Taylor Swift's Super Bowl 2024

     

    People are calling for women with influence to back President Biden for re-election November 2024. All eyes are focused and waiting for Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Beyounce, and TAYLOR SWIFT to make commercials endorsing Joe Biden. Why Taylor Swift? Because of her followers, the Swifties. There are hundreds of thousands of loyal Swifties who will do whatever the singer lead them to do. 

    Even people who are not Taylor Swift fans have been drawn into that circle of fans due to Swift's public love affair with the Chiefs football player Travis Kelce who is headed to the Super Bowl in 2024. Her presence at each of her boyfriend's football games has upset male sports fans. They do not like the lovey-dovey stuff injected into their manly-man hit-em-hard time that was once all testosterone time. Tayor and Kelce are making football SWEET. It didn't help much when his brother, Jason Kelce (Philedelphia Eagles) gave him a long hug, too long for some, after his team won their spot in the Super Bowl matchup.

 No matter where we go, no matter what we do, it seems things are always polarized and eventually insist a person choose the Democrat side or Republican side. And if things continue on in the pick-a-side polarization, religion will creep up as the finale battleground. Hopefully, after the Super Bowl, Taylor Swift hate will subside and we will not be a part of her romance/relationship any longer.

    During her time in the spotlight, her image was used using AI (Artificial Intelligence) in nude and other unflattering images online. The images were so 'real' looking, people believed they were actually photos of her. She asked/demanded the edited images be removed from the forums. 

    When a woman, stands up against a male dominated feild, she faces attacks questioning her 'femaleness." Michelle Obama is constantly being called a man and Talylor Swift is being portrayed as making Travis Kelce feminine. If she can make a 6'5" tight end into a little girl, then she must be a threat, I guess to others right?

    If the strong influential women I named at the beginning of this blog decide to step up and be vocal regarding their choice for President 2024, then you better believe, they will face scathing commentary on every aspect of their womanhood or lack thereof. 

    One woman whose story I admire is Joan of Arc. No, women being vocal in the political arena does not put them in the same league as Joan of Arc, but how and why she was eventually killed shows what a female leader or 'game changer' may encounter. The decision for a woman to LEAD is no small undertaking and sacrifice. Hillary Clinton can tell you a little about that.

    Being a TCM (Turner Classic Movie) fan, I spent this past Sunday night snuggled on my favorite couch to watch two versions of Joan of Arc. The first was a 1927 silent black and white version and the second was a foreign French version, also in black and white from 1937, I believe. Each movie had the English dialogue streaming on the bottom of the screen.

1920's Joan

I have seen many versions of Joan of Arc, but never one of the two listed above. These two versions were produced using only original court transcripts and interviews found by the people of that time.

Joan was tried by the Catholic Church with the English having a vested interest in the outcome of her trial due to the fact she was helping the king of France, their enemy at the time.

Joan broke all of the rules. She wore men clothing, led men into battle, wore armor, cut her hair, and worst of all; she believed she could bypass the church i.e. bishops and pope and speak directly with God and even the saints and angels (Michael). To the church this belief made her a heretic, and the church was going to excommunicate her if she did not recant that she was working under the counsel of God. God only spoke to the male clergy. She had gone too far and stepped into domains which were only for men. She was inprisoned and would not be released until she said she could not speak to nor hear from God.

    While in prison it was determined that her clothes may have been giving her stoic resolve, so they tried to get her to put on a dress, which she refused to do. Then it was determined since she vowed her virginity to God, she was receiving her strength from that. In the 1937 movie Joan told a priest that the guards had tried to rape her on three different occasions. Communion was paraded before her as a bargaining tool to get her to recant. Every form of coersion and threats were employed on Joan to get her to say she had lied about religous claims.

    After being tried just feet from the galleys (gallows), she recanted, but within hours changed her mind and said she was weakened by the fear of death but could not make God a liar and said her recanting was the true lie.

    Joan was burned at the stake with the church and governmental officials looking on. As soon as the flames began, you could see the doubt cross the faces of the men. They had to wonder, who would go to their death proclaiming to be a servant of God if they were not. This was the action, in like manner, of Jesus and later the apostles.

    I thought about all of the people who want to lead or be an online influencer. When glory, fame, fortune, and honor are the results it is easy to want to lead, but when ridicule, torture, and death are the result, no hand will go up to be chosen. Why would a beloved musician even consider continually showing up to watch her boyfriend play football when it stirred up so much hate and negativity towards her? Why would she publically support a presidential candidate when she knows it will cause people to hate her or have negative comments about her? Why would she put herself in a place to be publically ridiculed and demeaned? 

    Leaders are born and show up in places and ways we least expect and we never saw coming. Great leaders always pay a heavy price whether we are aware of it or not. If we were to read the biography of people we consider great, there will be pages filled with pain and often times uncertainty and pure defeat of the spirit at times.

    Joan of Arc was a woman who led but she was also a woman who followed God. The church saw her as a threat with her nonsense of hearing and talking to God on her own. Years would pass and what the church feared at that time would still come to pass, the Protestant movement. Protestants believed everyone should be able to read the Bible for themselves and pray to God on their own.

    Everybody is looking for a hero. We love heros. Sometimes, we have to look at our ownselves and ask ourselves are we a leader or a follower? Do we understand the price we ask others to pay for what we aren't able to step up and do, whether in politics or religion. So, now I must ask myself do I know when to lead and do I know when to follow? Joan's life ended at the age of 19 in a tragic blaze of fire and smoke. She stood behind her beliefs and cause to the end. All I can say is, I can understand why men would follow her into battle and at the same time view her as a threat because men would follow her into battle.

    Taylor Swift have her Swifties. And for a minute now, all eyes have been on Taulor Swift. What's next for her after the Super Bowl because she will be there and cameras are going to try to catch her every reaction during the game. How angry will football fans be at the air time given to Taylor Swift?