Last week, when Taylor Swift announced her engagement on Instagram, I noticed something peculiar. The reactions all over social media were unhinged, far beyond the usual Swiftie delirium. I’m so tired of constantly discovering new ways people can be awful, in this heightened awareness the universe forced upon us two years ago—the one that usually comes at the cost of witnessing people being slaughtered in front of our eyes.
Funny how mass death, livestreamed directly to your phone, can instantly hand you a litmus test; there’s nowhere to hide, nothing you can ever unsee, and no performance of authenticity can pass if it isn’t rooted in absolute honesty. Living in this world is a privilege, even as I long for the oblivion I once enjoyed before that October.
I mean, just look at the article I wrote in that October, the last one before the world changed on its axis; I read it now, and I shrug at the subheadline: “Finding yourself enthralled by this sort of narrative, it’s about Travis and Taylor, or whoever, but it’s very much about you.” I cringe.
Jess Natale, a beloved founder of So Informed, posted an image about the media phenomenon of this engagement announcement, which launched a brilliant character study:
“The fact that Taylor Swift’s engagement is plastered across every major headline today, while the genocide in Gaza is reduced to a footnote - if mentioned at all - exposes the media’s sickening obsession with celebrity over conscience. Abandon legacy media.”
She pulled the headlines to make her point.
At the top: legacy media fawning over a billionaire and a millionaire getting married, with an enthusiasm they won’t offer to a livestreamed genocide, and the most brutal, medieval erasure of an entire people.
At the bottom: ethical non-Western media actually doing their job, reporting on the largest war crime of our lived experience.
Even though this post is clearly about the legacy media practice of shielding the perpetrators of this brutal war crime and crime against every instance that makes humanity the definition, people felt called out in the comment section.
Let me repeat who is actually being called out in the post’s description. The media.
“The fact that Taylor Swift’s engagement is plastered across every major headline today, while the genocide in Gaza is reduced to a footnote - if mentioned at all - exposes the media’s sickening obsession with celebrity over conscience. Abandon legacy media.”
The comment section.
“Don’t you dare come after my billionaire bestie!”
Like, what. WHAT?
The entire comment section is filled with people raging at the idea that anyone could try to steal the joy of a billionaire’s upcoming wedding from them. Just look at these gems:
“Don’t make us feel guilty for celebrating some happy news in this terrible world????”
“I get this. But also, we need good news. We need fluff. I personally don’t even watch the news because I feel so helpless and depressed when I do.”
“So nobody’s allowed happiness??? Being negative won’t fix what’s happening in the world - only makes it worse.”
“Just be happy for them. This kind of stuff is what brings light to people in dark times.”
“Sigh. It’s almost like we can enjoy happy things and care deeply about injustice and tragedy at the same time. This take is so tiresome.”
Nothing is more dangerous than a Westerner who’s joy at the mundane celebrity gossip you tried to take away!
And we’re supposed to count on these people to give us a helping hand in global liberation, the decolonization of our minds and lands, tackling imperialism, capitalism, oligarchy—trying to make this world bearable for all people? This is the folk we’re meant to do it with?
A girlboss feminists, silent on literally everything affecting human suffering, that’s not their own. Girboss feminists who feel oppressed by thinking you are trying to take away their joy of an impending celebrity wedding. A billionaire celebrity, probably the most protected billionaire in the world, because of the horde of white women's parasocial attachment to her, as faithfully expressed by this person:
Taylor Swift is a billionaire. Do you understand that concept? She is aligning with billionaire interests, not society’s. Again, as the person below rightly pointed out: “countless women artists with far less wealth, protection, and insulation have spoken out at great personal risk.”
Taylor Swift hasn’t spoken out on the ongoing genocide, ICE raids, snatching American citizens off the streets, or freedom of speech slowly being taken away from us. Prioritizing convenience over conscience?
We have to examine our white privilege, folks. A privilege of demanding our joy at the news of a celebrity wedding not be interrupted by the grimness of a genocide happening in our timeline. We have a blind spot, and we have to work at it to recognize patterns in ourselves and the people we support.
Just look at this original post below, discussing the possible carats on Taylor’s engagement ring:
Miners probably died to obtain that rock from the depths of the earth. And to that I say … Get it, girl.
Get it, girl?
Are we that far gone in self-centeredness? Why does your happiness hinge on celebrity worship? And to the degree that you brush off the suffering of others for me me me, mine?
Is this who we are? Is this who we want to be? As
rightly pointed out, “this post might be the most perfect illustration we have of how white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy form the core of Girlboss feminism. We are living in a farcical nightmare.”Back to joy.
I clicked on some of the commentators’ profiles on the post I’m discussing in this article, and it struck me to see some white people claiming, “well, let us have some joy about this news, after all, joy is resistance”, in a pathetic attempt to sound empathetic towards an entire people being slaughtered before our eyes.
And this brilliant response to that drives it home:
“Saying joy is resistance especially when you are a straight, white woman is meaningless and myopic. Joy is resistance for the queer and trans people who are having their lives and rights threatened. Joy is resistance for Black women who are constantly belittled and othered, even in their own communities. Joy is resistance for immigrant families who continue to try and find happiness when darkness looms. Your joy is not resistance when it comes to celebrating white billionaires.”
People want to be complacent, and therefore complicit, in peace.
We are morally misaligned. Our collective fixation on celebrity joy is masking, trivializing, and shielding the suffering of millions.
We could argue that people need joy in this gruesome world, yes. But there’s a difference between seeking relief and prioritizing it over basic human empathy.
When joy comes packaged in celebrity worship while genocide is livestreamed, it stops being escapism and becomes a distraction.
Our moral compass is inverted.
We condition ourselves to care more about curated narratives of glamour and romance than the brutal realities occurring thousands of miles away.
“Why can’t you let us experience some joys?”, a question directed at the creator of the post you’re commenting on, tells me you feel called out because, deep down, you know you don’t care enough about the wholesale murder of an entire population.
Wanting to feel joy in the midst of unspeakable crimes being committed is an understandable human sentiment, but also an indictment of our desensitization. We have created a culture where empathy is optional, but celebrity worship is mandatory.
Hate to be the bearer of not-so-pleasant news, but if we are to claim any humanity, our attention must align with reality. Until the legacy media and the public place suffering at the center of the conversation, our joy exists on the backs of those being silenced.
Well said. I had a similar reaction.