Taylor Swift fans slammed for 'blindly defending' star in 'bid to be her friend'

The Taylor Swift fanbase have found themselves under almost as much scrutiny as the world-famous singer herself as they’re criticised for blindly following the star.

The Wildest Dreams icon, 32, is one of the most famous people in the world, and her fanbase have proven time and again the loyalty they have for her.

From thousands crowding outside a sold-out concert to sing along to the tracks despite not getting in, to selling rainwater that fell on her concert (really) to heaping praise on her for how she dealt with security at her show.

However the fanbase is now under fire for ‘blindly’ praising Taylor no matter what – even as she’s rumoured to be in a relationship with The 1975’s Matty Healy, who has been fairly controversial.

Neither have confirmed the relationship but have been seen together multiple times, Matty supporting her at several concerts, and are now rumoured to be making music together.

The Chocolate singer previously said he wouldn’t be Taylor’s boyfriend as it would be ’emasculating,’ and joined in on a series of jokes which could be construed as racist and misogynistic on an episode of the now-deleted Adam Friedland podcast.

One segment of the podcast saw Matty and the hosts speculate over musician Ice Spice’s ethnicity, joking she sounded like an ‘Inuit Spice Girl,’ and a ‘chubby Chinese lady’ before they imitated Chinese and Hawaiian accents.

He later apologised if Ice Spice was offended – and on Thursday, months after the controversy, Taylor announced she would be collaborating with the star in a remix of track Karma,

Other comments on the podcast revolved around ‘p***y drying up,’ women’s periods and labelling Harry Styles a ‘queerbaiter’ who had essentially ‘got the N-word pass from the gay community.’

Taylor, meanwhile, is a self-confessed feminist and LGBTQ+ ally, and the fanbase is divided on her rumoured relationship with Matty – though some have been accused of blindly defending her ‘in a bid to become her friend.’

In recent years the star has invited hundreds of fans to her home for a special listening party of her album, and regularly interacts with them online; her documentary Miss Americana has also given listeners a deeper insight into her life.

Now those ultra-loyal fans are being slammed for failing to criticise Taylor even in situations where, they believe, she should be.

Multiple TikToks have gone viral in recent days, calling out the fandom for failing to call out their fave, with one user, @corinnieeeee going on a serious essay rant on those who ‘blindly defend and praise every single thing Taylor Swift does including purposely and publicly aligning herself with unapologetic bigotry, bringing someone who spews said bigotry on her stage at her sold-out tour after a demonstrated history of damaging white feminism that centres herself and seemingly doubling down on it.’

Yep – this is serious.

also btw ‘what about *insert random unrelated topic here*’ doesn’t make this look better or invalidate criticisms ab it either…not surprising but wow lol swifttok mattyhealy1975 taylorswifterastour

She went to accuse those fans of sounding like ‘paid bots,’ asking: ‘What do you think you gain from that? Because I know in reality you don’t gain anything.’

The user accused the fandom of hypocrisy as they shut down any criticism of her rumoured romance with Matty as it’s ‘her personal life,’ but are happy to discuss exes such as Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer as they are ‘not in Taylor’s good graces.’

‘Are you being paid, are you waiting for something for that level of blind devotion and praise?’ she went on to ask, adding: ‘You’d rather say “Good for Taylor” than listen to Black women, to Jewish women, to all kinds of marginalised people who were deeply hurt by this, many of whom are fans of Taylor’s music.’

‘Acting like a weird paid bot and blindly defending everything she does, does not make you a true Swiftie. It hurts people and makes you look embarrassing.’

The video essay caused a major reaction – including sparking a response from another woman, TikTok user @franchesca_leigh, who shared her theory that ‘Taylor’s hardcore fans really do believe they are this close to being considered her friends.’

‘Taylor has stoked the flames of the parasocial relationship with her and her audience throughout the course of her career, and dare I say, it’s evil genius,’ Franchesca said.

#stitch with @Corinne the journey from parasocial relationship to freelance PR manager is a straight line #taylorswift #mattyhealy1975 #swifties #pocswiftie #pr #fyp #fypシ

‘Remember when she was inviting fans to her home and baking them cookies and letting them listen to the album before anybody else? Just by doing that with a small group of fans she planted the seed for millions that any day now they could be plucked out of obscurity and become Taylor Swift’s friend.’

She added that there is ‘a specific type of fan that will go to extreme lengths to defend her behaviour’ as Taylor might see it and ‘make them her bestie.’

The user accepted however that ‘toxic’ stan culture is ‘not exclusive to any one fanbase.’

Anyone who has been in a massive fandom with obsessive fans who would defend their fave no matter what – like the Beliebers and Directioners back in the day – will find this behaviour familiar, except that in the past it was rarely called out by other fans.

On the other side of things, TikToks of fans’ interactions with Taylor have garnered up to half a million views, with one particularly popular one featuring a fan who met Taylor at her home in 2017.

At a recent performance during the Eras tour, the singer looked at her during a certain lyric of a song, leading the fan to become convinced it was on purpose and that she recognised her.

Others flocked to the comments confirming that was definitely what happened, with one saying Taylor seems like the type to ‘never forget a face’ and another saying she also met Taylor in 2017 and when she saw her in the crowd at a recent concert she ‘looked shocked and waved at me.’

While some poked fun at the idea Taylor could possibly remember her and pick her out from a crowd, one joked that being delusional ‘makes us happy so I won’t rain on your parade.’

Another argued against the ‘delusion,’ stating: ‘You clearly don’t know what being a Swiftie before 2019 was like. That’s our bff sorry you guys don’t get it.’

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