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NY Times essay speculating over Taylor Swift's sexuality sparks backlash

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Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour, at MetLife Stadium in New Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, May 26, 2023. Sarah Yenesel, EPA-EFE " src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/entertainment/11/24/taylor-swift-epa-11242023.jpg"/><figcaption>US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour, at MetLife Stadium in New Rutherford, New Jersey, USA, May 26, 2023. <em>Sarah Yenesel, EPA-EFE </em></figcaption></figure></div><p>NEW YORK, United States - A lengthy essay speculating over superstar Taylor Swift&#x27;s sexuality has triggered anger online, with some social media users calling for its retraction.</p><p>The 5,000-word guest column published in the paper&#x27;s opinion pages suggests the wildly popular singer is sending veiled signals to her fans that she is queer, despite identifying publicly as straight.</p><p>Neither The Times nor Swift&#x27;s representatives immediately responded to an AFP request for comment over the piece or the backlash.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/12/13/23/eras-tour-is-the-highest-grossing-music-tour-guinness">Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the highest-grossing music tour ever: Guinness</a></li></ul><p>Speaking anonymously to CNN, a person in Swift&#x27;s camp called the column &quot;invasive, untrue, and inappropriate.&quot;</p><p>The essay by Anna Marks, an editor for the NYT&#x27;s Opinion section, strings together a list of times Swift has seemingly suggested she is queer.</p><p>&quot;In isolation, a single dropped hairpin is perhaps meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they&#x27;re the unfurling of a ballerina bun after a long performance,&quot; Marks wrote.</p><p>&quot;Those dropped hairpins began to appear in Ms. Swift&#x27;s artistry long before queer identity was undeniably marketable to mainstream America. They suggest to queer people that she is one of us.&quot;</p><p>In 2022 Marks published a guest essay speculating over the gender identity of Harry Styles, a pop star Swift has dated, examining accusations of queerbaiting against him.</p><p>Marks opened her Swift column by referencing the inner turmoil of Chely Wright, a queer country musician and activist who has described staying closeted for years for both career and personal reasons.</p><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour, at MetLife Stadium in New Rutherford, New Jersey in this May 26, 2023 file photo. Sarah Yenesel, EPA-EFE" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/entertainment/10/28/20231028-taylor-swift.jpg"/><figcaption>US singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs during the Eras Tour, at MetLife Stadium in New Rutherford, New Jersey in this May 26, 2023 file photo.<em> Sarah Yenesel, EPA-EFE</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Following the essay&#x27;s publication, Wright lambasted it as &quot;triggering.&quot;</p><p>&quot;I was mentioned in the piece, so I&#x27;ll weigh in,&quot; Wright wrote on X, the former Twitter, over the weekend.</p><p>&quot;I think it was awful of @nytimes to publish. Triggering for me to read -- not because the writer mentioned my nearly ending my life -- but seeing a public person&#x27;s sexuality being discussed is upsetting.&quot;</p><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2874757" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><strong>&#x27;Believe people&#x27;</strong></div><p>Swift posted a banner 2023 as she continues her blockbuster &quot;Eras&quot; tour and catapults to an otherworldly realm of stardom.</p><p>For months the 34-year-old has openly dated NFL player Travis Kelce, bringing new legions of viewers to football games as the camera routinely pans to Swift.</p><p>Her dating life has long been fodder for tabloids, fans, and her songwriting. Swift has been linked to high-profile men including the actors Tom Hiddleston, Jake Gyllenhaal and Joe Alwyn, as well as the singers Styles, 1975 frontman Matt Healy and John Mayer.</p><p>Swift herself has never publicly indicated that she identifies as queer, although speculation has persisted for years.</p><p>She has championed LGBTQ+ rights, which she discussed in a 2019 interview with Vogue: &quot;I didn&#x27;t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I&#x27;m not a part of.&quot;</p><p>And in the prologue to her recent re-release of her album &quot;1989,&quot; Swift reflected that in her twenties she &quot;swore off hanging out with guys&quot; because of media assumptions that she was sleeping with every man she spent time with.</p><p>&quot;I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships,&quot; she said. &quot;If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn&#x27;t sensationalize or sexualize that -- right?&quot;</p><p>&quot;I would learn later on that people could and people would.&quot;</p><p>Kayla Gagnet -- director of digital content at Equal Pride, an umbrella brand of queer-focused media outlets including The Advocate and Out -- said when it comes to celebrity news coverage, &quot;pointing out obvious signals is not inherently problematic.&quot;</p><p>Noticing signs of queerness, she told AFP, &quot;should be no different&quot; than media noticing Swift was dating Kelce before the pair had confirmed it.</p><p>On the other hand, Gagnet said, the backlash to the Times essay &quot;is really focused on not the reading of queerness into her work, which I think is totally valid, but more on ignoring or being dismissive of what she herself has said about it.&quot;</p><p>Followers of pop culture will always be interested in who celebrities are dating, she continued. &quot;It&#x27;s fair game to sort of be interested in what that might mean about their sexuality.&quot;</p><p>But at Equal Pride outlets, Gagnet said &quot;we believe people when they tell us who they are.&quot;</p><p>&quot;And that is true for queer people and straight people and everybody in between.&quot;</p><p>mdo/mlm</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2879077" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

A lengthy essay speculating over superstar Taylor Swift's sexuality has triggered anger online, with some social media users calling for its retraction.