What's Behind the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce Conspiracy Theories?

Taylor Swift has inspired more than her fair share of conspiracy theories in her nearly 20-year career. There have been stories about her beef with Katy Perry, her on-again/off-again feud with Kanye West (and with Kim Kardashian during her marriage to West), seemingly endless allusions in song lyrics to past men she’s been romantically linked to, and, bafflingly enough, labyrinthine theories that Swift is secretly queer. The latter family of theories always boggled my mind the most because I can’t think of a more expressly heterosexual or heteronormative figure in culture than Taylor Swift, but no matter! Now that Swift has been appearing publicly with Kansas City Chiefs football player Travis Kelce, the conspiracy theories have been popping up with a fury.

Part of this is likely due to there being no official response or statement from the couple that clears that up either way. That’s open season for the internet to spitball plenty of theories. While I’m sure there are lots of true believers out there who have moved quickly to cement the couple in real-person-fanfic, the conspiracy theories all seem to agree that the relationship is “fake” to some degree or another. Wired notes a bunch of business reasons for the couple to exist, though they appear to place primary control and agency with Swift. CNN also weighed in with possibilities, seeming to make the same assumption (that Swift is primarily in control), but at least they note that Swift is an adult who can date whomever she wants. It’s worth noting that once again, suspicions about a relationship are laid at the feet of the woman while the man is assumed to be blameless. Fascinating that we imagine a woman’s agency only when it suits a narrative of impure or ulterior motives.

I can’t tell you whether Taylor Swift or Travis Kelce are in a romantic relationship with one another, and neither can you. Short of the people themselves coming forward, all we can offer is speculation. What we do know is that this apparent coupling has meant big business for the NFL. What we also know is that Swift and Kelce are names on everyone’s lips. That they’re being talked about so much is always good for them and they can both raise profiles and promote projects through this. Discussions about who is more famous or more powerful are pretty moot; they’re both rich white celebrities benefitting from this relationship. Taken as products that make money separately, it only makes sense to try profiting off two fanbases at once. Fans of one person are exposed to the work of the other and everyone makes lots of money.

As much as I believe these conspiracy theories to be overblown and that they seem to assume some especially shadowy motives about Swift, I think it’s understandable to see these theories flying around. Audiences are evolving and becoming more attuned to the machinations of capitalism we call “the entertainment industry.” We know on some level that what we see is not entirely the truth, so when these sudden couplings come together, we fly off at every possible reason for it. The answer is money, business, and capitalism as usual. Whether Swift and Kelce are “really together” is immaterial in a culture that prizes economic performance above all. Who knows if they’re really into each other, but they and their associated machinery make money off images that suggest they could be.

The apparent assumption that Kelce is some mannequin being moved into place by the svengali Swift indicates that celebrity conspiracy theories don’t communicate a version of the truth as much as they communicate the theorist’s biases. It’s here we find the social weight to all the gossip theorizing: it illustrates the cultural assumptions of the moment. Of course, the woman, that vixen, is pulling one over on the poor benighted jock who simply can’t know any better. The NFL laughs all the way to the bank while we trade bias-affirming fantasies when at the end of the day, it’s just two businesses making money together.