Gone are the days where Taylor Swift can stand on stages in sparkly dresses with her guitar and sing songs about love and heartache. Fans are demanding more when it comes to political activism in light of President Donald Trump's election — and so far Swift has fallen short.
Now, Swift might not have found herself in this mess if she wasn’t already a self-proclaimed feminist. While the country is divided on topics such as women’s rights and immigration, Swift can be found tweeting promotions for her newest music video, prompting responses from fans:
Swift fans are right to be angry. When feminism was on the rise as a pop culture issue, she used it to her advantage. She’s also spoken on political interests before. In her song "Welcome to New York," Swift sings, “And you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls,” which served as a subtle nod to her belief in marriage equality.
Now that the country is so deeply divided, she may be afraid to ostracize a portion of her audience and lose profits. With 83.4 million Twitter followers, Taylor Swift has obviously created an enormous platform for herself and has the opportunity to influence huge numbers of people if she just spoke up.
Celebrities who have built their image on political opinions in the past have the responsibility to their audiences to continue. The more personal an artist or entertainer gets with their audience, the more connected their fans will feel. Entertainers easily become role models as well.
Celebrities and politics have merged recently. Those who used to serve solely as a source of entertainment are now serving as voices of truth or even as political leaders. The former host of "The Apprentice" series is running our country and the current host of the "The New Celebrity Apprentice" once ran the state of California.
