Taylor Swift, Adele Play The Woke Card, And We All Know Why | Christian Toto
Taylor Swift got everything she wanted in 2023 except a “Barbie” close-up.
The star snagged Time’s quasi-coveted Person of the Year earlier this month following her gargantuan concert tour, feature film and the biggest celebrity romance with you-know-who.
You don't need to enroll at Harvard University to learn all about Travis Kelce, but it helps.
Quibble all you want over Time's selection. Swift’s pop culture impact proved massive over the past 12 months. Beatles-esque, even.
So how did Taylor Swift celebrate the Time honor? She went woke, of course.
Swift whined to Time about the perils of capitalism in our male-dominated world, a speech that would be right at home in the year’s pinkest, woke-est movie.
“What has existed since the dawn of time? A patriarchal society,' What fuels a patriarchal society? Money, flow of revenue, the economy. So actually, if we're going to look at this in the most cynical way possible, feminine ideas becoming lucrative means that more female art will get made. It's extremely heartening.”
How did Team “Barbie,” a film obsessed with the “patriarchy,” not give Swift a cameo?
Swift also explained to the magazine how society shapes women’s lives.
“If we have to speak stereotypically about the feminine and the masculine...women have been fed the message that what we naturally gravitate toward—” She has a few examples: “Girlhood, feelings, love, breakups, analyzing those feelings, talking about them nonstop, glitter, sequins! We’ve been taught that those things are more frivolous than the things that stereotypically gendered men gravitate toward, right?”
It's Woke 101. (Does anyone think glitter and sequins aren't frivolous?)
And then there’s Adele.
She’s not the superstar Swift is, but she’s still a sensation who earns a cushy living singing for her supper. Adele has sold more than 120 million records to date, and her music debuted in 2008. Plus, she just landed the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award from The Hollywood Reporter and has more dates planned for her celebrated Weekends with Adele Las Vegas residency.
A new survey by last-minute ticket seller Gametime.co showed Swift and Adele have something else in common. They sat atop the year’s Top 10 Concert tours based on “media ticket price.”
The average ticket price to see Adele at the last minute? $1,011, according to gametime.co. Swift followed on her heels with a $958 per ticket price tag. Numbers 3-10 were all male performers or bands.
Take that, Patriarchy!
Adele channeled Swift’s woke mentality during a chat with The Hollywood Reporter. Seems Adele’s skin color, she’s white for those who haven’t heard of the singer prior to now, aided her rise to the tippy top, not her gorgeous voice or song selection.
That’s one of the reasons I’ve been so lucky with my career — on top of the obvious of me being a white woman in music . I think people are quite scared of me, and they’ve been like that since I was 18. I don’t know what it is; I think there’s no room for negotiations when it comes to what I want to do and how I want to do it. And it’s always been like that. I think that comes across in my interviews.
To be fair, being caucasian is a distinct advantage in a lily-white industry like pop music. Will a person of color EVER catch a break in music? When will a black singer finally rise to the top of the charts? Can it happen in our lifetimes?
Who is she kidding??
Taylor Swift and Adele. (Getty Images)
She’s not trying to kid anyone. She’s at the very top of the fame ladder and she wants to stay there. Like Swift, she understands the media will adore her for those woke asides. So will record executives and the various power players who pull the strings.
Her woke platitudes tell them she’s part of the “team.” She’s an “ally.”
Even the biggest stars on the planet know to play the woke game to stay on top. And, chances are, both Swift and Adele will stay there even longer thanks to their targeted virtue signals.