Swifties, Sisterhood & Sassy Cats

Now that Tay Tay has spoken, childless cat ladies everywhere have their own meow moment in history. Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Kamala Harris’s presidential bid in US came like her lyrics: a bit of backstory, personal interiority, performative intelligence, a catchy refrain. An Insta post that was immediately declared a chartbuster with over 2.5mn likes in under half an hour. And while women tapped their feet and swayed to the post, not many men were caught dancing.
The uncle-ji lot had a collective meltdown. Swift’s words, which put an arm around another woman and were, therefore, construed as too feminist, brought out the spluttering stammerer in them. Trump went from ‘I have no idea’ to ‘she will pay a price’. While some, like Elon Musk, himself a father of 12, offered to impregnate Swift, others, like commentator David Rubin, made vague threats of violence.
And JD Vance, whose infamous words on ‘a bunch of childless cat ladies’ made up the emotional upholstery of the post, dismissed her as ‘fundamentally disconnected’. All these men on one side and just a Swift on the other! But who heads an army of Swifties, can carry a tune and looks better in a suit? Swift, of course.
From George Clooney asking Biden to step aside to Swift’s open support of Harris, US presidential polls have had their share of arty interference. Why shouldn’t political battlefields weaponise star power? Swift’s post went down like a sergeant’s orders through her fan base, mainly young women voters and older kids pretending to be her in front of the mirror and singing into their hairbrush. The sound of them saluting smartly and clicking their heels in obedience carried its own unending digital echo.
This is stardom toiling at the other end, to carve out a future. When community work is backed with hope in heart and fingers crossed by the glam brigade…it’s IMAX 70mm societal give-back on a Dolby sound system.
In India, where divorces are yet to have their own shehnai, sangeet and mehndi, we prioritise kids over cats. Only babies can save a bad marriage: an old Indian saying. Investing in pets that won’t look after us when we are old was never recommended by our ancestors. Kids can get us catheters, cats can’t.
Most VIPs here are too busy ingratiating themselves with political authorities so as to nab key posts. Our superstars, despite our readiness to deify them and build temples in their name, are careful what they vent, lest a future Parliament seat is denied to them. Our laments seldom gain a celeb chorus. Which is why armrests in our planes still fall into male kingdoms.
Swift, whose song Bigger Than the Whole Sky is believed to address pregnancy loss, cheekily takes on the ‘childless’ tag in Vance’s disparaging comment. The idea that women are on Earth to breed more men is a biological misunderstanding that only makes midwives and obstetricians rich.
Swift’s songs, clothes and dating history are all on record, easily making her this century’s Pied Piper. She did, JLT, make singlehood and sisterhood two hoods too hot. As Benjamin Button, the blue-eyed Ragdoll cat in her arms in the photo with her post, said: ‘Purr.’
Feminism in the #MeToo age has a controlled, self-aware air about it. ‘Consent’ is a far more complex dictionary than any man ever thought. In the aftermath of all things sexist – from pay imparity to lack of period leave – women are currently locked in a tight embrace with each other across the globe. It is not just singer Selena Gomez saying Swift ‘is like a big sister to me’ or singer Gracie Abrams’s gratitude to Swift for advice on back pain, women going the extra mile for each other is a scenic hand-holding.
The Malayalam film industry, convulsed by its own seismic sexism, is a study in modern sisterhood, where women standing up against powerful men are already dismantling an ancient gender equation. The culture of female silence is turning into a sepia print; round, round rotis are now made by machines. The love of your life comes and goes, but how to tap into a sorority? Now women look across a crowded room and hope to meet the eyes of a sis.
Swift, meanwhile, has moved on. She marched out of the MTV Video Music Awards tied with Beyoncé for lifetime honours. It’s all in a day’s work for her, to bring all the single ladies under one roof. And to play king-maker. Or queen-maker.
‘Pop’ goes the patriarchy, to misquote a nursery rhyme – strong, lippy women are the new caped crusaders. Swift-ly and steadily, they do their bit for other women and then go back home to their pets. Managing somehow to resist kindly offers from strangers to inseminate them.