There Was So Much Theatricality In The Darkness Of Reputation. It Was A Love Story, But It Was Also Filled

cannot get over how bearding themed the line “and if they call me a slut you know it might be worth it for once” like it’s… just think about taylor’s life, rotating shortly contracted dudes in and out just to keep up a guise so that you’ll be able to date a woman, just to be called a man eater, and then for the woman you’re doing all this for to be giving you the runaround 😆 if i finally felt like i found something worth doing all the carnival games for i’d be a whole mood about it too

just remembering how karlie posted this on october 26, 2014, the eve of 1989's midnight release, kind of implying that she was out of the country (but she was actually snapped by a fan in nyc with taylor)

but the fact that she chose this particular picture... with (her?) hands making our girl's signature heart sign which she became so known for that it's practically unofficially copyrighted by the Taylor Swift™ brand....

a few age related observations & easter egg clownery

So first, Taylor's current age is 31.

In All Too Well (The Short Film), Taylor highlights being 21 years old. Then, later in the film, we cut to 13 years later.

21 + 13 = 34 years old

ATW10 book release Taylor was 34 years old

And then, we got this detail from Jimmy Fallon where Taylor mentions hinting at something 3 years in advance.

Remember Taylor today is 31.

31 + 3 = 34 years old

Taylor also mentions in this interview that she actively sought to incentivize fan to read her lyrics with her coded messages. And that her lyrics, her words, are what she is most proud of in her career.

We've been seeing certain hints toward Speak Now as of late.

I must also remind you of this very important line from the Speak Now prologue. (I had this in a draft on November 1st and should've posted it then!)

Furthermore, I saw it suggested somewhere that the very title cards throughout the short film were chapter titles to ATW10 Taylor's book.

Long story short, I unabashedly in full clownery predict Taylor is planning on releasing a tell-all memoir like the ATW10 version of herself did. Furthermore, with the various Speak Now easter eggs we've seen lately, I also predict that Speak Now will be coming soon and that this "book millions might read someday" will be in our hands in about 3 years time

I believe this is something she's been planning for a while. And I can't wait to hear what she's been waiting to say!

So it's JUST A COINCIDENCE that on December 4th, 2014 Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss were seen making out at a "The 1975" concert during the song "Girls" where the lyrics include: "Bite your face to spite your nose." Where Taylor is seen, before the kissing, POINTING TO HER NOSE. And then she makes an album called, "Lover" where her 5th song called, "Archer" has the lyrics: "cut off my nose to spite my face." 👀👀👀👀👀 THAT'S JUST A COINCIDENCE?!?!?!

hi there. I don't know if this means anything, but I thought it was interesting. I was curious about the phrase "sensual politics," so I googled it. the top (and basically only) result that appears is a book, Claude Cahun: A Sensual Politics of Photography. anyway, it's about her "life as an artist and writer, a woman and lesbian and as a political activist in the early twentieth century." aside from her approach to art, I found some other interesting stories about her and recommend a search!

google.com

Overlooked No More: Claude Cahun, Whose Photographs Explored Gender and Sexuality

Society generally considered women to be women and men to be men in early-20th-century France. Cahun’s work protested gender and sexual norm

Oh wow 😳 very interesting. I looked up her work and it’s very intriguing... this article is a good place to start. It wouldn’t surprise me given Taylor’s history with Loie Fuller.

okay but actually, she’s being very loud with this “forever is the sweetest con” chapter. loud about bearding and façades and being duplicitous. these songs allude to mirages of many kinds. (see also this great tag by @all-my-possessions). Let’s look at how:

cowboy like me (also re: this analysis) 

I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve

Telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear

Hustling for the good life

And the skeletons in both our closets plotted hard to fuck this up

Forever is the sweetest con

mirrorball:

I’ll show you every version of yourself tonight

Spinning in my highest heels, love, shining just for you

I can change everything about me to fit in

The masquerade revelers

I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try

evermore:

motion capture put me in a bad light

sending signals to be double-crossed

long story short:

Fatefully I tried to pick my battles ‘til the battle picked me

Misery like the war of words I shouted in my sleep

The knife cuts both ways

And I fell from the pedestal

Long story short, it was the wrong guy, now I’m all about you

And he’s passing by, rare as the glimmer of a comet in the sky

invisible string:

Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs. 

Were there clues I didn’t see?

Cold was the steel of my axe to grind for the boys who broke my heart. Now I send their babies presents

willow:

Every bait and switch was a work of art

I saw your 1989 rewatch post and i was wondering about your comment: the New York story still continues.

I think in this side of swiftie fandom we can agree new york is karlie. However, I have seen so many analysis and lyric parallels of New York symbolism as proof of a kaylor break up.

I believe kaylor is still together, but I am having a tough time with what new york means after folklore and evermore. “I left a part of me back in New York” “she still is 23 inside her fantasy,” all of coney island paint at not so great picture compare to the new york of Lover.

What are your thoughts?

Sorry in advance if this sounds like rambling

She is still in New York regardless of how sad the songs sound. The story is still tied to New York.

I think there is this weird thing we tend to do when Taylor writes a sad song. We automatically assume it’s about a romantic break up and I think that is a product of her old reputation, sadly.

I think Taylor recognizes love is a lot more complex than Romeo and Juliet and it comes with ups and downs. We saw this on Lover. Riding the highs and treading the lows but all the while just hoping to get back to mundanity and normality. I think Taylor realized the lows and the highs make for a more entertaining story so she takes snapshots and zooms in on specific feelings and moments from her past and explores the stories that can come from them with new perspectives.

I also believe Taylor has been singing about her own personal journey and her struggles with anxiety. As well as her choices that led to a specific place or point in time and fighting her own demons while worrying about how someone could love her with her flaws. These concepts were on Lover as well.

Folklore and evermore honestly feel like purgatory to me, if that makes sense. They exist in a pocket dimension where Taylor is wandering around an old abandon town with no choice but to reflect on her past. She is forced to face her demons. She can’t hide from her thoughts. And sooner or later she realizes that the only way out is through and maybe if requires leaving all the baggage behind because you can’t leave the same way you came in.

“You know I left a part of me back in New York” means exactly that: She left part of herself in New York. (She had to leave something behind but she didn’t want to).

Conclusion:

The story is still in New York. Just on the outskirts of town. Coney Island is still in New York. It’s in Brooklyn. She did her photoshoot for the albums in Upstate New York.

She’s still writing the story:

“If the story's over. Why am I still writing pages?” - DBATC

“Pages turn and stick to each other” - RWYLM

I’m sorry again if this was rambly.

taylor isn’t stupid

taylor swift is famous for the easter eggs, hidden codes, and secret symbology she leaves for fans, giving them clues as to who her songs are about (or supposed to be about), when new music or content is coming, and other insights into her life and what her art represents.

she posted red shoes on her 22nd birthday in 2011 as a clue to let people know the title of her next album - red:

she posted a picture of herself playing scrabble in the fall of 2018 as a clue that the count down to her new single would start on national scrabble day six months later:

so this brings us to the lover era

taylor hid so many clues in this era that she was not straight and we know taylor hides clues because of examples like the ones i provided.  she’s maniacal and unhinged but it is 100% what she does.

the first big thing is she released her single me! on LESBIAN VISIBILITY DAY:

i don’t even think taylor is a lesbian 😭i think she’s some brand of bisexual but this still feels like a signal that she isn’t straight.  we know taylor knows about which national days are what because she keeps up with it all enough to easter egg national scrabble day plus this is her big “lgbt ally era” (🙄) so you would think she would be keeping up with the days of awareness for members of the lgbt community.

and whether you think taylor was trying to come out that way or not, a lot of the internet did, and they went and wrote articles about it (lots of articles) (more on that later).

then there was the bi flag colored “proud” bracelet she pictured on her wrist and posted to ig:

turns out a fan made this for her because they were bi and proud about it but i don’t understand why she pictured that bracelet, she didn’t have to, she could have turned it so you couldn’t see the word proud.  regardless more articles got written about how people thought taylor was coming out as not straight.

then there was the straightest gayest clusterfuck that was the yntcd music video in which taylor basically made herself the center of a gay pride riot in a gay trailer part.  in the music video she represented all the gay pride flags and she posed with two herself:

the bi pride flag (yeah some people say there’s green at the top of her hair, i don’t care the colors are there):

and the pansexual pride flag:

both these pride flags were not represented anywhere else in the music video - just those scenes with taylor.

this prompted more people to wonder if taylor came out

it also prompted a lot of people to accuse taylor of queerbaiting, appropriating and infringing on gay culture, and overstepping her bounds as an ally.  all responses to yntcd were loud 

are you noticing a pattern? the lover era was just: taylor does something gay.  people write articles about how they think she just came out/otherwise comment on her sexuality.

now you know taylor, who is obsessed with the media’s perception of her would have known about this.  you know her publicist would have been duty bound to let her know, “hey taylor, all this gay stuff you’re doing? it’s making people speculate that you’re gay.”

and you would think that maybe if taylor didn’t like or appreciate this speculation around her she would have toned down the gay for her next project.  instead she aired miss americana in which she listed gay pride as one of the things that made her, her.

as if that weren’t enough the next album she dropped was extraordinarily gay:

in folklore you have betty in which taylor sings about wanting to kiss a girl and yeah maybe it’s “from a male perspective” but 1. that’s a gay thing to do anyway and 2. the character that is the supposed male is named after an irl girl.  we also get seven in which taylor sings to a childhood love who is a girl and she says they’ll have to hide in the closet.  taylor isn’t stupid.  she knows what being “in the closet” means.  she is a writer and a brilliant one at that.  she could have said anything- hide in the corner, hide in the cabinet, she very specifically chose the phrase that means to hide the truth about your sexuality.

and lest we forget about illicit affairs in which taylor sings to a lover who is cheating on a man with her.

and that’s just the explicit stuff, the entire album is laced with queer themes and coding other than just those songs.

many people wrote about and commented on how gay folklore was.

so the next thing taylor does?  drops another super gay album including another love song canonically about a woman.

so antis, take note.  taylor is not stupid.  she doesn’t mind the speculation about her sexuality.  i’m not saying she’s for sure gay.  but if she’s not she absolutely is leaning into stirring on speculation anyway.  and tbh if she’s ok with baiting this heavily and she’s not gay she might just be a terrible person? so reconsider your hetlor stance because a straight taylor = a baiting and unhinged taylor.  so you don’t need to keep policing gaylors and telling them not to speculate about taylor’s sexuality.  she is signalling to us that she is not straight which she 100% does not have to do.  no one made her pose with the pan flag,  no one made her write seven, no one made her include gay pride in a list of traits that define her in a documentary that she produced.  this is purposeful on her part.  it doesn’t mean she’s for sure gay but it does mean she wants people to wonder if she’s not straight.

Swifties won at the Grammys this year, let’s be honest