I'm just going to guess that what explains the purported inescapability is that mainstream media puts it on their front page every damned day. If I click, it should say, ha ha, your click is the reason. I resist this recursive madness.
And yet, I think Captain America was, recently, a woman, so perhaps the answer is: We always need a beautiful woman upon whom to project our hopes and dreams.
ADDED: It's a kind of serial monogamy. Not long ago, it was Barbie every day. They're not doing Barbie anymore. It's Taylor Swift every day.
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A popular iconization of our ideal father and mother, respectively. Mama, papa, don't let your babies grow up to be narcissists... heroes.
Until I saw your tag I thought "Swift" was a superhero name, like Flash. TS is everywhere, so I'm kind of tickled I didn't immediately think of her.
No, lol, Captain America isn't a woman. You're thinking of Captain Marvel. How dare you not differentiate between MCU trivialities!
I'm not a Swiftie and don't listen to her music. However, this is a young woman with a global empire. It's amazing. I pity someone with that much fame and wish her well.
Halfway down the post, I realized it was TAYLOR Swift being discussed, not the iOS software, not the 18th Century English author Jonathon, not the boat type Kerry crewed in Vietnam. Odd that they are comparing a real person, albeit an entertainer, with a comic book character, and an iconic patriotic hero at that. Would not comparing the omnipresence of Taylor Swift's public relations efforts with the inescapable nature of, say, Michael Jackson or Madonna or Enrico Caruso back in their heydays be a bit more apropos?
Sure, comparing completely different PR programs, like a singer on tour versus a comic book movie franchise, can be done, but unless there is some real point to whatever forced similarity exists there, other than the mutually heavy PR efforts, why bother?
Swift will be with us for decades to come, and will likely remain as professionally represented to the public as she is now, andlikely only better over time. Learn to tune it out or be swamped by the signal, because it isn't going away. Thriller, Like a Virgin and O Solo Mio are hard to eradicate as earworms, hard to Shake It Off if allowed to enter.
'resist this recursive madness' - excellent!
I find her boring.
I still don't know any of her songs.
Was Captain America a woman, or was it Thor? I think Natalie Portman was dressed as Thor in a recent movie, buy Chris Hemsworth was still onnot too so I'm not sure.
My mind went to Jonathan Swift and I never thought of Taylor.
This is why I can't do crosswords.
I think in the movies, Captain America is currently a black man (Sam Wilson, portrayed by Anthony Mackie). But I haven't kept up the last couple of years.
I immediately thought of Tom Swift. I was a Hardy Boys reader, never reading TS.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
Uroboro popular culture. The next Captain will be a person of yellow, brown, orange, but never albino (i.e. white).
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are the new Harry and Meghan.
Here's how shallow I am. I was mildly intrigued by her being The Big Thing the last several months. Before that, I'd probably heard two or three songs but would recognize only the one lip synched on his dash cam a few years ago by a cop somewhere. But then last week I saw video of her walking offstage with her bodyguard, when it was announced he was going back to Israel.
WTF is up with her posture? She slumps like a hunchback is in her future, and walks like she's competing with her new boyfriend on the offensive line. That was enough to zero out any residual minor interest I may have had. And I'm not sure I'm any more shallow than the armies of Swifties.
I'm with Kate. I didn't understand the headline at all until I saw the tag.
Was Captain America a woman
Yes, in the "Doctor Strange, Multiverse", one of the universes has Captain America as a woman. I know this despite never watching the movie. Primarily because I heard they decided to swap a bunch of the main Marvel characters with socially acceptable changes (replace a man with a woman, replacing a white woman with a black woman, etc..) and then kill them all off within a few minutes of screentime by a witch upset that she can't be reunited with her imaginary children.
And they wonder why we don't go to the movies anymore.
Imagine if we had used such a specious argument in favor of Sarah Palin, a sitting governor with experience as a chief executive!
That may have been Captain Marvel... but who cares?
Absurd "controversies" like this one exist for one reason only, the application of the first principle of publicity, which is bad publicity is a chimera. A prime example, Mein Kampf has never been out of print. Everybody says they hate Hitler, yet a publisher won't lose money by printing a new translation of that tedious tome. The unlamented chancellor has had one of the longest runs of bad publicity ever recorded, yet his "handlers" always carry away a profit. The same is true of Taylor Swift, a person of least interest to anyone with worthwhile thoughts to incubate into art or philosophy. I can neither explain nor summarize anything about this person. The idea of spending any amount of time or money to attend a Taylor Swift event is unfathomable, nevertheless, I am certain money is being made at a phenomenal rate via the first principle of publicity. I may be the first writer to connect Taylor Swift to Adolf Hitler in one paragraph, yet few who read it will refrain from sending money her way.
"We always need a beautiful woman upon whom to project our hopes and dreams."
The hopes and dreams of anti-woke women?
I should point out that specifically my prior post was referring to this part of the quoted text, "perhaps the answer is: We always need a beautiful woman upon whom to project our hopes and dreams."
A local news weather webpage titled "Interactive Radar" had an empty gray box containing the text "Click to Interact".
Shows where my head is at, I guess. I immediately keyed to Jonathan Swift. Taylor who? Oh. The girl that needs the cheeseburger, you mean.
I'm not a big fan, but she is talented. Best performance I've seen is from 2008 when she did a CMT Crossroads with Def Leppard. She rocked Photograph and Hysteria.
I have an eight-year-old daughter, so Taylor Swift is playing in our house constantly. It's a step up from the big hit among little kids a few years ago, "Old Town Road."
There is hope in that headline. Taylor Swift is said to be as inescapable as Captain America once was. I will not entertain the truth or logic of that claim, though is indicative of the rancid character of the Washington Post. However, if Captain America, the most malleable of fictional creations, cannot escape becoming escapable, what hope does any mortal being subject to Hamlet's slings and arrows have of remaining inescapable if inescapability is ever achieved?
Headlines are written unbelievably differently than they were during the golden age of journalism (Watergate). They're really just so cheap and sleazy. It blows my mind that they've changed that way.
That said, while I don't have much of a like or dislike for TS, I think that she knows pretty much exactly what she's doing. So, for now, I'll give her Dolly Parton credits.
Tread carefully. There may be Taylor Swift laws very soon.
"Let’s call the abuse of Taylor Swift what it really is – a hate crime against women"
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/taylor-swift-travis-kelce-barstool-sports-b2425452.html
Oh. That Swift. I thought they were talking about Jonathon, and I did have to wonder what could possibly be driving the sudden renewed interest. Brobdignagians?
"I still don't know any of her songs."
Yeah, me neither. Maybe we're just old and in the way?
Aggie said...
"The girl that needs the cheeseburger"
THAT made me laugh. She certainly does.
cassandra lite said...
"WTF is up with her posture? She slumps like a hunchback is in her future, and walks like she's competing with her new boyfriend on the offensive line."
All the things that can't be said, normally, can be said at Althouse.
I stand w Isreal. Leftists, Mullahs, Hamas-Palistinian terrorists can suck it said...
"I find her boring."
Jesus, you didn't call her an antisemite, or blame your boredom on her antisemitism. What's wrong with you?
I'm not a fan, but when you compare and contrast her with Madonna or Lady Gaga, she seems kind of pleasant and respectable. I guess that can be interpreted as bland, but she seems to be leading a successful life and there are worse role models available in the music world for young women....There's still time, however, for her to take up heroin and achieve the legendary status of Amy Winehouse.
the golden age of journalism (Watergate)
The era had better journalism for sure but Woodward and Bernstein, the overhyped transcribers (literally) of the Deep State, are NOT exemplars of it. Not by a long shot. They ARE good examples of journalism being manipulated by the FBI, as many more journalists are in the current era. Many more. Maybe even most of them, sadly.
Capitana Mollusca.
The Crack Emcee said...
Aggie said...
"The girl that needs the cheeseburger"
THAT made me laugh. She certainly does.
On this feelgood Friday I'd like to take the opportunity to say that on some things, like this, I can unreservedly agree with Crack. It's funny AND it's true. See you around.
Is Captain America really Joe Biden?
"perhaps the answer is: We always need a beautiful woman upon whom to project our hopes and dreams."Says every hetersexual young man.
In addition to a relentless work ethic, she is both a great artist (writes her own songs ) and an equally engaging performer (Swifties everywhere). She takes risks, whether in business, challenging what she sees as unfair business practices, or politically, when she takes a stance and calls issues the way she sees them. all the while breaking records for music and concert sales. What more could you ask of a thirtysomething in today's age of entitlement and pseudo-celebrity?
Swift is a one woman business empire; a veritable money-making machine. 2023 is clearly the year of "Swiftenomics".
This post gives everyone a chance to intone "I don't know Taylor Swift," "I thought you meant 'English' author Jonathan Swift' (he was Irish, BTW), or "I have never heard any of her songs" in the way that your old "Friends" post allowed them to intone "I don't watch television" (which I always hear in the tone of voice of the Violet Crowley from Downton Abbey - does watching PBS count as watching television, or can I intone that I only watch quality television programming?).
Taylor Swift is a very savvy businesswoman who has been on the world's stage from the time she was about 16, without having any personal sex or drug scandals or the other usual things people who become famous at that age go through, and her song catalog, in terms of hits, catchy tunes, and expanding genres, can be fairly said to match that of the Beatles. Yeah, there is a lot of bubblegum, but "Love Me Do" ain't no Shakespeare either.
I think the Dolly Parton comparisons are apt. She is leveraging her success efficiently so far, which is always nice to see. I don't care for her recent albums, but that's because I just don't like the sound of modern pop. I quite enjoy her first album, and albums 2-4, before she went fully pop, are listenable. Ryan Adams' full album cover of her "1989" album in the style of "heartland rock" is fun too.
I suspect that most people think of this entertainer as "Taylor," not as "Swift." That's why so many of us assumed the headline reference was to Jonathan.
She has been credited with saving downtown Minneapolis last summer, because so many folks who had been avoiding the area went to see her sold-out concerts and were not molested by the street people.
I'm not a fan, but I do recall seeing her on SNL early in her career, before Taylor became famous. I thought at the time, "this is an unusually good musical guest for SNL."
Taylor Swift has been writing songs and performing professionally since she was 14 years old and, now 33, is worth close to a billion dollars. That is a very long time to stay relevant and continue to be successful in the music world. And she doesn't seem to feel the need to try and do things just to be edgy or cool nor does she appear to court scandalous controversy, no posing nude by the side of the road or screaming into the microphone about how horrible Donald Trump is.
I don't know her music, I've never bought one of her songs/albums or gone to one of her concerts but as role models go for the youth of America she seems a major step up from a lot of others.
"The girl that needs the cheeseburger"
Number 87 is some cheeseburger, all right. Double double animal style.
Somehow, I've escaped both. Barbie was truly inescapable unless a person didn't have Internet access. Even the tech people I know online were posting Barbie-Oppenheimer memes. It was the combination of the two that made Barbie inescapable because of the audience crossover.
"so perhaps the answer is: We always need a beautiful woman upon whom to project our hopes and dreams."
Is there something wrong with that?
Captain America is a woman? Since when?
Compared to what the youngsters could be listening to, and many are, we should be a little grateful that her sugarpop act is so popular.
Also, she is easy on the eyes.
When my girls were growing up I would play a "dumb dad" pun game where I would change the name of the artist they liked to something silly. So Taylor Swift became Butler Slow. To this day that is how she is referred to.
Trying to find lists of performers who do both live shows and recordings. Who's in the top ten?
Recordings: Beatles #1, followed by Elvis, Michael, then a number of people who are pretty close. Taylor and Beyonce may be #12 and #13.
Live shows: Highest grossing tours, average gross per performance: Taylor #1, Beyonce #2. Then Stones over more years, roughly the same number of performances, then U2, far more performances. Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Madonna also in the top ten.
She must have really good PR people. She dominated the local news when she had her concerts in the Bay Area. I don't get it, but good for her. As for Travis Kelce, he certainly knows how to score sixes.
Picketing actors have been warned not to dress up as Barbie for the picket lines.
I don’t know the details about the strike, but just going on this detail I picked up listening to the news, I’m siding with the striking actors.
William said...
"I'm not a fan, but when you compare and contrast her with Madonna or Lady Gaga, she seems kind of pleasant and respectable. I guess that can be interpreted as bland, but she seems to be leading a successful life and there are worse role models available in the music world for young women....There's still time, however, for her to take up heroin and achieve the legendary status of Amy Winehouse."
All true, and more power to her, but doesn't anybody get the impression that music - as an art form - is just totally lost? Whether it's Taylor Swift, Madonna, Lady Gaga, or any of these other women (Lizzo?) the personalities are bigger than what they're supposed to be representing - music. Like I said, I know Taylor Swift, but I've never heard one of her songs. I've never been compelled to search out one of her songs. She has made no impression on me whatsoever, except as a media creation, because I'm interested in music - not personalities.
"Swift is a one-woman business empire; a veritable money-making machine. 2023 is clearly the year of 'Swiftenomics'"
Rich is on the payroll, or if not, he ought to be.
Not my cup o' tea.
But
1)I'm old, and
2) She's earned, as I understand it, around a billion bucks on her own talent.
So she's a LOT of some peoples cups o' tea.
Good on her.
But, as a Chief's fan I could skip the camera on the sky box distractions - not her fault, I know.
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