My Tears Ricochet - T.s.

Louis & Taylor are best gay besties.

Here’s why:

Louis’s infamous “if that” expression of distaste towards Haylor was immediately followed by him saying “I’ve met her before, she’s a lovely girl.”

Not only that, he mentioned how great she is UNPROMPTED at least twice in his interview with Forbes and Telegraph.

They literally partied together.

Taylor’s AT&T NOW commercial ft. Her locked in the closet, her climbing out of the closet through the air vent before arriving in the studio to record music.

Taylor’s AT&T NOW commercial also included her googling the picture she saw on a guy’s shirt.

Louis wearing MJ’s Billie Jean t-shirt in Back To You teaser for everyone to Google the lyrics: Billie Jean is not my lover. She's just a girl who claims that I am the one. But the kid is not my son

In another commercial, Taylor wore rainbow, and rode a unicorn cat. (Hint: What word did Harry use to call a cat and got grounded for being inappropriate?)

There is no subtlety in this household.

Louis’s rainbow Apple t-shirt which led to the Bullshit 2.0 and the dagger tattoo, probably.

Oh yeah, let’s talk about tattoos.

1. Harry, birds don’t have eyebrows. (They kinda do. But it’s a meme at this point.)

2. Louis, Kevin is a pigeon, not a swift bird. HOW COULD YOU?

What a coincidence that Louis randomly picked the name DIANA as promo song for Midnight Memories. Almost like a tribute to Dianna Agron who was once aboard SS Swiftgron with Taylor while Haylor was happening on paper. Or that Harry’s Fine Line theme colors being 🏳️‍⚧️ a trans flag and STYLE music video from Taylor’s 1989 included a scene of this man looking at himself in the mirror only to see a reflection of a woman.

Or that Louis’s song Fearless seemingly referenced Karlie Kloss as the second wife of Taylor in (colourful) Suit & Tie era, aka Lover. Just for the first Taylor’s Version album to be FEARLESS.

It’s almost like they’re all closeted queers in the same industry or a Copy of A Copy of A Copy or something.

lets check out this timeline, shall we?

may 3rd 2016: taylor “”“"meets”“”“ buzz cut joe, falls for his ”“”“"gorgeous”“”“ face instantly, only to dance w / tom hiddleston - all while having a boyfriend

june 1st 2016: tayvin ENDS and the heavens open up on this glorious day!!!!

june 15th 2016: taylor and tom snog oh so privately on the beach. thus implying the start of their relationship. (despite being secretly in love w/ joe all along i guess??)

all summer long the two fly around the world together. totally a love that’s a “secret im hoping dreaming dying to keep”. joe is apparently her friend throughout all of this - emotional cheating, anyone????

august 3rd 2016: karlie’s 24th birthday

she posts a picture of taylor wearing this outfit:

and later on an “”“unkown”“”“ date, taylor just happens to be recording the back up vocals (implying the vocals are almost done, and thus implying taylor was trying to finish up a demo for SOME REASON on THIS date) wearing the same outfit:

but wait you say: ISN’T SHE STILL WITH TOM????

you right fam. which leaves three choices:

the song is for tom - despite dumping him a month later and having absolutely NO secrecy to hope and dream and die to keep about the relationship, and having met three months ago not “a few weeks ago”

the song is for joe - while she’s with tom. um cheater cheater pumpkin eater miss swift!!!!! do we really want to believe this is the option over her having a beard???

the song (’s demo) is a birthday present for miss kloss

but wait!!! there’s more!!!!

september 7th 2016: hiddlestunt ends. shouldve known she’d be the first to leave!

september 17th 2016: taylor is spotted in nashville wearing this outfit:

which we later see on an “”“"unknown”“”“ date during what sounds like the final production of komh:

(she is wearing a sweater over the shirt, same hat, hair, and makeup doe!!!!!)

sure her and joe could have been ”“”“secretly seeing”“”“ each other romantically a mere ten days after her last relationship ended. sure she decided he was the king of her heart a mere ten days or less into the relationship. or she was cheating long before.

but!!!!!

“we met a few weeks ago”

the met gala was four months and two weeks ago. um. not really a few weeks. (this also seems the most likely as dress says “flashback when you met me / your buzzcut my hair bleached”)

OR if they met on october 12th 2016:

which implies the song to have been written after late november of 2016 (“i recall late november”) which would place their meeting at “a few weeks ago”

OR

implies their meeting was september 28th 2016 (“do you remember the 28th night of september”), widely assumed to be their anniversary, and would place the writing of the song to be in october/november 2016…..(both options which would require us to ignore the meeting lyrics in dress)

then how was she recording the finishing touches on king of my heart on september 17th 2016?

yes miss swift, where was that alone time if the earliest possible date you recorded your love song for joe was a mere ten days after you dumped your last boyfriend? cheater cheater pumpkin eater seems a better option than this

to yall, hmmmm antis?

so this sweater has been ID’d as Band Of Outsiders, Pre-fall 2014. naturally, i did the google 🥴

🥴 so it seems karlie has a bit of a connection to the brand, as the place that did her cookie collab also collabed with them. she also wore a dress from the brand to the 2014 CFDA awards.

just kinda interesting to think, you know, taylor chose to—for the cover of Wildest Dreams Taylor’s Version—wear a sweater from a collection of a brand that karlie was in and around, in and around the same time 🥴💕

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!

folks...

real talk

whose eye praytell

whose eye is it

honestly

she’s tr👁ing to tell you

me🌈me

in Miss Americana, taylor describes her vision of the ME! music video, and mentions that there will be a parade outside.

the visuals, she lists off to brendon, her collaborator, are all the things that make her her

including:

🏳️‍🌈gay pride🏳️‍🌈

and if youve watch the music video intently, you will be sure to have noted that these two men kissing one another, used as a representation of “gay pride” do in fact close in for a kiss:

in this way, this clip from Miss Americana connects the “parade” scene to “gay pride”

and at the parade taylor chants that, while there is no i in team, as echoed on the pavement,

there is a me.

a me on the team. hm.

what team?

and speaking of parade

what parade?

making that sign...

what sign?

what sign..?

a sign cancelling one of the things that makes:

loving how karlie casually confirmed that the initials on the pavement in soho were in fact written for her —a rep era kaylor fan theory— in the same breath that she says that her husband carved them in there, when we have literal multiple timestamped photos that show how her initials had a TS next to them years before half the pavement was ripped up and he added the J!and nobody’s batting a fucking eye!!

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.

THE 13 QUEER TROPES OF TAYLOR SWIFT

[I am reblogging this to address formatting issues in original post]

I’ve quantified 13 different queer tropes (yes, 13, that actually organically happened) that can be found in Taylor Swift’s discography. Because I’m an academic, and that’s what we do.

None of these tropes are definitive. They don’t definitively say the text is queer, or that Taylor Swift is queer, but they do suggest queer readings. In other words, they reflect queer experience and queer expression, regardless of intent, or the author’s actual identity or desires. And while many of the tropes overlap with other kinds of readings– for example, female agency is also a feminist trope– when we see them all together like this, well, it’s quite suggestive (and marvelous).

Created by: So Many Signs-So Many Times

1) FORBIDDEN LOVE – Love that is secret because it would be judged or cause harm to those who love were this love to be revealed; Love that is dangerous. 

•This love is different difficult but it’s real (Love Story) [“different” was the original lyric]

•Seems like there’s always someone who disapproves, They’ll judge it like they know about me and you (Ours)

•I would fall from grace just to touch your face (Don’t Blame Me)

•I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us (Dancing with our Hands Tied)

•I don’t want to keep secrets just to keep you (Cruel Summer)

•This love is treacherous… nothing safe is worth the drive. (Treacherous)

2) PRONOUNS (OR LACK THEREOF)  – Many uses of “you” and terms of endearment; Fewer uses of “he,” “him,” and “his” than one would expect. [I did not run the data but my hunch is that if you compared TS lyrics with other songs written by (straight) women, you’d notice that he/him/his are used far less in Taylor Swift’s work.

3) ASSUMING THE MALE PERSPECTIVE AND/OR MALE GAZE– Shifts the POV so she is singing from the an explicitly male perspective; Assumes the role of the looker and positions love interest as object of desire (historically the female position in a hetero diad– male looks, woman has “to-be-looked-at-ness” (related to Feminization of Object of Desire); TS narrator is the “doer,” object of desire is the receiver.

•Marry me, Juliet (Love Story)

•I don’t wanna hurt you, I just wanna be / Drinking on a beach with you all over me (End Game)

•Wrap your arms around me, baby boy (Paper Rings)

•Betty – entire song

•How You Get the Girl (entire song)

•I Hit You Like Bang (End Game)

4) FEMINIZATION OF OBJECT OF DESIRE– Related to Male Perspective and Male Gaze; Presumed male love interest is feminized by describing him in ways that are more feminine, or usually feminine; Describing presumed male love interest by what he’s wearing (overlap with Male Gaze), using diminutive terms of endearment.

•Baby doll, when it comes to a lover (ME!)

•Wrap your arms around me baby boy (Paper Rings)

•And the fella over there with the hella good hair… (Shake it Off)

•Cause I can’t help it if you look like an angel (Hey Stephen)

•Stay beautiful, every little piece love (Stay Beautiful)

•You got that James Dean, daydream, look in your eyes [This one is interesting because it also evokes homo-erotic imagery]

•Lipstick on your face (So It Goes)

•Come here, dressed in black now (So It Goes)

5) DOUBLE ENTENDRES– Words or phrases that have double meanings or clear references (related to Phrasing);

•Then you won’t have to cry, or hide in the closet (Seven)

•We need love but all we want is danger / We change sides like a record changer (New Romantics)

•We’re a crooked love in a straight line down (I Wish You Would)

•Too in love to think straight (Wonderland)

6) WLW Sex or desire– Clear or highly suggestive descriptions of WLW sex or desire

•Wear you like a necklace (So It Goes)

•I’ll do anything you say, if you say it with your hands (Treacherous)

•All the boys and their expensive cars, with their Range Rovers and their Jaguars, never took me quite where you do (King of My Heart)

•Religion’s in your lips… The altar is my hips (False God)

•You did a number on me…I did a number on you, But, honestly, baby, who’s counting… 1, 2, 3 (So It Goes)

•You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else (Illicit Affairs)

7) EXPLICITLY GAY

•Why are you mad when you could be Glaad? (You Need to Calm Down)

•You can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls. (Welcome to NY)

8) TENDERNESS – Focus more on emotional connection, tenderness, sensuality, friendship– Feels more sapphic than straight.

•Hand under my sweatshirt / Baby, kiss it better (Cardigan)

•Strange look on his face / Pauses, then says, “You’re my best friend” / And you know what it was, he is in love (You Are in Love)

•Whispers of “Are you sure? Never have I ever before” (August)

•Something gave you the nerve to touch my hand.  (It’s Nice to Have a Friend)

9) PERFORMATIVE OR CONSTRUCTED NATURE OF REALITY –Stories within Stories – References to everything being a text (movie, song, etc.) / describing reality as a text– Conjures queerness in how it foregrounds the constructed or performative nature of reality, pointing to a disruption in things like compulsory heterosexuality, the gender binary, etc.

•Music starts playing like the end of a sad movie / It’s the kind of ending you don’t really wanna see (Breathe)

•I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending (Exile)

•The story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now (The Story of Us)

•Don’t read the last page, but I stay (New Year’s Day)

10) ODD OR INTERESTING PHRASINGS / REFERENCES– Kind of a catch-all; Things that just seem off, or alert my gaydar; Sometimes it’s hard to explain, like how I responded to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” or Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” before I knew they were queer.

•Building forts with my lover, trust him like a brother (Call it What You Want) [This just feels off – I don’t think straight women ever compare their lovers to their brothers. Ew, David.]

•Staring out the window like I’m not your favorite town / I’m New York City, I still do it for you babe (False God) [Strong Karlie references here]

Also, queer references such as “road less traveled” (Robert Frost).

And things that just wouldn’t be that clever if it weren’t about Karlie (or a woman)

•You’re so gorgeous, can’t say anything to your face, coz look at your face.” [Really only clever if it’s about Karlie, someone who, as a model, literally makes a living being gorgeous; Totally pedestrian if it’s about a guy]

11) FEMALE AGENCY– Girl power, Strong sense of self and ownership of one’s sexulity.

•Bad, bad boys. Shiny toy with a price. You know that I bought it (Cruel Summer)

•He said the way my blue eyes shined / Put those Georgia stars to shame that night / I said “that’s a lie” (Tim McGraw)

•You should have said no, baby, and you might still have me (Should Have Said No)

•We Are Never Getting Back Together – entire song

•Does a scorpion sting when fighting back? They strike to kill, and you know I will (Mad Woman)

12) OUTSIDER – Focus on being an outsider, not fitting in. Of course everyone feels like they are on the outside looking in at times, but I’ve often wondered why someone who is traditionally beautiful, feminine, able bodied, smart, white, affluent, etc. would write so much about not fitting in, especially in her early work

•How can I ever try to get better, Nobody ever lets me in (The Outside)

• She wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts / She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers (You Belong with Me)

•We show off our scarlet letters, trust me mine is better (New Romantics)

13) FEELING UNSEEN– Related to Outsider trope; Lyrics that position TS/narrator as not truly seen for who she is. 

•Been here all along, so why can’t you see me? (You Belong with Me)

•You just see right through me, but if you only knew me (Invisible)

•They see right through me… Can you see right through me… I see right through me (The Archer)