DEFER YOUR ENTHUSIASM (5)
By:
April 17, 2025
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, analyzing and celebrating our favorite… late-breaking obsessions, avoided discoveries, and devotions delayed! Series edited by Adam McGovern.
“The first time I fingered Becca, I was shocked at how much hair was down there,” Jack told me while we waited behind our high school for his twin brother to get out of band practice.
At 16, I hadn’t even kissed a boy, but I shot back, “I know, right? The first time I went down on a guy, I didn’t know if I should brush my teeth or not after?”
Jack’s laughter replaced the awkward silence in the car, and our life-long friendship clicked into place. One well-timed blowjob joke cemented my status with the twins as the funny, chill girl who was one of the guys.
As a teenager in the ’90s, being a cool guy-girl meant being crass with the boys and looking down on anything too girlie, too popular, too blond — in other words, Taylor Swift. I never hated Taylor Swift, but the guy-girl teen who still lives inside me dismissed the pop star. Also, as a Shakespeare nerd who directed Romeo and Juliet, I have qualms about “Love Story.” Juliet is not a princess, and her “happy dagger” gets traded in for a happy ending.
Then, my niece became a Swiftie. A lyric-memorizing, friendship-bracelet-making, bawling-at-The-Eras-Tour Swiftie. While visiting my family, I agreed to go with my niece to the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour concert movie because I’m not an asshole. I gave her my full attention when she showed me the friendship bracelets she made to bring with us and how they linked to various Taylor Swift songs. Seeing her so passionate about something was terrific, but I remained judgy. I’d hoped my niece would find a school club or activity to get excited about. I wanted her to find her people like I found theater in high school. But Taylor Swift? Really?
We got to the movie early, and while waiting for them to clean the theater, we stood next to a group of chatty 20-somethings who’d attended the previous showing. My niece watched from a safe distance, shy but drawn to the group’s palpable fandom.
“Do you think I should see if they want bracelets?” she asked me.
“Sure, why not?”
“But they’re, like, grownups.”
I looked at the eclectic mix of genders, identities, and clothing, all raving about Taylor Swift, and recognized the group as theater people.
“Go,” I encouraged her, “you’ll be fine.”
I watched in awe as my soft-spoken niece talked confidently with each person. She beamed as these adults gushed over her. They traded bracelets and favorite concert moments. When she returned, her smile and her pride were bursting because all her bracelets were gone. We found our seats, and she showed me the ones she’d received in return. I enjoyed the concert and sang along with the songs, even “Love Story,” but what I loved most was sharing that girlie moment with my niece.
I was wrong. She had found her people. Swifties.
DEFER YOUR ENTHUSIASM: INTRODUCTION by Adam McGovern | Mandy Keifetz on FAITH | Heather Quinlan on THE GRATEFUL DEAD | Carlo Rotella on SMOOTHER GROOVES | Art Wallace on MICHIGAN | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons on TAYLOR SWIFT | Josh Glenn on ART | James Scott Maloy on BE-BOP DELUXE | Jake Zucker on LIGHT SLEEPER | Gabriela Pedranti on THE BIG BANG THEORY | Adam McGovern on DOGS | Tana Sirois on COLLABORATIVE EVOLUTION | Rani Som on LED ZEP | Holly Interlandi on HOT SAUCE | Jeff Lewonczyk on TWIN PEAKS | Nikhil Singh on PRE-TEEN DAVID LYNCH PROBLEMS | Christopher Rashee Stevenson on O’NEILL & THE SEA | Fran Pado on SHARKS | Juan Recondo on BEN GRIMM’S INNER LIFE | Miranda Mellis on KARL OVE KNAUSGAARD | Mimi Lipson on SOBRIETY | William Nericcio on ELYSIUM | Crockett Doob on SLEATER-KINNEY | Marlon Stern Lopez on PAT THE BUNNY | Crystal Durant on SEX AND THE CITY | …and more!
JACK KIRBY PANELS | CAPTAIN KIRK SCENES | OLD-SCHOOL HIP HOP | TYPEFACES | NEW WAVE | SQUADS | PUNK | NEO-NOIR MOVIES | COMICS | SCI-FI MOVIES | SIDEKICKS | CARTOONS | TV DEATHS | COUNTRY | PROTO-PUNK | METAL | & more enthusiasms!