I'm Obsessed With This Taylor Swift Stan Account that Was Sent to Prison For Refusing to Join The IDF
By Madeline Ward
If you’re Left Wing And On Twitter, chances are you’ve already seen what is potentially the most important tweet in the history of the platform, gifted to this world on Tuesday the 2nd of April from @LegitTayUpdates. If you are neither or either of those things, let me enlighten you: a Taylor Swift stan parody account, apparently run by a 19 year old Israeli woman named Na’ama, tweeted the following.
Na’ama initially tweeted on the 2nd of February that she was going to prison for refusing to enlist in the military, stating that she was unsure of exactly how long she would be gone for. Most Israeli citizens over the age of 18 are required to serve in the IDF, though citizens from Arab and Orthodox Jewish communities in Israel are exempt. Conscientious objectors are pretty much guaranteed a prison sentence, and whilst exemptions can be sought for a number of reasons, Na’ama tweeted that she was unable to earn an exemption for moral reasons because “they proved I wasn't a true pacifist (I told them I'd punch a Nazi).”
If Tuesday’s tweet and the resulting exchange weren’t iconic enough, Na’ama has been updating both the stan parody account and another personal account from prison, by giving her friends handwritten content to post to both. @LegitTayUpdates posted on the 25th of February about Taylor Swift pregnancy rumours, and @iknowplacesmp6 has been regularly posting journal entries from prison. The journal entries are truly something: Na’ama writes about getting high, punching guards, and her cellmates having sex. Like a modern day The House of the Dead (Dostoevsky who?) Na’ama’s journal entries are a delightful mix of her daily life and experiences, thoughts on pop culture, and politics. She writes on the realities of her prison sentence “ They might extend my sentence or maybe just not shorten it because I hit ONE guy..worth it though” and pop culture “two of us is so good I’m crying” with a humour that has continued in her tweets since she was released.
If all of this sounds a little fake to you, you’re not alone. Personal details about Na’ama (or whoever is running the accounts) are scant, leading many to question the veracity of her story. Personally, I think (or rather, hope) that Na’ama and her story are real. Regardless of whether or not this is real, a joke, or some kind of attempt to radicalise teenage twitter stans,
this particular combination of left wing ideas and stan culture is something that could only happen in the new and glorious age of the internet, and honestly? I fuck with it.