Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has a massive problem — a staggering lack of self-awareness.

Of course, that critique of Swift isn't novel. For years, Swift's critics have argued that she sees herself as a perpetual victim — of manipulative lovers, traitorous friends, cutthroat enemies, and unscrupulous music executives. They've also observed that Swift appears to sometimes cruelly and publicly punish those who betray or slight her, particularly through her songwriting.

This portrayal could be convincing at times. After all, some of Swift's biggest hits, like "Bad Blood," "Mean," and "Karma," are about score settling. Yet Swift also managed to balance her lust for vengeance with honest vulnerability or genuine growth in songs like "Anti-Hero" and "The Manuscript." 

Not this time around. Showgirl features one song ("Eldest Daughter") that earnestly rejects toxic internet culture, but also two other tracks ("Actually Romantic" and "CANCELLED!”) that channel the worst parts of that culture, including mocking, humiliation, and a hot take that utterly misreads the gravity of the political moment.

The songs offer Swift's critics fresh evidence that their assessment of the billionaire pop star is accurate, at least sometimes. Sadly for Swift, who seems genuinely kind when she's not beholden to grievance, the stark contrast between these songs demonstrates that she can easily become the very internet troll she decries. 

How did we get here, Taylor? 

There's an endearing scene in Swift's new album release film, The Official Release Party of a Showgirl, wherein she explains the premise of the piano ballad "Eldest Daughter." The song, she says, is about how the internet is a space that rewards cheap shots and callousness, a state of mind that can warp our lives and relationships. 

She writes: "Everybody's so punk on the internet / Everyone's unbothered 'til they're not / Every joke's just trolling and memes / Sad as it seems, apathy is hot / Everybody's cutthroat in the comments / Every single hot take is cold as ice" 

Swift wants to make a promise, presumably to her fiancé, Travis Kelce, that she'll never treat him so carelessly. Cue the mostly tender chorus: "But I'm not a bad bitch / And this isn't savage / But I'm never gonna let you down / I'm never gonna leave you out / So many traitors / Smooth operators / But I'm never gonna break that vow / I'm nеver gonna leave you now, now, now" 

Swift may regret the awful, racially coded word choice of "bad bitch" and "savage," but the song's sincerity against the backdrop of cultural viciousness she describes in "Eldest Daughter" is welcome. 

Still, Swift's commitment is clearly just to Kelce, because "Actually Romantic" couldn't be an uglier song if it tried. It's designed to shame and mortify its target, reportedly the Grammy-winning singer and producer Charli XCX. Her sin? Apparently, writing a song, rumored to be about Swift, about a girl who "taps my insecurities." 

The track "Sympathy is a Knife" appears on Charli XCX's smash 2024 album Brat, which curiously also includes a song entitled "Everything is Romantic." 

Charli XCX doesn't dedicate "Sympathy is a Knife" to ruthless insults, even if she dislikes the girl in question, and roots for her breakup (ostensibly referring to the demise of Swift's relationship with the 1975's frontman Matty Healy). Instead, she's grappling with a "spiral" of emotions unleashed by being near this person. 

Charli XCX sings, alarmingly, about graphically killing herself, adding: "Volatilе at war with my dialogue / I'd say that there was a God if thеy could stop this / Wild voice tearin' me apart / I'm so apprehensive now" 

As a journalist who's written about the intersection of suicide and digital culture for more than a decade, I can think of few things more quintessentially representative of the toxic internet than someone telling another person who feels suicidal or worthless that they, in fact, are insignificant. 

"Actually Romantic" may not explicitly reference Charli XCX's despair, but it proceeds to methodically humiliate its subject: 

"Hadn't thought of you in a long time / But you keep sending me funny valentines / And I know you think it comes off vicious / But it's precious, adorable / Like a toy chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse / That's how much it hurts / How many times has your boyfriend said / 'Why are we always talking 'bout her?'"

Swift said in an interview with Amazon Music that the song is about realizing someone is engaging in a one-sided adversarial relationship with you and that the negative attention can be a form of flattery. But in the song, she suggests a sexual motive too ("feels like you're flirting with me"), and declares: "No man has ever loved me like you do." 

Perhaps unintentionally, Swift revives a homophobic trope sometimes popular amongst middle and high school students that if one girl doesn't like another, it's because her aversion is a disguised crush.  

But even if "Actually Romantic" isn't about Charli XCX, Swift spends two-and-a-half minutes dispensing spiteful cheap shots — a more lyrical version of the kind you'd find between two people at war with each other online. 

One explanation for Swift's behavior might be the first line of "Actually Romantic," in which she reveals that the song's subject privately called her "Boring Barbie." The other half of the riddle is buried in "Eldest Daughter" when Swift sings: "I have been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness / I've been dying just from trying to seem cool" 

If you've spent your personal and professional life aspiring for both popular and critical acceptance, the insult "Boring Barbie" could feel maximally painful. It may not be in Swift's nature to walk away from the makings of a feud, but what if she had? Or what if, instead of trying to belittle, she wrote a song in the vein of "Eldest Daughter," exercising empathy or compassion toward someone who's clearly suffering? "Eldest Daughter" might have you believe that's the kind of world Swift wants to live in. 

The weaponization of CANCEL! culture

Unfortunately, Showgirl offers competing visions of this world. 

In the song, "CANCELLED!" Swift tries to turn a hot take about being at the center of scandal, real or not, into an anthem for people who experience public wrath. 

Social media has guessed who Swift may have in mind for this track. Maybe it's the actress Blake Lively, who's currently embroiled in a lawsuit over sexual harassment against the actor and director Justin Baldoni. Perhaps it's for Brittany Mahomes, wife of Kelce's NFL Chiefs teammate Patrick Mahomes, because she took considerable criticism for publicly supporting President Donald Trump in 2022. 

Regardless, "CANCELLED!" looks at the controversial concept of cancel culture and seems to buy into the narrative that any effort to hold a public figure accountable for their words and actions is tantamount to shunning them from society. “CANCELLED!" can’t be bothered by the reality that maybe some people are called out or questioned for good reason. Instead, the song treats cancellation like a badge of honor, and a path to personal empowerment and dark fellowship.

Swift sings: "Now they've broken you like they've broken me / But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp / And now you know exactly who your friends are (You know who we are) / We're the ones with matching scars" 

Swift said she views this song as a story about navigating terrible periods of undeserved scrutiny and coming out stronger, but Swift's take on so-called cancellation could not be hotter. It misreads a grave moment in political and pop culture, as the Trump administration routinely threatens and tries to silence speech it hates. 

If fans are waiting for Swift to recognize how the weaponization of cancel culture has played into this dynamic, and then align herself with fundamental human and democratic rights, as she's pointedly done in the past, it seems they'll be waiting for a long time. 

Swift is right that the internet is often lousy. But on Showgirl, Swift's rejection of that culture seems useful only when it serves her interests and vendettas.

This article reflects the opinion of the writer.