woman who has helped countless numbers of people, and she is more than who she dates, whom she breaks up with, and her body. It’s time for people to realize we’re in the 21st century and it’s not “cool” to treat her or any woman like this.