How Taylor Swift’s engagement led to a rare truce in the culture war

Taylor Swift announced her engagement to star American footballer Travis Kelce this week, marking the biggest event in popular culture this decade – and also bringing a few hours of peace in the culture war.

It was glorious while it lasted. Like the Christmas truce of 1914, when the beleaguered Germans and English crossed into No Man’s Land for a game of football that reaffirmed the fundamental goodness of people, Tay Tay’s engagement announcement was so darn cute that it similarly brought red and blue America together for a brief, shining moment.

It all started on Tuesday. Under an Instagram photograph of Swift and the hulking Kelce in a loving embrace, she wrote, ‘Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married’ (a reference to how her adoring fans think she gives off ‘English teacher vibes’). The caption perfectly summed up why Swift is the queen of the media landscape: she understands her image, she listens to her army of devoted fans and she can poke fun at herself.

This may come as a surprise to those who know my politics and my frequent screeds about the Affluent White Liberal Female, but I am a bit of a Swift fan. Not in the sense that I listen to her music on repeat, or would ever consider going to see her in concert. But in that she writes girl anthems that perfectly sum up the freedom, fun and frustration of young love. Some of her songs are close-to-perfect bops. She is intensely relatable, and that is her superpower.

Yes, I know that she urged her millions of fans to vote for Kamala Harris in 2024, and, in a 2020 tweet, accused Trump of ‘fanning the flames of white supremacy’. And yet, even I, a cynical Gen X indie kid turned blackhearted populist, cannot withstand her charms.

Given her powerful ability to communicate to women, attacking her will only ever look like a stroppy self-own. And complaining about her liberal politics is like complaining that pigs can’t fly. Taylor would not be Taylor if she was MAGA.

This hasn’t stopped Trump from congratulating her, displaying, once again, his impeccable cultural antenna. In what may be deemed by historians as his ‘forgiveness era’, he wished the happy couple well, praised Kelce’s football skills and called Swift ‘a terrific person’. Even Megyn Kelly, a frequent critic of Swift in the past, said, ‘I think it’s great she found love. I’m rooting for them.’ Other than a remote corner of the internet that is convinced Swift is a lesbian, and her marriage a hoax, everyone seems to be delighted.

There is something of old time Americana about this match, so much so that even conservatives want it to work. The prom queen and the football star. After years of dating effete actors and – ew! – Brits, Swift has landed on the archetypal jock. Indeed, Kelce could hardly be further from the miserable woke whingers that seem to dominate popular culture. It’s a joy to watch. We’re so back, baby.

Just look at the podcast she did this month with Kelce and his brother, also a famous footballer. Try to remain cynical. It’s impossible. In the two-hour-long sit-down, shortly before the engagement announcement, she describes how they met. Kelce appeared at one of her shows and shouted, ‘I made you a friendship bracelet! Do you want to date me?’. Practically blushing, Swift says: ‘This is sort of what I’ve been writing songs about wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager.’ Women everywhere instantly knew exactly what she was talking about.

For his part, Travis just looks happy to be along for the ride, with a big goofy smile on his face. Looking like the cat that got the cream, he tells his brother: ‘She’s so hot when she says those big words.’

How can you not be happy for these two crazy kids? Long may it last.

Jenny Holland is a former newspaper reporter and speechwriter. Visit her Substack here