Have you ever felt personally victimised by Taylor Swift's romantic decisions? Judging from social media – where she's being decried over speculation that she's dating Matty Healy – you're not alone.
In April earlier this year, reports emerged that Swift and her long-term partner, Joe Alwyn, had gone their separate ways. Since then, Swift has been pictured on numerous occasions with Matty Healy, who rose to fame as the frontman of the indie-pop band The 1975, fuelling media theories that the pair are dating.
For various reasons, which we'll get into, this hasn't gone down all too well with the Swifties – or anyone else, for that matter. Many fans have taken to Twitter to share their disappointment, with some even signing an open letter asking Swift to “reflect on the impact of [her] own and [her] associates' behaviour” and creating a hashtag #SpeakUpNow demanding that Swift clarifies her relationship status.
But who is Matty Healy? And why are people so angry at the idea of Swift dating him? Well, the frontman of The 1975 has been widely criticised for his comments about Ice Spice, an up-and-coming musician who, incidentally, features on Swift's latest release, ‘Karma’.
Back in March this year, Healy apologised on stage after appearing on an episode of The Adam Friedland Show in which he laughed and agreed as the host described Ice Spice as “one of the Inuit Spice Girls” and referred to her as a “chubby Chinese lady.”
But this is about two women, okay?
Healy has previously been praised for his stance on supporting LGBTQIA+ equality, abortion rights and calling out misogyny in the music industry. But more recently, he's been condemned for appearing to do Nazi salutes on stage, kissing women in the audience at his shows, and talking about masturbating to porn of "brutalised" women on a website reportedly known for creating sexual content centring around the humiliation and degradation of Black women.
It's worth noting that some fans defended the Nazi gesture at the time by insisting that it was satire and his way of calling other people Nazis. We've reached out to his team for further clarification.
While she's not perfect – spoiler alert: no one is! – Swift has built a reputation as a public figure who cares deeply about social justice. After being criticised for not speaking out against Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential race, she famously took a stand against Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn in 2018 during the midterm elections, saying, "I always have and always will cast my vote based on which candidate will protect and fight for the human rights I believe we all deserve in this country.
“I believe in the fight for LGBTQ rights, and that any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender is WRONG. I believe that the systemic racism we still see in this country towards people of color is terrifying, sickening and prevalent.”
Misogyny and racism shouldn't be rites of passage.
These comments clearly aren't compatible with Healy's behaviour of late, so it's perhaps understandable that her fans feel so aggrieved. Still, many have also pointed out that – actually – Swift doesn't owe anyone, not even her fanbase, an explanation for who she decides to date or, in this case, be pictured alongside.
One Swiftie took to TikTok to say, “The parasocial relationship some of you have with celebrities is scary. You're responding to problematic behaviour with problematic behaviour. You cannot fight fire with fire.”
Meanwhile, another Twitter user pointed out that “No one cared about [Healy's] racism and homophobia bc he was portrayed as attractive (somehow??) But as soon as a woman dates him, she’s taking more heat for his actions than he ever has,” adding, “smells like misogyny to me.”
While this is clearly a difficult issue for many Swifties to navigate – especially when so much of it revolves around speculation – we should still be wary of holding Swift to account for Healy's actions.
Glamour UK has reached out to Taylor Swift and Matty Healy's reps for comment. This page will be kept updated.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
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