Taylor Swift believed a sham gay boyfriend could truly fall in love with her, and a speculation about Promise Rings

Closeted homosexual quarterback Aaron Rodgers has been looking to protect his reputation with his conservative fan base by shopping around for a "beard" — a sham girlfriend who will give him a normal, even ladies-man reputation. This item from Blind Gossip mentions that Taylor Swift was an early option for Rodgers, both of whom appeared for photo ops to float the idea of them as a couple.

Nothing unusual about beards and homos in the entertainment industry, but what's striking about Swift's story is that she had begun telling her friends that she thought or hoped that eventually her fake gay boyfriend might start to actually fall for her. The woman who Rodgers' team ultimately opted for, late Gen X-er Olivia Munn, had no illusions about gay men falling for women.

Swift's delusion reveals two major changes in the psychology of young women over the past 20-odd years.

First, the Millennial generation that Swift belongs to, and speaks on behalf of, has been so socially isolated by helicopter parents and yet so propagandized by the mainstream media and the educational establishment that "queers are normal just like us," that a 25 year-old female could be so pathetically clueless as to think that one of them would have a change of heart... er, change of cock? Whatever. They are that out-of-touch, and rely primarily or exclusively on the media to tell them how the real world works. Young women in the '80s sought to become savvy and streetwise, not naive and stunted.

Second, the ideal relationship for Millennial girls is shown to be one where the non-boyfriend will "fall for" the girl, i.e. shower her with attention and make her feel desirable, while expecting and asking nothing in return from her physically — perhaps even feeling averse to the very thought of it. Maximum ego-inflation, and zero putting-out? — awesome sauce! Back in the '80s, girls were more boy-crazy, and put at least equal weight on getting it on as on getting attention.

Now that I think about it, this may be what's underlying the whole "Christian dating" / Promise Ring phenomenon. The guy is supposed to be getting nothing physically, or not very much at any rate. Nothing wrong with that, if it's part of a larger religious lifestyle of chastity and modesty. But is the girl being denied by him as well — denied the attention, flattery, etc., that is meant to puff up her pride and vanity about how desirable she is?

My impression is that the girl is still getting plenty of attention and ego-inflation lavished upon her, and gets to feel the thrilling rush of desirability on a regular basis. (Remember that this is what the average female wants most — to feel desirable, not to feel a man's body.) This undercuts the argument that this phenomenon is a counter-trend to the broader zeitgeist. Rather, it is just another example of girls having their egos inflated, which corrupts their character, while the dude gets jack in return. Only there's a veneer of Christian / religious respectability to it.

I don't think this fig leaf is there only for moralizing to non-Christians. Most of them live in fairly religious regions, and there's little point when you're a teenager or young adult to moralistically antagonize your enemies in a different part of the country. Instead, the rationalization is meant to make female ego-inflation palatable to religious males — the non-boyfriend, both sets of parents, and the menfolk in the wider community. "Not to worry, Daddy — why would I put out when he's already puffing up my pride for free?"