The Barbie-Taylor-Beyoncé Summer Offers a Release of Pandemic Emotions

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The summer’s major cultural phenomena — which also include Taylor Swift’s Eras concert tour and the “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” movies — have attracted audiences ready to go all-out. Thanks to a wide range of social, cultural and economic factors, it’s a season of hype as well as dress-up, fun and freedom.

For some, it is also tied up with the pandemic, perhaps another chance to check off a post-covid “first,” feel like they’re living life to the fullest or celebrate that they’re okay with screaming song lyrics in a crowd of 70,000 people again. Though many Americans have long since abandoned covid-era cautions and fans’ excitement far transcends the pandemic, the summer of hype offers release and relief for people looking for fun.

“We’re seeing this major desire to connect with other people,” said Naomi Torres-Mackie, a clinical psychologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. “Coming out of a very difficult, isolative, scary time, that’s all really built up … and I think that’s part of why it’s getting expressed in such a strong, heightened way.”

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