What do some Swifties, Fox News, and thin-skinned Englishmen have in common? They’re all pretty upset at the recent development of pop star Taylor Swift potentially dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce (and vice versa). Kelce–Swift is a combo that plenty probably assumed would unite two of America’s biggest fan bases, football fans and pop girlies, to create a much more harmonious America, however briefly. But it may not surprise you to learn that, yes, conservative weirdos are politicizing even this—Fox News commentator Tomi Lahren, for instance, called the maybe-couple “a match made in liberal heaven,” even going so far as to wish them “the best of luck” not with their relationship, but with “myocarditis” (a play on Kelce’s recent Pfizer ad promoting the COVID booster; more on that later). For those of you left scratching your heads and wondering how pop culture’s most prolific couple du jour managed to incur the wrath of the right and get sucked into the ongoing culture wars, we’ve broken down the politics of Swift and Kelce’s relationship.
All right, I’ll bite. Why are conservatives mad about this Americana-chic couple?
Something about Swift taking over football-related news has sent right-wing pundits into a tizzy, prompting them to spew bizarro false equivalencies such as Swift being the talk of social media meaning “OK, so we all have to register to vote and we’re all suddenly Democrats.” But it’s not just Swift that right-wingers have a problem with: Kelce, too, has been accused of pushing the liberal agenda. So it’s not surprising that the right is treating their potential coupling as the crown jewel in some liberal psy-op to spread “wokeness.”
Wait, what’s this about Kelce? I thought the NFL was cherished by Middle America and Fox News types—shouldn’t they love Kelce?
The NFL, as an institution, has historically been pretty conservative. Some of the league’s infractions include: race-norming, burying evidence that links football to brain trauma, failing to properly financially compensate lesser-known players in retirement, protecting players who have a pattern of violent behavior, and just generally exhibiting racism. Its ownership is mostly made up of rich white men and, well, we know how that generally tends to shake out in political terms.
But NFL fans are different—the sport is beloved by many in America! Yes, the NFL has come under fire, and rightfully so, for racial scandals and antiquated rules, but don’t let that fool you: It remains one of the least partisan points of bonding left in the American monoculture. Football in the U.S. has achieved political parity in its audience, with its fan base being no more conservative than it is liberal (or even independent). There isn’t that strong of a racial divide, either. All that to say, the NFL’s fan base isn’t as conservative as you might think it is, even though the league has done things like blacklist players for protesting police brutality.
As for where Kelce fits into all this, the football player has actually been pretty open about standing against traditional views. He drew the ire of conservatives early on when he knelt during the national anthem in support of Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who famously accused the NFL of colluding to blacklist him for protesting police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem in 2016 (the two parties reached a legal settlement in 2019). This was very shortly after then-President Trump lambasted players who chose to kneel in solidarity with Kaepernick. But Kelce’s progressive actions didn’t stop there: Just a few months ago, Kelce came under fire for participating in a Bud Light ad mere months after right-wingers and transphobes began hysterically boycotting the beer company (like, “running over beer with tractors” levels of hysteria) for entering a brand partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. More recently, Kelce has been catching flak from conservatives and anti-vaxxers for taking part in a Pfizer vaccine advertisement encouraging people to get their COVID boosters and flu shots. Needless to say, these are not decisions that would make you a beloved figure among those on the right.
I see, so adding celebrated girlboss Taylor Swift to the mix … not good?
Yeah. The coinciding of Kelce’s Pfizer ad with the Swift dating rumors—and their subsequent public appearance together—led some right-leaning outlets to blame Swift for making Kelce “woke,” which is ridiculous for many reasons. For one, they only just met recently, and Kelce, as I’ve explained, had already expressed left-aligned views long before Swift donned a Chiefs windbreaker and shouted “Let’s fucking go” while seated next to Kelce’s mom at a football game. Plus, although Swift’s fan base is made up of primarily women and LGBTQ+ folks, let’s not forget that it’s only in recent years that she has become more vocally political, finally publicly supporting anti–gun violence movements and queer rights movements, endorsing Democratic candidates, and speaking out against Trump after years of keeping pretty closemouthed. (Remember, although she’s a liberal, “girl power!”–coded pop icon now, she originally made a name for herself as a young, white country star from Tennessee.) The idea that Swift would be so rabidly progressive that she would infect a football player—let alone one like Kelce—with left-leaning ideals is plain silly.
Got it. Well, at least it’s only the unhinged right-wing types who are being weird about this whole thing, right?
Nope! Swift fans and Kelce fans have gotten in on the action, too. Some Kelce loyalists have voiced opinions about Swift somehow being a downgrade for Kelce because she’s white, and the football player previously dated Black women—which is: a) not cool, and b) also baffling because, although Kelce may have adopted a Blaccent, dated Black women, and mastered a certain level of Black-inflected swagger, lest we forget, he’s still a white man.
On the other hand, some Swifties have taken the opposite tack, asserting that Swift is actually an upgrade for Kelce. Some cited monetary reasons—Swift is a multimillionaire, after all—but for others, there’s a racial element to it, too, as evidenced by some Swifties attacking Kelce’s ex, a Black sports journalist named Kayla Nicole, with an influx of hateful, often racist, comments on her Instagram. It’s times like this that you’re really reminded of the fact that Nazis once tried to lay claim to Swift.
This is all pretty complicated, but the main takeaway should be that it’s not surprising that the would-be couple has upset conservatives and other culture-war freaks?
It’s not surprising, but that doesn’t mean it makes a lick of sense, either. It’s predictable that conservatives would be mad at two vocally liberal celebrities for becoming a power couple (again, if they’re dating for real), but it’s nonsensical that they’re blaming either party for “turning the other woke” when they’ve both had a history of supporting progressive movements. Similarly, any delusion that the couple would “unite” the country shouldn’t be treated as anything other than a joke. In conclusion, the culture wars will never die, there will always be racist people online waiting to pounce on any drama, and both Kelce and Swift are too rich, and hopefully too happy, to care about any of it.
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