You have to be very careful what you write or say about certain topics, lest staunch disagreers make your life difficult. I am speaking, of course, about Taylor Swift fans.

Like Beyoncé’s Beyhive and the Barbzs, Nicki Minaj’s fandom, Swifties don’t play when they think you’re coming for their girl, however mildly. The online discourse about her highly anticipated album “The Life Of A Showgirl,” released Friday, had them ready to pounce.

The record, mostly a love letter to love, is interesting not only because of its content, but also because of its reception, spanning giddy praise to strong disappointment — and that’s just from some Swifties.

I needed some Maryland superfans to help me mine the themes of domestic happiness, confidence and apparent impressive size of Swift fiancé Travis Kelce’s private parts. I also did not want to be yelled at, which thankfully didn’t happen. Most fans I talked to liked “Showgirl,” while acknowledging valid criticism.

“This album reflects her happiness, a wonderful thing,” said Courtney Resnick, 43, of Cockeysville, who took fellow superfan and young daughter Leni to Miami for Swift’s “Eras” tour. “She’s just gotten engaged, she’s in her mid-30s and thinking about a future with Travis Kelce, which we know because she wrote about it! Let her be happy. Let her write an album about being happy.”

Claire Dalton-Pak, of Silver Spring, is not part of Swift’s target demographic, but loves her music all the same. The 60-year-old also loves that the artist represents a strong, successful woman who gets “to be a little girly, to still like makeup and still fight for yourself. That’s a contribution.”

One of Swift’s trademarks is writing about what’s happening in her life, and her ebullience on “Showgirl” is audibly evident, a sharp contrast to her previous work, “The Tortured Poets Department.” Swift has called that 2024 release “a very fatalistic album in that there are very dramatic lines about life or death. ‘I love you, it’s ruining my life.’”

Sometimes, that intense vulnerability can form a magical connection, like the one Baltimore resident Deanna Niles McConnell felt with Swift’s COVID shutdown-era releases of “Folklore” and “Evermore.” “They were really good at capturing the moment in a nutshell,” she said.

“Showgirl,” while “pretty good,” doesn’t do the same, the 41-year-old said. It’s hard to relate to a billionaire decked out in expensive and glamorous headdresses and costumes. “It might not be the album for the moment, a little out of touch.”

That’s been one common criticism, but there are several others. I, for one, was personally disappointed there were no references to the terrible, wonderful 1995 cult classic “Showgirls” or that the album’s lyrics weren’t more cheekily tacky.

But some of Swift’s recent lyrics have been deemed tacky in other ways. I’m happy Swift’s happy, but was put off by “Wi$H Li$t,” where she mentions women who want “three dogs they call their kids” — a contrast to just a year ago, when she endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris with an Instagram post signed: “Childless Cat Lady.”

Then there are the lyrics that sound racially problematic, like on “Opalite,” written to Kelce about how their love has brought him into a sparkling light out of the “onyx night,” a song many assume is about his past relationship with influencer Kayla Nicole. Some critics think the lyric is a reference to Nicole being Black. Resnick disagrees.

“She was talking about manufacturing happiness, and sometimes you have to be the maker of it, because you’re in control,” said Resnick. She attended last week’s promotional film, “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” where the singer explains the stories behind each lyric. Opalite is a bright manmade version of opal, Kelce’s birthstone.

“Given that fact pattern, making the connection, I don’t think she would ever do something like that,” Resnick said of people making a racial assumption. “She’s probably horrified.”

Maybe. But can a 35-year-old megastar who has been famous for decades feign ignorance about how her lyrics might be received, particularly in the current climate? “I don’t think she has enough people in the room troubleshooting things for her, to create cultural literacy in the room,” McConnell said.

“Huge Swiftie” Sarah Middleton, of Reisterstown, took it one step further. “When you’re the most powerful woman with the biggest voice in the world, you don’t get the privilege of saying things so thoughtlessly,” the 29-year-old said. “It’s either intentional or it’s so tone-deaf, a betrayal of her brand and every person who ever supported her. You cannot have both.”

There’s also an accusation of Swift taking lyrical shots at other stars, including singer Charli XCX, assumed to be the subject of the arch “Actually Romantic.” The track is said to be the response to a song XCX allegedly wrote about Swift, which XCX has denied. There’s a whiff of “Not Like Us” here, but Dalton-Pak, who admires Swift, admits it’s different.

“Charli XCX is a star, but she’s no way at the level that Taylor is, so it might seem to be about punching down,” Dalton-Pak said. “When Kendrick [Lamar] goes after Drake, they are equals.”

There’s also some mild pearl-clutching about “Wood,” written about finding enlightenment through the size and power of Kelce’s … pants-dwelling man-friend, which I found hilarious. In middle school, I listened to Prince singing about a woman pleasuring herself with a magazine in a hotel lobby. It’s not eloquent, but Swift’s 35. It’s fine.

Personally, I found “Life Of A Showgirl” just all right. Opener “The Fate of Ophelia” is great, as is the title track. But as problematic as I and some fans find some of it, I think it’s probably review-proof. It’s not for me, anyway.

“I do love her. Those albums between 2020 and 2024 were very much my soundtrack for some really difficult things,” McConnell said.

“I mean, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I sort of feel at the end of the day that Taylor Swift is not making music,” Resnick said, quoting the singer’s description of her writing as “a cathartic process” with which fans connect. “It’s a fun album. I like it.”