Notting Hill vs. Kansas City

Emma Hannan

Will Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce be breaking up soon? How long did she take to move on from Joe Alwyn after their breakup? Will her next album be about this breakup? If so, is Travis Kelce going to get his own album? In short: who cares.  

By either scrolling on Instagram, turning on the TV for Sunday football games, or watching FOX news, it is almost impossible to escape the Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift romance. With a celebrity made for the girls (Taylor Swift) and a football player all men admire (Travis Kelce), this seemingly perfect couple has blessed household televisions, becoming the next all-American couple. 

As a hopeless romantic, I too often idolize celebrity relationships. They often seem glamorous, spontaneous, and almost magical, much like the relationships we see in movies. From 10 things I Hate about You, to The Notebook and When Harry Met Sally, rom-coms often provide nostalgic support with adorable couples and predictable plots and endings. One of my favorite rom-coms for these reasons is Notting Hill, a movie where a famous actress, Anna, and a bookstore owner, William, fall in love. The film portrays what it would be like to be a “regular” person dating a famous person (12 year old me’s Wattpad fantasy). With paparazzi bombardment and secret dating, Notting Hill shows the complication with this couple while still being a cherry and uplifting movie that I often revert back to.

 Yet, as a rom-com lover, it is important to admit that rom-coms are made to be happy, often at the expense of being realistic. Although rom-coms may show disagreements and fights that arise between the couple, the movie will almost always end with a marriage and happy ending (excluding La La Land). Therefore, it is easy to idolize these fictional couples as they seem to represent a perfect relationship, and the idea of these relationships carry over when we see our favorite real-life celebrities dating. The relationships we see in movies are the best versions of the couple, and as humans looking for happy little things in a flawed world, celebrities provide a glimpse into a fairytale romance.  But the thing is, celebrities are not a fictional couple. They are real people, with their own lives and privacy they are entitled to, even one on the mega level like Taylor Swift. 

Truthfully, when I first heard about the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce romance, I thought “Oh? That’s cool I guess.” With Taylor Swift’s love life always being so public and a seemingly open topic of discussion, Swifties and NFL fanatics alike immediately had opinions on their relationship. Some thought they were the perfect couple, some mourned Swift’s previous boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, and others assumed this would be a short fledged romance. While everyone is entitled to an opinion and would probably have one anyways, should the internet really be so obsessed with this couple?

I am not debating that celebrity relationships aren’t cute and fun to follow. After all, there have been many happy couples that I too admire when they have matching red carpet outfits. However, we are living in a social media obsessed and judgemental world where it is hard to look beyond the celebrity relationships we see on television. Yes, we see Taylor Swift attending NFL games, but we don’t see and are certainly not entitled to the little moments between the couple, like waking up next to each other in the morning and cooking dinner after a long day. However, as an 18 year old with what I would like to argue plenty of life experiences, I got to see these moments between couples. I got to see my mom cook dinner for my dad every night after he was done working. I got to see my friend struggling with his situationship. I got to see my next-door neighbor fall in love. I got to see my two classmates slowly begin to like each other. I got to see real relationships, one’s that I can look up to. Relationships are real, beautiful, messy, and often tragic. Let’s not get so caught up in celebrity couples that we miss the little moments that make life so much better. 

Edited by Teagan Chandler & Elisabeth Kay