The Madonna Move: Taylor Swift's Quiet Turn Towards Men.
bell hooks warned us about this.
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Every time Taylor Swift releases an album, it feels less like a culture event and more like a geopolitical crisis.
She has come to embody so much more than just her music that to engage in a simple discussion about the quality of her songs is to become an archeologist digging for layers of meaning as you decipher how your conversation partner feels about gender roles, billionaires, carbon emissions, whiteness, women in general and cat adoptions.
No one is safe. No one is neutral. Even the stance that you don’t care about her one way or the other becomes a stance that must be defended to the death.
Trudging through trenches of the online showgirl war zone this week, I had no interest in chiming in on any of it.
And yet somehow here I am chiming in on all of it.
All because this TikTok from sociology professor Aarushi Bhandari1 snuck across my feed and got my brain juices a-flowing:
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I mean pop culture history, patriarchy, capitalism AND bell hooks?!?
*leans forward. flirtatiously tucks hair behind ear.
Go on. I’m listening.
Bhandari references bell hooks’s 1997 documentary called Cultural Criticism and Transformation.
In that documentary, there is a section called “Madonna: From Feminism to Patriarchy.”
According to hooks, Madonna began her career appealing to women and feminists. With songs like “Express Yourself,” “What it Feels Like for a Girl,” and “Papa Don’t Preach,” Madonna encouraged girls to be assertive and take control of their own lives and sexuality.
She was also quite the activist for gay rights. She invited drag queens in her music videos, included a pamphlet called “The Facts about AIDS” in every copy of her album “Like a Prayer” and raised millions for AIDS.
This may be normal for a celebrity to do in our day and age, but Madonna was speaking out during the Reagan era where traditional family values ruled the day. Madonna was one of the first major celebrities to use her platform to advocate for gay rights.
Madonna caused hysteria and intense pushback amongst conservatives. There were often protestors at her concerts, and Pope John Paul II even urged Catholics to boycott her tours and music.
But then as the years passed and her fame peaked, she eventually maxed out the market for the girls and gays and began to turn her attention towards men and conservatives.
hooks notes that stardom “by its very nature has to be reproduced again and again,” which means that “at a certain point as an aging woman, Madonna had to have a new gimmick to renew interest in her, and it’s not surprising that a major part of her re-invention of herself became a re-attachment to sexism.”
When Madonna was 34, she appeared in Vanity Fair in pigtails and little pink nightgowns holding stuffed animals.
Which was quite a departure from her past style:
Madonna had always been overtly sexual, but the pink lollipop little girl sexuality was a pivot from her former “I own my sexuality” messages of her early career. hooks called this change “a complete repudiation of the kinds of images of a powerful woman” that she was championing in her past.
“It’s a re-investment in patriarchy… let’s face it, there’s always going to be more money to be had and more stardom to be had in the patriarchy.” - bell hooks
In the words of our sociology professor friend Bhandari— as she reached middle age, Madonna shifted from “catering to the female gaze to catering to the male gaze.”
Also at this point in her career, Madonna started becoming increasingly conservative. She made some incredibly racist comments to Spin Magazine in 1998 saying, “I believe that I have never been treated more disrespectfully as a woman than by the black men that I’ve dated. I’ve never actually said that to anybody, but it’s true and I think it’s a cultural thing…”
hooks says Madonna used this interview to reposition herself as a voice for the Right.
bell hooks doesn’t believe that Madonna was particularly motivated by sexism or racism or politics, but that her primary motivation was capitalism—that incessant pull for more—more money, more fame, more success. And that path of more just happened to include sexism, racism and conservatism.
“Because let’s face it, there’s more money to be made on the Right than there will ever be to be made on the Left.” - bell hooks2
Interesting.
Opening the market to the opposite gender
After listening to hooks speak on how advantageous it can be to open up a market to the opposite gender, my first thought wasn’t “Oh that’s for sure what Taylor Swift is doing.” It was, “Oh that’s for sure what Travis Kelce is doing.”
The average age for an NFL player to retire is 27. Travis is 36. Planning for his future, Travis hasn’t made it a secret that he would like his fame to last far longer than his football career would accommodate.
In fact, Travis Kelce’s agents said this very blatantly in a NYTimes interview. They said, “We positioned Travis to be world famous,” long before he met Taylor. “We didn’t know how it would happen, or when it would happen,” But it’s always been the plan to make Travis “as famous as the Rock.”
But if you’re going to be world famous, you need to be known by more than just the male half of the world.
In that interview, Travis’s agents come right out and said that breaking into the female market was in the game plan. They had tried before by starring Travis on a dating reality show called Catching Kelce where 50 girls (one from each state) competed to be his girlfriend.
But Catching Kelce didn’t catch.
No worries though, turns out proposing to the most famous blonde woman on the planet opened up that female market bigger than his agents could have ever dreamed for Travis. Here’s a quote from the NYTimes article where they say the quiet part out loud:
“there is no question that the doubling of his prospective audience — from mostly men between the ages of 18 and 49 to a far larger group bolstered heavily by Ms. Swift’s female fans of all ages — has changed the calculus…”
Case in point: Travis’s podcast New Heights was the #1 sports podcast on Spotify, but couldn’t compete on the most popular podcast lists. But when Swift came on? It won a Guinness World Record for most ever live listeners and gained a 3000% increase in new listeners. After Swift and her female audience, it was the #1 podcast in the world.
Before Swift, Kelce’s media coverage was limited to ESPN and sports coverage. (I had never heard of him). But after? He is one of the most followed people in the world across a variety of genres- pop culture, celebrity, fashion, lifestyle, finance.
Financially Travis’s net worth has tripled since dating Swift.
No question that tapping into the female market has been extremely advantageous to Travis.
Is The Life of a Showgirl evidence that Swift is trying to do the same? After maxing out her female audience, is she now shifting to cater to the male half of the population the same way her fiancé did with the female half?
Is she pulling a Madonna?
I’ll make the case both for and against and let you decide.
Yes- the girls’ girl has started humming for the fellas
The Life of a Showgirl is Swift’s 12th album, but it marks a few firsts.
The marketing images for this album mark the first time Taylor Swift has ever displayed her belly button.
The internet took notice of her illusive navel years ago. A reporter from Lucky magazine asked her about it while she was touring for 1989. Swift said,
“I don’t like showing my belly button… When you start showing your belly button then you’re really committing to the midriff thing. I only partially commit to the midriff thing—you’re only seeing lower rib cage…. If I’m going to get some sort of massive tattoo, it’s going to be right next to my belly button because no one’s ever going to see that.”
Case in point:
Sure, her belly button has peaked out on some beach photos, but nothing official.
Until now.
In an industry that loves to sexualize its young pop stars, Swift has been very careful to avoid that as much as she could.
The Life of a Showgirl is definitely the most skin she has shown in an official photoshoot before.
This album also marks the first time ever that Swift sings about a penis. And boy does she sing about it!
In the song “Wood,” Swift refers to Travis’s “magic wand,” “redwood tree,” “hard rock” and “new heights of manhood.”3
(There is a gender that famously loves dick jokes. And it’s not women.)
If she wants to show off her hot bod- good for her. If she wants to pen soliloquies to her partner’s package- good for her. The point is- the album represents a departure from her usual style.
As the album review from the Guardian put it: “there’s no escaping the fact that comparing her partner’s knob to a magic wand constitutes weak writing from someone who made her name, at least in part, by being a sharper, wittier, more incisive lyricist than her peers.”
As Bhandari put it, “She is making music that is dumber because by and large, that is what masculinity expects of women.”
She’s written about sex before, but she’s done it like this: “my bed sheets are ablaze, I screamed his name building up like waves crashing over my grave” - Guilty as Sin. And “the altar is my hips even if it’s a false god, we’d still worship this love.” - False God
Contrast that with, “The curse on me was broken by your magic wand.” “his love was the key that opened my thighs.”
Folklore and Evermore were written in a cabin in the woods. The Life of a Showgirl feels like it was written in a football locker room.
And what about the tradwifery of it all?
Two albums ago, while singing about being in love Swift sang, “All they keep asking me is if I’m going to be your bride.” “No deal- the 1950s shit they want from me.”
But now it seems like the 1950s shit is exactly the deal she would like to make.
In her new song Wi$h Li$t, Swift sings that she doesn’t want “that yacht life” and “bright lights.” (She’s not like other girls). All she really wants is a suburban American life complete with “a driveway with a basketball hoop” with her football playing husband and to have the kids on the block all lookin like him4.
In the song “Honey” she says, “Honey, I’m home, we could play house. We can bed down, pick me up.”
In the song “The Fate of Ophelia” Swift repeatedly says how grateful she is that Travis “saved” her. “No longer drowning and deceived, All because you came for me.” “if you’d never come for me I might’ve lingered in purgatory.”
I’m all for love, but saying that life would not have been worth living if a man hadn’t swooped in and saved her from her sad, pathetic, abysmal (billionaire) life sounds a lot like some 1950s shit. Sounds a lot like what a woman would say if the patriarchy was to pay a woman to write a pop album.
The girlies have noticed this one isn’t for them:
Raiyah on TikTok says, “I genuinely think the best way to describe The Life of a Showgirl is: it’s the album Ken would have forced Barbie to put out if Kens had taken over the world. (Which they have).”
Margot on TikTok says, “You know what I’ll say about The Life of a Showgirl?… It’s kinda like when you’re planning a night out with your best girl friend and you’re so excited.
And then she shows up with her boyfriend.
And you’re like… Oh… ok… he’s here…”
And what about the politics of it all?
Getting into Swift’s politics would be a whole other essay, but it’s worth sitting with the question—is it possible to be a billionaire and not veer Right?
Once you’ve accumulated that much wealth, is it possible to accumulate more without catering to conservatives?
Is she pulling a Madonna and leaning in?
Madonna was 34 when she pivoted Right. Swift is 35.
Do bell hooks’s quotes about Madonna apply to Taylor Swift?
“It’s a re-investment in patriarchy… let’s face it, there’s always going to be more money to be had and more stardom to be had in the patriarchy.” - bell hooks
Is Swift, like Madonna, a savvy capitalistic who understands she must cater to patriarchal conservatism, at least a little, in order to keep growing her empire?
Or is none of this that serious?
No- she’s just in love, it’s not that deep
And now let’s argue the other side.
We’re all reading way too much into this. Swift herself has said that this album is satire.
She’s in love, she’s happy and she wants to sing about being in love and happy, and the world is losing its mind.
No matter what, people were going to find endless ways to criticize this album. It’s the law of the Tall Poppy Syndrome. When one woman’s poppy grows taller than the rest, we must cut her down. And no one’s poppy is taller than Taylor Swift. All this criticism is just the latest iteration of the need to cut a successful woman down.
After her last album, The Tortured Poets Department, people were like “Ugh! It’s too long and sad and obtuse.” So she said, “Ok, here’s a short, simple, happy album for you.” And everyone’s like, “Ugh! It’s too short and simple and happy!”
And she has never been shy about seeking a long-term romantic partner. She’s finally got what she has always wanted. She’s secured a long-time lover, she’s happy, she having a lot of sex, and she wants to sing about it. What’s so wrong about that?
Allowing women to choose their own path is both the reason for and foundation of feminism. Swift is choosing marriage. As
says, “You can’t say ‘let women choose’ and then boo the choice.” Wanting children doesn’t make you a tradwife. Wanting a husband doesn’t make you anti-feminist.Similarly the choice to be sexual or to show off your body is one we’ve been shaming women over for far too long- enough already. Just because you show your belly button doesn’t mean you’ve sold out to the male gaze.
The female form is not owned by patriarchy. A woman should be able to wear what she wants without people assuming she’s doing it just so men will look at her.
And women loving sex should be a celebration, not a lamentation that she is brainwashed by patriarchy.
Yes, Swift has taken some sexy pictures in showgirl outfits. But what a power move for her to sexualize herself on her own terms in her mid 30s right when the world says this is the time in a woman’s life to start covering up.
She now owns her full body of work and she owns her full body and wants to show it off. As she should.
Unlike Madonna, Taylor Swift has never been avant garde or particularly progressive so Madonna’s playbook doesn’t apply. Swift is about as vanilla as they come. Despite waving a few pride flags and writing a some lyrics about sexism, she’s never been much of a liberal activist. So there’s been no shift. Everything she sings about on this new album is nothing new. Same old. Same old.
I saw a headline this week that said, “Fans outraged that pop star comes out with a new album that sounds just like her other albums.”
She’s a pop star, not a UN ambassador. Just let her be happy and in love- its not that serious.
What do you think?
So what do you think- was Swift’s new album different than her others or pretty much the same? Is Taylor taking a page from the Madonna playbook? Is she shifting from the female gaze to the male gaze? From left to right? Is she selling out to patriarchy or is she just happy and in love?
I’ll end where we began —with the words of sociology professor Aarushi Bhandari:
“I’m not saying [Taylor Swift] is doing this on purpose. I’m just saying that the theory of Cultural Transformation as described by bell hooks applies perfectly to this situation.”
Thank you SO much for sparking the premise of this week’s article!!
She said this in 1997. Prophetess many times over.
Rachel Handler wrote in The Vulture that the lyric “new heights of manhood” “commits the cardinal sin of heterosexuality: Don’t ever tell a man he’s stacked and his podcast is good. This line may singlehandedly fast-track the downfall of civilization.” hehe.
A lyric widely considered white supremacist given Travis’s history of dating women of color.
God, you're good.
Thank you so dang much again for helping us all to REFLECT more deeply on what could be happening here, rather than making more moralistic judgements about a human being and her brutifully human choices. Whether Swift is indeed currently expressing symptoms of patriarchal infection or not, it's important to remember that patriarchy is a form of trauma we're all impacted by--even the richest, most beautiful, most famous and talented among us--NOT a moral failing. We don't stop the spread by going back into the cage, attacking others in their weakest state, as if we aren't all connected. We stop patriarchal trauma's individual, collective, and intergenerational transmission by first re-membering our own power to walk out of the damned cage. When enough of us are outside, helping each other build something True, the others will see us. And they will join us.
Omg finally a balanced take! I love how you highlighted the nuance and the legitimacy of both sides and accepting that the truth lies somewhere in the grey lol.. amidst all the marketing genius behind her we’ll never know 🤓 I completely get the point of using her platform whatever but I think that in itself is a whole another can of worms with celebrity involvement in politics.