In the modern day we have become obsessed with blaming individuals for the global climate crisis, but is pointing fingers at the worst offenders really the best idea, or should we be pointing fingers at the huge corporations which are contributing so much more. Taylor Swift’s private jet usage has been one of the key arguments in attempts to bring her achievements down, and although her private jet usage is more than any of us could imagine, Swift is currently on tour, and for security reasons cannot take commercial flights.
Celebs are often under the microscope for the lavish lifestyles they lead, and us regular folk watch on, reeking of jealousy and critique of the environmental impact that celebrities have. When it comes to carbon emissions, Taylor Swift’s private jet usage is like blaming a single raindrop for a flood. In 2022, several accounts on X (formerly Twitter), claimed Swift was the biggest celebrity CO2 polluter of the year, soon after a spokesperson for the popstar clarified that her private jet is frequently loaned out to other individuals, but as the Eras tour continues, Swift is still receiving this backlash.
According to website My Climate Tracker, Swift was not even in the top 30 of celebrities with the highest private jet usage. After reading this, it is difficult to not just assume that the people sharing these criticisms of Taylor Swift are simply sharing their dislike towards her, and trying to diminish her success, rather than campaign against unregulated private jet usage, and should be targeting the likes of Kim Kardashian and Travis Scott, who were the top 2 celebrity private jet users according to My Climate Tracker.
Is this once again showing the difficulty of female celebrities and artists to be authentically themselves and share information with the public without being criticised enormously for it? This seems like another point to add on to the list of criticisms that Swift has receive throughout her career. She has had to defend her romantic life repeatedly, as people felt that writing songs about her previous relationships in some way diminished her talent, yet she has inspired many through her varied catalogue of music, and continues to do so. After all, the so-called ‘Swifties’ have not forgotten the backlash that Swift herself revealed after a male artist (Kanye West) called her a ‘bitch’ and displayed a wax figure of her naked body in the music video for his song ‘Famous’. This starts to paint a picture of what the industry and fame itself is like for women, and showcases how truly deafening misogyny can be in celebrity discourse. So, are these persistent attacks on Swift’s air miles really us becoming more and more aware of the state of the climate crisis, or is this just another to add to the list of reasons that the public come up with to bring negativity towards successful women.