Who’s Afraid of Taylor Swift: On The Eras Tour and Double-Faced Culture
It was the summer of The Eras Tour, brat summer, the Olympics, Oasis reuniting and announcing the 2025 tour. It was this and that: shortly, the prime time for any type of fan. And it is so amazing to be a fan. This summer was thus also a time when cultural double standards came to surface in a more visible manner.
Let's look at the FIFA World Cup. The fans are seen as dedicated. Strong. Passionate. Loyal. But, often, they seem uncontrollable. (Not to mention the increase of domestic violence during and after football games). Now, let's consider pop fans. A group of (predominantly) women-fans at a Taylor Swift (or any pop music) concert is joyful, adoring...or, if you ask someone else, hysterical. Embarrassing. Over the top. Stupid, even. But, why? Where does this vitriol come from?
This isn’t anything new – this is the standard that has been present for decades now – a young woman’s interests, hobbies or joy are not important enough to be taken seriously. As a consequence, all of the above is very often ridiculed, made small and made fun of. The fan in a woman’s body has been seen as “crazy” ever since the times of Elvis Presley or The Beatles – and yet we still forget that exactly these people are one hell of a force.
The Eras Tour: Why Does It Matter So Much?
Like many other fans attending The Eras Tour, I’ve been looking forward to seeing Taylor Swift for at least a year. Well, I say a year, but, in reality, it has been forever. Maybe ever since I listened to her for the first time when I was twelve years old. Swift has been the soundtrack to my life for more than half of it, and this isn't just my experience. There are many others who would write the same sentence. It's the reason why The Eras Tour means so much to so many. Although definitely not the only one.
In the age of social media and the ability to receive information about everything, at all times, The Eras Tour is something that can be experienced through videos, live streams, Instagram posts and tweets, long before one can actually attend the show in person. Which, on one hand, takes away the effect of surprise, however, also adds even more layers of community and togetherness to the whole experience.
On a surface level, you can almost know what to expect – but nothing can prepare you for the feeling of absolute joy, happiness and openness that you feel when standing in the stadium. So, why then, do people feel the undeniable need to criticise something that means so much to such a large amount of people? When and how did we come to a point where women-fans are described as "too girly" or "too much?"
Being able to twist this narrative, put on the most pink (short, sparkly, etc.) outfit on, lather yourself with glitter, and openly enjoy what you love, is indescribable; the feeling of sharing this moment with ninety thousand other people who are as excited to be there as you are. That is because there is a community to be found in the Taylor Swift fandom. Just take a look at what happened when the Vienna concert was cancelled after fears of a terrorist attack. Still grieving a concert that never happened while feeling thankful to be alive, Swift’s fans turned the streets of Vienna into a huge podium, singing and exchanging friendship bracelets.
Yes, Taylor Swift (and pop music) concerts are often a haze of pink and sparkles. But there is immeasurable joy in this and in the shared experience of girlhood. I find myself comparing this to the occasional violence and hooliganism of football crowds and wonder: why do these fan communities not get widely labelled as hysterical? This can be very easily tied to the systematic tendency to diminish women's (especially young women's) hobbies. While it is perfectly acceptable for men to get emotional over a sports match or a computer game, women are not only socialised from a young age to “grow up”; showing emotions is mostly interpreted as an extreme state: insanity, stupidity, immaturity, hystery.
The relationship between female hobbies and sexism can be seen very clearly, not only around spaces that are populated mainly by women. However, those areas of culture and society are where negative commentary and unsolicited reactions get out of hand quite quickly. Seen from an objective perspective, this only shows the sheer reality: the internalised sexism surrounding every aspect of life, here specifically the miniscule aspect of women's hobbies, which quickly turns into systemic behaviour.
The “Hype-Shadow”
The past months have been filled with the word hype.
When will this hype around Taylor Swift finally end?
Hype is a shadow that many people would love to use as a blanket to cover Swift's career with, tuck it away and reduce her success to exaggerated frenzy. The problem with this is quite simple: this wording implies the expectation of a rash ending. Awaiting something to end, rather than asking ourselves where her career and success will go next. Furthermore, it takes a carefully planned and successfully realised career and crumbles it into a phase that we cannot wait to be over. The so-called hype is actually a manifestation of Swift’s working morale and creativity, realisation of plans that have been crafted years in advance, her interaction with fans and the absolute spectacle of the live performances. As The Guardian put it: “It is an autobiographical feat of stamina that traces how a gawky teenage country singer turned into the most successful act in the world.” (source)
A cliché question at this point - have we been voicing the question of the end of the career when we talk about men in the music industry? Additionally, why are so many people so adamant on tearing her down? In its core, this trend just shows another face of culture: a woman's success is usually not purely praised; in most cases, it is engulfed in pessimistic prospects of the future, counting the last days.
By using the term hype, the dedication and passion of fandom and community is being taken away. As well as the interest, love, emotional investment, reducing it to a “this will just pass”. Granted, it is not possible to take years of dedication away with a sentence, but it at least questions the integrity and honesty and overall, all the characteristics that make a fan a fan. Taylor Swift is a role model to many and has inspired generations of individuals, not only providing a safe space and perhaps emotional support, but also community. If we think about this, a logical point would be: Why would this hype fail? Looking at the already mentioned Beatles or Oasis, these bands continue to inspire listeners, for example without having to add to their repertoire. Music does not really have an end point, because there is a constant influx of new fans, new people who continue to be inspired by the current reality, or even past events or art. The pitfall of the idea of hype is then the expectation of a hasty ending, rather than the acceptance and celebration of success.
On Being a Fan
Time and time again this summer, I have talked to my friends or acquaintances, telling them I was going to The Eras Tour; very excited and visibly happy about it. The most frequent response I have received was “I don’t get the hype; I don’t like Taylor Swift and her music, but enjoy it” – or something similar along the lines. And every single time, I have asked myself the same question: Why can we not grant other people happiness about something, regardless of whether we feel as passionate about it? Isn’t that exactly what is so beautiful about life – living and letting other people live and enjoy their own interests, basking in the energy they radiate when they talk about something they love?
Alex Abandsantos writes that “Taylor Swift has always been a pop culture Rorscharch test”. Whatever she does or does not do, every photo, every lyric, every word spoken in an interview or at an Awards’ Show will be interpreted differently depending on how you feel about her. A successful woman with a strong fanbase, delivering an amazing show and caring about her fans. Or maybe a calculating capitalist who only cares about the sales and revenues of her tour. Which one is it? You decide. If we linger on this for a bit and focus on the criticism and negative press that is published about Swift, we can crystalize one problematic aspect out: “dumping complex structural problems on the shoulders of one person, but not looking for systemic solutions [is wrong]: you can do that, but it is intellectually and morally lazy“ (author’s translation, Sauer, Anne. 2024. Look What She Made Us Do); unfortunately, this is something that tends to happen to successful women. As society, we do not focus on achievements, the art, or maybe the change of certain aspects of the industry they are driving forward; we will instead count their days, waiting for any micro-misstep, blaming them for everything that is wrong with the manifold structures of our world.
Quite frankly, anyone who is a fan of anything will tell you a similar story: I want to be left in peace, enjoying what I love, without having to justify to the world why I like it – without having to be faced with never-ending criticism about the meaning of the music or the person behind it.
Pop Culture as a Meeting Place
One big difference that is made between “high” culture and pop culture is the absence of fans in the first type - there are only experts. And in a similar line, pop culture (as the name reveals) is made to appeal to masses - which makes it - in the eyes of many, foul. Nevertheless, it is important to note that the denial of the relevance of an art in which so many people feel seen and understood factually conveys the implication for the emotions of these people to be void.
In times of deep societal divide and ever-growing ruptures, it should be important to nurture spaces of safety and unity. We should focus on encouraging joy, belonging and the sense of collectiveness that fandom can bring. I rarely ever feel this in my day-to-day life. Quite the opposite. But The Eras Tour was and continues to be an absolute safe space.
That is exactly why such cultural territories will always matter - because they provide something that seems to be consistently denied in our society (and more often than not, presenting itself in the oppression of women). This denial does not only apply to Swift and her fandom, but popular culture (and consequently “conformity”) in general. But there is a catch to it, so brilliantly voiced by Milan Kundera in his novel Identity (1998, HarperFlamingo), talking about the nonsensical judgement of conformity as something bad and simple: “Isn't conforming a way of drawing close to other people? Isn't conformism the great meeting place where everyone converges, where life is most dense, most ardent?”
Pop music, fandoms and the sexist judgement of women's hobbies are nothing new, but in the past months, the societal tendencies that underline this behaviour have resurfaced again and with even more force. Hence why now is a good time to reflect on the driving forces and the internalised misogyny at the core, reimagining how we view spaces that provide the feeling of community and safety to women and fans in general.
Written by Karolína Richterová
Karolína Richterová is a freelance editor and copywriter. When she’s not taking care of texts and translations, she’s probably reading books. If not that, it’s knitting, running, playing tennis or a quick game of dice. You can also find her on Instagram - @karolinasreadings.