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This post contains discussion of body image issues, eating disorders, and sexual assault.
By now, you’re probably familiar with the controversy surrounding Taylor Swift’s rumored romance with The 1975’s lead singer, Matty Healy.
The two were first linked together earlier this month. While neither has publicly commented on the reports, they have done little to dispel the speculation and have been spotted looking incredibly cozy with one another in recent weeks.
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Taylor’s public affiliation with the British star has caused upset among her fans due to Matty’s long history of problematic comments and behavior.
In the same podcast, Matty casually admitted to masturbating to Black women being “brutalized” on a hardcore pornography website.
Despite her fans being vocal about their concerns with regard to Matty, Taylor has remained silent — which has seen her get branded “another complicit white woman.” Taylor's fans have canceled their preorders for her upcoming album and sold their tickets to her tour as a direct response to her association with Matty.
Matty even took a swipe at Taylor herself in 2016, when he vehemently denied rumors that he had been in a relationship with her and insisted that it would be “emasculating” to be Taylor Swift’s boyfriend.
And it appears that some of Matty’s close associates hold similarly negative views of his rumored new girlfriend.
Dasha and Anna are fierce critics of liberalism, feminism, and the “woke” movement, and Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, and Ann Coulter are among the guests to have appeared on their podcast.
In addition to being seen in the podcast’s merch, Matty is good friends with Dasha — who used to date Adam Friedland, the host of the podcast where Matty made several problematic statements just three months ago.
Matty was seen hanging out with Dasha in March of this year when a fan submitted a photo of them together to gossip Instagram page Deux Moi.
But Matty’s continued support of Dasha’s podcast amid his relationship with Taylor has raised eyebrows, as it was noted that Dasha and Anna have been less than complimentary of Taylor in the past — especially after the release of her Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, in 2020.
In Red Scare’s podcast episode “Make Americana Great Again,” Dasha and Anna made cruel comments about Taylor’s body, sexual assault case, and even her mom, Andrea Swift, in a 30-minute tirade.
The two women branded the documentary “very masterful propaganda” as they called Taylor “literally the walking, talking embodiment of liberalism in that she’s a person who cannot acknowledge their capacity for monstrousness or evil, which is the source of all their problems.”
When discussing Taylor’s brief dabble with politics that is shown in the documentary, the podcast hosts made specific reference to Taylor’s concern that then-president Donald Trump would call her out after she sent a tweet expressing democratic views.
Dasha laughed hysterically as Anna mimicked Taylor by saying: “She was like: ‘The president’s gonna come for me, he is going to throw me in one of those dreamer detention camps. He’s gonna separate me from my Miss Piggy mother!’”
Both women went on to praise Trump for how “well” he handled Taylor’s tweet, adding: “You come for the king you better not miss, Taylor.”
They later shared their “conspiracy theory” that Taylor’s dad is a Trump supporter, “and she’s probably also secretly a Trump supporter.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, both Anna and Dasha admitted that they “gasped” in disgust when Taylor revealed her current clothes size as they agreed that they don’t believe that Taylor ever had an eating disorder, which the singer opened up about in Miss Americana.
Dasha said: “I don’t think she was ever anorexic, I don’t buy it.” Anna agreed: “I kind of don’t, either.”
They went on to theorize that Taylor’s metabolism had just “caught up with her,” and that the same thing happened to Rihanna as she hit her late 20s — but “Rihanna pulls it off better.”
Elsewhere in the podcast, the women claimed that Taylor looked her best when she was “extremely underweight” and speculated that she’d got “breast implants and ass injections” to “balance out” her body.
Dasha and Anna also lambasted Taylor for “ruining the life of some totally inconsequential DJ” for a “minor grope” as they discussed her 2017 sexual assault trial.
The trial saw a jury rule in Taylor’s favor after former DJ David Mueller filed a defamation case against her because she accused him of reaching under her skirt and grabbing her butt during a 2013 meet-and-greet.
Dasha and Anna went on to make jibes about Taylor’s sex appeal as they made crude remarks about her genitals and theorized that she “doesn’t want to fuck” before concluding: “She has whatever the opposite of a libido is.”
They later theorized that Taylor “essentially” wants to call Kanye West “the N-word” as they argued that her feminism is solely “a direct response to Black masculinity." They even referred to Taylor as a “Nazi” as the podcast episode came to an end.
Anna and Dasha ultimately concluded that Taylor needs to acknowledge that she is “incredibly privileged and incredibly monstrous.”
After the details of this episode resurfaced online, Matty’s support for the podcast and close connection to Dasha while in a relationship with Taylor has left many baffled.
“Once again, no idea why she continues to date him. She has no self respect whatsoever,” one person wrote on a Reddit forum. Someone else added: “Can’t imagine my boyfriend being friends with people that would mock me in any way and even worse my mom.”
“And they didn‘t even make fun about her being a privileged rich white woman, but rather about her looks. '-' Apparently calling Andrea 'Miss Piggy,’ which is so derogatory that I actually feel bad for them,” someone else commented.
Others pointed out that Matty himself has criticized Taylor in the past and called out her performative activism during a 2020 appearance on The Green Room podcast.
In the conversation, Matty did caveat that he is a fan of Taylor’s craft but said that she was an example of a celebrity who doesn’t do the work when it comes to social issues. After name-checking her, he said: “They’ll wait until something's been workshopped-woke enough to feel like you're making a statement when you’re not.”
Performative activism and white feminism have been two of the biggest criticisms that Taylor has faced throughout her career, and the scrutiny has only intensified amid her relationship with Matty.
Just last week, Taylor was accused of being “insidiously calculated” when she announced a collaboration with Ice Spice three months after Matty made racist comments about her on The Adam Friedland Show.
Adam later fueled the theory that Taylor only worked with the rapper because of what was said on his podcast, and many were left horrified by Taylor seemingly finding a way to profit from a woman of color after her apparent boyfriend’s scandal.
Meanwhile, Matty recently dismissed the backlash that his controversial comments have faced by insisting that those who have been offended or hurt by his problematic remarks are “deluded.”
He added to the New Yorker on Monday: “You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt.”
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
The National Eating Disorders Association helpline is 1-800-931-2237; for 24/7 crisis support, text “NEDA” to 741741.
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