Taylor Swift Performs "Dear John" at Eras Tour, Tells Swifties Not To Defend Her on the Internet

[stewie_e]

Taylor Swift on the release of ‘Speak Now’ TV before performing ‘Dear John’:

“I’m 33 years old, I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19… I’m not putting this album out so you can go on the internet and defend me against someone you think I wrote a song… pic.twitter.com/cFQbKQk8vD
- Pop Base (@PopBase) June 25, 2023
“I’m 33

Comments

[evillemmons]

[rubie_dubidoux]

I mean, the entire Red TV promo cycle was about emphasizing that she was over everything and had only happy memories associated with the songs and that didn't work, so I'm not surprised she's being more overt this time

[screamingintune]

nah, she was winking at the fans a little during Red TV too. When Seth Meyers asked her about the subject of her songs, she coyly declared she doesn't even think about them. it would have been her opportunity to say "don't bother people" but lmao she chose violence

[rubie_dubidoux]

that was not my reading on it. she said she didn't care what they thought about the songs because she wasn't singing *to* them anymore, so the songs barely had anything to do with them and she didn't care what emotional impact they had. I don't think she was really thinking about the ~fan response~ - because at that point the only famous ex she'd recorded mean songs about in recent memory was Joe Jonas and everyone was cool with him

[screamingintune]

that's how I saw it, like -- she wanted at that point to be seen as mature and content in her romance, while at the same time not pushing her fans away from trashing him, and did nil to stop them when it went on for several weeks.

[rubie_dubidoux]

well yeah, because she/her PR aren't always total morons - if she'd taken to Twitter to defend Jake's honor after the fact then that would've eclipsed the entire promo cycle and just Streisand Effected the whole thing. keep in mind that the "poor, helpless Jake Gyllenhaal getting shit from nasty snake Taylor's stans" didn't really make the mainstream press, not like it would've if she had commented on it. it wouldn't have looked good for her at all even if she was doing ~the right thing~. also, that was right when Jake was starting to get legitimately bad flack from that article about manipulating young women (something that also never really made the mainstream press) so I guarantee if Taylor said anything remotely favorable about him, that whole thing would have blown up and somehow come back to reflecting poorly on her too

[screamingintune]

hmm, I mean, maybe I'm being cynical but I do feel like she knows she'd get dragged because of the Matt Healy drama if she leaned into the John Mayer stuff.

and don't get me wrong I am shedding no tears for Jake G and I would not give a fuck if John Mayer got his public dragging, the thing that irritates me the most about this is that she isn't giving Camilla Belle any apologies or respect. While there's very likely to be a whole JoBros collab on 1989 TV

[rubie_dubidoux]

yeah the Camilla Belle thing is messy. personally I think a call for a public apology is misguided since that just puts the onus on Camilla to publicly accept, which she shouldn't have to do. on its face, publicly groveling and disavowing that whole thing seems like the best move for Taylor but I don't think it would actually go well (it would read as disingenuous no matter what). and as always, you run the risk of Streisanding that too - I suspect Speak Now TV is being dropped in the middle of tour and won't get much promo precisely because she wants the fans to have it and everyone else to forget about it as quickly as possible - would not be shocked if 1989 is rushed out before the end of the year to much greater fanfare lol

[momsapplelie]

She only defends the openly racist apparently lol

[guitarstrings]

Jake didn't threaten legal action 🤷‍♀️