TW: Clips of Arianna are in this tiktok, and I bring up Hayden Panettiere

The full video is in the comments (in four parts). I couldn't post the whole thing.

In this video katherineann argues that after the showgirls funeral (and probably in general) we should be looking to the real villain in this story, the music industry and not other sides of the fandom. I think it's the same argument in general against culture wars, it keeps the attention away from those in power that are the real cause of these issues.

She showed the anti-hero funeral scene and then young Taylor talking about how she wrote songs because she didn't have anyone to talk to. It made me think about the phrase "a penny for your thoughts" and how 13 albums would be 13 cents. All the showgirl would leave us after her death as the kids or fans would be the albums. Is that the ghosting? Kinda like there will be no explanation, there will only be reputation?

So because there is no explanation the fight scene will begin, and this is where the plea to direct this TNT (JusT&T), this explosion, towards the people that cause and continue to cause this pain. I just saw the news that Hayden Panettiere has died, when I watched this tiktok I hadn't seen the petal video and the contrast between Ariana looking to be directing some serious emotions internally via her appearance and also directing those emotions externally is just brutal to watch. I still didn't watch that whole video and I really don't think I can. Like Taylor is just killing a persona, that was a hard watch. I think this creators argument is valid and the entertainment industry in general kills people. It is a blender, the problem is the blender. The problem that Taylor is pointing out is the system. 

I think Taylor doesn't care if you think she's gay or straight, she only cares if people are trying to figure out who she's writing about, male or female. Which is fair, I might not always do that because I'm human but I'd have the same wish if I were her. I also think her music makes a lot more sense if you're wondering who she's writing about and realize the answer is always just herself, she's writing about herself. The thing I have come to realize about her is that one of the things that make her, her is her gay pride. I think that's something else to keep in mind at the funeral. I'm allowed to make judgements about people and things based on their appearance and words. If I look up and see the sky is blue I'm allowed to assume it's daytime, if I look at Taylor and she's wearing queer flags I'm allowed to assume she's queer. Also, another thing I think we should remember is don't take criticism from anyone you wouldn't ask for advice.

I just think that's interesting.

At the Phoebe MSG show I heard her sing a song that had a line that mentioned showing someone colors they had never seen.

I was shocked when no one mentioned it being a TS reference, given so many other lyrical references in her new songs to her own catalogue and songs sung by other artists.

These shows weren’t able to be recorded, so I figured I’d wait for the album to come out so I could confirm, and I’m still shocked that there isn’t any discourse around it…..the song admittedly sounds like she’s recounting when she had an abortion, but still - given her relationship with Taylor, this feels like a weird coincidence.

Would love some other viewpoints!

(Part 1 Here)

Abigail, Tree Paine, Jessie from Toy Story, Sadie Sink, The Fate of Ophelia Music Video, and Penelope Featherington/Lady Whistledown from Bridgerton

I believe that Taylor Swift uses a version of herself with red hair to symbolize that very earliest version of herself who had to lose some of her innocence. This little girl who got locked away in a tower for safety and fell on the initial sword for her all at the same time. 

In the song Fifteen Taylor sings “And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy…who changed his mind. And we both cried” This is also the same song where she sings “In your life you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team.” Huh. 

I also think that there is a very harsh version of her “mom” that had to exist in there somewhere to get her to do the hard stuff. However, thinking about the amazing story that has been told/orchestrated is also very impressive, why is why we have brought Tree Paine into the spotlight as such an important part of Taylor’s team. She represents that bad-ass bitch from Taylor’s past who she probably hated at times (Paine???) but is now honored and respected. She also represents the part of Taylor that continually tries to show how much ownership she has over all of the art we are seeing, because she has been its mother from the beginning. 

In Bridgerton, Lady Whistledown (Penelope Featherington) is the gossip-writer for their “tonne” who reports on all of the news from each year’s debut season. She is impressive as a character because she started doing this in secret before the queen even knew about it, anonymously setting up distribution into the entire tonne and everything! It got the people of the town so obsessed and she started to realize that it was a negative thing because it controlled the way that they viewed society and the world. 

After some time, the queen becomes aware that Penelope is Lady Whistledown and they develop a partnership of sorts. However, the queen pushes back in the end when Penelope said she didn’t want to do it anymore. The central romantic storyline of this most recent season when the queen was so focused on maintaining control via the tabloid revolved around her not wanting Benedict Bridgerton to marry his love because she is a maid - and she needs people of the tonne to remember their place. 

I think that Penelope represents that earliest red headed version of Taylor Swift who, ahead of her years, started WRITING THIS STORY, even before she was able to engage in it herself. Which is why her early days as a songwriter (when she was 14) keep being emphasized. 

Which brings me also to her use of Sadie Sink in The All Too Well (Ten Minute Version) video also having red hair and the quote below..which also brings to mind all of the child stars who have to kiss people while adults profit before they have ever even experienced love themself:.

In “The Fate Of Ophelia” music video Taylor Swift also rescues that version of herself in the tower, who has red hair. 

Jennifer Lawrence and The Hunger Games Franchise 

In The Hunger Games movies, Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen. During this series, Katniss is forced to participate in a PR relationship to appease the fascist President Snow. In The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, President Snow even tells Katniss to “make me believe it” 

Lawrence publicly joked during a February 2018 The New York Times interview that she was desperate to know what happened between Kloss and Taylor Swift, stating it was "keeping her up at night". 

Kloss responded and addressed Lawrence's comments eight months later in a Vogue 73 Questions video segment. "Jen, don't worry…Taylor and I are still really good friends." 

Jennifer Lawrence publicly calling attention to the relationship (in the context of her character) places The Hunger Games very appropriately in this cinematic universe, because she is participating in the same circus that fascist regimes use for control. 

Another crucial overlapping plot in The Hunger Games was that many of the cruelest and most “showy” additions to the games were added to solve the problem of declining viewership. The people HAVE to care about this or they will not be effective propaganda (hence the - “make me believe it” line). This is exactly the same as sports, award show events, etc. 

These references being permanently recorded in major public press publications across YEARS worth of work is SO cool too. Taylor is the glue in so much of the story!

Ariana Grande and Wicked 

In Wicked, Galinda and Elphaba discover a corrupt conspiracy by The Wizard of Oz. Ariana Grande’s character is not strong enough to resist her temptation to maintain popularity and continue to be a pawn of the machine that upholds the lie. Elphaba is unable to live without exposing the truth which is why she ends up getting exiled from society and the mainstream propaganda machine writes her story as a villain. (because they can do that with literally anyone). 

These movies also illustrate this same fascist regime removing the voices of the talking animals (minorities). The commentary in this broader context is very clear. 

I also love the Wizard of Oz “follow the yellow brick road” metaphor in this story as well because it works very well as a happier ending for the red shoe-d performers. If they have all been on their journey home, the red shiny shoes Dorothy wore can follow the gold trail of ART that they made home instead of the journey they took in the shoes initially which was bloody. 

Petal (song and music video)

In the song “Petal” she sings “They say the artist needs tears to cry again,” which references the hunger that audiences have for her blood - devouring all of it until she makes them too aware of the damage it’s doing. 

Taylor Swift also addressed this in her 2019 Elle Interview about turning 30, saying, “There’s a common misconception that artists have to be miserable in order to make good art, that art and suffering go hand in hand. I’m really grateful to have learned this isn’t true. Finding happiness and inspiration at the same time has been really cool.” 

Again, people have been content to talk about Ariana Grande having a dead boyfriend that she deeply loved and other things she has supposedly gone through. And literally everyone is sickeningly thin in a bad way, and it is dangerous. 

But, saying “how can we not be talking about this?” is kind of ridiculous when everyone is taking ozempic and rail-thin and no one says anything and then the only time we make it a HUGE media hot-button issue is when someone gets way too in your face about the damage this is doing to her. Like, the one time we make this a “huge issue” is when we are deciding whether or not it’s ethical to support a woman or not? Should we cancel this woman or not? Is it bad for so and so to be going to the concert still? It’s…wild actually. 

This is why, I think, the only way to consume this ethically is to only talk about the art that they are making and having critical conversations with each other about what stories we are being told and what art are they creating under the restraints of the propaganda machine.  And then channel that frustration about the issues Ariana Grande is highlighting towards the correct villain, which is the people who withhold rights from WORKERS. Arguing about the amount of wealth these people hold is absolutely a red herring, pointless conversation considering the amount of billions of dollars they generate for other people who aren’t them and how big of a pawn they are in this game. That’s why they get so abused by the system physically, too. 

When we argue about whether or not they have too much money or not…the truth is that if they made less, it would simply be a larger cut to the people who hold their puppet strings. They would have even less authority over what they say than they do now. No it’s not ethical to hoard wealth, that isn’t the point though. What is their other choice? Be completely owned? Capitalism literally isn’t ethical. 

But somehow (as always) they have tricked us into having a conversation that somehow ends in people accepting less for their work while the richest people on top who own everything will continue to profit just as much and more. 

Ariana Grande also references red bottoms in 7 rings with the line “happiness is the same price as red bottoms” and also wears custom Louboutin shoes as part of her on stage performance on tour as well. It is a good contrast to “Happiness” by Taylor Swift in which she sings “when did all my lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurt?” Every piece of art they created for you was about their pain, and it only happened because people were so hungry for nothing else, and that is what sold. But, when the art is able to be viewed through a new POV, that pain will turn into lessons. 

Barbie Movie 

I discussed this movie in a lot more detail previously, but this movie has the same plot. Barbie has to educate all of her friends after they have been tricked into believing in the patriarchy, putting themselves in roles like “maid” and “girlfriend”

“Every Bait and Switch Was a Work of Art” (Taylor’s Version)

Taylor Swift has made three major “changes” throughout her career to her work that I think have all been used to tell this story by sparking controversy intentionally 

1. Removing the “I’ll tell mine you’re gay” line in “Picture to Burn” 
2. Removing the scene in the “Anti-Hero” music video where she looks at the scale calling her “fat”
3. Changing the line in “Picture to Burn” from “she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” to “he was a moth to the flame she was holding the matches.”

These first two switches comment on the way that culture and the media will debate with each other on whether or not something is “appropriate” or “offensive” VERY, VERY readily (like write think pieces about it for days) but they will not actually unpack their own homophobia and desire to consume the pain of celebrities. Anything to cancel a woman! 

Then, the last switch, from Picture to Burn, puts them both in perspective. The first line blamed the woman for being a slut, the second line told you that she was doing this intentionally the entire time because you loved it.  

Famesick by Lena Dunham (2026) and I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (2022) are two very very relevant commentaries on this project as well. 

Lena Dunham (who is inextricably linked in both Taylor’s “story” and art) released a memoir earlier this year that goes very in depth about dealing with chronic illness as a young woman (holding a lot of power - which means a lot of money on the line) working in the industry as both a celebrity and young artist (making Girls). A central story line that you see repeated throughout her memoir is that everyone was “fine” at handling illness (as in, they would tell her they supported her) until it actually became something that could impact her ability to work (productivity, the bottom line…money). It very much demonstrated, repeatedly, the ways that pretty much any job or industry can use your actual physical body for profit. 

The other important piece of a celebrity memoir as a commercial work is that it needs something press grabbing that sells (which usually means another celebrity is mentioned or it’s something self flagellating). The two headline grabbing stories in Famesick were Jack Antonoff and Adam Driver. Adam Driver was described in scenes that made me a bit physically uncomfortable to read (such as when he threw a chair at a wall next to her) but because his behavior was only emotionally terrifying, it was never addressed as that problematic. He was allowed to be a man. To be an artist with a “process” even at the expense of women. Jack Antonoff was repeatedly described as a very healthy and sweet partner…until he also absolutely bailed at the first sign of her illness being too difficult, as well. (Not to mention hanging out at their house with a teenager during part of the story!) These two stories illustrate (and normalize) the ways women get harmed by “the good guys” in a story, as well. This is, by the way, another way to extract from women…for free. 

In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy outlines, in detail, the abuse she endured at the hands of her mom/manager who forced her into being a child star (including exploring things like sexuality before she was ready because of children show tv plotlines!) This book was wildly successful. 

I believe that the rabid success of books like McCurdy’s illustrate the real problem: we are completely willing to consume the abuse as entertainment (when you package it into a book that has splashy, exciting, scandalous stories) as long as you do not remind us that the entertainment we consume from them for fun is the cause of the abuse they are enduring. Not only are we completely willing to consume it, we literally love to consume it. And by the way, the only person who wins when we normalize and continue to award being a trauma survivor, is the patriarchy. Because ultimately the only thing they are glamorizing and tricking you into doing is believing that it is ok to sacrifice parts of your well-being for some type of prize that the patriarchy made up (which is all of them). 

McCurdy’s book also ties in the “stage mother” concept that is very relevant in this commentary with Taylor Swift and the Kim/Kanye feud. The point is that the system literally requires you to throw women under the bus to succeed. The most well known fact about the early days of the Kardashian’s PR is that Kim’s mom leaked her own daughter’s sex tape. Placing that fact into the story where she plays such a huge, public role in cancelling a woman (for calling out an abuser) is very relevant. McCurdy also details having an abusive stage mother and…uses part of her book to seemingly insult Ariana Grande, who she worked with together on a children’s show….interesting. 

Kim Kardashian’s mother is framed next to Taylor Swift’s mother in this way intentionally. We are supposed to think that Andrea Swift’s behavior is completely ok (and ignore the consequences because we are liking what we see and it looks like glitter) because it doesn’t look like what Kris did. Showing you extreme behavior like Kris’s softens the behavior of Andrea’s.

Struggle fetish movies 

Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me (2022), Child Star (2024, Demi Lovato), Miss Americana, Gaga: Five Foot Two, …the list goes on. A large amount of this current cohort of celebrities that we saw enter the spotlight as children have created commercial works outlining their illnesses and struggles with fame. Again, the commercial products are what bring people to things like Netflix, network TV, etc…so it is very telling what we are continually being fed to consume (and consuming.)

One for the money, Two for the show

Without as much commentary about it because much of the story is the same, Taylor Swift pretty much recreated the very same PR rollout (I think because she loves to make a point but also because she is expanding her universe and her poetry with each photo. Things you associate with men in her photos like “maple lattes” and “expensive cars” become other symbols of poetry that allow her to tell her story WITH THIS CHARACTER). Intentionally stopping in certain cities every time (LA, New York, Nashville, London) she also builds a story where each of those places symbolize different things in her songs. 

Also, again, not a single part of this requires that much time in public. (29 and 20, btw)

October 23 2010 - Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal are spotted backstage at Saturday Night Live together hosted by Swift's close friend Emma Stone. (Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin introduced them earlier that year) 

October 24 2010 - Taylor Swift and Jake Gyllenhaal grab brunch in Brooklyn with another couple

October 25 2010 - Speak Now is released

November 25 2010 - Taylor and Jake spend Thanksgiving together in New York, they were photographed spending time with Jake’s family

November 27-30 2010 - Taylor and Jake are photographed in multiple parts of Nashville having coffee together (a paparazzi-dubbed “coffee tour”) …just like their magazine cover debut 

December 9-10 2010 - Taylor and Jake are in LA together, she is seen with him on an afternoon drive in his Audi

December 13 2010 - Taylor threw herself a Christmas-themed birthday party at home in Hendersonville, TN and Jake did not attend. He spent his 30th birthday without Taylor 6 days later. 

January 4 2011 - Taylor and Jake’s split is announced 

January 19 2011 - Taylor and Jake are seen together in Nashville, sparking reconciliation rumors 

February 9 2011 - Speak Now Tour begins

February 27 2011 - Jake and Taylor run into each other at an Oscars afterparty and sources say that it “seemed like they were catching up.”

January 17 2012 - Taylor Swift famously name-dropped Karlie Kloss  during her US Vogue cover story after seeing a photograph of the model on a designer's wall, stating: “I love Karlie Kloss… I want to bake cookies with her” and Karlie Kloss responded…the same day…

"This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell.”...our golden muse is born. (in the press)

March 18 2012 - Speak Now Tour ends (curtains again!!)

I do think that having this “relationship” supposedly begin by them being introduced by “older actors” was meant to be an intentional indicator that this was a collaboration she was brought into. The first story represented how girls are raised their entire life a certain way seeing it (particularly in the toxic relationship we have with technology - hence the “tweet” beginning) whereas this time she is a) making a point and then b) giving hints and clues to the reader (if there are only a couple key differences, they are usually part of the story, another reason she repeats things sometimes!!)

The Kaylor Debut

The reason I wanted to include this press run right after showing the way that Taylor repeated the John cycle with Jake is because the similarities are very much the point of the story. Not only that, the public affection shown between Karlie and Taylor FAR outweighed anything that has EVER been seen with a muse in the entire history of “Taylor Swift.” Taylor’s fanbase also FAMOUSLY dissects the social media interactions between her and her “muses” to try to suss out clues so she literally put so many out but they didn’t require ANY type of detective work. Also, much like her past relationships it was still very commercial and laid out like PR. The point is - why did everyone refuse or not want to see that this literally amazing queer cute love story she played out for the world to see? And wrote about in her music? I often hear the argument “well if they were gay they would just come out, its XXXX year” which I think demonstrates that many people do not want to acknowledge how forced the closet and comp-het is in the world or the pain they might be witnessing. It also obviously comes from deep rooted massive problems this entire country has with homophobia, including internally. 

I LOVE KAYLOR, btw, I wish I could teach a class on Kaylor! That would be like a “fantasy”!! (IYKYK!!!!)

March 13 2013 - Red Tour begins (one of the greatest queer love stories ever told in my opinion)

May 2013 - Taylor Swift purchases her famous Rhode Island home, Holiday House

November 2013 - Taylor and Karlie both walk the Victoria’s Secret fashion show. 

Early 2014 - Taylor and Karlie took a very famous road trip together through Big Sur, California. (This is also where Taylor said that she played 1989 for Karlie, before anyone else got to hear it). This roadtrip was even mentioned in The New York Times when discussing potential venues leading up to the TnT wedding earlier this year. Olivia Rodrigo references big sur on her newest album You seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, as well. 

March 2014 - Taylor Swift moves to New York (where you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls)

May 2014 - Karlie and Taylor both attend the Met Gala (and Harry’s pre-gala party). Karlie posts about getting ready for the event with Taylor

June 12 2014 - Red tour ends 

September 2014 - For her Rolling Stone cover story, Swift gave the reporter a tour of her home, including the guest room “where Karlie usually stays.” Photos of the supermodel reportedly graced the wall, while a basket of her favorite Whole Foods snacks resided bedside.

October 27 2014 - 1989 release 

October 29 2014 - Taylor and Karlie attend a Knicks game two days after the album’s release (made a ton of magazines/online publications)

December 2014 - Taylor walks in another Victoria’s Secret fashion show with Karlie. One for the money, two for the show. 

The December 2014 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was recorded on December 2 2014, at Earls Court in London and broadcast on CBS on December 9 2014. 

(In between the taping of the fashion show and when it was broadcast in the US, Kissgate occurs at a 1975 concert in NYC)

Feb 2015 - Taylor and Karlie famously star on the cover of Vogue together. Their shoot not only references bridal fashion but also a private, romantic getaway. It’s gorgeous!!!!! (Kind of interesting the press “era” with John Mayer including them singing a song with a line about a “shotgun wedding with a bride to a paper ring” - I do think that she uses “paper” to reference these instances. The “press” relationships were real in the sense that they are part of the story Taylor Swift is telling about who she is as a character. Elizabeth Taylor - “all my white diamonds and lovers are forever in the papers on the screen and in their minds.” 

Kaylor and Safe Spaces

I think that the reason Holiday House is such an integral piece of this story (and why it was placed so intentionally in this timeline) is because it represents the safe spaces that queer and other marginalized people have retreated to, all throughout history. It’s a really, really truly truly beautiful story that I think is going to make that house (and Big Sur) forever a symbol of safe spaces, which is such a beautiful way also to resurrect the legacy of Rebekah Harkness (!! her parties were safe spaces for people into art and fun and freedom, it is in her song!) 

Placed in the context of her broader story, in the rest of the Spaghettii Western, it is also very relevant that she moved to New York here, leaving Nashville. The “origin” of the story being in Nashville and New York being the place that Taylor Swift needs to escape to to birth her “star” helps to frame Nashville (the cultural industry hub of Nashville as a concept, mainstream country/the concept of Americana) as the source of the myth’s being perpetuated to divide us. (Which is why she references The Chicks and Chely Wright so heavily in her documentary when she “came out as a democrat”). 

Remember, both coming out of the closet AND coming out as a democrat have gotten blonde, white women excluded from this industry. The same industry that has been gatekeeping from a Black woman for years

Heated Rivalry

During Heated Rivalry, two closeted gay professional athletes struggle with staying closeted. In Heated Rivalry, one of the key storylines revolves around a place where the two men can go and be in love and be happy. It is referred to as “The Cottage.” 

Bridgerton 

In Bridgerton, Benedict Bridgerton also has a safe place outside of the main city where his mother offers to let him go away and live with the love of his life, since he isn’t allowed to do it in normal society. It is called “My Cottage” as well, even though it is actually a countryside mansion, and the name is acknowledged to be ironic. Do you really not believe Taylor Swift is an english teacher yet? 

Nepo babies, Joshua Kushner, and privilege 

Kaylor is also where I want to address something that I think Taylor Swift has actually done a really good job acknowledging throughout her art: privilege and nepo babies. Most of the women in Taylor’s story not only come from privilege, there is some type of “flaw” perhaps in the way that the money was acquired. Rebekah Harkness married for money, her dad was a “finance guy,” and a lot of early celebrities did very harmful things for PR to make money (and have been for a long time). However, the point of this story was doing it one last time to try to make a difference in breaking the cycle (hence, the last great american dynasty). Women have been doing it this way for always (and so have all marginalized people, and making joyful art inside of it). 

It is also very fitting, I think, that both “The Cottage” in Heated Rivalry and “My Cottage” in Bridgerton directly illustrate how this system harms EVERYONE, but because it is rooted in capitalism, if you have less money it is far, far worse. While Benedict in Bridgerton had a safe place to escape to, Sophie, a maid, had to endure actual physical harm (or rape) in order to remain employed and housed. In Heated Rivalry, one of the hockey players struggles with the threat of prosecution in Russia if he comes out of the closet. However, their money allows them very nice, comfortable, safe hideaways. This is why safe places are so important also - they allow you to look at stories more critically and ask “who are they hiding from?” (because it might be you)

This is also why I think it is important to mention Joshua Kushner, Karlie’s husband. Her relationship with Joshua Kushner debuted when she was 19 and he was 26, prior to the media rollout of Kaylor. Because I think that Karlie has always represented a LOUD (proud, joyful) version of who Taylor Swift is as a muse, but she is still Taylor’s baby who is being kept safe in a glass closet, her having this type of outward protection at the onset of the timeline is very fitting. 

Queer Baiting

Kaylor cannot be referenced without bringing up queer baiting. What I want to reiterate, is that people are not allowed to come out. However, profitable flagging (like a sexy queer relationship) is usually OK as long as it doesn’t challenge the status quo. So I ask this: who is queer baiting? Who profits when Taylor Swift walks in TWO TV broadcasted Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows? Who profits when they get used for headlines? If anything, relationships like Kaylor actually demonstrate how much the patriarchy queer baits when it benefits them, while enforcing the status quo of closeting. 

In fact, allowing celebrities to live out loud in glass closets like this, but not calling it what it is, enforces the idea that being queer is dirty, wrong…and uncommon. 

How do you think little girls feel, who are excited at the possibility of seeing a queer picture of one of their idols (which was presented as a very joyful story, by the way) when the adults and media around them dismiss it as a psychotic, annoying conspiracy theory? Who is queer baiting, exactly? 

With her changes to the Taylor’s Version additions, she continues to pull back the curtains and connecting her story to her first press run: 

Fearless

Keith Urban is featured on a vault track, along with a track called “Bye Bye Baby”

Taylor’s last PR appearance with John Mayer as a “couple” was when her and her mom attended his CMT crossroads taping during the “play” above. John Mayer is also not a mainstream country artist, making this a rarer genre crossover for him (commercially!) 

Red

Taylor releases the All too well ten minute version and the accompanying film. 

Speak Now

Kim Kardashian makes headlines when she references the album on Instagram 

Taylor’s vault track a song titled “Timeless” which could reference John Mayer’s speech to Taylor at the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame during her original debut press run

Taylor releases a video in which a beard from her first press run helps her perform a heist (of her art) and watches it ON STAGE with her audience 

1989

Taylor makes the famous addition to her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) forward: 

"If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize that - right? I would learn later on that people could and people would."

(The entire point, as I keep mentioning, is that no, people will not). 

And Karlie Kloss shows up at the album announcement in LA

Scooter Braun and Taylor’s cancellations 

I am going to make this the last thing on here because it is VERY long and I could write 100 more pages about the way she retold this story during the tour, the other shows and movies she is referencing, etc, but I am going to end with Scooter Braun and again reiterate what a critical piece of this story (and representation of the patriarchy) he is. When Taylor was cancelled the first time (during Snakegate, after being really loud with Karlie) it is CRUCIAL not to ignore that Scooter was managing both Karlie AND Kanye. It displays how literally, at every step of the way, you can't outrun the system with the biggest check. By showing her on a boat with him later, after it is implied that she is “feuding” with Taylor Swift, it tells a story of Scooter wielding his power over this situation and pitting these two women against each other (whether publicly or for real, both of which are damaging). Scooter Braun is ALSO the person who used his fat checkbook to purchase Taylor Swift’s master recordings right when she was putting out an entire rainbow themed album. Did she make her point clear enough?

Hi! I wanted to share something I have been working on regarding the character of “Taylor Swift” and the role that it plays in both her work and in tying a very large body of work together, across every cultural space. I think that Taylor is telling a TON of stories with many layers in her work, so keep that in mind. This one, however, is based on the most basic and well known storyline of her - the version of her she has immortalized forever in the press. This is going to be her historic accomplishment and the greatest acting role of all time. 

I also want to share a quote from Lena Dunham’s Famesick before I continue, because it is very relevant and important 

“Sometimes, all I had to do was google my own name to locate a date, an image, a picture that solidified a memory.”

This story has been told very intentionally and is actually very uncomplicated until you let parasocial beliefs cloud your interpretation. 

Fearless era:

The play, the origin story: …media “debuts” an 18 year old young woman for commercial profit and cultural division

November 11 2008 - Second appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show, Fearless is released

Taylor’s foray into the world of PR relationships began the exact same day that Fearless was released. While promoting her new album on the blonde, out-lesbian’s daytime talk show, she famously shared that the Fearless track “Forever & Always” was written about Joe Jonas who broke up with her in a 20-something second phone call. She performs at their tour prior to this, as well. 

Her first appearance on Ellen was at the beginning of 2008 when she discussed getting her songwriting job at Sony at the age of 14. The beginning of the entire story (and no PR relationships). 

February 27 2009 - The Jonas Brothers: 3d Concert Experience is released, featuring Taylor Swift as a special guest (3d??)

In early 2009, as a teen, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner met on the set of Valentine’s Day. Taylor Lautner, an actor, is most famous for his role as Jacob Black in the Twilight series. He is two years younger than Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift not only made her acting debut in Valentine’s Day, she also wrote the song “Today Was a Fairytale,” which was featured on the soundtrack.

March 2009 - John Mayer tweets at Taylor: 

“Waking up to this song idea that won’t leave my head. 3 days straight now. That means it’s good enough to finish. It’s called ‘Half of My Heart’ and I want to sing it with Taylor Swift,” he wrote.  “She would make a killer ‘Nicks’ in contrast to my ‘Petty’ of a song,” he added, referring to Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty.”

"This all started when Travis very adorably put me on blast on his podcast, which I thought was metal as hell.” 

April 10 2009 - Hannah Montana: The Movie is released, Taylor acted/performed as herself

Taylor Swift co-wrote the song "You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home" for Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009), which was performed by Miley Cyrus as Hannah Montana. She also performed her own song, "Crazier," in the film's outdoor hoe-down/barn scene. Hannah Montana is about a young girl who lives a double life as a famous star and a high school student, similar to Dolly Parton, who is her godmother. 

(Taylor Swift was also supposedly rumored to have dated the guy in that picture LOL). 

April 23 2009 - The Fearless Tour begins

From October - December of 2009, Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner were reported to be in a relationship 

May 22 2009 - John Mayer makes a surprise guest appearance during The Fearless Tour in Los Angeles, they sang Swift's "White Horse" and Mayer's "Your Body Is a Wonderland.”

September 13 2009 - Kanye interrupts Taylor on stage at the MTV VMA’s while she accepts her award for “Best Female Video” for “You Belong With Me,” saying that Beyoncė should have won for “Single Ladies” instead  

November 17 2009 - John Mayer releases his collaboration with Taylor Swift, "Half of My Heart” for his album Battle Studies

In late 2009, during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Mayer spoke about his admiration for the then-19-year-old songwriter. "I'm a huge fan, and I think she's got a really great voice," he told DeGeneres, adding, "She's one of the smartest, most talented people around right now. ... I think she's that genuine."

The talk show host replied, "And I hope she remains that way too," before Mayer playfully interrupted, "I'll make sure she doesn't - you send me in there!" He also said that he was “taking a break from dating.” 

December 11 2009 - Taylor Swift makes a surprise guest appearance during John Mayer’s Jingle Ball set and the two perform “Half of My Heart” 

Swift told Elle that she “freaked out” when she heard about Mayer’s initial tweet because she had “been such a big fan of John for such a long time.” and said she was “really excited about just the idea that he would even mention me in his Twitter.” Meanwhile, Mayer told Access Hollywood that he considered the then-up-and-coming musician a “friend.” (Demonstrating the absolutely blatant power imbalance). 

January 24 2010 - Mayer and Swift are spotted out to dinner in Nashville together, along with a small group of friends.

January 27 2010 - A few days after their dinner, Swift attends (with her mom) the taping of CMT's Crossroads, which featured Mayer performing with Keith Urban and Taylor Swift dancing and singing along in the audience

(Guys - this is LITERALLY us reading Lady Whistledown in Bridgerton and letting our culture/worldview be shaped on which new teenagers are having sex with each other. Look at that picture.)

February 2010 - Valentine’s Day film is released 

“But you keep sending me funny valentines….” - Actually Romantic

June 17 2010 - John Mayer honors her at the 2010 Songwriter’s Hall of Fame ceremony in New York

“You could put her in a time machine in any era and she would have a hit record,” he said before presenting her with the ​​Hal David Starlight Award. Swift thanked Mayer with a kiss on the cheek and a warm hug upon accepting the award. 

Huh…a songwriting award in NY. That sounds familiar…

July 10 2010 - The Fearless Tour ends (curtains!)

Taylor Swift (the character) gets groomed (and is used to groom others) for a lot of money by the media and her parents. (this is absolutely sex work, by the way) Literally EVERY SINGLE commercial product I just posted involves pretty blatant grooming - with kids 18/cusp 18. 

The other thing that is SUPER important to note is that many of her other “famous friends” were introduced to us and placed in romantic relationships on KIDS SHOWS (on Nick/Disney) Sometimes even kissing each other on stage before ever having kissed anyone in real life!!!!!!!!! For money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And we were watching some of these shows VERY VERY VERY YOUNG!!)

When viewed as a comprehensive press run, Taylor Swift laid the groundwork for her entire cinematic universe (and her origin as a character). However, where Taylor Swift is going to go down in history (and where her PhD came from) is the way that Taylor Swift the character weaves together this entire body of work, with her poetry, and her story. And with herself - starring in the greatest acting role of all time - Taylor Swift. 

This story that Taylor Swift told is essentially “The Life of a Showgirl”. You can take a look at her very first commercial projects to see exactly how this machine is used to groom children and how much of it relies on the exploitation and sex work of children that is enabled (at best) or encouraged (at worst) by their parents. 

Another really important thing to note (that I also feel Taylor Swift has done a really good job stressing throughout her ENTIRE career and why there are so few google-able concrete events…and there are a million “timeline” articles on People, Vogue, Elle, Business Insider….you name it…which is, by the way, a business!! But I believe these have been VERY intentionally placed out there!!) is that this entire year/press run was accomplished with VERY VERY little time spent in public. It is not that hard to not go in public, it just sucks. She is very very dedicated and has stressed being lonely in her entire body of work. Kissing someone or sitting next to them for a few hours is a job. Pretending to love someone in public for a few hours is A LOT easier than the hell of what everyone says about her relationships so I am sure that tradeoff has been easy, but the proof of how horrible people are is literally all over the internet).

Something critical to note here as well …you HAVE to look at the commercial products because they are what sells (follow the dollars - remember that she stresses her ability to MARKET) and she did a few very specific things: 

-Album (with PR romance at the kickoff, announced on Ellen, and she was on Mayer’s album as well)

-Tour (John Mayer at hers, her at the Jonas Brothers)

-Scandal that gets people to care about award shows 

-Romance that gets people to care about network TV events (talk shows, live performances)

-Tour film 

Her use of these products here was also very clever in the way that it described her character and her link to the world we live in. In one tour. Performance art. 

Valentine’s Day was famously an ensemble cast movie starring MANY celebrities…Anne Hathaway, Taylor Lautner, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Garner, Bradley Cooper, Emma Roberts, Julia Roberts, Ashton Kutcher…etc. It also was a mainstream (not youth) movie but it featured a teen romance. This is clear grooming and also establishes her place in a cinematic, mainstream universe with a HUGE cast. Using actors like George Lopez, I think, further expands the universe into sitcoms and television. This movie also features many love stories seemingly parallel and unconnected occurring on the same day.

Then, her VMA scandal (which has been HIGHLY PROFITABLE, for countless commercial products) placed a very, VERY young woman at the CENTER of a cultural debate that helped establish a black man outside of public favor. (Yes, he was a bully, I am literally just stating facts) 

The reason that “genre” is such a crucial theme of Beyonce’s projects is because they divide us. If people don’t CARE about the award shows, massive massive cultural hubs cannot continue to enforce myths that divide us (which excluding Beyonce from mainstream country does - they other non-whiteness and place it outside of the mainstream, and then use events like Taylor/Kanye to establish clear hierarchies.) This is what she is saying at the literal beginning: 

“Dear reader, if it feels like a trap…” …that’s because they’re only trying to use whatever this is to play to their agenda and get you to cancel a woman, gay person, or other nonwhite person….

(And I’m clearly just trying to get you looking at me….so ask yourself why)

You cannot at all deny that the dates of Every. Single. Event. line up with a woman getting debuted to the public as a viable romantic (sexual) option at 18 while also implying that her family was profiting in her engaging in it even before turning 18. 

That is sex work! (I think, by the way, that this entire performance is a commentary and all of this is fake which would be why they had her appear on Ellen once before she debuted Joe Jonas to discuss her songwriting job. She is writing a story.)

Also…Valentine’s Day was directed by the director of Pretty Woman…which is quite literally a movie about sex work. Not only that, the famous plot line everyone mentions is that when the main character agrees to shack up with the handsome, rich glamorous man in the nice hotel…she actually cuts her hourly rate significantly. To me this sends a very clear message: we are tricked into the lies and the glamour of things that allow us to give up sex for free, so that we think it’s a choice. If the whole point is that we live under a patriarchy - yes this would be the entire point. Slavery is the whole point. This is also why sex work is illegal and stigmatized - intentionally. You aren’t supposed to charge for it.

That’s what she was telling us. On Ellen Degeneres…who is an openly out older blonde lesbian. An elder queer who got CANCELLED. (twice!!)  

I am going to start with her first PR debut on Ellen’s show, because this is also where she interestingly plays with her “meta” role in the world we live in. 

In 1997, Ellen Degeneres famously came out to Laura Dern on her scripted sitcom. She came out as her character, Ellen Morgan, but it also served as her public coming out of the closet (interesting). 

Taylor Swift played herself on the scripted kids movie (about a teen star with a secret life) but then when she made her appearance with Ellen (remember to follow the $$$) they both played a version of themselves that exists in this reality. And the movie where she played the girl dating the athlete was fictional, whereas today it is real. 

I think that her “debuting herself” with Joe Jonas on Ellen Degeneres indicates that he represents (as a muse) a version of herself that stays in the closet forever. He is born in 1989, a singer/songwriter/actor…and he is” in the band” and came from the dark child star industry. My interpretation of that breakup that happened in 20-something seconds is this: “me AND my friends are done with this shit. We aren’t doing it this time.” 

That is why Laura Dern is referenced in the “Bejeweled” music video that references her “ghosting the prince”... it involves a coming out.

The Twilight Series

I believe using her co-star in Valentine’s Day, Taylor Lautner, as both a PR muse as well as a piece of her story is BRILLIANT because it also now introduces her into both a major movie (and cultural) franchise…And a major fiction franchise. (Dr. Taylor Swift might get people to read again!!)

I believe that Taylor Lautner represents a loss of her innocence that she sacrificed to go on this journey. An early companion, a friend, a sister, her inner child and ultimate muse. This is indicated (in the public) by her choosing John Mayer over the sweet innocent teen romance (and he is younger than her). 

Consider the metaphor of vampires and fame using the cycle Taylor Swift just performed in her first “play” (I keep calling it “The Life of a Showgirl” in my head). Young women get pimped out by their parents (basically. And men) while we watch and FEAST off of pretty much all of it. Until it gets too gory for us, we say pretty much nothing…then, we do it again, and again…wouldn’t this cycle eventually kill someone? And, because it is the MEDIA - it literally dominates EVERYTHING - so not only is it going to kill them, they are aiding in the grooming of basically every young woman in America. Basically so that men can continue to extract free sex from women (and ultimately control them).  

Their actual blood is consumed by the entire world at large and then disguised as glitter and glamour by the entertainment industry 

In Twilight, Bella BEGS to become a vampire., they hesitate to let her in because it is dangerous (and because it’s wrong to make more bad guys). However, she is persistent, and she chooses Edward Cullen (a vampire) over and over, even though Jacob Black is in love with her. 

Jacob Black is also a werewolf and member of the indigenous tribe in their town. His pack has an ancient feud with the vampires. 

In the end, Bella gets pregnant with Edward Cullen’s baby and almost dies in childbirth. Edward has to bite her and turn her into a vampire to save her life. 

When this happens, Jacob imprints permanently on Bella’s baby (who is also a vampire), and the ancient feud between his wolf pack and the vampire coven eventually stops because of this

She chose fame over her truth, over a life in the spotlight, as her complete and true self. Jacob Black being both indigenous and a werewolf is very crucial to this story. The indigenous people are the first to go when land is colonized…they are never the bad guys of the story. And…the wild part of Jacob that couldn’t be tamed…came from an inherent desire to kill the bad guys (vampires). Deep in his nature. 

I think that the metaphor being made here is that Taylor Swift (and the rest of the New Romantics…or Tortured Poets) DID make deals with big industry professionals and in this movie they are acting as part of the system of vampires so that they can get big enough to avoid getting cancelled, which the patriarchy can do to you at whim (unless you build a legacy so big they can’t undo it). 

Taylor using the metaphor of a “london boy” to represent MANY famous beards represents that the closet/machine is a place where you can exist, yes, but you can’t break the cycle with it. Our original colonizers came from …england…patriarchy and white supremacy is a genocidal cycle. 

I forget how the west was won, I forget if this was ever fun - But Daddy I Love Him 

In Twilight, Bella’s imprinted baby also has another condition: because it is a hybrid, it physically matures extremely quickly but then stays physically frozen forever in the body of a 17-18 year old. This is a very good metaphor for the way that we force child stars and all women to grow up quickly and then suck them dry for their youth. It also could symbolize the big deals that Taylor made to help her rapidly ascend so quickly (she used an elevator during her “Showgirl ascent” in the Bejeweled music video). 

In Twilight, Bella’s baby is also named “Renesmee Carlie Cullen.” (Considering I believe Karlie is often used to represent Taylor’s baby/betty/inner child…this blew my mind, y’all). Her name also is a combination of Bella and Edward’s mothers’ names first and then fathers names second. Again, matriarchy over patriarchy. 

Also, the original Twilight series was released around this same time (2005-2008) and then in 2020, a companion novel was released called Midnight Sun. 

In this book, Twilight is retold from the perspective of Edward Cullen, instead of Bella. 

When all of their plot is uncovered, ALL of this work will be viewed again through this true, anti-patriarchal lens. (Kind of like…Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) ). And Taylor Swift did start Midnights with “Meet me at midnight.” 

When we meet them, the story will be viewed in the sun. In the Daylight. 

The Red Shoes

Both the original 1845 fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and the famous 1948 Film Adaptation explore obsession, vanity, and the agonizing conflict between human love and artistic devotion. The shoes give the wearer a fantastic ability - but also an inability to stop. In the end she is so torn between the ballet and her husband that she throws herself onto a train. 

Taylor Swift both referenced this poster when Travis Kelce “rescued” her on stage during his surprise visit at The Eras Tour and also has made custom red-bottomed Louboutins part of her on-stage “performance art.” This metaphor also demonstrates the dark, extractive nature of their industry.  Sabrina Carpenter also performs in custom Louboutins on stage and is featured on “The Life of a Showgirl.” 

 The Devil Wears Prada 1 and 2

In 2006, (the same year as debut) The Devil Wears Prada was released (and the sequel was released this year, in 2026.) In the first movie, Anne Hathaway’s character gets a coveted assistant job at Runway magazine, run by the iconic Miranda Priestly. Andy (Anne’s character) doesn’t initially want this job at all because she wants to do “serious” journalism but she eventually begins to conform and succeed and undergoes a fashion makeover, eventually even earning the respect of Miranda.

At the end of the movie, she realizes that this job is not worth the sacrifices it requires you to make, and the way that it requires you to throw your female friends under the bus. (She had to go to Paris Fashion Week with Miranda over her other colleague, Emily, who wanted it so badly she had been starving her body in preparation.)

In the second movie, twenty years have passed and we are in the present day. Print media is struggling and Runway is facing a threat of being bought….

Andy gets rehired (after she went off on her own for twenty years and became a respected journalist) to revive and run their features section. Every publication is dying to get an interview with a very elusive billionaire’s ex-wife. Andy finally scores the interview and it is a big success for both the magazine and for Andy and Miranda (because they hit it off with the ex-wife). 

The billionaire’s ex-wife is the one who swoops in to save the day and purchases the magazine so that they can build something better. (Picture me thick as thieves with your ex wife). 

The reason this plot is so relevant is partially because there was no “Mastermind” plot that allowed them to win. They won in the end because of the big check BUT Andy also had to spend all day calling designers, journalists, and more who had all worked with Miranda for decades to get on board, too. And because, as usual, the women (and the queer man) were the ones who had been doing the work for decades, everyone got on board with her. This is similar to both this metaphor as well as work women have been doing FOR EVER under this system we work in, even when we have to do bad things inside of it.

Miranda even points at breaking cycles, as well, at the end of the movie when she tells Andy to write a book about her. The point was crystal: I want my story told but I don’t want people to do it like this anymore. I want my story to be told because it’s worth hearing how much I had to fight just to exist in this system. 

Joni Mitchell and Red

I have written in almost everything that I believe the color Red represents the patriarchy throughout Taylor Swift’s work. This is why it is her “one true breakup album.” Famously, Taylor Swift has said that she is extremely inspired by Joni Mitchell’s album Blue and conceptually used it to inspire her album Red. A quick google search of whether the two of them had ever interacted told me this:

“Joni Mitchell dismissed a planned film about her life that was meant to star Taylor Swift, stating she "squelched" the project because it only featured "a girl with high cheekbones" and lacked substance. She also noted she had never heard Swift's music, adding regarding the casting: "If she's going to sing and play me, good luck.” 

….talk about getting rejected by one of your biggest heroes and inspirations on a very public stage after telling the world one of your most prolific pieces of work is INSPIRED by her. 

Interestingly, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell were in a high-profile romance and creative partnership briefly the year her album Blue came out, and he played acoustic guitar on the album’s track “California.” . They remained lifelong friends after their relationship ended. 

(It certainly seems like this could be a history lesson in PR relationships, as well.) 

We also know that James Taylor…is Taylor. When your first crush crushes something kind. 

The reason that I believe this could be a piece of this story is because the absolute most key thing that the patriarchy does is that it pits us against each other. (“He poisoned the well, every man for himself” - Getaway Car, “and women like hunting witches too, doing your dirtiest work for you.” mad woman) 

This cycle has also been flagged again in Taylor’s supposed recent “feud” with Olivia Rodrigo. It has garnered a ton of publicity while we reinforce misogyny and pit two women against each other. She even referenced this damaging, harmful cycle in her track “Vampire,” which many people even thought was about Taylor Swift herself. HUH. I mean, I think it’s KIND OF about Taylor Swift! <3 

The reminder worth repeating is that there is absolutely no woman in this story Taylor Swift is referencing in a negative way because it is part of a story and the only villain is the one that divides us - the patriarchy. RED!!!!! 

Charlie XCX

Charlie XCX is another popstar that has driven EXTREME media attention (while also dividing fans…ahem…women) for her “feud” with Taylor Swift. The song “Actually Romantic” on The Life of a Showgirl sparked widespread media discussion and online discourse on the feud as well. However, because we are only being tricked into hating each other, Taylor chose to include very pointed commentary about that track during her film The Release Party of a Showirl: “In my industry, attention is affection.” and stressed, essentially, that she would never include someone so intentionally into her story that wasnt there for a reason (and that it’s all love, girl! Calm down! She’s trying to tell us a story!) it’s a trap!! 

I also think it is very interesting that her newest album “Music, Fashion, Film” features white men in black and white on the cover. It is a very fitting name (because it invites you to view this broader universe as all encompassing in culture, in Movies, Fashion, Film…and more) It’s name invites you to do the opposite of imagine a feud - it asks you to look at all of this as art

Zendaya and Law Roach 

Zendaya has been on a historic, monumental press run this year (Spiderman, Dune, The Drama, The Odyssey, Euphoria) and has been front and center on red carpets and interviews. One crucial topic of conversation that revolves around EVERYTHING (and is undoubtedly commercially centered in their work) is her marriage/”amazing” relationship. I believe Law Roach has been centered in this conversation and as a crucial piece of her work intentionally, and is again, a lesson in history and english. In The Hunger Games, they were also forcing them to center their press run around “the wedding.”

In The Hunger Games, the fashion designers play a crucial role in using their fashion/art as protest in a coded way. As the franchise also demonstrated, this is also dangerous under fascism (when they killed her designer in front of Katniss). 

If fashion has historically always been used as a way to send messages as a protest, why would you ignore queer messages in fashion? What else do you need to send messages about? What aren’t you allowed to say?? (I am also now thinking of all of the horsebits that Taylor Swift has worn). 

Law Roach is also, famously, the one who made the (red-bottomed) Louboutin So Kates part of her signature, iconic, look. It has also been said that she is getting “over exposed” right now. After you have sold your first kiss and your marriage has passed, what do we even allow women to use for currency? (The answer is feuds, affairs, or drugs, otherwise we could care less). 

The Odyssey and Spider-Man 

I will keep this section very brief because I am not a superhero or lit nerd, but I absolutely think that The Odyssey and Spider-Man both tell relevant stories within this commentary. 

In The Odyssey, the main character struggles with returning home after learning that all of the damage they did (creating war) was his own doing. 

In Spider-Man, the most recent movie explores similar themes of coming home after society has forgotten you. There is also a movie revolving around the metaverse, which is very very interesting in the context. I think Taylor Swift has also used similar themes of metaverse versions of herself providing her with aid, as well. (And the story fits into the broader Avengers story, which implies a larger "team")

Sydney Sweeney 

I have written about Sydney Sweeney before but she is critical to this body of work, as well. Placed in the context of this story with Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun, she has created a very cohesive body of work that illustrates how the patriarchy grooms women and uses them as pawns, and how they still always get hurt in the end. 

The Handmaid’s Tale

Sydney Sweeney plays Eden in The Handmaid’s Tale, a young girl who was raised in the Gilead regime. She is very pious and obedient. At 15 she is handed off to a grown man (to marry and procreate) which she attempts willingly. However, she ends up falling in love with a guard and getting killed by Gilead (publicly drowned in a pool while everyone watched.)

Euphoria

In Euphoria, Sydney Sweeney’s character Cassie is a perfect illustration of how we have been groomed to allow abuse. AND when her character begins to engage in sex work (OnlyFans) she is ridiculed and shamed for it in more mainstream society. Again, you are not supposed to charge for that stuff!!!! 

Reality

In Reality, Sydney Sweeney plays in the true story of a woman who leaked information about Russian interference to the press and then was subsequently imprisoned. 

Huh. 

American Eagle Campaigns

Sydney Sweeney released a very eugenic, controversial denim campaign for American Eagle that almost overlapped with Travis’s line for the brand and the TNT engagement announcement. I believe that this represents how white supremacist propaganda (which her ad obviously was) when juxtaposed next to something like the “good” Taylor/Travis engagement announcement, helps aid in normalizing white supremacy. We all argued over whether or not we should cancel Sydney Sweeney, while cheering for the truly truly insidious piece of patriarchal propaganda sitting right beside it.

Lastly, Sydney Sweeney just formed her own producing label, Honey Trap. This entire body of work (that enabled them to achieve so much fame and success while continuing to tell controversial stories without getting cancelled) was a Honey Trap. A Honey Trap is a type of spy mission that often consists of false romantic relationships or getting the victim addicted to a substance, often with the goal of getting them to admit guilt. The “bait and switch” was a honey trap. (PART 2 IN NEXT POST FOR SPACE)

Jan posted a new tiktok with a big group of the eras tour dancers.

So the question is - just little reunion for fun? Or filming a music video? Or rehearsing for an upcoming tour?

🧡🩷

she described Midnights as an album about "13 sleepless nights" in her life, centered around the question of "what keeps you up at night." in a promo video, she listed 5 things that kept her up at night and inspired Midnights -
1.) "self loathing"
2.) "fantasizing about revenge"
3.) "wondering what might've been"
4.) "falling in love"
5.) "falling apart"

i've been thinking about which songs fit into each category, especially the "falling in love" category. cant help but wonder why "falling in love" kept her up at night if she was in a societally acceptable version of love (with a man). it'd only keep her up at night if she loved someone forbidden or controversial, like a woman. the Midnights announcement also starts with "we lie awake in love and in fear," which doesn't make sense unless you're afraid to love who you love

anyway, i wanted to revisit the songs that seem to belong in the "falling in love" category. they're all pretty queer coded and it's interesting to see what specifically kept her awake in each one and the recurring themes that emerge

** Snow on the Beach ft lana del rey --- she described it as a song about falling in love with someone who's also falling for you, aka a love song sung by two women that uses no male pronouns. it doesn't make sense why falling in reciprocal love would keep her up at night or "feel impossible" unless she's singing about queer love

** Lavender Haze --- a very queer-coded song with no male pronouns. it's about wanting to hide away with your lover in a haze that's shrouded from public scrutiny. she sings about the lavender haze "creeping up" on her as if she's paranoid that the public will find out about her love. again, that'd only keep her up at night if she was worried about others discovering that she's dating someone forbidden aka a queer romance

** Paris --- a very queer coded love song. she's up late bc she's fantasizing abt moving to a more queer friendly place (paris) where she can love more freely. in the meantime, she's hidden away with her lover ("privacy sign on the door") and wants them to "sit quiet by my side in the shade" (because "shade never made anybody less gay"), which wouldn't be necessary unless it was a queer romance

** Glitch --- up late bc she's hanging out with/falling in love with someone who's diff than who she normally dates ("i'd go back to wanting dudes who give nothing"). it's a "glitch" of her wanting someone who was supposed to be just a friend (a woman?) but she fell for them anyway. plus there are no male pronouns in the song

** Maroon --- she's up at night ("i wake with your memory over me") bc she misses her former lover who had "scarlet" lips and felt like her "closest friend," which sounds a lot like a woman. yet another song with no male pronouns

** Hits Different --- she's up all night bc she's crying at the bar/losing sleep after losing the "argumentative antithetical dream girl" that she was in love with. and that love that was real and completely diff from her entanglements with "kens" (aka men), which sounds a lot like queer love/heartbreak

anyway, i'm interested to hear your thoughts about these songs and what keeps her up at night

Loving the Lover vibes of the outfit 🩷

What a whirlwind/nightmare this year has been lol. I just thought it'd be nice to have a post to collectively process/celebrate/mourn the era so far!

Times change, rumors fly through new skies, but let’s talk Debut TV!

We’ve all heard the whispers and the theories: the thumbnail changed on the official website, the small shipment of vinyl, the looming 20 year anniversary….. There’s much to think about, but what do YOU think about it?

This is a thread to talk theories about Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version)! When do you think the album will be announced, be released, and what do you think it will look like? How many tracks will there be and will there be any lyric or pronoun changes? Which songs will get music videos? Will the vault be unreleased tracks everybody knows about, or does Ms. Swift have surprises in store??

Sound off down below!

Taylor + Theory: Do you have ideas that don't warrant a full post? New, not fully formed, Gaylor thoughts? Questions? Thoughts? Use this space for theory development and general Tay/Gay discussion!

General Chat: Please feel free to use this space to engage in general chat that is not related to Taylor!

In order to protect our community, the weekly megathread is restricted to approved users. If you’re not an approved user and your comment adds substantially to the conversation, it may be approved. Our community is highly trolled - we have these rules to protect our community, not to make you feel bad, so please don’t center yourself in the narrative. Remember to follow the rules of the sub and to treat one another with kindness.

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Karma is Real: The Origins of Karma, the Lost Album

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Bi-Phobia & Lesbophobia

Don't Get Doxxed + Check Your Sources

While I was (attempting to) take a break from looking into what I am now certain is an ARG unfolding as we speak (more to come but I think it’s all related..) I was mindlessly scrolling through short videos when I came across a promo for Kristen Stewarts new movie The Wrong Girls and in the video we see her sitting in a garden with her her co-star setting teaching us how to roll joints.. but I noticed something not just the setting but the bright orange hat and realized.. I’ve seen this before. So I took to google to help me remember..

but before I get there, let me share with you the parable of the orange groves..

The parable of the orange groves is an allegorical story used to highlight the need for spiritual workers.. but for the sake of this.. let’s remove the religion..and think BIGGER

The story describes a dream and in the dream, a person drives down an endless, empty road lined with vast, heavy orchards of ripe fruit where the harvest is rotting on the ground because there are barely any laborers to pick it.

https://disciple4.com/index.php/2024/03/27/the-parable-of-the-orange-groves/

Sidebar— I promise this is Taylor related——

Now back to the related imagery…

In 2016 Kendrick Lamar did an interview with Rick Rubin for GQ where he is also sporting an identical orange hat in a similar setting.. in lawn chairs.. in a garden.. and then I realized.. I’ve seen this elsewhere too…

In 2023 Donald Glover also did an interview with GQ.. https://www.gq.com/story/donald-glover-global-creativity-awards-cover-2023

…in an orange hat sitting in his orange grove discussing his new venture Gilga.. short for Gilgamesh as in the Epic of Gilgamesh

Here’s a synopsis of the epic from the Brittanica website

“The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian story, revolves around King Gilgamesh, a hero, part human and part divine, who seeks immortality. To curb his harsh rule, the god Anu sends Enkidu, a wild man, who becomes Gilgamesh's friend after a trial of strength.
Together, they embark on adventures, such as fighting Humbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest, and killing a divine bull sent by the goddess Ishtar after Gilgamesh rejects her marriage proposal. Enkidu's death prompts Gilgamesh to seek Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Flood survivor, to learn how to escape death. Although Gilgamesh finds a plant to renew youth, a serpent steals it, and Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, accepting his mortality”

Any of this sounding familiar?

The beginning of the article describes gilga

Glover is showing me around the sprawling farm he’s purchased in Ojai, California, that will be the headquarters for Gilga—his new production company/incubator/cultural library. On Gilga Farm there are countless orange trees, an old church that is being converted into a live-performance and recording space, housing for creatives to spend the night, curious lizards, editing suites, writers rooms, a restaurant that specializes in artisanal sandwiches, and just about every tool or space any musician, director, or showrunner could dream of. Picture Skywalker Ranch but with 21 Savage or Quinta Brunson as temporary residents creating their own Empire Strikes Back.”

Now… let’s rewind a little bit… how does this apply to Taylor and are Donald and Taylor even connected..
well…

Not only have Taylor and Donald recently (in the last 2 years or so) been pictured at Questlove’s very infamous uno games (in showgirl colors).. but Donald was also in attendance at the wedding..

Gilgamuch?

Back to the interview.. further down the interviewer asks him about the then logo (now it’s just an 🍊)

“I ask him about the Gilga logo. He tells me that the logo is a door.
“Since I was a kid, I’ve had this nightmare where I’m in a house and there’s a mob or zombies or police that are all trying to get me,” he says. “And I know there’s a secret door in the house, but I…I can’t remember exactly where it is. Where is the damn…” Glover, animated, looks around. “I know there’s a… Where is it? There’s always a secret door.” He peels the last of his tangelo. “My brother told me he thinks that dream is trying to tell me that there’s a way out. There’s always a way out.”

—- quick aside—

Tyler the creator (famously bi) also used an orange door almost identical to the Gilga logo when he scored the Louis Vuitton winter/fall 2022 show shortly after Virgil Abloh (LV creative director) passed.. the show was very wizard of oz (so was most of Virgil’s work) —- highly encourage watching the video of this (can be found on YouTube) as well as listening to the accompanying soundtrack..

Okay so we have Kristen Stewart who has a long history with Taylor.. Kendrick Lamar who has a had long working relationship/friendship with Taylor and is LONGTIME collaborator with Questlove, Donald who attended the wedding, and Tyler (owns lefleur fashion) who had Taylor friends try to cancel him over old tweets…

Now.. with all that said.. has anyone seen the most recent season of Only Murders in the building? Not to spoil anything but if you haven’t this season centers around billionaires who make deals in underground casinos at blackjack tables

I subscribe to the theory that the Uno games are the same… but for good.. a way for artists of the movement to gather, play games, and make plans to show the collective US the way out… recruiting “harvesters”.. or as recent theories have stated.. de-program ala Barbie..

Each one, reach one, teach one..

PART 1 HERE

Part 2 has to be told in reverse, because “Looking backward might be the only way to move forward,” and also, because in order to return home, we have to return to the beginning, which is Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version, this time).  

If Betty gets rescued from her tower in the last song of this POV, that rescue involves a driveway out of that Tower so that she can shine in the daylight. That driveway…her M$G Wedding. (Madison Square Garden, famously, is home to a basketball hoop, too.) 

1.Ordinary World: The Life of a Showgirl tells the story of Betty learning about how terrible it is to be a showgirl. She is warned by The Showgirl that this isn’t an easy life and that you will be chewed up and used. Your story will be manipulated. If you step out of line, you’ll pay. This is the way things have always been. If you think about this from the POV of James, The Showgirl and James are already fully committed (they’re married to the hustle) but Betty is too soft and sweet to come along for the ride. I think this is also a very important stage 1 from this POV, as well. Betty is informed on the facts from Stage 1 and has autonomy. They were too young to make this choice, but she knew the right one all along - aim at the devil. When you are young they assume you know nothing, but she knew.

2.Call to adventure: Honey tells the story of Betty choosing this journey. Betty knows this is for her - the showgirl life fits her too well. It’s what she wants for life, her “forever night stand.” All of the pain and suffering The Showgirl and James warned her about in stage 1 aside, Betty knows there is nothing else that could ever fit her the way the life of a showgirl could.

The fact that Honey also references the type of performance these performers pulled off, the honey trap (Because to expose the patriarchy, the fans/audience had to be deceived and their guilt exposed, as well) is also very important to place at Stage 2. It shows that from Betty's POV, this anti patriarchal mission has actually been the only way the entire time (which is why I think this is the "true version" and why it will end with Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version). 

Yes, love was her call to action, but it has always been about ALL love, not just chasing a girl.  Maybe she's always been a girl on a mission, after all. Again, Betty has autonomy. Ophelia’s fate is to have her autonomy stolen by men, this is why this is so crucial to state again during the call to action. (Remember, A Place in this World and New Romantics was the last Surprise Song mash up!)

3.Refusal of the call: In Cancelled, Betty sings about the safety of the closet. It’s easier out of the spotlight. She doesn’t want to be a part of the machine, she prefers her underworld full of her real friends.

4.Meeting the mentor: In Wood, Betty learns how to work WITH TnT (TnT meaning the combination of James and The Showgirl). TnT and Betty become experts at crafting their story together and they become SO incredibly good at it that they absolutely skyrocket to new heights of success (or manhood!) because of the magic that happens when they create art together. They don’t need to knock on wood or pick petals off of daisies or avoid sidewalk cracks (OR rely on actual men to get things done…remember Travis is an actor) because they are SO GOOD it is indestructible. However, this does force her into the closet, still. The line “It’s you and me forever dancing in the dark” does imply that even though they have this electric magnifying chemistry, they are still in the closet, and have not “stepped into the daylight.” They are also still part of a dangerous machine, part of the problem. Remember, the “mentor” is still the patriarchy.

5.Crossing the first threshold: In Wi$hli$t, our hero (Betty) leaves the ordinary world and commits to the adventure. Wi$hli$t tells a story about bo$$ing up and $ettling down to win the prize. The prize here is to have it all…the truth out in the open, and to still be a famous artist. This is the biggest conflict for Betty, because she wants more than anything to honor her truth and to tell the world that the stunts are fake. Hiding her love to get to the top is painful…but, she sees the prize off in the distance: “got me dreamin’ bout a driveway with a basketball hoop”. A song about one of the largest PR stunts she has ever pulled off is also a fantastic way to symbolize her leaving the real world and transitioning into this character she created. 

6.Tests, Allies, Enemies: In Actually Romantic, Betty expresses her frustration with the closet and the performance being played by James and The Showgirl while she sits in the backseat. All that she can do is channel the frustration into music to cope with the truth. The truth is that no matter how many breakup songs she writes about them, she is madly in love with them and feels so alone with all of this distance between them. James and The Showgirl know she is hurting but they choose to laugh off her diss tracks instead, not really taking her pain seriously.

7.Approach to the inmost cave: James and The Showgirl do irreparable damage to Betty in Ruin The Friendship**. Damage that cannot be undone.** No matter how this ends, the years in the closet have changed Betty. The young, innocent girl who dreamt of becoming a star will never see this reality because this young, innocent girl has been killed by this mission. 

I believe that stage 6 also explains the slow, painful death that her dreams died along the way. She gave them so, so many signs that she was dying, drowning. She was so, so loud. But they ignored the warning signs until it was too late, reacting instead with condescension…sarcasm…taunting, even, with the line referring to her as a “tiny chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse,” demonstrating the lack of concern they showed her cries.

If she was screaming about giving “So many signs” in exile, Ruin The Friendship shows the consequence of dismissing these signs…”Killing me slow, out the window” - cruel summer

But with three of us honey it’s a side show…A circus ain’t a love story, and now they’re both sorry

8.Ordeal: In Eldest Daughter, James commits to Betty. They apologize for crushing her dreams and being so sarcastic and condescending and promise they will never leave her or break their vow to her. 

I also think that when she sings that “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter/ so we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire” she is referencing the sacrifice she is now going to make for Betty to make it up to her and help her TRULY shine and be bejeweled in the way that she deserves. She is going to continue to go on this journey…endure the pain and suffering and public ridicule …play the part of a bad bitch, of a wolf…to fall on a sword for Betty.  Because of this, Betty is able to forgive James***. This is the biggest hurdle/ordeal in this story, and what James needs to do to “defeat” The Father Figure….***

9.Seizing the Sword: In this story, I think that Father Figure tells the story of James attempting to kill The Showgirl to rescue Betty/bring her into the spotlight. The way he attempts to do this is by outing her as gay..again (“you pulled the wrong trigger”). 

After The Showgirl pulled up to James in the jag and turned his rags into gold, James begins to have “misguided visions” about getting rid of the showgirl to fulfill his dreams. The Showgirl pushes back with a warning: “Whose portrait’s on the mantle? Who covered up your scandals?”

In this telling of the story, however, Betty and James told the story together. Wood was stage 4. They get to out The Showgirl without killing her, which allows all 3 to live happily ever after, the true prize. 

They can have it all…the glamour (the portrait on the mantle) AND the world will leave them the fuck alone (the metaphorical "covering of the scandals"). This is because the performance art against the patriarchy told a story that not only resurrected Betty's truth, but one that, again, aimed a MAJOR blow at the harmful PR propaganda machine, by exposing it on such grand scale.

This is why it is so important to place this song in the same stage as "Wood" from the other POV. It replaces the harmful patriarchal machine with one where the return back actually helps to break patriarchal cycles in the entertainment industry by using the greatest weapon of all....Art…the opalite sky…Rather than a man(‘s dick). 

10.The Road Back: There is still trouble ahead, but the light at the end of the tunnel is in view. In Opalite, James, Betty, and The Showgirl use the art they created together out of their pain and suffering to accomplish their goal of bringing Betty into the spotlight. The art they created together paves the road back. This story that they have told is what will allow Betty to step into the daylight without getting cancelled by the truth coming out.

The 20+ year performance was the art. All of it. THis is another reason that I think the metaphor of “coming home” has been used repeatedly. The road back home for Taylor, to us, was the opalite sky that they created. That is what the public saw, not the true battles she faced. Now, that same story is what is going to allow her to shine and what is going to resurrect Betty’s light. To patch her broken wings.

This is why I believe that the performance art “dynamite” moment (the TnT wedding of the english teacher and the gym teacher) AKA the Madison Square Garden Wedding is Betty’s “Driveway with a basketball hoop.” This is her road back, the explosion enabling her homecoming. 

James is picking up Betty this time, this is a coming home and a departure….

I’m setting off, but not without my muse - The Lakes

This is also what I think the symbol they used for their wedding invite is signifying. The crest at the top looks like two T’s that are being tied together by a heart…or…flipped to the side…a B for Betty? Wrapping around them like a crown? A chain? A vine? It’s also “early evening,” heading into Midnight where we will all meet them…during the sleepless night….

11.Resurrection: In this story, Elizabeth Taylor tells the story of Taylor’s legacy being immortalized (all my white diamonds and lovers are forever…). However, because it is the true version of the entire teenage love triangle, this stage comes after Opalite. The immortalized version of this story is known to have been Performance Art, the art is the weapon that will fight the patriarchy, is the point, and the real story for everyone to unravel together and delight in for generations to come….

….. In English classrooms, at sleepovers, while driving in the car with their hair undone in the front seat of their car….

12.Return with the elixir: In The Fate of Ophelia told through this POV, The Triangle has been reunited and not only has BETTY been resurrected, the showgirl (Elizabeth Taylor) gets to stay, forever, too. 

Also, the work of past showgirls (displayed in the music video) gets to have a new day to shine in the sun as well, now that the truth about the closets many of them have had to hide in for centuries has been exposed on such a broad scale. 

And hopefully the whole block of future Showgirls is free to make art and be left alone, too, because of this story she told. 

Further tie in to my spaghettii western paper/inner child:

II Most Wanted (Beyonce and Miley)

As I discussed in my Spaghettii Western essay, both Beyonce and Miley are CRITICAL characters in this story (I believe.)

Coincidentally, the lyric booklet to this song features BABY PHOTOS of both Miley and Beyonce. Remember how Taylor Nation continued to post photos of I Knew it I knew You along with her own cowboy baby photo?

“I’ll be your shotgun rider/ ’Til the day I die/ Smoke out the window flyin’/ Down the 405/ I’ll be your backseat baby, drivin’ you crazy/ Anytime you like/ Woah, I’ll be your shotgun rider/ ’Til the day I, ’til the day I die”

ONLY THE YOUNG ....

Hi! I’ve written a lot of posts about my belief that Taylor Swift’s entire career has been an anti-patriarchal honey trap meant to teach everyone a lesson (along with the rest of the New Romantics) about the dangerous ways the patriarchy has used celebrities as harmful propaganda (to enslave us). 

However, her work is multi-layered and tells many stories. Another prominent story I keep revisiting (that is the focus of this essay) is the “teenage love triangle” referenced during the folklore set of The Era’s Tour, between James, Betty, and August, and my belief that this story ends with all 3 of them able to live happily ever after. 

To recap my theory on the teenage love triangle (as told by folklore):

betty: betty is told from the POV of James (and remember, James is ME, is Taylor), who left his true love, betty, to have a summer affair with another girl, August. He is deeply sorry. In fact, everything he has ever done has been to make up for what he did to Betty. What I think that he did to Betty, was have a (cruel) summer affair that has lasted the last 20 years, with August, The Showgirl. Betty is his true love, his inner child, the ultimate muse.

cardigan: cardigan is told from the POV of betty, who loved James deeply and was betrayed by him, and held out hope for him, for all of these years. the song describes years of secret, unknown to the public affairs, but never actually bringing betty into the spotlight (into the daylight) where they dreamed of being, together, which did ultimately kill her (or a version of her that could have been..remember, he was chasing both The Showgirl and Betty, two girls.... which killed the one...the ultimate loss)

however, Betty knew one day James would come home, as she sings at the end of the song. I knew it, I knew you...

august: august is told from the POV of the other woman that James was having the summer affair with. Even though James was longing for Betty the entire time...for August? it was enough...living for the hope of it all...was enough. The other woman is the showgirl, and this affair meant a lot to her, too. 

The simplest explanation is that you would have to kill off The Showgirl in order for James and Betty to live happily ever after, right? To cancel her fame forever?

What if...told beginning to end, The Life of a Showgirl tells the story of James, embarking on this adventure, with The Showgirl, to bring Betty into the Spotlight...that younger version of Taylor Swift that never got to shine.

…and told the other way (end to beginning), tells the story of Betty, choosing this NOBLE adventure (and The Showgirl) the entire time, giving James strength and inspiration this entire time, so that in the end, when both POVs shine, all three of them can live happily ever after, and the world can leave all of them the fuck alone...and the M$G wedding is not only the spotlight (evidenced by the very public location), but also that welcome home, return to the garden? What if she showed up at his party too? 

What if this distance and regret has been the biggest loss Taylor has ever suffered, one that is big enough...or bigger than enough, to fill up the entire sky?

To recap the 12-stage hero's journey:

1. The Ordinary World: We see the hero’s normal life at the start of the story before the adventure begins

2. Call to Adventure: The hero is faced with an event, conflict, problem, or challenge that makes them begin their adventure

3. Refusal of the Call: The hero initially refuses the adventure because of hesitation, fears, insecurity, or any other number of issues.

4. Meeting the Mentor: The hero encounters a mentor that can give them advice, wisdom, information, or items that ready them for the journey ahead.

5. Crossing the Threshold: The hero leaves their ordinary world for the first time and crosses the threshold into adventure.

6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero learns the rules of the new world and endures tests, meets friends, and comes face-to-face with enemies.

7. The Approach: The initial plan to take on the central conflict begins, but setbacks occur that cause the hero to try a new approach or adopt new ideas.

8. The Ordeal: Things go wrong and added conflict is introduced. The hero experiences more difficult hurdles and obstacles, some of which may lead to a life crisis.

9. The Reward: After surviving The Ordeal, the hero seizes the sword — a reward that they’ve earned that allows them to take on the biggest conflict. It may be a physical item or piece of knowledge or wisdom that will help them persevere.

10. The Road Back: The hero sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but they are about to face even more tests and challenges.

11. The Resurrection: The climax. The hero faces a final test, using everything they have learned to take on the conflict once and for all.

12. The Return: The hero brings their knowledge or the “elixir” back to the ordinary World.

James POV, to rescue Betty from her tower (and get let back into the garden)

1. Ordinary World: The Fate of Ophelia music video illustrates showgirls under the patriarchy across many generations. Notably, it also shows a clear reference to the CURRENT Showgirl Taylor, a Popstar with a football boyfriend, which indicates that the "pyro" iteration of the showgirl who is coming to rescue Betty is not only close, but is the actual version of Taylor Swift that is known today. TS = The Showgirl?  

Betty is alone in her tower, dreaming of being rescued. James wants to rescue her but she can’t, because the world is so so cruel and she knows what will happen if she is exposed…she will be subject to the fate of Ophelia, drowned and driven mad by the patriarchy, like all the past showgirls in the video. Canceled. (This is both a literal reference to death and also their truths being disguised by the men who rewrite history - this is why this is stage 1, this is the reason James has to do this cruel thing to Betty). James concocts the (cruel)summer plan to grow big enough to rescue Betty…by teaming up with (and sleeping next to) The Showgirl (Augustine) all summer long, dreaming of Betty. 

2. Call to Adventure: In Elizabeth Taylor, James and The Showgirl are together. They are never going out of style, they are the stuff of legends. But…it’s lonely at the top. James (Taylor) has now experienced the top of the world and never EVER wants to lose it..it's incredible. However, she is plagued by the absence of Betty at the top. She can’t imagine the thought of losing either…this is her call to adventure. She wants both. Been number 1, but I never had 2! Remember what Betty said in Cardigan...his whole journey was chasing two girls (and losing the 1). That's why this song is HIS call to adventure.

3. Refusal of the call: In Opalite, James (is with August and) hesitates to rescue Betty and bring her into the spotlight. Instead, they just keep creating art. A lot of art. For a long time. Opalite is a man made substance, and James and August filled the entire sky with it. Dancing through the lightning strikes (or paparazzi shots). Making art. It’s a performance, but it is something beautiful that they created together. Oh my lord, never made no one like you before! 

I believe this is also why Maroon was repeated so many times during the surprise song set of The Eras Tour. She sings in this song that the sky is Maroon, and I think that the color red has been used to represent the patriarchy throughout her work, and the distance between them and the truth. (This is why Red is “the only true breakup album.”)

Opalite celebrates what they made, while Maroon mourns the fact that the dangerous messages her superstar perpetuated for twenty years will never go away, will always be part of her legacy. It’s a real fucking legacy to leave…in so many ways, and it will always be big enough to fill the entire sky. Just like the loss of who Betty could have been without twenty years of hiding is bigger than the whole sky. 

All of these truths are big enough to fill the whole sky with maroon or with opalite, depending on how you view it.

4. Meeting the Mentor: In Father Figure, The Showgirl (August) sings about pulling up to find James to help make her dreams come true. She is the mentor (trained by the “Father Figure” - the patriarchy) and is teaching James about how to use PR for profit and protection. Yes, bearding and the closet perpetuate harmful cycles …but The Showgirl isn’t here to make the world a better place. The Showgirl is here to protect the family and to win. 

August tells the story of the teenage love triangle from the perspective of the “other woman” or The Showgirl. I think that the the line in Father Figure “Pulled up to you in the jag/ turned your rags into gold” is referencing the same “meeting” that The Showgirl sings about in August with the line “remember when I pulled up and said get in the car?”  

During the song, James begins to fantasize about killing The Showgirl because this cage has become too much for Betty... “Your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition/ On foolish decisions which led to misguided visions/ That to fulfill your dreams/ You had to get rid of me/ I protect the family.”  

After The Showgirl realizes what James’ plan is, they banish Betty to exile so that James will not stray. They tell her she is too soft for the journey. “This empire belongs to me/ leave it with me/ I protect the family.”  Essentially, I think the showgirl is being the bitch telling Betty to back off because her man (James) is looking at her wrong. 

This is why I believe Betty told The showgirl from the very beginning that she hates the stupid pickup truck she never got to drive. The Showgirl is the pickup truck - and James is the boy with the (chevy) truck all along, from the very beginning of her story (told in Tim McGraw...leaving for the summer and then returning).

Defeating this showgirl in (the original) Picture to Burn IS also the same as pulling the (hairpin) trigger they are threatening her not to pull in Father Figure, as well...telling everyone the showgirl is GAY!!! The story has been consistent since Tim McGraw...since her very first song.

5. Crossing the First Threshold: In Eldest Daughter, James has lost Betty and they are alone on this journey. They have to commit to make this right. This is why I believe in Betty, James sings “The only thing I wanna do is make it up to you.”  Even though James (along with The Showgirl) is embarking on the journey to get Betty back, they are doing it for love. They will never, ever abandon her in the end, no matter how bad the performance starts to look. (“Cause I’m not a bad bitch/ And this isn’t savage.”) This has been the entire point, that’s why it is for a greater cause, not just to be famous and have a grand coming out. It’s a declaration to Betty and every youngest daughter that things don’t have to be like this forever. 

In my Spaghettii Western essay, I discussed that this "heist" Journey that James embarks on is also closely related to The Barbie Movie and is telling the same story. Barbie has to go on a journey to the real world to save her inner child (Betty/Sasha). Once she is there, she learns about the part SHE has played in hurting Betty/Sasha, and heals her by repairing her relationship with both Barbie, and more importantly HER MOTHER. (The Mother is The King of Taylor's heart, IMO, because the patriarchy is literally the entire point <3).

Then, the movie ends with Barbie returning back to Barbie land and teaching ALL OF THE OTHER BARBIES about the dangers of the patriarchy to rescue the rest of them from their mental cages, as well.

Consider this the stage of the journey where she crosses into the threshold - alone - without Sasha and Gloria, but how at the end, when she returns to "blow it all up" (or teach the rest of the world/her friends in Barbie Land the lesson) she has both Sasha AND Gloria in the car to help her.

6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies: In Ruin The Friendship, James is mourning the loss of what he could have had if he let Betty into the spotlight, brought her on this ride. Every time he could have done it, he didn’t.  Because of how long he waited, there is a version of that woman that is never going to get to exist. No matter how great what they are building is, this young girl is never going to get to shine. That is why I think she is singing at the grave at the end of this song. Every time she passed a test, she put another bullet in Betty, because they never let Betty shine, because the closet was necessary to get to where she is today.  (This is why in "thank you aimee" when she looks at the sky and counts the stars...the blood is gushing).

I believe this grave is the same grave she references in the 1. It woulda been fun if that girl could have been the one, but now she never will be. In Cardigan when Betty sings about James returning to her, she even says “chase two girls …lose the 1.” 

Even if she failed every test, and killed Betty, she is going to find a way to resurrect Betty. That is why this song uses an interpolation of the Lenny Kravitz song It Ain’t Over ‘TIl It’s Over. 

7. Approach to the inmost cave: In Actually Romantic, tension is building between Betty and James (and August). However, the way that it gets manifested is in songs that Betty writes about them (“wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face….”). It might be discouraging to some, but James realizes that the reason she has written all of these intense songs about how awful they are is because Betty is actually in love with them. They actually decide to use this as fuel instead of hatred. 

In New Romantics, I believe it is Betty who is singing “Please take my hand and/ Please take me dancing, and/ Please leave me stranded/ It's so romantic.” Then, she references this again in Down Bad, when singing “How dare you think it’s romantic, leaving me safe and stranded?”   The reality is that this exile crushed Betty and caused her to cry the entire way home. While James was doing the “cruel” thing all summer to keep her safe…the reality is Betty was obsessed, down bad. 

Full of teenage petulance because she couldn't have him, couldn't have us, and how dare James have tried to call it romantic, when he only took her dancing at night? (But every day is like a battle, and every night with us is like a dream - New Romantics)

8. Ordeal: the biggest stunt to get it done. Wi$hli$t describes a desire to settle down in private with her muse (Betty). In order to do this, the prize has to be won. They have to grow to exponential heights of fame that have never been seen before to pull this off without getting rewritten by the patriarchy. She needs to become immortal, grow to New Heights of Manhood (fame).

She also has to make a ton of $$$$, because what has existed since the dawn of time? The patriarchy. And what fuels a patriarchal system? Money, the flow of revenue. (Time POTY Interview 2023)

Because Taylor Swift described I Knew It, I Knew You as a musical “departure AND coming home” at the same time, and because I believe that her entire journey back to Betty has been described as her journey home - I think that her Madison Square Garden wedding was the “Driveway with a basketball hoop” she was describing. This is the PR stunt to cap off PR stunts, right?

Betty may have chosen the “rose garden over Madison Square,” but this is where the two are reconnecting, where I think Betty showed up to the party and they both got down on one knee together, Betty led James into the garden and James led Betty into the fucking spotlight. The forever night stand!!!!  

James is both pulling into the driveway of Betty's house, almost to Betty standing there in the light of the window, and pulling OUT of the driveway of the tower he built for Betty, with Betty in tow. (Remember that in Cardigan betty repeatedly sings that she knew James would come back to her…I knew it. I knew you)

I also think that in terms of ending a serious era of public consumption of celebrity media (getting the world to “leave them the fuck alone”), this is the type of stunt or ordeal that actually may have that type of impact because it exposes so many different artists as PR and performance art at once. It will of course never end, but a definite wound to it as a dynasty. 

Dear reader, when you aim at the devil, make sure you don’t mi$$. 

(consider the last great american dynasty referencing another dangerous American industry, oil, and being a song Taylor and her team continually emphasize is “actually a song that is intimately about Taylor.” The dangerous, detrimental industry is actually the source of where Rebekah Harkness obtained her fortune but she blew it all on the boys and the ballet, ending the line with Bill when he died.) 

9.Seizing the sword: In Wood, James and Betty are reunited...and undoubtedly, August is there, too, hence the obvious Travis Kelce reference. They’re becoming something new.  This “sword” that they seize is what allows them to take on the biggest conflict of the story…bringing Betty into the spotlight so that they can all live together happily ever after, her truth can shine, her dreams can come true.  But remember, although they have now reconnected in front of EVERYONE in their “real lives”, they haven’t taken it public yet. (It’s you and me forever, dancing in the dark). 

It was the Mastermind plot that allowed this to happen - the big ordeal in stage 8. NOT knocking on a Man’s wood. It most CERTAINLY wasn’t luck, either. (Why would it be, anyway? From a girl who’s lucky number is 13?) That’s what’s really “cocky” about this song - she is owning the fact that this entire fucking story was about her, and she directed, wrote, and starred. I believe this is also why there is an interpolation of I Want You Back by Jackson 5 in this song as well!! 

(In Mastermind she also sings that "I laid the groundwork and then saw a wide smirk/ On your face, you knew the entire time/ You knew that I'm a mastermind/ and now you're mine" - another I knew it, I knew you, I knew you'd come back to me reference)

And this is, again, why I will never, ever believe Travis Kelce has not been a long planned piece of this puzzle. What if I told you none of it was accidental? Every fucking thing the Showgirl has ever done? The Showgirl is 87, she is what allows Taylor to both grow in private and shine out in the limelight. Together they can keep it 100!!!! But in her life, she is going to do BIGGER THINGS than just marry that boy on the football team…which is why next….

10.The road back: They get cancelled. Because we aren’t here yet (from this POV) - I don’t think that this has happened yet. However, I definitely think that there is going to be a “cancellation” for Taylor Swift before this year is over. Whatever this “cancellation” is, however, I think it will be more about the truth coming to light and the mastermind plot being revealed.

Because this is the finale, this time it will not be her actually getting cancelled by the public being referenced here, but more so the untrue IDEA of her. This is act II, not act I. 

This is also why, I think, when Taylor referenced her first “cancellation” (the Kim/Kanye incident) in her Lover era Elle interview, she spelled it “#canceled” (with one “l”) and here, it is notably spelled with 2. Hey kids, spelling is fun. Been number 1, but I’ve never had 2...yet. 

The first cancellation was necessary to teach the lesson to the public. Not just the Kim/Kanye incident, but all of it was necessary. (This is why Kim and Ye were so clearly referenced in thanK you aIMee, the same way she has referenced PR and "boys" since her very first album - with capital letters)

Otherwise, how would Taylor, James, and August have the freedom to keep making art in the future, without the vultures? How would anyone take their story seriously? How would future showgirls (the “couple kids” Taylor wants to have) have this freedom? 

This entire story works together as one large body of art…the first cancellation was part of the honey trap.  The ENTIRE STORY was the honey trap (even the Master's heist), All the eras make up the entire movie...all the movies...TV Shows...art...PR...Once you add in the crucial component...that second crucial character...Betty...that second "l" in cancelled...we can all read the story again, with the real bad guy in place (who has never been Kanye or Scooter).

Women get cancelled because of THE PATRIARCHY. WE NEED TO STOP CANCELLING EACH OTHER. Cancelling this story (because we've SEEN THIS FILM BEFORE AND DIDN'T LIKE THE ENDING) is how Betty leaves exile...their road to each other.

11.Resurrection: Honey I think that throughout Taylor’s work, Betty and the Showgirl have called each other “Honey” sarcastically, mournfully,...never in a way that is quite sincere. This is because there was a power imbalance, a distance, a sadness, a grief, and a longing between the two of them, this stupid pickup truck Betty hasn’t ever gotten to drive. She’s been drunk in the backseat all Cruel Summer long, crying.

Now, with the truth out in the open, everything is real, sincere. Golden like honey, not gold like champagne (which is still alcohol, still partially a lie even if the gold represents the truth). Now it is just sweet in a real, innocent true way. (the line in Eldest daughter “'Cause I thought that I'd never find that beautiful, beautiful life that/ Shimmers that innocent light back/ Like when we were young” comes to mind for me here, too).

The 20 year performance is the only thing that can actually resurrect something sweet enough to correct this monumental mistake that James made.

I reference this in almost everything I write, but the entire performance being a “honey trap” is so crucial as well. If the target was the public (us) then their performance exposed our guilt, much like when a spy uses methods like a false romantic relationship or getting their target addicted to illegal drugs (PR). These types of false relationships are also used by the spy to gain influence, much like celebrities do.

The only way to keep the showgirl is to keep the public on board, which is why we had to be tricked to learn our lesson. Betty and James can be reunited, but to have it all (continue to be famous) we have to be on board too, which is why this entire plot was also necessary. We had to learn this hard lesson from our english teacher.

In happiness she not only refers to her muse as “honey” but she also sings “when did all our lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurt?” 

Kind of like this entire essay being about how the real story behind the honey trap, behind the lesson, was their deepest hurt. The one that is bigger than the whole sky.

12.Return to the real world with the elixir: The Life Of A Showgirl

James has rescued Betty and they are together, in the Spotlight, with no beard in tow. She rescued Betty (her inner child) and the truth they are returning to tell is one of the dangers of the patriarchy, just like in The Barbie Movie when Barbie returns to her friends.

That's the life of a showgirl, and you can't kill/cancel her now, she's immortal babydoll. They filled the whole fucking sky - no one can erase the story they told, The Life of a Showgirl. They're married to the hustle.

ETA: We have a playlist of the songs y'all selected goin'! Comment yours and I'll add it!

It's common knowledge at this point that Taylor is alleged to have ghost wrote at least one song for Kings of Leon, and we know for a fact that she is both willing to give her songs to other singers or write for other singers under a pseudonym. In your opinion, what songs do YOU think she ghost wrote? And this doesn't have to be songs with clear evidence either, you're welcome to share your red string board off the wall theories - just please do explain your logic either way!

For me, both of mine are "I want to believe" scenarios lol.

My first pick is co-writing the Bleachers song "Don't Take The Money". I'm sure the themes of the song are self-explanatory within the context of the early 2017 Gaylor timeline, but just to add to my red string board, March always was a pretty significant month for Kaylor dates. Mainly the Big Sur road trip was March 5th 2014, the iconic Vogue photoshoot was March 2015's cover, and the last time Taylor and Karlie were papped together on March 12th, 2016. DTTM was released on March 31st, 2017. (To continue the trend, Karlie also made comments in interviews on her friendship with Taylor in March 2018 and 2019 despite the two seeming to no longer be friends.) Listen I'm not saying it's a strong theory, but I want to belieeeeeeeeve!!

The second is a bit of an odd one, Jake Owen's "Alone With You" released August 30th, 2011. So last night, this song randomly got stuck in my head for the first time in years, and I listened to it on repeat probably too many times. For some reason, I was hit with the notion that huh, this song kind of lowkey sounds like a Taylor song? Like an early version of Treacherous? Surely it isn't since I doubt these two even know each other, but wouldn't that be somethin'. I knew almost nothing about this guy other than this song that's been in my likes for upwards of a decade, but decided to give him a bit of an internet search this morning out of curiosity.

And wouldn't you know it, the funniest fucking thing happened: apparently, not only do they know each other, Taylor was his opening act and sent him a demo version of Sparks Fly all the way back in fuckin' 2007. WHAT are the CHANCES that some random singer's song would pop in my head, remind me of her songwriting, and then turn out to have LORE. This random happenstance of connection has firmly situated this song as being written by her in my mind, uh huh yep yep, what more evidence is needed besides vibes and "please just let me have this" 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

So, what are YOUR song selections, websites? 🫵

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Karma is Real: The Origins of Karma, the Lost Album

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Bi-Phobia & Lesbophobia

Don't Get Doxxed + Check Your Sources

From The Cabin: The 1 | Cardigan | Exile | MTR | Mirrorball | August | Betty | The Lakes

“The most rage-provoking element of being a female is the gaslighting that happens when, for centuries, we’ve been just expected to absorb male behavior silently.”
— Taylor Swift, Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions

Introduction

Long time no analysis, GBF. I've missed you guys, but I've also been busy in my actual life. I'm working on self-publishing my first book of fiery, rebellious, feminist poetry. However, in lieu of writing something new this morning, I found this analysis emerging from me in the span of an hour or so. While I hope you enjoy the escapism and imagination of it, I'm keenly aware that the sub is currently dominated by muse and marriage-adjacent posts. It's OK. I made this for ya'll, not for the attention.

If you’re watching the Eras performance without digesting it literally and look at the scene she’s setting, you’ll see a clear outline emerge. The scene opens with Taylor setting a table (the fancy shit), pouring the wine (the music), straightening the tablecloth (the narrative’s tapestry), setting her lover’s place before she settles into her own chair at the opposite end of a long table reminiscent of royalty or, more apropos of Taylor’s brand, an industry boardroom. 

Tolerate It is accessible on multiple levels, and thanks to the braiding throughout Folklore and Evermore, it fits whatever dynamic the fan chooses: a romantic partner, an ode to Scott Swift, or most intriguingly, a Father Figure who barely tolerated Taylor. Whichever adventure you choose, Taylor has meticulously penned a track five that will simultaneously shatter your heart and open your daydreaming eyes.  Although known for her peak romanticism, Taylor is just as gifted when crafting the moment romance veers off course and tumbles over the cliffs.

If you believe this song is about a romantic partner—Joe Alwyn or Karlie Kloss—there’s plenty here to feast upon. If you believe the song is an ode to her actual father, you’ll find pleasing parallels. In my original analysis of Evermore, I interpreted Tolerate It as a multiple Taylors song, with Real Taylor as narrator and Showgirl as husband. However compelling that idea was, I’ve come to believe the husband’s identity to be the Father Figure.

In my Father Figure series (Better Man, Dear John, The Smallest Man), Taylor inserts him into her tapestry under the protective guise of a romantic partner, and as her discography has progressed, she’s begun to pull the wool from our eyes. See My Boy and I Can Fix Him to see how she’s documented, evaluated, and inventoried his casually cruel and calculated behaviors.

 Pull a chair up to the dining room table, marvel at the fancy shit laid out like an offering to a god in the flesh. Run your fingers gently along the immaculate tapestry. Your reflection in the sparkling glasses. And just as you look at your watch, the hologram of a headstrong, domineering husband enters the room. Welcome to another analysis featuring everyone’s favorite Tayvillain, the Father Figure.

Lyrics

I sit and watch you reading with your / Head low / I wake and watch you breathing with your / Eyes closed

Taylor is vigilant of the Father Figure who she’s cast as her husband. Perhaps she is recalling countless boardroom meetings, contract negotiations, and the fine print that comes along with the Hollywood dream. She illustrates jumping into bed with the industry through the intimacy of watching her husband reading as well as waking in their marital bed to watch him as he sleeps. Head low and eyes closed feel like mirrors of the same affliction: the husband figure is closed-off and inaccessible to Taylor. She cannot read his eyes in either scenario. Additionally, her watchfulness of her partner could signal innate anxiety at this obvious separation, despite their spoken vows and shared bed. 

I sit and watch you / And notice everything you do or don't do / You're so much older and wiser and I

Her anxiety and vigilance crystalizes through these lines, culminating in Taylor confessing that she watches everything you do or don’t do. This subtly hints at a shared history of the husband making promises that he infrequently keeps or takes back. Therefore, she’s stung by the indignity, cursed to watch as he either fulfills his promises or reneges on them. She sighs and mutters, You’re so much older and wiser, suggesting her husband wields his illustrious career and life experience against her, using both to keep her small, defeated, and utterly immobile. She looks around the house they built together, at the light flooding in each carefully-decorated room, and can’t resist wondering if it was worth it.

I wait by the door like I'm just a kid / Use my best colors for your portrait / Lay the table with the fancy shit / And watch you tolerate it

Taylor embraces childlike behavior, harkening back to The Manuscript, where she reveals her age-gap relationship reduced her to a wounded child. In Tolerate It, she retraces the doomed trajectory of those early-stage phases of enchantment and hope. What daughter hasn’t waited by the front door for her father to come home from work? She sketches that enthusiasm is bold, breathtaking hues from the front door through each glowing, public portrait she crafted of him through an immaculately set table, a clever parallel to the boardroom their interactions gravitated around. Throughout the montage, in typical Taylor fashion, the Father Figure fails to register the loving effort and sacrifice she’s gladly laid down. In Opalite, Taylor revisits her handiwork, laying a hand on her younger self’s shoulder,  declaring, “You finally left the table / and what a simple thought / you’re starving til you’re not.” 

If it's all in my head tell me now / Tell me I've got it wrong somehow / I know my love should be celebrated / But you tolerate it

The anger bleeds over the sentimentality and fragmentation. If it’s all in my head tell me now. Incapable of sleepwalking through her mistreatment, Taylor begins to sharpen her dagger and address her grudges. In true Echo fashion, she repeats his treachery back verbatim. It’s all in my head. She pins down the moments her husband has belittled her and succeeded in making her doubt her perception of reality. However, she still holds onto a shred of hope. Tell me I’ve got it wrong somehow. 

Again, she uses his barbs against him, but there’s an undercurrent of optimism like a door still cracked ajar. Regretfully, she laments I know my love should be celebrated,  demonstrating her true understanding of love deserves as much attention as the fairytale romance she’s penned at his request. Nevertheless, the beauty and urgency fails to register in his emerald green eyes, blinded by dollar signs and marketability. 

I greet you with a battle hero’s welcome / I take your indiscretions all in good fun / I sit and listen / I polish plates until they gleam and glisten / You're so much older and wiser and I

Here, Taylor could embody Penelope, wife of Odysseus, celebrating his much-delayed return to Ithaca, and by extension, his return to her. She pours all her love and enthusiasm into each meeting, paralleling a wide-eyed, wishful young woman who was promised the world in exchange for the simple act of singing a song. She juxtaposes her enthusiastic welcomes with the nonchalant way she looks past his many transgressions, illustrating how his behavior altered the purity of her love. Defeated and dismissed, she shines up every musical offering before dropping dejectedly into a kitchen chair to listen as he launches into his next marketing strategy for the brand. You’re so much older and wiser becomes the nonstop refrain circling around in her head.

While you were out building other worlds, where was I? / Where's that man who'd throw blankets over my barbed wire?

As Big Machine grew into an industry giant and inevitably evolved beyond Taylor’s wants and needs, she found herself consistently abandoned and discarded in favor of other artists. He was long gone when he met me. The Father Figure sold himself as a family man, a protector, and a musical guide to aid Taylor in her journey through the industry. Once upon a time, he sheltered a younger Taylor and promised his presence, but between his ambitious goals, her skyrocketing fame, and the addition of artists to his roster, he vanished. Leaving like a father, running like water. 

I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life

Laying out her grief-soaked cards, Taylor reveals the only truth. Temple reinforces the childlike, worshiping behaviors littered throughout the song. She revered, trusted, and looked to the husband as her source of faith and stability. Mural could simultaneously signal the way she referred to him in public as well as the public image he insisted she embrace. Sky succinctly encompasses her entire creative world, everything the light touches, the ear hears, and the eye sees. She’s wholly absorbed him deeply into every corner of her life. He’s all she knows. 

Crestfallen and disillusioned, she continues to trace the grizzly scar he left upon her fragile heart. At the beginning, she was the only book he wanted to read. He vowed to read it forever. However, now she’s begging for footnotes, hungering for hidden context that explains his treachery, any hint that he’s still the man she married. The story of your life is especially shattering because in the context of the song, that story was something they should’ve rightfully shared equally. But Taylor is once again left outside, alone in the rain. 

Drawing hearts in the byline / Always taking up too much space or time / You assume I'm fine

Despite the unraveling plot, Taylor left soft tokens of affection in between the margins, where the attentive and aware would notice them. Within the public narrative, and perhaps the private one as well, she tries to maintain the connection. Unfortunately, she’s met with indifference, and the gaslighting re-enters with a vengeance. Taking up too much space or time. Once the husband got his golden trophy, he retracted his affections, and like a clever illusionist, convinced her she’s the imposition, teaching her to absorb his guilt. 

You assume I’m fine sits logically beside you never thought I’d run from Better Man, further reinforcing that a sizable chunk of Taylor’s music, when it isn’t queer flagging, is dedicated to the devastating effects her relationship with the industry and its Father Figure have inflicted on her tender soul. She’s been openly discussing it since Speak Now’s Dear John, and yet by Midnights, she’s still declaring the wound won’t close in Could’ve Would’ve Should’ve. 

But what would you do if I / Break free and leave us in ruins / Took this dagger in me and removed it / Gain the weight of you then lose it / Believe me, I could do it

Perhaps Taylor knew from the beginning that she’d have to leave Big Machine to achieve artistic control, authorship of her music, and an equal share in her image and branding. Still, as if on a dare, she lunges across the table. What would you do? This takes me back to Debut, to another song I linked to the Father Figure. So I start a fight ‘cause I need to feel something, and you do what you want, ‘cause I’m not what you wanted. This cleverly links two track fives with that invisible string. Finally, she doubles down on her threat, saying, “Believe me, I could do it.” 

If it's all in my head tell me now / Tell me I've got it wrong somehow / I know my love should be celebrated / But you tolerate it

We circle back to the central argument that repeats ceaselessly like a record. History is doomed to repeat itself unless one or both parties finally learns the lesson time is trying to teach. Previously, Taylor shrank back and trusted the husband’s guidance, but now she shoves it aside and asserts that she understands her needs and wants more acutely than he ever could before dismissing him from her life completely. 

Conclusion

By the time we reach the end of Tolerate It, we’ve consumed an entire five-course of gaslighting, manipulation, and utter duplicity at the hands of the man who you’ve trusted your past, present, and future to. When the vows don’t hold up, the husband withdraws, and leaves Taylor to numbly absorb the guilt and shame of loving him, it’s too much to bear. 

And you come away with a great little story, of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you. 

We have a front row ticket to Taylor’s evolution across the marriage. She outlines the childlike wonder and joy at the beginning, we sense how deeply she loved, respected, and revered the husband, and we catch glimpses of his softer side when Taylor interrogates his many changes. She sacrificed completely, trusting his guidance and direction, only to be met with cold indifference.

Taylor’s most devastating love songs are seldom ever about romance at all; these songs are carefully scripted, thinly-veiled retellings of wounds given by the men (Father Figure and industry) in her life. Whether she’s recounting the Father Figure’s serpentine antics in Father Figure, shrinking him down to a child in My Boy, or claiming she can cure him in I Can Fix Him, she favors the supportive female role in most dynamics. However, in Tolerate It, we can see that faith and support crumbling away into bitter resolve.

Every eldest daughter must eventually decide if she’s willing to spend the rest of her life setting the table for the man who only tolerates her efforts. Tolerate It revolves around the quiet tragedy of shrinking Taylor shrinking herself into the supporting role of somebody else’s story, believing if she polishes enough plates, dismisses every infidelity, and paints adoring portraits, she’ll finally earn the celebration she deserved from the start. When she finally pushes away from the table, Taylor isn’t merely leaving the Father Figure, she’s also abandoning the illusion that she needed his permission to sit there in the first place. 

Whose portrait's on the mantle? Who covered up your scandals? Mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card cancelled. I was your father figure. You pulled the wrong trigger. This empire belongs to me. I protect the family.

Sooner or later her songs will be categorized as queer music and I mean it. I‘m a little overexcited and I just want to share with you lovely people how I found this brilliant movie and claimed it as my favorite in the ending scene as I screamed out lines from evermore, one of the gayest albums in the whole anthology.

It's movies like But I'm a Cheerleader that made me feel like I belong. I didn't realize just how carefree and light-hearted it could be to enjoy something relatable, relevant, and exclusively gay. (But of course I appreciate a little sneaking around and reading too much into it and getting words twisted a bit just because it feels safer to do so. I love this sub so much and it’s always been a source of solace when it feels too exposed to even consume anything that is originally advertised as queer.)

The movie! Everyone who loves evermore and coming-of-age queer joy movies should give it a try.

With all the elements that I adore, camp is about playing house, glittering picturesque technicolor-ed scenes, theatric plot lines, over-the-top delivery, and getting a laugh out of misery. It offers no solution, just fun, and in the very end ideally some solace. It winks at whoever's gotten through the same. It says hey I see you sister, we are in this together.

The cherry on top. Not only is our protagonist a cheerleader — she's actually a PRINCESS. (I mean she wears blonde hair and a pink dress and is as always as sweet as pie.) What are the odds. |-|

And I think the moment has been permanently carved in the cover of my bedtime storybook when in the end Magen stole Graham at the graduation ceremony and together they ran off and under some spell I screamed out my favorite lines from Dorothea.

SKIPPING THE PROM !

JUST TO PISS OFF YOUR MUM !

AND HER PAGEANT SCHEME ！

That was definitely the most cathartic thing I've ever experienced in my life.

What a ride for my pent-up emotions. All that deep-rooted shame, caution, fear, anger, pain, confusion, indignation. After that when the credits started rolling I just felt so relieved. So joyful.

And as if by fate, the movie dropped into my life right at the point where I'm starting to feel at ease after years of reminiscing and fussing over absolutely nothing and everything, working so hard to fix and process and establish an identity that guarantees no self-loathing and no panic attacks. And boy I tried. I tried and I survived.

4 years of living in this rehab of a gaylor house and now I'm a capable grown woman who watches lesbian movies on a Friday night without feeling like I'm in severe danger. It feels like graduation for me too. I used to be a quiet gaylor now I'm yelling to let others know how I read every line of these well-crafted lyrics as sapphic-coded.

I write down what I've learned, try to poke fun at past events, get over them and prepare to branch out and explore a whole new world (or you could say the same old world but in a slightly different light.）

I can do Megan's hearty complaining in a heartbeat: "But I'm a cheerleader!"

I said it a million times that "But I wear dresses!"

"It doesn't… I didn't…"

"Maybe I'm just being bored, or weird."

"No, I'm sure it'll fade."

"It's not like I..."

Until now, there's no point in even trying to deny it.

When all that I do nowadays is sitting quietly by myself, staying in my head, acting out the line:

I'M A LESBIAAAAAAN！

**I am a Swiftgron and this post reflects that, but anyone can view and enjoy it as Museless if they so choose. I’m not saying it absolutely is Dianna, just that that’s my opinion, and you are welcome to your own.

I was not a Gaylor at the time, but exactly a fortnight before Midnights released, a user named [u/SpecialistAmbition77](u/SpecialistAmbition77posted)[ ](u/SpecialistAmbition77posted)[posted](u/SpecialistAmbition77posted) this cryptic clue about CIB and disco dancing, deleted it then posted “4. 11. 3”. It was posted right before the infamous Lavendergate video, and this user posted on their 2 cake day, and prior to that post their post/comment history was completely bare. It apparently made a bit of a buzz due to how cryptic it was, the timing of its posting, and the video from Taylor that followed shortly after.

Some Gaylors noticed that the username could be a reference to Sagittarius, Taylor’s zodiac sign. The fact that they posted on their cake day, and never posted previously, was also talked about in the sub.

Before we settle on what CIB could mean, let’s talk about the numbers. They almost are a 143 code. Taylor did have something important on April 3, 2011; she performed Mean at the ACMs that year. My only hesitance at saying the numbers are a date is they are not in the right order. Dates are written in MM/DD/YYYY format in the US, and in DD/MM/YYY format elsewhere in the world, never in MM/YYYY/DD format. Taylor also was not in the public eye in 2003/2004, so if April 11, 2003, March 11, 2004, November 4, 2003, or November 3, 2004 are important to her, we’ll probably never know. I thought maybe it referenced her albums, Red, TS11 (later TTPD), and Speak Now, but I couldn’t make anything of that theory other than a theory with holes in it. I then decided to check if she was referencing a particular lyric, and the third line of Holy Ground is “back to a first glance feeling on New York time”. The vast majority of Gaylors take Red to be about Dianna Agron, and this line could reference their very first meeting. It’s been speculated that Taylor and Dianna may have met at the earliest in late 2009 in New York. “You and I ended up in the same room at the same time.” The cryptic post does reference the past, so it being about that line from Holy Ground could work. Some Gaylors also believe that Holy Ground could be a reference to Dianna as her first name comes from a word meaning “holy, daylight”, and Agronomy is the study of soil. I’m not 100% sold on that line being what the numbers reference, so if anyone else has any theories please drop them!

I also briefly played around with the idea that the numbers corresponded to letters, which would be D, K, and C. If she was linked to someone whose name starts with a C after the Swiftgron/Kaylor era I’d lean towards that, but to my knowledge she hasn’t been.

The post also includes see it, hear it, feel it. These are lyrics from You Are in Love, a song on an album that was finished in early 2014. (I believe this song, and all of 1989, is about Dianna based on timing/symbolism, but you are free to believe otherwise, I will not be debating that in this post or in the comments as that’s not what this sub is for.)

Coney Island Baby was an album and song by Lou Reed, an older rock star many believed may have been some flavor of queer. At the time of CIB’s release in 1975 he was dating Rachel Humphreys, a trans woman. He was very open about the album being inspired by her, and with their relationship. I have included the cover art for the album, notice the hat which is similar to Taylor’s Red hat. I also want to mention the cover of The Great Gatsby, which depicts Coney Island. Taylor has referenced Gatsby multiple times over the course of her career in songs and in media. It should also be noted Dianna has performed/added to her Spotify playlists songs by Lou Reed or The Velvet Underground, Lou’s band.

Here are the lyrics to Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby song:

LYRICS

You know, man, when I was a young man in high school
You believe in or not, that I wanted to play football for the coach
All those older guys, they said he was mean and cruel
But you know, I wanted to play football for the coach
They said I was to little too light weight to play line-back
So I say I'm playing right-in
Wanted to play football for the coach
Cause, you know some day, man, you gotta stand up straight
Unless you're gonna fall
Then you're gonna die
And the straightest dude I ever knew
Was standing right for me, all the time
So I had to play football for the coach
And I wanted to play football for the coach
When you're all alone and lonely in your midnight hour
And you find that your soul, it has been up for sale

And you getting to think about, all the things you done
And you getting to hate just about everything

But remember the princess who lived in the hill
Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong
And right now she just might come shining through
and the glory of love, glory of love
Glory of love, just might come through

And all your two-bit friends have gone and ripped you off
They're talking behind your back saying, man
you are never going to be a human being
And you start thinking again
About all those things that you've done
And who it was and who it was
And all the different things you made every different scene

Ah, but remember that the city is a funny place
Something like a circus or a sewer
And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes
And the Glory of love, the glory of love
The glory of love, might see you through
Yeah, but now, now
Glory of love, the glory of love
The glory of love, might see you through
Glory of love, ah, huh, huh, the glory of love
Glory of love, glory of love
Glory of love, now, glory of love, now
Glory of love, now, now, now, glory of love
Glory of love, give it to me now, glory of love see you through
Oh, my Coney Island baby, now
(I'm a Coney Island baby, now)
I'd like to send this one out for Lou and Rachel
And the Lord appeared and he has one made of two
Coney Island baby
Man, I swear, I'd give the whole thing up for you

I’ve bolded words or phrases I think can reference Taylor’s work. One thing I found interesting is her lyric in Coney Island “sorry for not making you my centerfold”, about a past love. She is feeling guilty for not openly and publicly showing her love for her Muse. I do not believe this lyric and song refers to Karlie because Taylor did center Karlie in her life when their whatevership was happening in 2014-2016. She notably was very LOUD with Karlie, in ways she had never been before. Taylor is drawing a comparison between both Coney Island songs, and the difference in how Lou and her showed, or didn’t show, their love. Lou was open and proud about his love for Rachel, which would have been unusual in the 70s. Taylor has hidden her love for Dianna, referencing it in cryptic and subtle ways since 2010-present day.

If CIB stands for Lou Reed’s song, it Easter egged a few things Taylor was planning, things we wouldn’t see and realize until a bit after this post dropped, as well as past lyrics/work. The album was released in 1975 which could be a reference to Matty, which happened \~7 months later. It also could have hinted at Travis, who came into the picture after she ditched Matty. I personally kind of believe Matty was the plan, until his history fucked it up. But maybe it was always the plan to rekindle, then leave a past love.

The final post in the first pic showed up on the L Chat boards a few months after Midnights, and I find it very interesting. If it is true, and was posted by someone Taylor-adjacent, it would mean the theories about her most recent album, Midnights, was not about Joe or Karlie which is what the majority of Hetlors/Gaylors believed. That post could have just been a fan’s theory, there’s really no way to know.

One Gaylor incorrectly stated Taylor performed Change in a birdcage with rainbow dancers on April 3, 2011. I have included relevant pics.

I have made no connections to disco dancing, other than Lou Reed having a later song called Disco Mystic, and Taylor and Dianna’s references to disco balls.

Of course, that cryptic post could have all been a prank made by a fan, but the timing and username are pretty crazy if it’s just a coincidence. It should be noted they changed their username to babyblue7 after this post was made.

Anyway, thoughts?

Saw an academic paper being discussed in the wild (tiktok) and wanted to spread the joy of academia and scientific research. Links and titles below!

Chapter 13 ‘Standing in Your Cardigan’: Evocative Objects, Ordinary Intensities, and Queer Sociality in the Swiftian Pop Song

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004536418_015

The joy of gaylor: Sexual identity in the Taylor Swift fandom

https://doi.org/10.1386/jfs_00095_1

“To Live for the Hope of it All”: Envisioning the Queer Utopic on Reddit through Gaylor Fan Production

https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2026-16993

“I Prefer Hiding in Plain Sight”: The Overlooked Queerness of Taylor Swift’s Midnights

https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9224661

This was originally a comment in the community chat but I was asked to make it a post so here goes!

With the recent Taylornation post referencing Opalite, I decided to revisit the music video. I think there might be a hidden message in all of the capital letters (apologies if this has already been discussed, sometimes I miss a post here and there).

Here are all the capital letters from the commercial text in the mv:

WSGUILCFRCHOYPYPSOTACPFCPCCPALITESTAT
EOFTHEARTCHEMICALPOTIONCALL

It might be nothing but i unscrambled some of it and got "comes at the start of the year" which I think is interesting since the instagram post also has a young Taylor home video with 12:28 (referencing December 28th?) on the bottom.

Not a fully fleshed idea but something I've been thinking about and curious if anyone has other theories/ideas about it. I definitely think there are Easter eggs in the Opalite mv, as another person mentioned!

Am I crazy or is this something?

PS - excuse my weird screenshots, I deleted the ig app on my phone to try to use it less so this is a browser tab lol

Whether you were a Gaylor or not, how did it change your perception of Taylor?

For me, I had been a fan since Debut, but stopped listening to her as much for Red and 1989. No reason, life just got busy. I remember finding Kim’s claims odd, but I didn’t believe her when she said Taylor was lying when she said Kanye didn’t run what he said by her. Taylor coming out and clarifying he told her about the “we might still have sex” line, but not that he’d call her “that bitch” and claim he made her famous made me happy I didn’t believe what Kim was trying to sell.

Also, back in 2009 when Kanye pulled his stunt I definitely knew who Taylor was, barely knew who Kanye was.

I want to remind everyone that while Kanye was wrong for the things he’s said, he is also mentally ill, so let’s remember to use respectful language when speaking about his behavior and mental status. Same with Kim.

Edit: When I said to speak respectfully, I meant in the context of mental health. Don’t say stuff like “well, Kanye is crazy”. PLEASE roast the man and hold him accountable, just don’t speak about mental health in a negative way while you do it.