By Martha Williams and Alesia Stanford for Dailymail.Com 00:47 January 7, 2024, updated 12:10 January 7, 2024
The New York Times is facing backlash from Taylor Swift's inner circle and fans who claim her recent opinion piece questioning the pop star's sexuality is “sexist.”
Anna Marks' essay for the New York Times suggests that Taylor Swift may be hiding her sexuality from the world because of her “affinity with queer identity.”
One of Swift's friends claimed that such an article would never be written about a male artist – even though Marks had previously written a similar article questioning Harry Styles' sexuality.
“This article should not have been written about Shawn Mendes or any other male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans,” a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
The New York Times is now the target of the ire of Swifties and the singer's personal friends. “I understand that they are not happy, to say the least,” Oliver Darcy told CNN about the drama.
Anna Marks' essay for the New York Times (pictured here) suggests that Taylor Swift may be hiding her sexuality from the world because of her “affinity with queer identity.” The New York Times is now the target of the Swifties' wrath – the singer's personal friends. “I understand they are not happy to say the least,” Oliver Darcy (pictured) told CNN
Fans of the star, who describes himself as a straight LGBTQ ally and is in a relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, even went so far as to boycott the New York Times over the controversial article.
“I just canceled my subscription. “This article is sexist and completely inappropriate,” said one X user.
“There is something deeply wrong with the publication of this New York Times article speculating that Taylor Swift may be secretly queer – and it is based on absolutely nothing,” another user wrote. “This is the kind of trash that belongs in the supermarket checkout next to the National Enquirer.”
Those close to the 34-year-old Grammy winner question the morality of publishing the article.
“There is a Taylor-shaped gap in people's ethics right now because of her enormous success,” a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
The content of the article is based on conjecture, and the insider questioned whether there was a double standard when publishing the comment.
Despite claims that the article was not written about a man, Anna Marks wrote an opinion piece of a similar nature in 2022 titled “Harry Styles Walks a Fine Line,” which was also published in the New York Times.
The article discussed how Styles “used queerness to burnish his celebrity without explicitly claiming to be queer.”
“There seems to be no line that some journalists won't cross when writing about Taylor, no matter how intrusive, untrue and inappropriate it is – all under the protective veil of an 'opinion piece,'” the person further explained of Marks.” Quick opinion piece.
The article, titled “Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do,” by one of the newspaper's opinion editors, looks at lyrics from the Lover artist's work that she thinks Sapphic might love.
“Anyone who considers Ms. Swift's overall artistry – the way her brilliantly calculated celebrity blends with her soul-baring artistry – can see discrepancies between the story underlying her celebrity and the story captured in her songs.” will find out,” wrote the author.
Marks gave examples of her appearance, including wearing hair colors from the Bisexual Pride flag or wearing rainbow dresses.
She also hints at so-called Easter eggs in the song's lyrics, which refer to staying in “glass closets” in Willow or a homage to lesbian artist Louie Fuller during her Reputation tour.
“In isolation, a single dropped hairpin may be meaningless or accidental, but taken together they are the unfolding of a ballerina's bun after a long performance,” the editor wrote.
“These hairpin turns appeared in Ms. Swift's artistic output long before queer identity was undeniably marketable to mainstream America. “They suggest to queer people that she is one of us.”
Taylor's supporters blame the publication of the article on double standards. “This article should not have been written about Shawn Mendes or any other male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans,” a source told CNN (pictured in Arlington, Texas in March 2023). The Grammy winner is currently dating NFL star Travis Kelce (pictured in New York in October 2023) Taylor has declared her pro-LGTBQ stance as an advocate, telling Vogue in 2019: “Basically anyone who isn't a straight white guy If you're a cisgender man, your rights are being taken away.” Until recently, I didn't realize that I could advocate for a community that I didn't belong to.
Taylor has explained her pro-LGTBQ stance as advocacy, telling Vogue in 2019: “Basically anyone who is not a straight white cisgender man is having their rights taken away,” she said at the time.
“Until recently, I didn’t realize that I could advocate for a community that I wasn’t a part of.”
In the prologue to her 1989 album (Taylor's Version), released in October, the Out of the Woods singer, who is currently dating NFL star Travis Kelce, wrote that she surrounded herself with friends because she was tired of the speculation her romantic liaisons with men.
“If I just hung out with my girlfriends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize it – could they? I would later learn that people could and that people would do it.”