Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour officially came to a close on Sunday night with the singer’s final performance in Vancouver, Canada.
In the aftermath of the nearly two-year stretch of concerts, news outlets have highlighted some impressive stats from the Eras era: Swift performed 149 shows in 54 cities across 21 countries and five of seven continents. More than 10 million people attended her shows, with the highest attendance for a single night at 96,006 in Melbourne, Australia.
The Eras tour sold more than $2 billion in tickets ― double the sales of previous record holders. And that doesn’t even account for the broader economic impact with hotel bookings, flights, themed food and beverage events, elaborate outfits, friendship bracelet supplies and more. Other points of interest include Swift’s donations to local food banks along the tour route and large bonus payments to the Eras crew and performers.
But amid the positive press, fans are also bemoaning the way certain outlets have decided to frame this moment in the singer’s career: by turning the focus to Swift’s romantic life.
“She’s Turning 35!” reads an Us Weekly magazine cover, which features an image of Swift and one of her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. “Taylor at a Crossroads: An engagement to Travis Kelce? Baby plans? New music? Another tour?”
The order of priorities in that list was striking to many Swifties, who slammed the headline as “so misogynistic” and “gross.”
Others pointed to Swift’s song “The Man,” which featured prominently at the beginning of her Eras tour setlist, and tackles the issue of double standards for men and women in the spotlight.
Apt lyrics include: “They’d say I played the field before I found someone to commit to / And that would be okay / For me to do” and “I’m so sick of them coming at me again / ’Cause if I was a man / Then I’d be the man.”
Many fans also took issue with a tweet from Vulture which stated, “Taylor Swift finally concluded the Eras Tour Sunday night in Vancouver. So long, two-year, two boyfriend-spanning, two billion-earning tour.”
“I think it’s minimizing the success of one of the most powerful women in business right now,” Jessi Gold, author of “How Do You Feel?” and chief wellness officer at the University of Tennessee System, told HuffPost.
“It’s a dismissive way to talk about her success and all she’s been able to do ― which is something people care a lot about, so that’s hurtful to them. People are coming off two years of an enthusiastic fandom adrenaline rush and probably weren’t expecting that.”
Gold noted that the parasocial relationship many fans have with the singer can make this dismissive media framing feel more personal, as if it’s happening to a friend rather than a celebrity. She also emphasized that media outlets taking this approach are typically acting intentionally ― rage bait drives clicks and engagement after all.
“As a fan, it can be frustrating because this has been the narrative around her since forever, but at this point, it just feels like, ‘Well, here they go again,’” she said.
There has been some backlash to the backlash, however. A few X users pointed out that Swift’s romantic life has been a point of intrigue for fans, with some even wearing Kelce jerseys to her concerts.
Relationships and dating are of course major themes in Swift’s music, which was the central focus of the Eras Tour. Kelce also made an appearance onstage during one of her London stops, and she even changed one of her song lyrics to include a nod to his NFL team.
But do these connections justify framing Swift’s career success around men she dates and fixating on the next steps in her private life at this moment? After all, the spectacle of each three-plus-hour-long Eras Tour show revolved around the live performance of the music ― the staging, the dancing, the costumes, the surprises and more.
Gareth Cattermole/TAS24 via Getty Images
“There’s this media narrative that her success is because of guys, she only writes songs about guys and can’t write hit songs if she’s happy in a relationship, but if you’re a fan, you know that’s not true,” Gold said. “There’s so much more to it.”
And although public sympathy for a billionaire pop star with a private jet is understandably limited, the negative reaction to this kind of narrative speaks more to everyday people’s frustrations.
“It’s such a common experience for people in the workplace, specifically women in the workplace, to try so hard and find success, but still get feedback that feels unfair,” Gold said. “It’s challenging, and I think people who’ve had similar struggles are more likely to get upset when they see these kinds of headlines about Taylor Swift. You might even think, ‘Well I’m never going to achieve her level of success, and they’re still treating her like that. So I won’t be treated any better.’”
For many women, the scrutiny around whether or not she’ll get married or have children also feels familiar.
“Settling down with someone can feel like the only version of success we have modeled for us,” Gold noted. “Other people’s values get projected onto us, but they don’t have to be your values, and shouldn’t minimize your sense of success in your job and life. It’s hard to please everybody, especially when people’s expectations of success are different generationally, culturally, gender-wise.”
If you have a strong reaction to headlines about Taylor Swift, consider why you’re feeling so negatively, and how it might be related to your personal or professional life.
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“Try to understand how you view your own self-worth and talk to someone about why this is pushing a particular button with you,” Gold advised. “These can be therapeutic conversations. And remember that ultimately you can’t control what other people say, but you can work through how it’s making you feel.”