I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!
two new pieces and some *thoughts*
…just kidding, of course. That’s a recent update from our former president.
Swift has had quite an eventful week. After her hotly anticipated Kamala Harris endorsement after last week’s ridiculous debate, she weathered an attempted troll by Elon Musk and the above temper tantrum by the other presidential candidate, collecting a bundle of VMA awards in between.
For The Atlantic, I wrote about Musk’s attempt at sexual harassment and the public response — which was to immediately call for Swift’s boyfriend, KC Chiefs player Travis Kelce, to pound Musk to a pulp.
The statement could be parsed in multiple ways. Musk, a known fertility obsessive, might have been joking about gifting Swift a child (perhaps by lending her one of his own 12?). Or he might have been implying a more sexualized threat: I will make you pregnant. Either way, it was a bid to assert dominance over a woman whom it’s not hard to believe that Musk might see as encroaching on his turf…
Look: I find it quite pleasing to imagine Musk being made to feel small by someone who actually embodies the masculinity he purports to have, and I don’t hate the idea that someone who runs their mouth (or fingers) online might finally be called to account for their words in real life. It’s still normative to rely on male partners as protection from other men, and in many cases it can make sense.
And yet, I didn’t love how so many people (myself included, if I’m being honest) jumped to invoking Kelce to defend Swift’s honor. It both dignified Elon’s stupidity and made it seem as though Taylor was Kelce’s property in some way.
Anyway, read more here (gift link).
Speaking of trials by combat, I also wrote a piece for
about Fight Club, the David Fincher film whose 25th anniversary arrives next month. Clearly, the movie was prophetic in the way that it described a disenchanted generation of men. But watching it today also makes clear that some things that could have helped them have been lost… perhaps permanently.Today, however, there is no “bar.” Its substitutes — posting in depressing online fora, playing video games, collecting on social media — are lackluster, to say the least. Analog meetings rarely happen, rites of passage are harder than ever to find. Middle class boys, at least, don’t even get into fights anymore — they’re oversupervised, cowed by ever-shifting social norms, and also, too often, inside.
The comment section is great, too.
Personal news:
I’ll be at Johns Hopkins University later this week, hosting a conversation on Opinion Writing in a Divided Society. If you’re a student, drop by!
Random bits:
The RETVRN aesthetics of BAP/ the ironic alt-right have fully entered into the mainstream. Weird to see, but not totally unexpected.
Side by side below are images from David’s, a new protein supplement brand, and To My Ships, a fancy deodorant brand from a former Aesop exec. (h/t
).
The “extremely online” to mass-market pipeline is getting shorter and shorter. I don’t think this is a good thing.
***
I loved this
essay on Sabrina Carpenter:
Something about the “Espresso” singer has always made me a little uncomfortable, despite the true earworm quality of every one of her songs. This puts a finger directly on it.
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And to close this out, an insane TikTok1 for your …enjoyment.
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xx,
Christine
I have a mild and unexplainable obsession with Jeremy Fragrance. More on this another time…
ah!!! I am such a fan of your writing, I cannot believe my piece was mentioned by you! tysm, Christine <3