Susie O’Brien: Taylor Swift doesn’t need to be married, have kids to be a role model

Pop superstar Taylor Swift doesn’t need to be married or have kids to be a role model to young girls— being a self-made billionaire who writes her own songs is enough.

Travis Kelce, Taylor Swift’s boyfriend, is a bad role model for young boys.

He may be an excellent tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs in the National Football League.

But he’s 34, isn’t married, has no children and has had a revolving door of girlfriends.

Every time he steps out with a new woman on his arm, he glamorises promiscuity.

This raises questions about his stability, commitment, and even love itself.

Should we encourage young girls to see the “Kelce standard” as the norm, something to aspire to?

Surely not.

Just kidding.

No one accuses an unmarried, childless 34-year-old man with a complicated relationship history of being a bad role model.

They’d high-five him for being a legend.

But an American man called John Mac Ghlionn has just made the exact same criticism about singer Taylor Swift, Kelce’s partner.

In a column in US magazine Newsweek, he noted that “at 34, Swift remains unmarried and childless”.

He goes on to wonder “what kind of example this sets for young girls?”

A damn good one, I’d suggest.

Taylor Swift is joined on stage by her boyfirend Travis Kelce at her London concert. Picture: Gareth Cattermole.

Swift is a self-made billionaire pop star who writes her own songs, performs sellout shows and changes the economy of entire nations just flying in.

At Swift’s shows Prince William takes selfies, Paul McCartney pops in for a jam and Julia Roberts brings her kids.

Mac Ghlionn can’t attack her for her professional achievements, so he’s deployed the same missiles aimed at successful women for decades.

He’s attacked her for her personal life: for not being married, for not having children, and for having too many boyfriends.

No one says the same thing about men.

Although the same criticisms apply to Kelce, no one’s said it about him, or any of Swift’s other boyfriends like Joe Jonas or Harry Styles.

There’s a long and sorry history of successful women being portrayed as lesser beings because they are single or childless. The suggestion is that they are somehow incomplete. Just a little bit sad.

Taylor Swift doesn’t need to be married or have children to be successful. Picture: Gareth Cattermole.

Remember when former Prime Minister Julia Gillard was described as “deliberately barren” by a male politician? The nasty little exchange was sparked by her empty fruit bowl which was seen as a symbol of her barren womb.

Actor Jennifer Aniston had the hot bod we all wanted and lots of great acting roles, but every time she broke up with a partner she was reminded she was alone, childless and getting old. Tick tock.

Kylie Minogue was put through the same paces, even though she couldn’t have kids because she had treatment for breast cancer at 36.

She wasn’t even able to celebrate making it to 50 – not bad for a cancer survivor – without being reminded in trashy magazine headlines that she was “Single at 50”.

It’s time to stop the bickering and bitching between the breeders and the barren. Or the singles and the smug marrieds, as Bridget Jones called them.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reports that one quarter of Australian women will never have children and by 2031 the number of couples without children will overtake those with children.

Who knows? Maybe those without kids may have spent years trying but didn’t have any luck conceiving.

Whether women have children or get married is nobody’s business. Picture: Carlos Alvarez.

Maybe they’ve met the right one but they don’t want to add to the planet’s population and are happy with pot plants instead.

Or maybe they’ve got their hands full with a fur baby or are happy to be a proud member of the Rich Aunty Club instead of the Poor Parent Club.

Or maybe they never felt the slightest bit maternal and this isn’t going to change as a result of drunk family members every Christmas telling them not to “leave it too late because the clock is ticking”.

None of this is anyone else’s damn business.

Shame on Newsweek for publishing views that are sexist, misogynist and offensive to every single female and a lot of males as well.

The Taylor Swift put-down written by a middle-aged white male was followed by a response written by a seven-year-old black girl called Amaya Grace Montgomery.

Amaya, whose mother is the director of audience at Newsweek, wrote: “You don’t have to be married and have kids to be a good role model. To be a good role model, you have to be kind, sweet, generous and smart.”

(Sorry Amaya, your mommy needs a new job that doesn’t rely on putting down women to attract readers.)

Getting a byline in a proper magazine doesn’t make you a writer.

And it doesn’t mean you’ve got anything worthwhile to say.

Mac Ghlionn should stick to writing about aliens, men’s sperm quality and humans who commit crimes in their sleep, and leave women alone.

Susie O’Brien is a Saturday Herald Sun columnist

Originally published as Susie O’Brien: Taylor Swift doesn’t need to be married, have kids to be a role model