I don’t like the Kansas City Chiefs. Sure, last year’s Super Bowl exasperated this, but I already didn’t before that, because Andy Reid is their coach. Andy is one of the best to ever do it, but in Philadelphia he came up short repeatedly in big moments. It soured a whole era of football for me, and well, that’s my issue. In any event, I definitely don’t want him to win a third title in his “new” city.

This post is about Taylor Swift though, the biggest star in American society today, and maybe even the world. Her tour is so big they made it into a movie, and tens of millions of people bought it. She gave her crew on the tour six figure bonuses, and still made a billion on it. She literally re-records her old albums, and millions of people buy them. The old producer, Scooter Braun, that she says did her wrong, I’m pretty sure is hiding in Siberia. She is quite literally selling water to a well right now. It seems to drive some guys nuts. She was on the television for under 30 seconds during last week’s Chiefs game, and there were still conservatives calling for a witch trial.

She’s come a long way from the Wyomissing, PA girl singing the national anthem at a Phillies World Series game in 2008 (when I first really noticed her). I’d venture a guess that a large chunk of her fans don’t even think about the VMA’s incident with Kanye anymore. In many, many ways she’s bigger than herself now. So much has happened that she’s taken on a character now that has little resemblance to where she was even early in her career.

This clearly bothers some people. They say her music sucks, she lacks talent, they comment on her looks, and they call her an “attention whore.” she’s ruining the NFL. She was ruining the Chiefs (I guess that talk died down now). I mean look, we’ve heard this kind of talk before- ask Beyoncé and Rihanna. But this is definitely getting intense. You would think that Taylor Swift’s success was actually hurting somebody (it’s not).

We know part of this is nakedly political. Taylor, after well past a decade of success, came out and basically labeled herself a liberal, and so now 46-47% of the country (the Trump vote) hate her. Not to be outdone in their stupidity, a large and loud chunk of the other half of the country are taunting those folks with her (and her boyfriend’s) success. I would caution you against chalking this all up to base politics though. Opinions on Taylor are political, but even more so they’re societal.

Far from passing judgment on how she rates against past entertainment superstars, this is mostly an economic case. Is Taylor’s music “better” than say, Bruce Springsteen’s? That’s for each fan to say. What she’s doing is industry changing. We’re currently watching is a moment on par with the Beatles and Stones coming over, or Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” or other truly jaw droppingly successful moments in entertainment. It really doesn’t matter what she is as an artist, that’s subjective. What she’s selling is objective and that is what’s making people feel.

Taylor Swift could not have done this in 1985. Or even 2000. A female star simply dwarfing all of the other superstars in the world could not have happened at any previous point in America. We’re only what, a generation or two removed from women not being allowed to have bank accounts of their own, and only a century into women being allowed to vote. Taylor is re-setting the market because for the first time in American history women have the disposable income to drive the number one entertainment act in the country. She happens to be the biggest female star right as that moment in history arrives. This has been coming, which is why mostly male or conservative critics blasted Beyoncé, Britney, Madonna, and other female stars before Taylor- this is the manifestation of what they really hated in modernity. Women as “bread winners” horrifies a traditionalist world view, and so obviously one who feels that way hates the manifestation of that- women setting the entertainment in society, through the democracy of their dollars. Taylor can literally sell anything because the people with dollars like her product. It’s really that simple. She is the visualization of a traditionalist’s greatest fears- the tall, blonde pop-star that is a far bigger star than her future Hall-of-Fame slash Super Bowl champion football player boyfriend. She represents a society that is antithetical to their existence and it bothers them.

This is sort of fascinating because in basically every other way, Travis and Taylor are “as American as Apple Pie.” He’s from Ohio, she’s from Pennsylvania (and not Philly). I’ll just rip the band aid off here and note that because they’re both white, we’re not even touching the real third rail in American society, race. Her music is far less edgy or sexual than past industry superstars. He does a damn podcast with his offensive lineman brother. These two should legitimately be the least controversial couple on television. Yet they’re not.

Women are increasingly “winning” in American society, and that is bothering these folks. Taylor Swift is a human manifestation of that. More and more women are going to college, entering corporate America, and making money. More women are buying homes and starting businesses, and getting married and having babies is less and less their priorities. Taking the money they earn and buying Taylor tickets is the ultimate display of increasing power. They like her, so she sells the most.

There is some danger in the moment of course. Markets don’t need majorities, politics do. So the angry people that don’t like her will try and do regressive things, from silly boycotts to Supreme Court rulings. These things will have negative impacts. They probably won’t derail the general trend line in society, but we can’t dismiss them as nothing.

I don’t want to elevate Taylor Swift to some level of sainthood here- I definitely want the Chiefs to lose too and find the entire storyline of this football season corny. I think she’s a good musician, I listen to some of her songs too, but I would certainly not pay the prices of her concerts to see her (but if you want to, great). I think we can all admire her success though, she’s changing the game. And in the process of doing so, she’s literally breaking the reptilian brains of people who think we should make society less welcoming for literally half of its inhabitants. That alone is worth the celebrating.