No, I don’t read Glamour magazine, but this came across my feed after Tim Pool mocked it and decided to look. It’s another one of those moments where one is stunned but not surprised at the same time. A writer for the publication was at the Super Bowl, where Taylor Swift was booed out of the stadium. This led to the headline: “Why Taylor Swift Getting Booed at the Super Bowl Was Even More Chilling Than You Think.”
My fucking God hahahahaha pic.twitter.com/pi4hI8FFlx
— Tim Pool (@Timcast) February 11, 2025
Since Donald Trump took office, there have been several times I felt chilled by the rapid increase in misogyny seeping in our culture. But watching Taylor Swift at Super Bowl LIX booed by a crowd of thousands on Sunday night was a new low.
It was just a football game, people might say. Or Swift— who is famously dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce—got heckled by some rowdy Eagles fans excited to be at the biggest sporting event of the year. So? Don’t take it so seriously.
But I was there at the game. When Swift’s face appeared on the Jumbotron, an almost instant—and distinctly male—dissent erupted from around me. Swift, of course, was there to support her boyfriend, and was far from the only celebrity in attendance. In fact, the screen showed a new famous person—from Paul McCartney to Anne Hathaway and Lady Gaga—nearly every time there was a break in the play with virtually no response from the crowd.
Swift was different. As soon as she appeared on screen, the crowd seemed to delight in jeering and heckling her, and the mood shift was palpable. I watched in real time as Swift, alongside her friend Ice Spice, took in the response, her brow furrowing in confusion and then apparent discomfort.
Looking at the camera, she distinctly said, “What is going on?” And girl, same, because we were all wondering what the hell was happening.
[…]
To me, the disparate reactions felt like a message. That the Super Bowl, one of the biggest cultural events in the country, has been reclaimed by Trump and the type of toxic masculinity he appears to be the beacon of. And he and his supporters seem to be living for it.
Just look at the president’s response shortly after he left the game. Not only did he acknowledge that Swift was booed by the crowd, he delighted in it. As he had many, many times before (including saying he “hated” Swift after she endorsed his 2024 rival Kamala Harris) the president weaponized his massive following against her.
“The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift," Trump the president wrote on Truth Social. "She got BOOED out of the Stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!"
By calling her out, Trump looked to play by the now-standard internet misogyny playbook.
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Oh, you knew that was coming, right?
Swift is a Pennsylvania resident and grew up an Eagles fan, only to betray the city. She's also the girlfriend of Travis Kelce, who plays for the Chiefs, a team that most NFL fans, and Eagles fans especially, hate for their perceived treatment from the officials. Philly fans are still sour over how Super Bowl 57 ended. So, yeah, they're going to boo.
Second, relax; the Super Bowl was never a liberal thing. Progressives hate sports, especially football, so this event wasn’t “reclaimed” by Trump or anything. And these reactions to Swift being booed are precisely why left-wingers shouldn't watch sports—if that triggers you, I don’t know what to tell you. For those who do and dish out takes like this, we don’t want to hear it.
The game is on, g*ddammit.
Given the attention that Swift and Kelce were getting from Birds fans, this was bound to happen, especially with Trump there. Overall, Swift being booed wasn’t precisely some shocking incident. Swift lured more female fans to watch the game, and NFL spouses are becoming a constant part of the storyline around the league. That’s fine. Some have even become entrepreneurial about it, like Kristin Juszczyk, wife of San Francisco 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who made some pretty cool custom jackets, one of which was worn by Taylor Swift.
Swift got booed. Get over it. She’s not going to be deported. And it wasn't chilling, please.
We're talking about a woman worth a billion dollars. I think she could handle it, and she did.
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