The booing of Taylor Swift at the Superbowl led to some more predictable noise: MAGA, Swifties, her political evolution, the backlash, misogyny, and that $60,000 outfit. Any way you slice it, Swift v. Trump is peak culture wars. All the usual suspects reacted the way you’d expect them to, including the president of the United States. However, it’s Stephanie McNeal of Glamour Magazine who managed to get to the heart of the issue, albeit unintentionally.
She offers the following two insights: First, the booing of Taylor Swift was pure misogyny, and there can be no other explanation. In fact, it is “more chilling than you think”, she promises. The second, and much more interesting one, is that “anyone can enjoy (the NFL) whether or not they care about the sport“.
The link between the two statements may not be obvious to all, so let’s dig a little deeper.
McNeal begins by asking why Anne Hathaway and Lady Gaga were not subject to any animal noises from the crowd: “In fact, the screen showed a new famous person — from Paul McCartney to Anne Hathaway and Lady Gaga — nearly every time there was a break in the play with virtually no response from the crowd.”
Unfortunately, she doesn’t attempt to answer her own question. She simply concludes it’s misogyny after all, and seems content to leave it at that. But isn’t that the job of a journalist? To ask questions and see where the answers lead?
Here are some obvious questions: Does Taylor Swift have any personal history with the Eagles? Considering she grew up in Pennsylvania, perhaps she was an Eagles fan before dating Travis Kelce? Indeed she does, and indeed she was. As the Swifties can confirm, The lyrics to ‘Gold Rush’ include the line “With my Eagles T-shirt hanging from the door.” When asked about it a couple years ago, she said: “come on, I’m from Philly – of course it’s the team.”
McNeal is a brilliant writer and I hope everyone reads her excellent piece on Bianca Censori and the rotten state of our culture. But how is it she failed to ask the most basic questions? Is it just the nature of present day media and the need to pump out articles as quickly as possible? Or is it a knee-jerk reaction to everything Trump or Musk? A kind of culture wars blinders?
It’s likely both, but McNeal has done us the great favour of answering the question herself. Towards the end of the piece, she perfectly nails down the problem with DEI:
“Taylor Swift at Super Bowl LIX, therefore, is a representation of a new NFL — one that isn’t just for men. This NFL is one that’s about the entire experiences of the league, one that anyone can enjoy whether or not they care about the sport. In this new, inclusive NFL, both the men and the women by their side are the stars. Those interested in football and those interested in fashion can enjoy the league together. In this sense, Swift is a true NFL star—one that’s certainly worthy of being shown during the game.“
McNeal begins by identifying football fans as “men”, and the remedy is to say that sports can be about anything other than the game. And we are to call this progress. Forget the tired old slogans of “I love this game”. Celebrity culture plays by its own rules.
This extraordinary paragraph hardly requires any further comment, but it is worth examining the barrier of entry from the fans’ perspective: What football fans resent is seeing empty suits who couldn’t name a single player if their lives depended on it. Even worse still, is what they call the “plastic fans”; ones who are there because it’s trendy, and they’re just jumping on the bandwagon. And, the absolute worst, is the former fan who betrayed their team.
The same is true for players, of course. Let’s talk European football: there’s no greater betrayal story than Luis Figo’s move from Barcelona to Real Madrid. Liverpool fans still haven’t forgiven Michael Owen for playing for Manchester United, and United fans can’t even look at former stars who went on to play for Manchester City. All this is to say that football fans take their sport very seriously. They live for the weekend, and they often spend everything they have, and make real sacrifices to be there in the stadium and support their team.
What about other fields? Both classical and jazz musicians are always in dire need of new audiences. Classical music has been “dying” for centuries, or so we’re told. And yet, there’s one type of audience they categorically don’t want: the people who are just there to be seen. Performing for them is tantamount to seeing the art they’ve given their lives to reduced to an excuse to play dress up, or hit on girls.
Stephanie McNeal’s version of DEI is the antithesis of art, and culture, and substance. It is to dilute and degrade and defile a discipline while patting yourself on the back. And yet, Conservatives and Classical Liberal types can only dream of expressing the horrors of this world view as eloquently as McNeal does.