The Matty Healy/Taylor Swift Controversy Was a Complete and Utter Farce We Should Never Have Been Subjected To
Over the last few weeks, we have been consistently subjected to a grievance most foul: the unending “news” about the reported relationship between Taylor Swift and the 1975’s Matty Healy. What began as a simple set of rumors quickly caught on fire and became a nonstop onslaught about anything and everything regarding these two.
The most prominent conversation surrounded Healy’s nefarious past as a jackass with a rotten mouth that runs a little too freely for its own good, and this stoked the ire of both Swifties and non/anti-Swifties alike. On the one hand, you had people bending over backward to defend the situation (because god forbid our favorite white liberal icons could actually be held accountable for their own hateful comments and/or their complicity in silently supporting those who make them), or to defend their own love of the musicians involved. On the other side, you have people who strongly dislike Swift and her fanbase for a variety of reasons, who felt the need to make it known how vindicated they felt throughout this whole ordeal.
And then of course, you had those in the middle, who were incredibly frustrated with this whole discourse and just wanted to see some sense come out of it. Sense, in this case, meaning that a man’s rampant disrespect is not made a spectacle of, and is instead shut down properly like it should have been.
Many tried to voice their concerns on social media in an attempt to change the direction of the conversation away from sensationalism and towards accountability. Unfortunately, with the way the industry is, such attempts only went so far. Major music outlets continued to pretend as though nothing was wrong, and that everyone’s favorite queen TayTay was continuing to slayslay. And this is incredibly disheartening, especially to her POC fans:
DISCLAIMER: This article is going to be incredibly critical towards both Healy and Swift, so before I go any further, I should say: OBVIOUSLY, you are entitled to like a person’s music if it holds some value to you. I know and love many people who love Swift’s music, and we are friends because we understand that loving the music doesn’t translate to absolving the person. I’d be a hypocrite if I believed this, my favorite Beatle is John Lennon purely because of his acoustic albums. This situation deserves to be critiqued but if you’re simply a fan of either Swift and/or Healy’s music, this article is not an attack on you and your right to enjoy things you like.
Now, moving on. As someone who has watched the many ways in which the modern industry has changed over the years, I am just so utterly baffled by how, as Fleming put it in the above video, this “sentient Lisa Frank notebook” (AKA Swift) has continued to dominate the music conversation. Everything she does seems to be considered groundbreaking or newsworthy, which I don’t think is merited. I get why people like her music, but it’s not like she’s revolutionizing the game. Meanwhile, her public persona seems to very obviously be built on palatability and parasocial behaviors. By resting on this model of easy marketability, she has solidified this strange space in the industry that somehow renders her utterly untouchable in any and every circumstance. Remember the whole private jet fiasco? What the hell even happened with that? Taylor’s feelings got hurt, her fans (essentially acting as an extension of her publicity team) came to bat for her as they always do, major publications barely touched on it, and the whole thing got brushed under the rug.
And now, the absurdity is peaking yet again with this kangaroo court of a situation between her, Matty Healy, and the rest of the world. Healy is similarly in such a mind-bogglingly untouchable space in the industry. Despite saying truly disgusting and deplorable things about women of color, AND doubling down on them, he’s still aggressively protected by his fans—plus, now, Taylor’s fans—and all the industry powers that be. He had that privilege, he had that power, and instead of sitting down and critically examining why people were so hurt by his behavior, he crossed his arms and spat back.
Many fans of Taylor were imploring her to speak out about all this, yet she didn’t, and not to sound callous, but why would she? She knows she’s untouchable. She knows she doesn’t have to care. The same goes for Healy. There’s no point in asking “Why,” because we’d just be beating a dead horse: these systems reward conventionally attractive white people (1) with vague, ultimately hollow politics (2) who make music that sells (3), and therefore, they can get away with nearly anything.
Music is hard to make a life in. Musicians have to hustle like nobody else, and even then, it’s less about talent and more about who you know. And some people are simply in better positions than others to know the right people. That might be the most frustrating part about all of this: It is continually harder for women and queer people of color to “make it” as musicians because of these aforementioned systems at play. Meanwhile, men like Healy can run their ugly mouths about whoever they want, like a teenager who’s just discovered slurs on the internet, and people will just let them get away with it. The worst he got was a backlash on Twitter. And on the other side, women like Swift can continue to blithely sell an image that is guaranteed to make a profit, and they will similarly be able to get away with anything under hollow pretenses of feminism and solidarity. Ultimately, this was all just a game to both of them.
If only it was a fun game for the rest of us. Megan Thee Stallion is taking a break from music because everyone, and everything, has been so awful for her following her trial after being shot in the foot. Lizzo was thinking about taking a break, too, because she continually gets hate just for living in the body she lives in. The game is different for them, and for most musicians who don’t fit the demographic that best serves the system, and it shouldn’t have to be that way. They should have been protected for these very real, very serious problems, just as much as Healy and Swift were for crying wolf at their own chickenshit behaviors. There should be more space, more attention given, for other musicians, ones who actually come from a place of authenticity and growth, with stories that deserve to be heard just as much.
This whole situation was just such a maniacally stupid farce. We’ve learned nothing, gained nothing, and benefitted no one who deserved it.
(Featured Image: Sunny Street, Joseph Okpako/WireImage, Natasha Moustache/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
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