Is Taylor Swift the problem?

Pop superstar Taylor Swift is in the middle of a PR crisis as her fans overwhelmingly disapprove of her new beau, Matty Healy, the lead singer of English rock band the 1975.

Healy has been attending Swift’s concerts and the pair have been spotted several times kissing and holding hands in public.

Cockburn’s niece tells him that Swift’s online fan forums are blowing up with debate over the Midnights singer’s decision to date the irreverent rock star. Fans are horrified that Swift would be associated with Healy given his “problematic” behavior, such as laughing along to politically incorrect jokes during a podcast appearance, admitting to watching pornography in which women are “brutalized” (in the same podcast appearance), and doing bits on stage where he pretends he’s going to say something racist until his own band drowns him out.

Healy also once said it would be “emasculating” to date Swift given her massive celebrity. Gasp!

Swift’s budding romance with Healy comes just months after the breakup of her six-year relationship with the vanilla actor Joe Alwyn.

“All of this is making Joe look like a saint lmao,” one fan on the Taylor Swift subreddit, which boasts half a million members, said.

“I can understand leaving a six year relationship and rebounding with an asshole because you’re having a bit of a crisis or whatever.. but once you find out this kind of stuff, wouldn’t any decent person be grossed out by it and immediately cut ties?” another fan wondered.

Swift massively endeared herself to her mostly young, female fan base when she revealed she would be voting Democrat in the 2018 midterm elections. The following year, she dropped a song and accompanying music video defending the queer community from online hate. In a recently resurfaced clip from the 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Swift explains she felt she had to speak out against Republican senator Marsha Blackburn for being against “human rights” and Swift’s “Christian values.”

To challenge Swift’s parasocial fans, none of this seems at odds with dating Healy, who supports Black Lives Matter, advocates for abortion and action on climate change on stage and denounces conservatism and Donald Trump. The man might love offensive jokes (he is, after all, a man), but he is hardly right-wing.

Cockburn, who has had his own share of messy relationships, is mostly shying away from passing judgment on the situation. But he would point out that Swift’s current single, “Antihero,” features Swift singing about how she gets “older but just never wiser” and is the “problem.” She has many other songs that hint at the fact that she treated past boyfriends poorly (“I broke his heart cause he was nice”) and may have even cheated (“Do you really want to know where I was April 29?”).

Perhaps the criticism Swift received near the beginning of her career for her constant relationship drama wasn’t sexist, after all. But at least she’s self aware?

Cockburn recommends all of the hysterical Swifties out there to take a deep breath and remember that no one is perfect, not even Miss Taylor Alison Swift. Plus, juicy drama makes for effective PR — thanks to the Eras Tour and her new romance, Swift currently occupies a stunning ten spots in the Billboard 200.