The world is a little too Swift-obsessed
I’ve long objected to the trendy term of “influencer” when it comes to people who think they’re primetime entertainers and have sway because they boast a large number of “followers.”
Taylor Swift, however, is one of those people who has fans that seemingly cling onto her every word, every move and every, well, romantic relationship.
I’m not denying that she’s a powerful figure both in the music world and now seemingly sports world thanks to her latest relationship with a football star, but I do wonder if people are focused too much on her – for everything.
As an entertainment reporter, I’ve noticed in recent years how politics has bled into celebrity headlines thanks to the rich and famous taking sides, especially when Donald Trump is in the White House — or even just on a political campaign.
Swift’s appearances at Sunday football games somehow make it into the “news” that we report on Mondays. After a while, there’s not much to say.
“OK, so, she was there last night… and cheered… and high-fived people… and… uh, I dunno,” is sort of how it goes now.
In recent weeks, Swift fans were outraged when AI-generated porn images of her were trending on Twitter (or whatever it’s called now). The Swifties did everything to bury the faked images so their queen wouldn’t been seen in explicit ways online.
I can appreciate Swift has a younger following that might not be familiar with the concept of fake celebrity nudes but, let’s be honest, that’s been a “thing” for a long time.
I’ve owned a broadcast company for almost 20 years and I can’t count how many times someone has hit us up and tried to sell fake/photoshopped/doctored pics of a celeb to pass off as tabloid-type naked shots. Some of them, I’ll admit, look pretty real but, at the end of the day, we don’t pay for stuff like that.
So, when it happened to Swift that images were circulating, I didn’t quite understand the outrage.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not condoning the use of AI technology and I do think making fake images of people is wrong. I’m just saying that when #ProtectTaylorSwift was trending for much of last week I wondered why no other celebs — or everyday people for that matter — get a full-on campaign to wipe the internet of inappropriate content.
It’s great that Swift is a wonderful person and people adore her but some folks need to chill out a little in their fierce protection of somebody they’ve never met and only worship from a distance. It’s becoming a little much. Obsessive maybe?
