At a Starbucks somewhere in the world recently, an employee decided it would be funny or clever to temporarily rename some of the menu items on a chalkboard, under the heading “Which Taylor Swift ex are you?” The choice of theme must have been influenced by press reports that the singer had broken up with Joe Alwyn, her partner of six years. The selection of beverages included some of Swift’s known and alleged celebrity lovers: Harry Styles, Tom Hiddleston, John Mayer, Calvin Harris, Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal, and of course, Alwyn – with two question marks behind his name, referring to the speculation.

            The drinks may have been delicious, but the gimmick was arguably somewhere on the spectrum of bad taste – not exactly hateful or hurtful but not nice, either. Swift has dated a lot – so what? There’s also a case to be made about how, if this gag featured reversed genders, there would likely be outcry about how the women were objectified as consumables. Regardless of gender, few would want to be on a public bad-memories / bed-notches list like that, reduced to nothing but ex status.

Starbucks has formally apologized for the stunt. Anyway, in the larger scheme of things, this is all just coffee froth.

            In the neither large-nor-small scheme of things is what was behind both the concept of the gimmick and the offense taken to it, which has something to do with desirous women.

I’ve never been a Swiftie, but that has more to do with being out of touch with current pop music and less to do with what she makes. I’ve certainly enjoyed what I’ve encountered of her work – like the sardonic “Blank Space”, with its frank lyrics about having “a long list of ex-lovers” and no saccharine about what it’s like to be involved with her – and was really impressed when I learned through a documentary just how talented she is. She is also a woman with staying power in a merciless industry, which requires a set of skills quite apart from artistry alone.

She also happens to be someone whose romantic streak is widely-known and widely-discussed. Many women have been dismissed because of, or even buried by, gossip about their personal lives. Swift manages to distil it into her work unapologetically. She’s had her heart broken; she breaks hearts; she longs for a fairytale love; she just wants passionate and myriad experiences. She is like most of us, whether we admit it or not. It’s all in her work, and it doesn’t take a deep dive to see it. And because it’s in her work, it gives expression to other people’s secrets, choices and longings too. This is why she has a fandom.

Those lovers (real and imagined – by her and by others) of hers have already been given avatars as subjects of songs. Nameless, sparkling with rumour and provocative, as muses they are far more interesting than randomly assigned beverages. Besides which – when we listen to lyrics we identify with, in Swift’s songs or anyone’s, we are always the heroine-villainess, the narrator – and not a lapsed love turned muse, as redundant as melted ice-cubes.

An edited version appeared in The New Indian Express in April 2023. “The Venus Flytrap” appears in Chennai’s City Express supplement.