The New York Times is under fire for publishing an article speculating about Taylor Swift's sexuality.
In a 5,000-word article titled "Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do," editor Anna Marks lists references to the LGBTQ+ community, overt or implied, in Swift's music and suggests that the singer is sending coded messages that she is secretly a member of the community.
According to CNN, the article sparked backlash from readers as well as Swift's "associates."
One such member of Swift's team, who spoke to the media on condition of anonymity, attributed the decision to publish the article to sexism and ethical lapses. "Because of her huge success at this point, there's a Taylor-shaped hole in people's ethics," the person says. "This article would not have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any other male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans.
There seems to be no line some journalists won't cross when writing about Taylor, no matter how intrusive, untrue, and inappropriate it is — all under the protective veil of an "opinion piece," the person added.
"This was the most disingenuous article I can remember ever appearing in The New York Times, made even worse by the fact that it was written by a staffer who specializes in such speculation," said Chris Willman, chief music officer. critic at Variety.
Marks claims that since the beginning of her career, Swift has been secretly trying to signal that she identifies as homosexual. "In isolation, a dropped hairpin may be meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they are the unfurling of a ballerina's bun after a long performance," Marks wrote. "These loose hairpins began to appear in Ms. Swift's work long before queer identity became undeniably marketable to mainstream America. They suggest to homosexuals that she is one of us."
Swift has embraced the LGBTI+ community in the past, calling her concerts a "safe space" for LGBTI+ people and publicly defending them in a 2019 Vogue interview against a record number of anti-gay bills introduced in states across the country.
"Virtually anyone who is not a heterosexual white cisgender male is being disenfranchised," she said. "I didn't realize until recently that I could advocate for a community I'm not a part of."
But she has not identified as a member of the queer community. In the prologue to the re-recording of her 1989 album, released in October, Swift said that at one point in her career, she surrounded herself with friends to counter the constant media speculation about her love life. "If I only dated my girlfriends, people wouldn't be able to sensationalize it or sexualize it — would they? I realized later that people can," she wrote.
Marks, apparently aware of the criticism her essay might be subjected to, tries to address the potential reactions to her article.
"I know that for some, discussing a star's potential homosexuality before her official identity declaration is too indecent and gossip-fueled to be worth discussing," she wrote.
"I share many of these reservations. But the stories that dominate our collective imagination define what our culture allows artists and their audiences to say and be," she added. "Every time an artist makes a signal about homosexuality and that broadcast falls on deaf ears, that signal dies. Acknowledging the possibility of homosexuality — while recognizing the difference between possibility and certainty — keeps that signal alive." /BGNES
