It’s official: the world seems to have a deep-seated aversion to love. This isn’t just a feeling based on the modern dating landscape’s complexities, but also a tangible reality witnessed in the public’s reaction to happy, famous couples. A photo of a celebrity couple displaying affection often leads to a flurry of memes, hypercritical analysis, and tweets dissecting their style and body language. This phenomenon is amplified tenfold when Taylor Swift is involved.
At the recent US Open, Swift and her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, were spotted engaged in a passionate display of affection. They were cuddling, kissing, singing, dancing, and even air-guitaring to The Darkness’s “I Believe in a Thing Called Love.” A viral video documenting their antics sparked a tidal wave of online mockery and derision. Comments like “Incredibly cringe” and suggestions that Swift’s happiness was a sign of “deep and incurable sadness” filled social media. The couple was labeled “nauseating” and their relationship deemed a “showmance.”
This reaction is disheartening for several reasons. Swift and Kelce’s love is palpable, evident in the way they look at each other. This genuine connection is exactly what allows them to be openly affectionate, a trait absent in many celebrity couples who maintain a carefully crafted, often overly serious public persona. Their unbridled joy is refreshing, particularly considering Swift’s status as one of the most famous people on the planet. She has endured relentless online misogyny and slut-shaming regarding her love life, with her dating choices becoming a source of public scrutiny and even parody.
Given this history, Swift could easily choose to keep her relationship with Kelce private. This is precisely what she did with her previous boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. Yet, here she is, proudly displaying her love for all to see. This isn’t the first time Swift has embraced a more unfiltered, even ‘cringeworthy,’ approach to love. Remember the infamous 2016 photos of her and Tom Hiddleston swimming in the sea with Hiddleston wearing an “I ♥ TS” tank top? Hiddleston later clarified the shirt was meant as a joke, but it couldn’t quell the online backlash, with the display being labeled “pathetic.”
But isn’t it precisely in our vulnerability and passionate expressions of love that we’re all a little bit ‘pathetic’? Shouldn’t we embrace that, for our own sakes? We all remember the vitriol directed at Timothée Chalamet after photos of him passionately kissing his then-girlfriend Lily-Rose Depp on a yacht went viral. Chalamet, in an interview, later admitted feeling embarrassed and questioning if it was a “PR stunt.” He lamented, “Do you think I’d want to look like that in front of all of you?!”
Swift and Kelce might feel a similar sense of embarrassment now that their US Open singalong has been immortalized online. But they shouldn’t. In a world where celebrity lives and relationships often feel staged and performative, their genuine display of affection is a welcome reminder that love can be messy, spontaneous, and unabashedly joyful. Yes, Swift might be ‘cringeworthy’ in the eyes of some, but at least she’s free to be authentically herself.
