Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates with Taylor Swift after a 17-10 victory in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens within the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 28, 2024 in Baltimore.

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Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs celebrates with Taylor Swift after a 17-10 victory in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens within the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 28, 2024 in Baltimore.

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

Taylor Swift has been some of the dominant cultural figures of the previous 12 months, between her billion-dollar Eras Tour and accompanying film, a slew of Grammy nominations, and a high-profile romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce that is made her a fixture of the National Football League season.

But Swift’s recognition is being twisted right into a risk by a contingent of far-right, Donald Trump-supporting conservatives who’ve began circulating conspiracy theories concerning the singer, the Super Bowl, and the 2024 election.

During the Chiefs’ convention championship recreation in opposition to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday, Mike Crispi, a pro-Trump podcast host on the right-wing Salem Media Group, posted a rant claiming the NFL had “RIGGED” a Chiefs victory.

“All to spread DEMOCRAT PROPAGANDA. Calling it now: KC wins, goes to Super Bowl, Swift comes out at the halftime show and ‘endorses’ Joe Biden with Kelce at midfield. It’s all been an op since day one,” Crispi wrote on X. (This would be the Chiefs’ fourth Super Bowl appearance up to now 5 years.)

When the Chiefs pulled off a win, hypothesis went wild, casting Swift’s relationship with Kelce as a plot to tip the presidential contest in Biden’s favor.

“I wonder who’s going to win the Super Bowl next month. And I wonder if there’s a major presidential endorsement coming from an artificially culturally propped-up couple this fall,” former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has pushed debunked conspiracy theories concerning the Jan. 6th insurrection, the 2020 election, and 9/11, wrote on X, the positioning previously generally known as Twitter, on Monday.

Unfounded claims about Swift’s alleged function as a authorities plant have been swirling for a while. Last month, Fox News host Jesse Watters speculated that Swift may be a Pentagon “psyop” — an asset used for psychological operations.

“Is Swift a front for a covert political agenda?” he requested. While noting that he had no proof, he pointed to Swift’s endorsement of Biden in 2020 and her current encouragement that followers register to vote, which led to a surge in registrations. The Pentagon rejected Watters’ claim.

But the collision of the Super Bowl and a contentious presidential race have propelled the right-wing backlash to new heights. A New York Times report this week that Biden’s marketing campaign is hoping Swift will endorse him once more this 12 months added additional gas to the hearth.

Influential right-wing figures together with Jack Posobiec, who pushed the baseless Pizzagate conspiracy concept, and radio host Charlie Kirk have weighed in. Conservative cable retailers have devoted a number of segments to Swift, with Fox News’s Jeanine Pirro urging her, “Don’t get involved in politics. We don’t wanna see you there.”

Monetizing consideration

The technique of attacking a pop icon, in addition to a cultural establishment just like the NFL, might sound counterproductive, provided that each Swift and football are very talked-about throughout the political spectrum.

However, the enterprise of many figures within the very on-line Trump-supporting world is seize and monetize consideration, stated Joan Donovan, assistant professor of journalism and rising media research at Boston University who research on-line discourse.

“It’s a play for engagement. If you look at interest in Taylor Swift and the crossover with the NFL, you want to be part of those conversations online,” Donovan stated.

Mentions of Swift on fringe, right-wing web websites like Trump’s Truth Social, have spiked within the final week, based on knowledge from Pyrra Technologies, which tracks smaller platforms.

It’s not the primary time Swift has been the goal of conspiracy theories and right-wing ire.

For years, the singer prevented politics totally, however her background in nation music fueled hypothesis, with out proof, that she may be a Republican and a Trump supporter. In 2016, Vice reported on white supremacists who claimed Swift as an “Aryan Goddess.”

Swift broke her political silence in 2018, endorsing a Democratic opponent to Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, whom Swift called “Trump in a wig,” in her residence state of Tennessee. She overtly helps LGBTQ rights and Black Lives Matter, and condemned Trump in the course of the 2020 protests following George Floyd’s demise.

Her evolution from teen ingenue to 30-something, single, successful businesswoman has additionally been a break with conservative beliefs of femininity, Donovan stated.

“Amongst the right wing, because she is getting older and hasn’t had children and whatnot, she’s less seen as the traditional ‘wifey’ material,” she stated. “In broad terms, Taylor Swift represents older, independent women who do not need male support to have a career, to self-determine where they’re going.”

More not too long ago, her relationship with Kelce, the Chiefs tight finish, has added gas to conservative criticisms. Kelce has additionally been attacked by conservatives as a result of he is finished commercials for Pfizer vaccines and Bud Light.

Attention begets abuse

The consideration centered on Swift would not simply draw conspiracy theories. It additionally attracts abuse — and particularly, the form of abuse that’s disproportionately focused at girls on-line.

In the final week, AI-generated sexually specific photos of Swift went viral on X and different social media websites, racking up tens of hundreds of thousands of views. The incident has resurfaced the prevalence of nonconsensual deepfake pornography, an issue that has plagued not solely celebrities, but in addition common girls and ladies, for years.

“The point of gendered abuse, the point of casting Taylor Swift in this light where she is not necessarily her own self-actualized person making her own decisions … and putting her in this sexualized light is to demean her and to undermine her power,” stated Nina Jankowicz, a researcher and writer of the e-book How To Be A Woman Online. “She’s just a sexual object, she’s just a tool of the Biden administration.”

Jankowicz herself additionally been the sufferer of conspiracy theories and specific deepfakes. She stated she hopes the eye paid to the current assaults on Swift may also spotlight the harms of this sort of abuse on individuals who would not have the assets of a world celebrity.