Pop Princesses Are Allowed to Grow Up

Taylor Swift's new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has delighted fans, shattered records and ruffled some feathers

- DANIELLE CAMPOAMOR

Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, which dropped on Oct. 3, features some of the superstar's most overtly sexual content to date, from an “Actually Romantic” lyric (“It’s kind of making me wet”) to all of “Wood,” a catchy ode to fiancé Travis Kelce’s, um, “magic wand.”

That track is about love, yes, but also carnal desire: “He ah-matized me and opened my eyes/Redwood tree, it ain't hard to see/his love was the key that opened my thighs,” Swift sings over and over. “Girls, I don’t need to catch the bouquet/to know a hard rock is on the way.”

“Wood” and other tracks inspired by her romance have scandalized some, like Isabelle Redfield, cofounder of the blog Conservateur, who said the lyrics carry “the dull thud of a door slamming on girlhood.” (Swift is 35.) Barstool Sports founder and Swiftie Dave Portnoy admitted via Instagram that he “really liked the song ‘Wood’ the first couple times I listened to it,” but not after he realized its not-so-underlying message.