Taylor Swift, the Corn Wolf

Taylor Swift’s relationship to her fans is incredibly complicated, interesting, and in many ways unique to her and the times we have her in. The way she has cultivated her fanbase, and the way she maintains it, is one which could not have possibly been replicated previously due to the changes and developments of technology. In many ways, Swift has grown with the fanbase, both actively by her own measures, and passively through the way the fans have brought her with them. Swifities carry Swift in a multitude of ways.

Swift fulfils many roles. She’s an idol – a pop star whose music, fashion and concerts have centred her as an important pop cultural icon. She puts out albums the fans listen to, analyse and love. She has songs Swifities blast out car speakers and shout as they drive with their friends through the streets of their hometowns.

She’s also a symbol. She’s more than just herself. She’s a stand in for others, a symbol of womanhood and what it means to be feminine in our society today. She speaks honestly in her lyrics about her experiences dating. While her romances are displayed publicly on tabloids and splashed over the internet, the fanbase gets to watch it and relate it to their own experiences in the dating field. She sings of her experiences in a misogynist society, one which sees her as inherently worse than her male counterparts simply because she’s a woman, something her female fanbase can directly relate to as they have, too, experienced this.

Taylor Swift, in many ways, is a corn wolf. Now, bear with me here, because I’m sure you’re thinking this sounds rather crazy. But crazy thoughts is kind of the reason behind what I’m talking about.

The Corn Wolf, at least the way I’m discussing it here, comes James Frazer’s The Golden Bough, who wrote about all sorts of different mythical and folkloric figures in a lot of different places. The Corn Wolf is a spirit of the corn originating in France, Germany, and some Slavic countries. From Frazer comes a commentary by Ludwig Wittgenstein, who also spent some time talking about the Corn Wolf. The Corn Wolf is a lot of things. It’s a spirit of harvest, one hidden in some areas and found spectacularly in others.

Combining the discussion of Wittgenstein and Frazer, we have several views of what the Corn Wolf is for the people in these areas, which is why directly explaining what the Corn Wolf is proving to be a bit difficult. It’s a spirit of harvest, and one found, defined, and lingering in several places.

The Corn Wolf is hidden in the last sheaf of corn that is harvested. The Corn Wolf is the last sheaf of corn itself. The Corn Wolf is the man who binds that last sheaf. And, as pointed out by Michael Taussig in his book The Corn Wolf, the Corn Wolf is also the sacrifice which stands in for the corn spirit in ritual, the effigy of the spirit. There are four different places, definitions, and forms the Corn Wolf can take. Its complicated, and multiple.

We can approach something like this in two ways. The first is that the multiple meanings, definitions, and approaches to the spirit can be related to a variety of different interpretations and perspectives. One variant of a story is that the Corn Wolf is in the last sheaf of corn, and the other is the man.

But there’s another perspective on this, one Michael Taussig explains, and one I personally see in my own studies: all of the above can be true simultaneously. People can hold a singular idea at being many things at once. This is actually quite typical in religion. Jesus, for example, is human, God, Holy Spirit, prophet, and exemplar all at once.

Humans are inherently capable of holding multiple meanings and at once. This is often where symbols shine – their ability to hold many things as true all at the same time.

Taylor Swift, therefore, is a Corn Wolf. She is human, and idol, and symbol all at once. She is the music and the performer. She is the writer and the topic, and even the theme. All of these are possible, and it is because all of these are possible that she is the figure she is.

Not only is she all of these, but, like the Corn Wolf for Taussig, she is also the effigy. She is the sacrifice presented at the alter of womanhood, the symbol comes to represent the many others – or, at least, that is how the fanbase sees her.

Because, while it may seem impossible to think of Taylor Swift as both person and idol and symbol and effigy all at once, it is entirely possible. This is typical of mythological thinking, and its role as a contemporary mythological figure which puts her on the pedestal she stands today.