fans have unleashed the full fury of the fandom on the Times after an essay speculated the singer’s sexuality.
The 5,000-word op-ed – titled – examines to the LGBTQ+ community within the Blank Space hitmaker’s songs with writer Anna Marks suggesting that the singer has been to her Queer identity for some time.
Among many other examples, Marks pointed out that which featured on the 2019 record Lover, was released on Lesbian Visibility Day.
She also wrote that the video ‘features Ms Swift dancing at a pride parade, dripping in rainbow paint and turning down a man’s marriage proposal in exchange for a… pussy cat.’
Marks summarises: ‘In isolation, a single dropped hairpin is perhaps meaningless or accidental, but considered together, they’re the unfurling of a ballerina bun after a long performance.’
Fans were quick to slam the piece as an ‘absolute abomination’ and called for it to be taken down and an apology issued to the singer, who is currently dating American footballer Travis Kelce.
LGBTQ+ activist , who was mentioned in the article, described it as ‘triggering’.
‘I was mentioned in the piece, so I’ll weigh in. I think it was awful of
@nytimes to publish,’ she wrote on X.
‘Triggering for me to read— not because the writer mentioned my nearly ending my life— but seeing a public person’s sexuality being discussed is upsetting.’
She was responding to Chris Willman’s original post, which read: ‘I’ve defended the NYT before when they published questionable op-eds… but this was the least defensible op-ed I can remember ever seeing the NYT run, made all the worst by the fact that it was written by a staffer, who specializes in these speculations.’
Legions of fans echoed their sentiments, with Ashton Pittman writing: ‘There is something deeply wrong with the New York Times publishing this article speculating that Taylor Swift may be secretly queer—based on absolutely nothing.
‘This is the kind of garbage that belongs in the supermarket checkout next to the National Enquirer.’
@lbanter1 added: ‘The NYT owes Taylor Swift an apology at the very least and that writer should be questionable for future articles.’
@treswritesstuff wrote: ‘Absolutely psychotic to have spent 5K words talking about whether or not Taylor Swift is queer, equally psychotic for the New York Times to have deemed this worthy of consideration, much less publishing.’
Others called the piece ‘disturbed’ and ‘unhinged’ as they continued to question why the piece had been published.
@A2K_OC posted: ‘This is disgusting. It’s fan fiction at best. It’s speculative invasion and public outing at worst. And it shouldn’t be allowed.’
reports that sources close to Taylor are ‘dismayed’ by the ‘invasive, untrue and inappropriate’ piece.
‘Because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics,’ an insider told the publication.
‘There seems to be no boundary some journalists won’t cross when writing about Taylor, regardless of how invasive, untrue, and inappropriate it is – all under the protective veil of an “opinion piece”.’
Taylor has been throughout her career, with the singer explaining to Vogue in 2019 how she .
‘Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of.’
The songstress has been in several high-profile relationships with men that have been heavily scrutinised, including Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and John Mayer.
In the prologue to her re-recorded version of album 1989, she wrote that she was surrounded by female friends because any males she was publicly seen with led to questions of whether they were dating.
‘If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that — right? I would learn later on that people could and people would,’ she wrote.
Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Taylor Swift and The New York Times for comment.
