This article was originally written for the fifth issue in the Advent 2025 semester of The Sewanee Purple and has been reproduced digitally.
Anne Bost
Contributing Writer
Between glamorous feathered fans, shimmering jewels, burlesque outfits and what some critics are calling the worst writing of her career, Taylor Swift’s newest album, “The Life of a Showgirl” (TLOAS), has exploded onto the cultural scene in a wild blaze of turquoise and orange sparkles. Since its release, the uproar of condemnations and praise has been practically unavoidable for everyone, no matter what corner of the internet they spend their time in. Taylor Swift, it seems, has once again ensnared the endless attention and energy of the public without trying to. Like all of her movements and music, her newest album has already been put under a microscope and garnered hordes of negative and positive attention alike, as people race to review both the songs and the woman who created them.
While Swift is no stranger to mass criticism, TLOAS and the backlash that has come along with it stand out from the rest of Swift’s discography. In the few short weeks since the album’s debut, it’s racked up accusations of using generative A.I. in promotional material, bullying other musicians through lyrics, and subtly promoting fascism. Which of them are valid complaints and which are complete leaps in logic? Well, The Sewanee Purple isn’t here to answer that question but rather to cut through the tangled layers of misinformation surrounding TLOAS so each person can form their own fact-based opinion.
Leading up to the release of the album, Swift and her team continued their tradition of leaving easter eggs for fans by placing 12 orange doors in 12 different cities. The 12 doors, sprinkled randomly across the world, each featured part of a cipher as well as a QR code linking to a promotional video. It was a rousing success, but as the excitement of solving the puzzle settled down, fans began to notice strange details in the videos like inconsistencies with text, a coat hanger disappearing in the middle of a shot, and a bartender’s hand phasing into a napkin. Quickly, people began to speculate that the promotional videos were made either entirely or partially with generative A.I. and soon the hashtag #SwiftiesAgainstAI was trending. Swift’s team however has yet to make a public statement addressing the allegations or acknowledging the promotional videos at all, aside from quietly removing them from all platforms. At the moment, no further information is known about the level of knowledge and involvement Swift or her management team had with the A.I. generative tool – if any.
The outrage against TLOAS and the accusations toward Taylor Swift didn’t stop with the promotional material though. In fact, they only amplified when the album actually dropped and the eager public could lay their scathing eyes on her new songs. The first culprit, or victim depending on who you ask, at the scene of these crimes was the song “Actually Romantic.” Despite its peachy sounding title, the song is actually a snappy response to the antagonistic treatment Swift supposedly experienced from another celebrity. From the blunt mention of cocaine in the opening line to the reference of a song about her sparking insecurities in another, it didn’t take long for people to suggest that Swift’s new track was about the famous “Brat” singer, Charli XCX. While other theories on who the subject of the song could be continue to float around, Charli remains the main suspect in the public’s eyes by far. Though its lyrics are relatively tame in the grand scheme of diss tracks, some found them to be quite disrespectful and offensive, particularly the one explicitly though briefly mentioning hard drug usage.
This intense anger, mostly seen in spaces online, continued to ramp up with the song “Wi$hli$t,” which prompted swarms of people to take to the apps X and TikTok to proclaim that it was a declaration of tradwife ideology and racial supremacy. In an album that was released days after their long awaited engagement, it’s no surprise that there were many songs about Travis Kelce to be found on TLOAS. However, “Wi$hli$t” stands out from its love song counterparts in one main aspect: its mentions of children. The song starts rather ordinarily for Taylor Swift with lyrics that confront the unrealistic and opulent desires of the public, only to pivot in the chorus to focus on her own simple desires since meeting and falling in love with Kelce. However, it’s within this pivot that people found a problem. While the lines, “I just want you. Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you,” may seem innocuous to some, they sounded the warning bells of white supremacy for others. Numerous people online explained how they thought the latter words were a reference to wanting a segregated neighborhood with only white people. In the other school of thought, people argued that the line was just a hyperbole about seeing Kelce’s resemblance in their hypothetical future children.
The problems didn’t stop there though; Instead, they continued to stack up as the tracklist kept playing and one of its more popular songs, “Opalite” began to catch the attention of the public eye. However, “Opalite” and its controversies differ from the other songs’ since not only the song itself has come under fire, but so has one of its related merch items. The song’s chorus, known for its catchy tune and capturing the central theme of love after heartbreak, is also the source of its problem. The upbeat chorus repeats as follows, “It’s alright. You were dancing through the lightning strikes / Sleepless in the onyx night, But now the sky is opalite.” These aforementioned gemstones and their associated colors (onyx with dark hues like black and opalite with more translucent rainbow tones) led some people to read the line as a dig on Travis Kelce’s history of dating black women. The understanding of these words as a racist comment about the women Travis Kelce dated stems mainly from the notion that Taylor Swift is saying this directly to Kelce. While that is true after the second verse, this specific phrasing and the mention of an “onyx night” in the song originally come from Taylor’s mother to her. It isn’t until after her mother, Andrea Swift, says this to Taylor in that she later repeats the encouragement to Travis. With that context, many online began to squabble over whether onyx night is an artistic depiction of Taylor’s depression from her previous failed relationships or if it really is a racist comment aimed at Kelce’s most recent ex, Kayla Nicole.
In addition to the song itself, some people thought the now removed “Opalite” inspired necklace contained Nazi-inspired symbols. Communities online argued that the lightning bolts decorating the necklace chain resembled the pair of blunt ended lightning bolts worn by SS officers in Nazi Germany and used today by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists. While the lightning bolts on the “Opalite” necklace come to a pointed end rather than a flat one and exist in a quantity of 12 instead of two, many thought the presence of lightning bolts in the necklace at all was either an explicit or accidental use of a hate symbol. Many fans pointed out the possibility of the bolts representing the lyric about “dancing through the lightning strikes,” however the conversation on the lightning bolts and their meaning continued with equal fervor till the merch item was removed from Swift’s website.
Unfortunately for Swift and her production team, the countless controversies that blossomed with the release of TLOAS have distracted many people from the actual music on the album– though that hasn’t been without its own fair share of complaints too. Praised by some and torn apart by just as many, the songs that have come out of this era seem to warrant incredibly strong opinions in both directions. But despite the negative ratings and reviews claiming this is the end of Swift, TLOAS has been an incredible commercial success, becoming Spotify’s most streamed album within a single day and garnering over 460 million listens in its debut week.
Beneath all the glitz and glamor of the album’s aesthetic, there have been a couple of songs that stood out both for their lyrical brilliance and captivating sound. Though opinions differ with preference, the shining songs are widely thought to be “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Opalite,” “Ruin the Friendship,” “Father Figure,” “Actually Romantic,” and “Elizabeth Taylor.”
“The Fate of Ophelia,” TLOAS’s lead single, is a fun take on the tragedy of Ophelia where Taylor Swift personifies herself as the ill-fated love interest of Hamlet. Ophelia’s narrative changes suddenly from her Shakespearean depressing end to a happy fictionalized one inspired by Swift’s own newfound happiness with Travis Kelce. Joyfully reminiscent of the fan-favorite “Love Story” from her Fearless album, Swift once again takes a famous Shakespeare tragedy and makes it her own by injecting elements of her personal life into it. Within the language of classic tales and characters she’s found connection with, she’s able to express her emotions and stories while making them their own distinctly different piece of art. Along with these aspects, the sound of the song itself is an incredibly catchy one that makes dancing along a nearly impossible task. “Opalite” is similar to the lead single both in its snappy tune, irresistible groove, and romantic sentiments dedicated to Travis Kelce. “Opalite” is about her struggle to find happiness while navigating through failing relationships she thought were with ‘the one’ until she actually found ‘the one’ in Kelce. The lyrics and melody of the song radiate optimism for life and exuberance from both Kelce and Swift in the love they share.
“Ruin the Friendship,” on the other hand, is reflective of someone in Taylor Swift’s past rather than a love song to her fiance. Swift recalls her past with a close friend from high school who she had romantic feelings for that were likely reciprocated at one point. The inexplicably mournful tone of the song bears fruit in the bridge when Taylor sings, “When I left school I lost track of you. Abigail called me with the bad news. Goodbye and we’ll never know why.” The song, a heartbreaking remembrance of this friendship and the unexplored feelings that came with it that were taken from the world too soon, is sure to bring anyone to tears. The mother of the young man who inspired the song, Jeff Lang, even said she’s grateful the song is keeping his name alive and remembers how close he and Taylor were until his untimely death at the age of 21.
“Elizabeth Taylor” continues the bittersweet theme established by “Ruin the Friendship.” Though this song is also about Kelce, it has a drastically different mood. Written in the wake of failed relationships and named after the phenomenal and resilient actress who was married eight times and engaged ten times, the song reflects on her six year long relationship with Joe Alwyn and the tendency of different men she’s been involved with to leave her heartbroken just to escape the spotlight their relationship put them in. “Elizabeth Taylor” takes all these aspects, faces them head on with bravery most would never deign to have, and sincerely asks Travis Kelce to be different from the rest and not say goodbye.
Moving on from the romantically inspired songs, “Father Figure” by Taylor Swift is an interpolation of George Michael’s famous song “Father Figure” that takes elements from Michael and twists them into the more literal sinister way she experienced this sort of mentorship . A cold-hearted call out of greed and manipulation disguised under the premise of guidance, the song was inspired by Taylor’s personal experiences with Big Machine Records, a scene in the hit show Succession, and George Michael’s own struggles with his record company, Sony. Swift takes these fictional and real life bitter dynamics and parallels them to her own life and her nearly decade long fight to own her masters. Written from the perspective of the men, namely Scott Borchetta, who betrayed her trust and sold her art for money, she describes love as a financial transaction and mentorship as a fickle word easy to toss aside for financial gain.
Continuing to call out people who tried to or have hurt Swift, “Actually Romantic” details the cruel treatment she’s received from someone in a playfully condescending tone that makes it clear it was funnier than it was bothersome to her. Brutally indifferent lines describe the bully-esque behavior targeted at her as actually romantic and touching because of how much effort and time the person’s put towards her. From the amusing comparison of the person trying to upset them to a “toy chihuahua in a tiny purse,” the description of their mean behavior as adorable, and the bridge that jokingly says she can’t tell if the person’s trying to flirt with them or be rude to them, it’s no wonder “Actually Romantic” has cemented itself as a favorite of TLOAS.
Although many were initially disappointed or even offended by the sexual undertones of the album and its lack of musicality, some Taylor Swift fans predicted that soon lots of people would come around to the album and pretend they’d always enjoyed it just like many did with “Folklore,” “Evermore,” “Midnights,” “1989,” and her other albums. But whether you find yourself hating, loving, or feeling somewhere in between on the new songs, you’ve decided to read what can hopefully be a penultimate guide to all things showgirl and having conversations about different opinions in a respectful way.