I rarely buy into any “poor Taylor Swift” narrative – she’s arguably the most powerful white woman in American culture (if not America entirely), she’s a billionaire with access and a global platform, and she’s shown time and time again that she can ruthlessly handle her business. But one area in which I have sympathy for Taylor is that there’s absolutely no way for her to respond to any of the creepy, pro-natalist, MAGA fantasies being pushed on her. It’s been this way for a while – creepy conservative men projecting all kinds of disgusting commentary on Taylor and what she “really wants,” i.e. to get married, have babies and vote Republican. So, as you can imagine, MAGA World and the Nazi natalist contingent had a lot to say about Taylor’s engagement to Travis Kelce.
MAGAworld had a completely normal reaction to Taylor Swift’s engagement to NFL star Travis Kelce. Conservatives celebrated the pop star’s earth-shattering announcement on Tuesday as a “huge blow to the woke movement” as they promoted natalism and stirred theories about Swift secretly leading a right-wing lifestyle—despite her extensive history of being an outspoken liberal.
MAGA youth leader Charlie Kirk had a lot to say about the engagement on an episode of his eponymous podcast, where he expressed optimism that the power couple’s marriage will “conservatize” both of them. “Maybe one of the reasons why Taylor Swift has been so just kind of annoyingly liberal over the last couple of years is that she’s not yet married and she doesn’t have children. I say this non-sarcastically,” he said. “Taylor Swift might deradicalize herself. She might come back down to reality…. Deep down, I think Taylor Swift actually was raised as a conservative that has gotten kind of caught up in this metropolitan liberal stuff, and she doesn’t quite have an attachment to the conservative backbone that she was raised in, but this might reattach her in the best possible way.”
Kirk and several other MAGA influencers were elated by the news of the engagement over what it could do for the declining birth rate in the U.S.
“I think the greatest contribution they could make to western civilization at this point would be to have a bunch of babies and persuade all these people who mindlessly follow them to also have a bunch of babies,” conservative pundit Scott Jennings said on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt. “I just think if they have a bunch of babies, it would help the birth rate.”
Collin Rugg, co-owner of conservative news website Trending Politics, wrote in an X post that “millions of liberal Swifties just got the ‘ok’ to get married,” claiming that millions of adults “hang onto everything Swift says and does.”
Right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro similarly hailed the engagement as “unironically an excellent thing. I hope many other single people follow their example,” he said on X.
“I think Taylor Swift getting married is a massive net-positive for society and a huge blow to the woke movement,” conservative influencer Matt Van Swol wrote. “Showing people who have spent a lifetime not growing up, now taking responsibility and commitment is great.”
Timothy Carney, a senior fellow at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, declared pregnancy as “contagious” following the announcement. “Familism and Natalism are conveyed culturally. If Kelce and Swift have kids and quickly, this could trigger a Baby Boom,” he mused on X.
Even President Donald Trump had a surprisingly warm reception to the news that Swift, whom he previously claimed to “hate,” got engaged. Swift endorsed Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the election against Trump last year. “I think he’s a great player and he’s a great guy and I think that she’s a terrific person,” Trump told reporters. “So I wish them a lot of luck.”
“Maybe one of the reasons why Taylor Swift has been so just kind of annoyingly liberal over the last couple of years is that she’s not yet married and she doesn’t have children.” The thing is, in the pre-Trump era, there was actual data to back this up – when (white) women got married and became mothers, they used to become more politically conservative. But that’s shifted a lot in the past two decades, especially because of college-educated women and Millennials, who trend Democratic no matter their marital status. While Taylor is not college-educated, she’s following the trends of college-educated Millennials – a first marriage in her 30s, likely starting a family in her 30s or 40s, and most importantly, becoming more politically active and liberal as she gets older. This is also why these men (the ones name-checked by the Daily Beast) are the same ones arguing against girls’ education and arguing in favor of early marriages for girls and women. Like, in their ideal world, no woman would go to college and all women would be married and popping out babies by the age of 21, because that would “guarantee” their conservatism. Also: these simpering man-babies continue to be confused because Taylor doesn’t use her white privilege in the voting booth. They cannot wrap their heads around a rich white woman saying “actually, I think women and marginalized communities should have rights too.”
Photos courtesy of Taylor’s IG and Travis’s IG.
