Flashback to my mistakes, my rebounds, my earthquakes,” Taylor Swift once wrote, the pages of her rhyming dictionary presumably tear-streaked and frayed beyond repair. The whiff of regret is palpable. Indeed, rebound relationships are almost always conceptually framed in the past tense: we rarely cast such language upon new romances in the moment – such as Swift’s current rumoured dalliance with The 1975’s Matty Healy – but back across the ones we’ve long since written off as interludes, a liminal space in the great love story of our lives.
Sure enough, vast swathes of social media are already convinced that Swift is on the rebound from her boyfriend of six years Joe Alwyn, and therefore making a terrible decision by rushing in too soon after a break-up. Now, there are plenty of reasons why dating Healy is probably a terrible idea – most notably his penchant for casually inflammatory remarks – but why are we all so committed to the idea that there must be a certain amount of time between relationships in order for them to be healthy? Whether it’s a pair of world-famous pop stars, or you and the poor soul who shared a passing resemblance to your ex across a sea of discount VK Blues, is it time we reconsidered the rebound?
