Life after Taylor: Former Swifties reveal why they left the ‘toxic’ fandom (2024)

21May 2024

Rayane, 18, became a Taylor Swift fan when he was a child. His interest was first piqued by the sheer catchiness of her songs, but he soon “fell in love with” Swift herself and her happy, positive image. He became a fully-fledged Swiftie during the singer’s “1989 era” – the period following the release of 1989 in 2014, when Swift decisively shook off her image as a country singer and began marketing herself as a pop star with mass appeal. “My mother used to get so annoyed that I only listened to one CD in the car,” he recalls. “I’d get mad whenever she played any CDs other than Taylor.”

To begin with, Rayane says the fandom was like any other. Things got “slightly competitive sometimes”, but overall, “people were nice to each other”. But as the years passed and Swift became more and more commercially successful – eventually becoming a billionaire in October 2023 – Rayane noticed the fan community growing more toxic. “Her rise to the top in the 2020s completely changed the dynamic,” he says. “Criticising Swift became a crime.”

“I have seen the craziest things said by Taylor Swift fans in the past two years,” Rayane continues. On one occasion, he suggested on social media that it was problematic for Swift to touch The Weeknd’s hair unprompted when the two artists first met, and fervent fans quickly leapt to her defence. Another time, Rayane saw someone share a link in a fan group chat to a photo on X of Swift and a fan wearing a shirt emblazoned with a swastika. “Instead of people questioning why she did that, they all decided to mass report the post to get it deleted,” he says. “The fandom in its current form is a cult.”

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Rayane isn’t the first to make the cult comparison – so what is it about Swift specifically that inspires such intense feelings in her fans? Dr Lucy Bennett is a lecturer at Cardiff University, specialising in popular music and fan culture. She ascribes Swifties’ insistent loyalty to the singer to two key factors. “Firstly, the connection that people have with her and her music – many have grown up with her music and feel deeply connected to her,” she explains. “Secondly, many fans feel part of a wider collective of Swifties, and this fosters a sense of belonging and home within many of these fans. This can be a very powerful feeling, to be part of something with people who share the feeling of the music.”

As Swift’s star continues to rise – or skyrocket – many like Rayane are growing increasingly exasperated by the singer’s most ardent devotees who insist on viewing the singer through an entirely uncritical lens. The r/travisandtaylor subreddit is dedicated to “calling Taylor Swift out on her bullsh*t” and has amassed over 21,000 members. Threads in the sub discuss topics ranging from Swift’s incessant cash-grabbing, the quality of her latest album The Tortured Poets Department, and whether her relationship with Travis Kelce is a PR stunt. Similarly, membership of the r/SwiftlyNeutral subreddit, which describes itself as a “neutral” forum for fans to “discuss controversial topics about or involving Taylor Swift”, has swelled to over 60,000 since its creation in December 2023. The community has recently gone private, after Swifties began hounding members. While critical of Swift, these forums aren’t pure snark. Rather, they’re spaces where users can speak freely and critically about Swift without fear of being attacked by more diehard stans.

as a diehard taylor swift stan, i find this really immoral and unacceptable and i really cannot support her anymore, i have removed her from my stan list and i refuse to ever listen to her again https://t.co/nYHJ2kKASo

— ryan (@ryan0cean) July 29, 2022

Kyla, 24, is another former fan of Swift. Like Rayane, she first discovered the singer’s music as a child. “I definitely developed a parasocial relationship with her,” she recalls, explaining that she regarded her more as “an older sister instead of a celebrity.” As social media took off in Kyla’s teen years, she began joining online communities for fans of Swift. “I met some of my closest friends in these spaces that I still have to this day,” she says.

“But I also met some of the nastiest, racist, most bigoted people I’ve ever had the displeasure of interacting with,” she continues. Initially, Kyla hoped that Swift would “shut down” these “bad apples” if she knew about the harmful views they were espousing. “But as I opened my eyes to her priorities, I realised that she wouldn’t care,” she says. “I started pointing out things she had done wrong and was met with vitriol and hatred from the people I thought were my friends. There’s an almost religious nature to the way that Swifties revere Taylor Swift that I haven’t encountered in any other fandom.” Alarmed by the backlash she received for daring to criticise Swift, Kyla eventually deleted her fan accounts on social media and left the fandom entirely.

But it wasn’t just the toxicity of the fandom that prompted Kyla to reevaluate her relationship with Swift – it was also Swift’s own hypocrisy. She highlights how the singer often befriends and works with “harmful people”, such as Amsterdam director David O Russell who has been accused of abuse and sexual assault, and “[ignores] the important issues she claimed to be an advocate for, such as women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, and climate change.” Now, Kyla has “lost respect” for Swift. “I wouldn’t say I hate her, but she is not someone I admire anymore.”

Tbh people unstanning Taylor (for literally no reason but) is just good for us real swifties cause it means more tickets for us like bye thank god I won't have to lose a ticket to y'all in a ticketmaster queue again

— Megan ♡'s ttpd 🍉 (@evermoresflower) February 8, 2024

Rayane also no longer counts himself a Swiftie. “One of the reasons I fell in love with her is because she always claimed she was a feminist and she always said she would support her peers, but I think none of that is true today,” he says, citing the fact that she dated Matty Healy (who made racist comments about Ice Spice) and her sky-high private jet emissions as reflective of the shallowness of her politics. “Feminism isn’t about just uplifting white, upper-class women, but that’s what Taylor thinks it is. As a person of colour, I just can’t associate myself with such behaviour.”

Dr Bennett says that it’s common for fans to be “thrown into turmoil” when a celebrity they admire acts in a way which runs contrary to their own beliefs. “For some fans, it will not matter, and they can enjoy the person’s art regardless. Some may even reconsider their political beliefs and be led in a new direction that corresponds with the celebrity’s views,” she says. “But for others, it can really be a crucial moment in their fandom that makes them reflect and even question their personal connections with the focus of fandom, and ultimately their fan identity going forward.” The extent to which celebrities should be wading into politics remains a contentious and fiercely debated topic, but as both Rayane and Kyla point out, it’s especially difficult to stomach Swift’s reluctance to use her status to address social issues, given that liberal, feminist politics are an integral part of her personal branding.

Both Rayane and Kyla stress that they aren’t anti-fans or ‘haters’ of Swift, and Rayane adds that he will forever cherish the fond memories of his time in the fandom. “I will always have a special connection with her music, as it has helped me grow and shape who I am,” he says. But he adds that as he has matured, he’s realised that unconditional, slavish devotion isn’t a fulfilling way to engage with Swift – or any celebrity. “The best thing that has happened to me is me realising that, at the end of the day, Taylor Swift is a rich white woman who couldn’t care less about speaking about issues of minorities unless it benefits her,” he says. Will other Swifties ever follow suit in shedding their rose-tinted glasses and taking a good, unfiltered look at the woman they idolise? Time will tell.