A charity auction in Texas took a turn when an unidentified man took a hammer to the prize he’d paid a pretty penny for; a guitar signed by Taylor Allison Swift. To the best of our knowledge, the guitar didn’t do anything to deserve being on the business end of a hammer, so what the what?
The auction was for the Ellis County WildGame Dinner, a nonprofit organization that raises money for youth agricultural education in Ellis County. The organization raised at least $4,000 the night of the auction, because that’s how much money the mystery man paid for the guitar he decided to *in the voice of Izma from The Emperor's New Groove* SMASH IT WITH A HAMMER!
So here’s our question; why the thwack thwacks? What exactly was achieved by destroying an instrument signed by an international pop star? Did he just want a moment in the spotlight, or was he having big feelings about the icon that is Taylor Swift?
Cultural evidence points towards the latter.
The gentleman who decided to give the guitar the hammer presented as— shall we say— being of a certain generation that has the tendency to associate destruction with masculinity, and a notoriously difficult time allowing women to feel joy. Taylor Swift not only brings a lot of people— admittedly, mostly women— a lot of joy, but she encourages women to speak out about what they believe in, and to not tolerate bad behavior from the men in their lives. That shouldn’t really be threatening to men, and yet.
The guitar that was signed from her was smashed like pumpkins at 12:01AM on November 1st.
For men raised in a time when they were to be seen as dominant, it’s understandable that they have some thinking to do about how powerful women make them feel when they don’t pander to their preferences. Paying $4,000 for a guitar signed by Taylor Swift just so it could be smashed must have felt good in the moment, but women everywhere know exactly where to get when they see a man willing to pay such a high price in order to tear a successful woman down; out of Dodge.
Abusive indicators aside, this story is decidedly lacking in drama, so we’re going to drop one more fun little factoid about the incident to bring this full circle. That guitar Mr. Anonymous paid so much money to destroy?
T Swift’s team says she didn’t sign it. There was no certificate of authenticity. Yes, there was a signed album insert. But the guitar itself? That object into which so much rage and pointless destruction was poured? Not even signed by the person he was trying to “stick it” to.
Whatever statement he was hoping to make, the one we’ve been left with is that we really need to work on building a world where men are allowed to be vulnerable, so that maybe more of them will spend $4,000 on therapy instead of destroying memorabilia.
