How to process disillusionment and disappointment in a public figure

December 23, 2023 6:22 AM

A young friend and passionate environmentalist is struggling to reconcile the fact that her idol Taylor Swift is a major contributor to CO2 emissions. Meanwhile I am on year 6 of trying to separate Harry Potter from JK Rowling and her profound bigotry, something that brings me more sadness than I want to admit. What could my friend and I read together to help us process what is essentially grief over how disappointing these significant public figures have become? Thank you.
posted by The Adventure Begins to Media & Arts (20 answers total)

Best answer: Are you looking for ways to continue finding joy in the work of Taylor Swift and Rowling in particular or is it a more general question about finding meaning in creative work despite problematic creators?
posted by Zumbador at 6:49 AM on December 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Swift uses a private jet and I'd bet most of the miles are for work. Every superstar musician flies to most performances. All consumption has a cost and superstar music is not exempt. Would I go see Beyonce if I could? Of course. But most of the music, song, dance, art, etc., I consume is more local, far less extravagant and has a lower carbon footprint.

I think it's useful for Climate activists to call out significant fossil fuel use wherever it occurs, and for individuals to react, esp. if it means they fly less and consume less.
posted by theora55 at 6:50 AM on December 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: The idea that individual actions are the driver of CO_2 emissions is the product of a propaganda campaign launched by British Petroleum in the early '00s to distract the public from holding the fossil-fuel industry responsible for global warming emissions.

(I can't help you on the Rowling thing though.)
posted by heatherlogan at 6:59 AM on December 23, 2023 [39 favorites]

Best answer: I can’t help with Taylor Swift but this helped my friend who was an HP fanatic:

https://redgoldsparkspress.com/projects/7180180
posted by lepus at 7:22 AM on December 23, 2023 [6 favorites]

Response by poster: Are you looking for ways to continue finding joy in the work of Taylor Swift and Rowling in particular or is it a more general question about finding meaning in creative work despite problematic creators?

Both, I think. My friend misses feeling like she could always rely on Taylor Swift to be a source of good in the world, so she needs more help with pedestal syndrome.

I think I need more help with the latter but certainly with a focus on HP because I desperately miss being able to take refuge in that world. For some reason I'm much better at separating the art from the artist for music and have a playlist on Spotify called, "Great Music Made by People Who Suck", which gets bigger every year lol
posted by The Adventure Begins at 7:28 AM on December 23, 2023

Yes, the root of this is pinning your own happiness on the actions of someone you don't really know at all, and who is in fact getting filthy rich off of your fandom. And probably they aren't so great, how would you even know?

Sometimes people get hurt on their way to learning how to form healthier relationships, and the main thing to do is move on and try not to make that mistake with others in the future.

Here's an article about ending problematic parasocial relationships that may help, here's some textbook information on how parasocial relationships can negatively affect our well being, and how to mitigate.

posted by SaltySalticid at 7:44 AM on December 23, 2023 [12 favorites]

Response by poster: Quick adjustment: I think that for the purposes of this Ask I would like to focus on resources like the ones shared by lepus and saltysalticid to help process this specific kind of disappointment in and alienation from a body of creative work and its creator in GENERAL, not so much the specifics of Swift or Rowling. Thank you.
posted by The Adventure Begins at 8:26 AM on December 23, 2023

I think you might explore the 2023 book Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer. I haven't read it, but it was recommended to me and is a book length expansion and update of an article she wrote in the Paris Review in 2017 called "What do we do with the art of monstrous men?"
posted by lizard music at 8:44 AM on December 23, 2023 [11 favorites]

I was just about to post that, lizard music! The Adventure Begins, you might want to have a listen/read here--When art you love was made by 'Monsters': A critic lays out the 'Fan's Dilemma'--to see whether it might speak to your question.
posted by MonkeyToes at 8:47 AM on December 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

I found Daniel Radcliffe's response for the Trevor Project helpful.
posted by plonkee at 10:25 AM on December 23, 2023 [5 favorites]

Mod note: Many comments removed. Gentle reminder that the OP is asking for things they and a friend can read, not your particular opinion on the artists mention in the post.
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 12:07 PM on December 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

I relate to this as a Smiths fan who knows what Morrissey is now. I was never a super fan, exactly, but he's pretty awful! I heard someone (maybe on Slate's Culture Gabfest?) say that he still listens to the Smiths, the older works, but not the newer works by Morrissey that would profit him more. So the idea is not to invest in the person or creator, but focus on the works, and also not to spend money that would continue to profit the creator. I think this stuff is particularly challenging when the creators were especially meaningful to us as children and young people, because we feel like our childhood nostalgia is tainted.

Building on what MiraK said, I want to suggest reading this opinion piece in the NY Times (gift article link) by the person who started the "All Your Faves Are Problematic" tumblr when she was a senior in high school.

I don't know what will resonate with you about this post, but a few things stick out to me: we tend to be more disappointed by women creators than men (why do we expect women to be closer to perfect? is there internalized misogyny at work?); and, focusing on the problems of creators whose works we love is maybe not the best use of our time and energy (which is to say, is it part of self-loathing? a way to avoid doing work to make the world better?).

Sometimes the real work is to accept as true things that seem to be contradictory, in our real lives and in the art we enjoy. For example: I love works by X artist, and X artist is in many ways not a great person. It's really okay if those things are both true, and you can stop fighting yourself and move on when you embrace this. Or even: I love works by artist Y, and, by enjoying these works, I am behaving inconsistently with my values of not contributing to Z social/environmental problem.
posted by bluedaisy at 12:29 PM on December 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

Re: JK Rowling. I own hard copies of the films and books. I try to avoid watching the movies on streaming platforms. I won’t watch the new series when it comes out. But I have a deep love for the characters and the art. One of the things that has helped me has been to engage with some of the fanfiction - a lot of it is shockingly good - which reminds me that the people who love the world and the characters are good and hopeful people. I particularly enjoy some of the works that are post-war and show the mains grown up and getting therapy to reconcile the fact that all of the adults in their lives have failed them. YMMV.

Taylor’s PJ isn’t as difficult for me to reconcile. As others have mentioned, blaming individual action when really, it is an environment of capitalism and consumption and poor corporate regulation that bears much more fault. Also, Taylor is human and behaves as such. She doesn’t do it with the explicit intention of harm. The same cannot be said for JKR at this point.
posted by honeybee413 at 1:08 PM on December 23, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I'm listening to the "Monsters" book (and giving it to my brother for Xmas), and she quotes somebody who says (something like) part of becoming an adult is learning to accept that some contradictions can't be resolved by thinking more about them.
posted by rhizome at 1:12 PM on December 23, 2023 [10 favorites]

I am a big swift fan in that I love the music and admire the hustle, not that I’m cracking any secret codes or anything. But the way I justify it to myself is: if I were in her position, what would I do? I mean really in her position. I have a literal billion dollars and I cause an insane crowd wherever I go. I can’t travel commercial - I would literally shut down each airport everywhere I travelled. I would pick up stalkers. I would get no breaks or downtime as every entire flight would be a meet n greet. I have to stay healthy because I can’t get the flu and cancel a concert - not with all those fans who have flights / hotels booked in advance. And my schedule is nuts - concert in Brazil and then show up to Beyoncé’s premiere in London (non optional - she came to mine and I couldn’t do her LA premiere because I was performing). My schedule does not fit commercial flights. I’ve literally finished a concert and went right to my jet in costume to get to the next place. The temptation to just have my own jet since I have the means to do it would be too great. She’s only human after all.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:40 PM on December 23, 2023 [11 favorites]

Best answer: I don't have a link to it and am paraphrasing, but David Milch has posed the question: "Does X spin against their drive?"

Essentially, what he's proposing is to ask whether the person (or thing) distances or leans into its problematic behaviour, which is different to whether they cease their problematic behaviour, something Milch would probably declare impossible and against its nature.

So, in your two instances, Swift clearly is aware of her issues of adding to climate change but there is no way for her to do what she does without doing it the way she does. She couldn't, for example, get around by ship. She couldn't safely travel (for her or others) by non-private plane. She couldn't run a show without using electricity or play smaller venues that don't require screens and amplification. And, because completely stopping doing what she does would render her Not Taylor Swift, what she does is "her drive". But she spins against this drive by doing good in the world: signing up people to vote; encouraging business practices that are more artist-friendly; giving voice to left-leaning ideas, empowering young women, etc...

Rowling, as a counterpoint, does not only NOT spin against her drive, but refuses to even acknowledge that drive.

One of these artists is capable of introspection and self-examination and acts in ways to counteract their affect. The other does not.

Milch would argue that one is worthy of admiration and one of contempt and that this metric can be applied to all people as to whether or not they're worth an investment of your time.
posted by dobbs at 3:05 PM on December 23, 2023 [12 favorites]

Stuart Goldsmith is a UK comedian whose recent work has focused on climate change. His big point is that we often stop ourselves from doing anything about bad circumstances because we feel as though we are hypocritical if there is anything we do that isn't supportive of healing the planet. In his recent standup, he asks audience members to boldly state what "bad" things they do as a way to acknowledge that we can't be perfect but that we're still okay and worthy. I had seen his work on Twitter, so when I had the chance to see him at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, I jumped on it. I think that the link above will take you to clips of this work of his, which has helped me frame the issue of balancing the positive benefits of, say, seeing Taylor Swift in person vs the harm done by air flight. We each have to find our own criteria but Goldsmith helps make it less fraught.
posted by janey47 at 2:41 AM on December 24, 2023

This episode of the Our Opinions Are Correct podcast by Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz (both writers of genre fiction) does touch directly on Rowling, but it's also a more general look at the various strategies available to us for when the creator of something we enjoy turns out to be problematic.
posted by Zumbador at 5:38 AM on December 24, 2023

I have not read this, but: Under My Thumb: Songs That Hate Women and the Women That Love Them (review).
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:55 PM on December 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone. I've shared this thread with my friend and we're going to meet up later this week to go through some of the resources you've recommended. :)
posted by The Adventure Begins at 4:28 AM on December 25, 2023 [2 favorites]