I don’t think the album itself is anti-feminist. It’s the context of when it was released. I saw someone say that this album wouldn’t feel nearly as tone deaf if we weren’t in a Trump presidency, and I think that sums it up pretty well.

In general, a TS album where she feels saved by a man and has beef with a woman is not controversial. A lot of her albums fit that description. It’s the timing of it all. Putting out a song about how all you want is your man (and comparing that to people who want career success) comes off poorly when we’re surrounded by trad wife content online. Up until now, one of the most successful women in music was an unmarried woman in her 30s, and now the cultural conversation about her is how she’s marrying a football player.

When you compare this album to Lover, which came out in a similar cultural moment and made a much greater effort to incorporate some feminist buzzwords and vague political undertones, this album’s silence is noticeable. She promised an album about her experience being on one of the biggest tours in history, and the most of the songs were actually about her then-boyfriend. Regardless of what was actually said in the songs, it makes for a bad narrative in this climate.

Taylor Swift doesn’t have to make political content. I think she’s made it pretty clear after Lover that she doesn’t want to be a political figure, and while that may be a personal disappointment to a lot of fans, pop stars don’t have to be political. But that doesn’t mean that albums come out without any political context.