Hiddleswift and Backlash in the Age of the Internet Boyfriend
By choosing Taylor Swift, has Tom Hiddleston forsaken fans’ projected sense of his enlightened masculinity?
Photographs of Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift kissing on an ocean vista near her Rhode Island home sent the internet a-twitter and fan girls into a cycle of shock, disbelief, and mourning. Not since Benedict Cumberbatch quietly announced his engagement to Sophie Hunter have legions of fans (primarily female) been so roundly devastated. But unlike Cumberbatch, who was able to marry Hunter and have their first child in relative privacy, Hiddleston’s relationship news has been met with outrage and an array of conspiracy theories. Hiddleston has since publicly confirmed that he and Swift are indeed a real couple, but the online forums rage on.
The photos, which many have argued are staged with their increasingly over-the-top displays of affection, have spurred a wave of outrage and disbelief in an unprecedented fashion. Hiddleston’s pairing with Swift makes him half of a couple that will inevitably face a high amount of media scrutiny, but what has led masses of women (and journalists) to pick apart this coupling—beyond simply wishing it isn’t true?
In linking himself to Swift in a series of seemingly out-of-character scenarios (see: Hiddleston sporting an “I heart T.S.” bro-tank on the Fourth of July), Hiddleston has broken the contract of the “internet boyfriend” phenomenon. The “internet boyfriend” is a male celebrity, typically an actor, who, through online activity that involves poring over their every move, is appointed as an archetype of boyfriend material (typically a lesser-known actor flying slightly under the radar until his “internet boyfriend” status catapults him to greater popularity — see Benedict Cumberbatch, Oscar Isaac, Sebastian Stan, etc.)
As so expertly explained in this article in New York magazine, “When real men disappoint us — in their politics, their bullshit, their basic human inconsistencies — the internet’s boyfriend is a paragon of enlightened masculinity, constructed by committee.” By choosing Swift, a symbol of all that is mainstream and “basic” and the frequent subject of catty gossip, Hiddleston has forsaken this projected sense of enlightened masculinity.
The article notes that the “internet boyfriend” is selected for a perceived sense of authenticity and a healthy enough sense of mystery to allow for projections of desire (this is aided by the actor typically being single and portraying a series of non-romantic leading male roles). Much has been made of Hiddleston’s authenticity around the internet — his goofiness in his willingness to break into an impression or a song-and-dance at the drop of a hat; his love of playing a villainous comic book character (and tendency to play practical jokes on people); and his intellectualism: a degree in Classics from Cambridge, as well as a tendency to quote liberally from Shakespeare and T.S. Eliot. Come to think of it, maybe that’s what the tank top was all about. Or perhaps it was about this.
To fan girls, Swift represents the antithesis of this authenticity. With songs like “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off” that mock the media’s obsession with her romantic life in a tongue-in-cheek manner, Swift is a pop star who succeeds by crafting and manipulating her image, playing a constant game of chess with the media. Swift is a master of her own brand — from her #GirlSquad composed of fellow pop stars, actresses, and supermodels paraded through a series of impossibly perfect Instagram photos to her ability to constantly reinvent her music and public image. She thrives at the center of media storms, from her bad blood with Katy Perry to her recent Twitter wars with Calvin Harris and Kim Kardashian.
Swift’s brand is one of talent, power, wealth and ambition, not one of authenticity. Thus, Hiddleston’s linking with her seems (to outsiders) like an abrupt turn-of-phase from the “I’m just one of the fans” geekiness that propelled a group of devotees to christen themselves “Hiddlestoners.”
Indeed, his seeming willingness to be photographed kissing Swift and loudly proclaiming his love for her via a t-shirt in the vein of a high school boyfriend stands in stark contrast to statements he’s made in interviews only months ago. When asked about relationships, he told Vulture, “some things have to remain sacred. You could write that I’m single. There’s no ring on this finger.” With such a response, Hiddleston played into the trope of the enlightened masculinity of the internet boyfriend, privileging privacy and respect of his partner over media attention. Given this, his actions with Swift may seem a slap in the face to those who have predicated their fandom on these tenets.
However, it’s not just Hiddleston’s seeming forsaking of the qualities of the “internet boyfriend” that feed the rumor mill — it’s something more insidious. The “internet boyfriend” phenomenon also comes with a component of authorship and ownership. Through consuming interviews, onscreen work, quotes, GIFs and more, fans interact with the “internet boyfriend” in the same way someone might internet-stalk their crush on social media. Beyond the bounds of the media and Hollywood publicity, fans begin to develop a sense of connection with the “internet boyfriend” that transitions into a sense of ownership.
This is furthered by the concept of the blank slate — as the New York magazine article notes, the actors we select as internet boyfriends commonly don’t belong to any pre-existing romantic narratives, allowing fans to construct their own fantasies around them. Thus, fans come to obsess over an actor and feel they know them the same way someone might after picking apart a crush’s Facebook profile –this obsession translates to a sense of pride and ownership where fans imagine themselves linked to and responsible for this idealized symbol of non-threatening romanticized masculinity.
In choosing Swift and allowing himself to be photographed with her, Hiddleston obliterates this sense of ownership. How can he maintain a blank slate for our romantic fantasies when he is so publicly enacting one already? Hiddleston as “internet boyfriend” ceases to exist in the face of this relationship. This, more than anything, has led thousands to dissect his relationship for falsity. There is a notion that if the internet can’t have Hiddleston, then no one can — by defying this projected sense of authenticity, he has eliminated the possibility of any genuine relationship. Fans feel led astray by the Hiddleswift pairing, leading them to try to poke holes in it.
In an age where we can stalk celebrities online the same way we can seek out potential romantic partners, we have come to feel an unprecedented possessiveness and closeness to these stars. The “internet boyfriend” allows us to obsess over a romantic prospect from a safe distance. The perfect man who exceeds expectations (unlike the ones we encounter in reality) is attainable so long as we continue to reblog, retweet, and dissect his every move. But when he interjects a dose of reality to that scenario, defying the unfair expectations we have laid upon him, he becomes an object of ire and derision.
The Hiddleswift backlash is the dark side of the “internet boyfriend” phenomenon — the ugly break-up that comes on the heels of realizing someone isn’t the man you thought they were. It’s the potentially dangerous pitfall of ascribing ownership to a man who will never belong to you (and in our age of social media and intense media scrutiny, never could have in the first place).
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