The Swift Accessibility
Part 4: Taylor's seeming accessibility and the incarnation
In my last Taylor Swift post, I began discussing Taylor’s cultivation of parasocial relationships with her fans. I argued that Christianity offers something so much better than one-sided parasocial relationships — relationships with God and his people that are genuine, two-sided, deep, and transformational.
Still, parasocial relationships have given Taylor power and influence, as her fans feel connected with her. It’s part of how she’s become the cultural phenomenon she is today.
While the previous post discussed how Taylor’s songs have fed fans material to build parasocial relationships with her, Taylor’s curation of parasocial relationships goes far beyond leaving a trail of clues in her lyrics and videos. She has found ways to make personal connections with fans and come across as a normal person. In contrast to a celebrity like Beyonce, who has made herself seem so unreachable, Taylor seems very accessible.
Here’s how HuffPost’s Brittany Wong puts it:
With Swift, her early image was largely built on the feeling that she could be your friend. In her almost two-decade career, Swift has invited fans over to her house for listening parties (complete with homemade cookies!), commented on their social media posts and regularly had her mother pick fans out of the audience to meet her at concerts.
“She’s a genius at all this,” said Kate S. Kurtin, a professor of communication studies at California State University, Los Angeles, who studies PSRs.
“She gives away just enough of herself for the fans to feel a level of intimacy with her and feel that they know enough to ‘know’ that her music is authentic,” the professor told HuffPost.1
Those listening parties have become the subject of fandom lore. Inviting fans over to your house when you’re as famous as Taylor Swift is quite the move. It’s also quite the privilege for fans. One fan who attended a Nashville listening party said, “I… felt more connected to [Swift] and her music in a way I didn't think was possible. Not in a parasocial way — I'm well aware I don't know her, but she kept up with us and checked in on us. She continued to go above and beyond and I think that speaks volumes as to who she is and to how much her fans mean to her.”2
In doing these sorts of things, Taylor has been able to make herself seem like someone who could be their friend, someone who’s accessible and relatable and who cares about them. And someone who’s accessible, relatable, and who cares about you is exactly the kind of person you might turn to in hard times.
Recall my earlier arguments about Taylor. Girls find her lyrics relatable, which leads them to feel connected to both her and other Swifties. In my second post, I said that this is “important for females in particular, since we internalize our stress and turn to others to cope. Females look for connection, especially with others who make us feel understood, in order to cope with stressors - and Taylor fits this ticket.”
As Taylor has been able to come across as accessible, normal, and caring, she strengthens her relatability and the likelihood of others to turn to her and her music to cope.
The attempt to make herself accessible, normal, and caring is interesting to me as a Christian, because the Christian faith hinges on the fact that God became human. He lived among us, making himself accessible. He became human like us normal everyday people. Furthermore, he did all of this because he cares for us.
Again, we see that the Christian faith offers something better than what Taylor has done.
John writes in his Gospel of Jesus’s accessibility: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14).
Taylor invited the select few superfans to come join her at short-lived listening parties. God himself came to us, making himself accessible to all. And he’s accessible not just occasionally or for short-lived periods of time, but always. Even now that Christ does not dwell on earth with us, he is still “with [us] always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20) through his Spirit dwelling in us.
The writer to the Hebrews also helps us see Jesus’s relatability:
“Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.” (2:17-18)
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (4:15)
“He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness.” (5:2)
We have a Savior who relates to us in our weakness and temptation. Yet, unlike Taylor, he is without sin. In the ways he leads us and cares for us, he will not lead us into sin.
And the Scriptures also speak of the love that led God to come to us.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son…” (John 3:16)
“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
When our teenage girls seem to feel so close to Taylor, may our discipleship efforts point and invite our students into experiencing these spiritual realities.