Taylor Swift fans are reminding the internet how a commencement speech should be done, after Harrison Butker made headlines for all the wrong reasons with his parting words to a group of college students.
While Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce may be the internet’s most adored couple in 2024, somebody close to Kelce has been on the (tight) receiving end of a great deal of criticism over the last few days, after their controversial commencement speech went viral. Harrison Butker, kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs and teammate to Travis Kelce, has Swift fans up in arms over his contentious comments on issues such as women’s rights, Pride and abortion, which came while he was addressing a group of college students last week. Whereas, Butker’s comments have fans reminiscing about the time Swift gave an inspiring, and considerably less controversial, commencement speech back in 2022.
Harrison Butker goes viral for eyebrow-raising commencement speech
Commencement ceremonies and gradations are generally a time for families and friends to come together to celebrate the success of their loved ones, as they prepare to leave school or college in the past – in search of pastures new. Or, if you’re NFL star Butker, such an occasion is the perfect time to explain to a group of young scholars why you believe in traditional gender roles in the household, and refuse to support progressive causes like the LGBTQ+ movement, or a woman’s right to abortion.
Butker was speaking at Benedictine College, Kansas, on May 11, and began with what sounded like a standard commencement speech. The Kansas Kicker commenced the commencement address by congratulating the students, and commiserating about the time they had lost to COVID restrictions, before quickly veering into the “bad policies and poor leadership” that had supposedly plagued the graduates during their time at the college.
Focusing mainly on a supposed erosion of Catholic values in the states, Butker lamented President Joe Biden for his support of the Pride movement, stated that he believed women had been told “diabolical lies” about their role in the workplace and warned of the dangers of pro-choice ideology and access to abortion, among other things. Clips of the speech have since been viewed millions of times, with a petition demanding the Kansas City Chiefs dismiss the kicker having reached over 90,000 signatures at the time of writing.
‘Awful’ speech enrages Taylor Swift fans
With an army of Swifties now increasingly aware of the presence of anyone associated with Kelce, hoards of the Bad Blood singer’s fans were quick to express their outrage at the contents of Butker’s speech.
Reacting to the now infamous college address, one Swift fan account wrote: “I’m shaking and fighting tears back. What an awful time to make room to express such views towards educated women. Harrison Butker does not understand his own privilege.”
These comments came beneath a video of a commencement speech with a much more upbeat vibe, from when Swift addressed graduates at New York University in Spring 2022.
Though Swift stressed that she didn’t have all the answers for the crowd of students packed into the Yankee Stadium, the star of the Eras Tour did leave the graduates with a collection of “life hacks”. She stressed young people should “learn to live alongside cringe” and that “mistakes (had) led to the best things in (her) life”.
Reacting to the emotional address, Swifties couldn’t hold back their delight at the pop icon’s moving words, as well as their manager at Butker’s contrasting address.
“This right here….” wrote one adoring viewer, “This is how you do a commencement speech”.
Referencing Butker, a second commenter wrote: “I’m not a Swiftie, but I needed to see this today after being enraged by the other speech we’re seeing”.
“There are people who think she’s (Swift) ‘just a girl who sings'”, added one viewer defiantly. “She’s so much more than that. This is a prime example of how amazing she is”.
“I hope Taylor Swift buys the Chiefs and fires this a**hat”, wrote another angry viewer in response to Butker’s speech.
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