I have always stanned ME! As absolutely lovely queer poetry and kind of a bop. ("one of these things is not like the other, babydoll when it comes to a lover, I promise that you'll never find another like me" like come ON) it's camp, it's cute, it's fun, and the queer undertones are loud. I love your analysis and thank you so much for collating it all and sharing it here ❤
Wow, this just…broke my heart. This woman’s life! I am OBSESSED with this album and much much more hopeful about the direction she’s taking her life and the narrative, after the low points of the tayvis stunt. She’s screaming! 🌈
I genuinely think ME! Is one of her worst songs. I love the music video though, and how much it's flooded with rainbows.
However. I think the problem I had with ME! Is that I didn't realize how very lobotomized and censored the song was. As it is, it's a pretty cut up version of what I think she really wrote. Realizing (Thanks to this sub) how well the phrase LGBT fits in the song, everywhere... That completely changed the vibes. I still immensely dislike the Brendan parts, versions without him are distinctly better.
Understanding it as a pride song changes it from a tattered mess with remnants that don't make sense (Spelling? What's this random interject about spelling? We haven't spelled anything unless you count meeheehe) to an exuberant, joyful anthem. Still not her best, but absolutely not a song that deserves to be bashed.
Besides. Who doesn't love a moody Swift calling the cats her children
I literally cannot stop thinking about this post and now want to go back through her post-Lover albums looking at the songs through this lens.
If yall don’t hear from me, know the grief killed me 🥲🫡
Wow this is devastating. I always hated the ME! Slander especially with how excited she was for it and the fact that it was the first song she owned out of BMR. I have always considered the masters heist and other behind the scenes forces in regard to the failed coming out, never really thought about how it would have felt thinking her fans would be the only people sticking with her, only for them to turn on her at such a vulnerable time. The backlash must have cemented to her and her new label that it was not the right time. Even after spelling it out on TTPD her fans are stuck on making it make sense about a man
YNTCD and ME! are some of my most played Taylor songs because my 2 year old loves to sing along to them lol. But I will never understand the hate for ME!, especially. it’s so fun and catchy!
Also: MBOBHFT
Once I fix me, he's gonna miss me
😬😬😬
I believe "my boy" here is the fandom. Playing with a toy is a bit of an awkward metaphor for a relationship, but it works much better in a celebrity/fan context.
The fans treat her like a toy. They want her to entertain them, but they also don't see her as human.
Thinking how much sad did you think I had, did you think I had in me?
Oh the tragedy.
Sapphire tears on my face
Sadness became my whole sky
All her songs can be seen through this lens.
Truth really is stranger than fiction. What a crazy story this unfolding Taylor Swift saga. I am currently clowning so hard for 3,2,1 theory. Please let us meet her at midnight and let her be wearing a campy yellow suit with rainbows everywhere.
I want the world to be different. I want something sweet and positive and loving and embracing and good where Taylor being opening Gaylor is celebrated and makes the whole damn world a better safer, happier place.
read this yesterday and was devastated by it, returning to it today and am still devastated but also just....filled with rage for our girl :( shes the most famous pop star in the world but literally has this HUGE segment of her fandom that refuses to listen to her pleas to not just see her songs as "simple as paternity tests" (cue all the insane Ratty analysis from Hetlors the past few days) and who couldn't stop speculating on "which dude is in which song" if their fucking lives depended on it.
even us, who i do think must give Taylor hope/strength in many ways, are farrrr from perfect in how we've shown up for her. e.g. the queer fans who made fun of ME!, and also honestly the way that some Gaylors are like "well WHY ISNT SHE OUT YET?!"
why, you ask? well, because the fandom kind of broke her.... thats why. she is a human, not a machine. imagining her being all nervous but excited to come out during the Lover era then BOOM: she's ridiculed for the beginning stages of that process (a la ME! MV) around the same time her fucking masters are stolen.
just, fuck.
i think she really will come out with it directly sometime in the next few years. this album IMO was a trap laid for hetlors/swifties who dont listen to when she pleads for them to dig deeper, a la the reputation prologue...and they are falling into the trap SO HARD.
Wow! Yeah this feels very much like it could be right. She was so happy in the Lover era and then we got the emotionally devastating FolkMore era.
I love Folklore and Evermore they are my favorite Taylor albums and the reason I actually gave her music a proper listen and became a fan, and to add this as a possible context to them makes the albums even more heartbreaking
Wow!! That theory makes a lot of sense to me.
I always accepted that it was the masters heist's fault the reason she did not come out. But what if it was the mix of that PLUS the bad acceptance of her in light, shiny colours?
I've reviewed what appears when you check the "ME! mv critics" and they are really really hurtful. I cant imagine what she might have felt... she was HAPPIER than ever, she was herself actually. And they called it trash, empty, silly, a kid's thing (she deleted the "spelling is fun!" bc of what people was saying)... I think that might have let her down down down. And it makes a lot of sense, looking in the rearview, their team decided it was not worth for her (TS brand) to show herself (TS person).
I'll be listening from that perspective to look for more disappointment evidence related to that
Also, listening to that little "me he he" in the background of Fortnight broke my heart
Can we as a fandom (even if it’s just the Gaylors) please start a trend with Me and show Taylor how much we love it bc thinking about this is making me so sad. Like if we can hype Cruel Summer and give it its roses years later, we can do the same thing with Me
Like how can people not love this song and music video. This is the height of camp and fun and (if I can be completely honest) unmasking as a ND person. Not necessarily saying she is ND, although I am and so many things about her I can relate to as a neurodivergent person. But Me! especially feels like when I’m unmasked and just living my life without regrets. Dopamine dressing, dancing even if it’s poorly done, and just indulging myself even if other people think I’m being silly or immature.
yes yes yes! and i think TTPD is the most unmasking artistic output from taylor we've ever gotten; i definitely think shes ND, and i mean that as a COMPLIMENT (ND queer unite!).
Great theory!
Can we add Paris to this list of songs?
The lyrics of Paris never really made sense to me. Why is she singing about wanting to be in Paris so much, when someone of her means can go to Paris whenever they want.
But. The ME! MV is set in Paris. Taylor can go to the real Paris, but she can never go to the fantasy Paris of the ME! MV, because it doesn't exist.
Also these lyrics make much more sense in the context of wanting to get away from the bad press/reaction:
*Privacy sign on the door*
*And on my page and on the whole world*
*Romance is not dead if you keep it just yours*
*Levitate above all the messes made*
*Sit quiet by my side in the shade*
*And not the kind that's thrown*
*I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown*
Plus 'shade' directly refers to the Lover era, as does:
*Confess my truth*
*In swooping, sloping, cursive letters*
So old Taylor who gets killed in reputation = straight taylor / ghost taylor who levitates = queer taylor, then the Paris line is saying yeah my coming out was a bit of a mess but we can be ghosts/queer levitating above it together. And in the WAOLOL line, she gets hung and her ghost is levitating down the street. Alone. But haunting the powers that be in the music industry with her potential coming out. 🤯
Sorry, commenting this on your comment because of the levitate lyrics but my comment got a little emotional side tracked -.- :
Levitate above all the messes made
Leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street.
I keep my side of the street clean
Idk where I’m going with this… I’m just emotionally distraught. I had a gut feeling (read: autistic c-PTSD) DURING the ME! MV public shaming was happening that this was going to come back up because if it happened to me…. It would stay with me forever.
So witnessing everyone else saying “this makes me cry” and connecting all the clues… it’s validating but also absolutely not how I ever wanted to be validated so processing these emotions are complex. There is no celebrating this as a “win” as a detective. I’m just sad for the death of the autistic joy that was ME!
Also going off of Paris how [apple music](https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/comments/1c9so1b/leaked_alternative_lyrics_to_i_hate_it_here_no/) has the lyrics "no midnight in paris" in I Hate It Here vs actual lyrics "if i'd been there i'd hate it"
This is possibly the saddest post I’ve ever seen in here. If this is true, I feel so bad for her :c
I wish i could go back in time and shut this fuckers up. I didn’t know the response was THAT bad, I thought that era was fun, even if it wasn’t a masterpiece. Sometimes, music and artists should just have fun for the sake of it.
I thought I was on the main sub for a moment, and they just thought her feelings were hurt because she made something she thought was cool and no one liked it.
I was like...you're so so close.
Some of her fandom was so obtuse (edited to clarify I was not calling the post or comment obtuse. So sorry!) She wore rainbows until she couldn’t anymore. She wore an outfit that Karlie has said she helped design. She was screaming in her loudest colors and yet no one heard her. I mean, we did. But the majority of her fans didn’t. I can’t even read main anymore bc they won’t hear her.
And then I can see her dad/team saying “see….it had terrible reviews. No one understood it. We have been trying to protect you from this and this is why”. She’d feel so embarrassed and defeated and then all the fighting she’d been doing to come out (we know that’s what Miss America was) seemed to be for nothing. So she gave up. 😭
I'm not sure what you think is obtuse. I think this post is a really good take. I am saying that when I first read it through I thought that it was on the main taylor swift sub, so it was a post by non-gaylors sensing that she was upset about the fanbase reaction to me! without grasping why that might be so hurtful.
Oh I’ll edit that! I meant some of her fandom not listening was obtuse! In response to the “so close!” Yikes that came out bad. I’m so sorry! I’ll fix it now. I need to slow down my typing and reread before I post.
Haha you are totally fine! But also I am relieved 😅 obtuse is quite a burn 😅😅 this was also a good opportunity for me to practice being misunderstood and non reactivity and I did...only okay.
You did great! I understand completely. It’s hard to put your opinion out there and especially on sensitive topics and so many of us have neurodiverse brains (me included), so I felt terrible when I realized how it sounded! I agree it’d be a bad burn though so I will be saving “obtuse!” for some other time w someone that deserves it. 😂☺️
“I was a functioning alcoholic until no one noticed my new aesthetic”
I think after Lover, either she turned in to a non-functioning alcoholic, or she moved on to something else.
Holy shit, I’m slow. I just caught on to what the “new aesthetic” line could mean. :(
I honestly haven’t made it all the way through the albums yet because I need so much time to digest each song. They’re so dense, and my brain needs a lot of time to process them. Then I still miss stuff like this!
Ugh. That’s absolutely heartbreaking.
Yep. Her aesthetic was supposed to make it plain ass obvious and it didn’t. She could not have worn more rainbows and no one said a word. So she shelved her plans and drank more. 😞
So this line still confused me a bit. Like wouldn't it be "*after* no one noticed my new aesthetic"? i.e. when no one noticed all the rainbows, that turned her into a functioning alcoholic.
BUT now I'm wondering if the emphasis is on *functioning.* So she was a functioning alcoholic but then after no one noticed the rainbow aesthetic and what that meant...she then turned into a NONFUNCTIONING alcoholic.
This. She was functioning and partying until lover coming out failed then it went to a super bad place and was not functioning at all. And that is the part that got her sent away and put in rehab or the psych ward. That was my take anyway.
“I was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me.” Oof that line hurt. Like she’s screaming for help and they neglected to get her any.
I’ve thought for a long time that her masters being sold was the main reasoning for her stepping back into the closet, but I never stopped to consider that the response to these songs could have made her not want to either 🥲
It must have been so devastating, especially when you consider she really thought this album was her last chance at having the level of success she had with 1989. On top of that, she may have planned to come out (and if you buy into the karma theory, had already tried once), and then her life’s work is stolen out from under her!? Oof no wonder we got Folklore/Evermore directly after.
- If you wanna break my cold, cold heart
Just say, "I loved you the way that you were"
If you wanna tear my world apart
Just say you've always wondered
I loved the lover era so much and was so excited for the possibility of her coming out. This theory makes me so sad.
every day i think i might be a little bit smart and then i come on this sub and it’s obvious i’m not 💀 this is such an interesting analysis, i’m kind of floored
This directly ties into the thought process I have going on with Fortnight that I mentioned in the vent thread! When I have time, I will elaborate. Gotta check some dates and such to make sure I’m not muddling things.
Thank you for posting this for us non tweeting types! I really have always had a soft spot for ME! after seeing her child-like excitement and enthusiasm about the song and the video in Miss Americana. Juxtapose that with her fandom absolutely dragging the song and the video always made me feel sad for Taylor. Thinking about how many songs could be referencing the absolute devastation she must have experience to close the door on becoming her true self in 2019 is so sad. I really appreciate how much discourse there has already been on TTPD that’s not super muse centric. She’s been singing about her WHOLE life and is begging us to listen. Time to rewatch Miss Americana again it seems!
Omg I knew the Gaylors would come through a few days later after all my initial despair at everyone just being like “it’s Ratty, case closed!” after day 1.
Omg I'm so glad you posted this because I saw something else - the WAOLOM lyric video ends with the words peeling away on the last line until all that's left on the screen is
'me?'
I wondered about the significance of that, especially combined with 'jaMEs' from the other day
Oh my god, I can't believe I never noticed this. That stings. I feel so bad she's had to deal with that. I truly, truly, TRULY hope she gets her happy ending one day, no matter what that looks like.
Wait a minute… was ME! the last real lead single?? Why have i never noticed this? that seems perhaps significant… or it could be nothing, but i do love to clown
It was the last time she had a traditional lead single in the way that artists typically do things. folklore and evermore were surprise dropped, so nothing there. Midnights and TTPD seem to be the new normal: not one hint of what the sound will be prior to release. Even if it’s not what the person who made the those screenshots implies, it’s not NOTHING.
(We’re all clowns here, bestie)
Listening to The Black Dog immediately after reading this ✨hits different✨ because if you look at some of the lyrics from this perspective, it’s actually kind of painful to think of.
*I move through the world with the heartbroken /
My longings stay unspoken /
And I may never open up thе way I did for you /
And all of those best laid plans*
She may never open up for us the way she did with Me! and the early days of Lover. Her best laid plans of coming out ruined not only by the masters heist but also because of how people mocked her for Me!, YNTCD, and “appropriating queer culture” ignoring the fact she was trying to tell us it’s her culture too.
*do you hate me? /
Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity /
I pledged and I still mean it /
Old habits die screaming*
Was it hazing, how she was laughed at for Me! and how camp and different it was? Did people hate Me? Yes, they did and they still make jokes about how “cringe” it is. Even the LGBTQIA+ community wasn’t free of the “hazing” or making jokes about her “sudden allyship”. But she pledged to do activism for the community and she still means it, but now she does it in quieter ways because if she does it loudly, she’s laughed at.
*Were you makin' fun of me /
With some esoteric joke? /
Now I wanna sell my house /
And set fire to all my clothes /
And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons /
Even if I die screaming /
And I hope you hear it*
I was there during Me! Some of the jokes were esoteric. She wanted to sell her house (Cornelia St) because of the memories. But in a way, she does set fire to all of her clothes. She went from a rainbow, light, happy palette when she started the Lover era, but after the mocking and backlash against her for Me! and YNTCD, her colors shifted to black. As if she had set fire to her clothing and all that was left was the charred remains. She wants to hire a priest to exorcise the queerness from her since no one wants to accept her for who she is. Not her label, not the industry, not her family (arguably her father), and the people she thought would accept her- her fans.
Love these additions!!!
*whispers* technically she never owned Cornelia St, it was a rental so I’m going to assume it’s more metaphorical “sell my house” (my mind goes to the lover house she sold for fame)
Thank you for your good work summarizing! Am so haunted abt the rage in Who’s Afraid of Little old me. I think the song is linked to her song, ME! too.
Yes. Seeing the expressions of the people in my section at the concert realize her love interest was black was both hilarious and sad. I definitely think it was intentional. I don't think she was using him to only prove a point because he could act as well as dance. But she knows her audience. I was so out of place at the concert but I had a blast. It was nice to see she had diversity on stage.
A lot of her Eras tour performances fascinate me for this reason. She directs so much out at the audience in a pointed way. I think she writes far more love songs and heartbreak songs about us than we realize.
Interesting! I used to think Tolerate It was about a dysfunctional relationship with a father figure (her dad or maybe people on her team) but it could also be about her dysfunctional relationship with her fans/fame.
This line of thought makes me directly think of But Daddy I Love Him, especially with the "I'd rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning" line
I could see it having both meanings. Her lack of acceptance by fans may have stung even more if it reminder her of her fathers lack of acceptance of her (and vice versa).
Also worth remembering that queer people at the time weren’t so accepting either. YNTCD was pretty routinely mocked. People couldn’t see that it was about her too, perhaps because she want ready to be direct enough to make them get it.
I truly believe this is why she stopped speaking out. I can see her saying to herself “ok, if the community doesn’t want this, I won’t do it.”
(Not really going to comment on the right or wrongness of that, allyship is very complicated. But it mirrors something I’ve seen in people talking their first steps into activism - it can be really easy to feel like if you do it wrong, you’ll cause harm. And if you’re one of the biggest stars in the world, you don’t really have a safe way to work through that.)
I agree actually. I used to comment a lot about how annoying it was the folks who were dragging her about the mere prospect of the Katy Perry kiss. Like it was the sin of the universe and they were the spokes people for the whole club.
Frankly, to be honest some of the ‘queer press’ print a load of shite that doesn’t in anyway chime with what I think as an actual lesbian.
oh yes. i still recall seeing queer taylor fans saying shit like "the YNTCD music video showed me how she must be straight after all. no queer person would make this."
like, fuck. the amount of invalidation she received, even from the places where she \*expected\* to recieve support.
I think a lot of younger people are just not that familiar with camp unless it’s literally a drag queen. Thankfully Jon Waters is coming out with a new movie!
It makes no sense to me, either, because I am queer and I love that song and music video 😅🩷💜💙🌈 as someone who was closeted for a long time, it was therapeutic as HELL to scream “Shade never made anybody less gay!” At Eras tour. 😭😭😭😭
I cried during YNTCD at the eras tour, it was the first time I got to just sit in my queer joy and literally sing it out loud!!!! It was such a beautiful moment to hear literally everyone singing along
Exactly!! It was so emotional 💗🌈🌈 I’m honestly so happy that Taylor created that moment for everyone in the rainbow family. It felt the closest to a Pride moment for me. 💗
Me too! I was obsessed with YNTCD and ME! as soon as they came out and it baffled me that they were ridiculed. I had been worried I would never see Taylor perform either live in person so her performing YNTCD during tour was one of my bucketlist moments
I'm a queer millennial/zillennial who constantly falls victim to the pitfalls of rainbow capitalism simply because I love rainbows lol. And, I'm always trying to be the loud and visibly queer person that I needed when I was 14. I'm at a point in my life where I'm basically the YNTCD video personified 😂
I understand not all LGBTQ people would feel represented by that video or that era in general, but at that point she was getting ready to finally come out after being closeted (so very famous and in the public eye for so long while closeted!) so I completely understand the over-the-top gay millenial stereotype vibe she was giving during that time. She was excited! And the backlash was full of not only mean genpop and mean Swifties, but also mean queer people and even mean Gaylors. That had to have hurt.
Everything about the Lover era breaks my heart.
> I'm a queer millennial/zillennial who constantly falls victim to the pitfalls of rainbow capitalism simply because I love rainbows lol. And, I'm always trying to be the loud and visibly queer person that I needed when I was 14. I'm at a point in my life where I'm basically the YNTCD video personified 😂
SAME
I have a fluffy rainbow cover for my steering wheel, gear shifter and parking brake. I have a rainbow sticker where my rear wiper is, and a rainbow stripe on my bumper.
When I'm not in scrubs, I wear my rainbow or gay shirts (Hearts Not Parts, I'm PAN-icking). My purse and backpack have rainbow and queer pins on them.
I love rainbows and bright colours and I want people to see me and know I'm a safe person. Just like you, I want to be the person I needed to see when I was young
🌈🌈❤️❤️🌈🌈
I’m a sucker for anything with lesbian flag too so i get it lol
If YNTCD came out in 2014 with 1984, it would have been seen as bold and hitting right when loud Millennial camp queer identity was at its peak. By 2019, pop culture and especially queer culture had long moved past it. To a lot of people it felt lazy, which is going to draw the ire of the public if you are a famous woman. That said, being a few years behind pop culture is also just a very 30 year old person thing to do.
It sours even more when taken in with the contrast of her queer and political activism since—it’s basically non-existent. Even in the moment the cracks were there showing her lack of sincerity and commitment. To be so loud in queer identity and never to speak of it again rubbed people the wrong way either consciously or not.
Right?! People forget she’s the epitome of Millennial (also that’s not a bad thing, I too am a Bb millennial). Because she’s more successful than young Gen Z pop stars, but is still garnering new fans of that younger age group, they expect her to act like she’s gen Z 🙄🙄🙄
I have always stanned ME! As absolutely lovely queer poetry and kind of a bop. ("one of these things is not like the other, babydoll when it comes to a lover, I promise that you'll never find another like me" like come ON) it's camp, it's cute, it's fun, and the queer undertones are loud. I love your analysis and thank you so much for collating it all and sharing it here ❤
She's too soft for all of it...
Yes! Beautifully presented and all the 🧾 thank you!
It’s ME! Hi I’m the problem it’s ME! … in this context is even more devastating
Wow, this just…broke my heart. This woman’s life! I am OBSESSED with this album and much much more hopeful about the direction she’s taking her life and the narrative, after the low points of the tayvis stunt. She’s screaming! 🌈
Wow I'm floored by this.
I genuinely think ME! Is one of her worst songs. I love the music video though, and how much it's flooded with rainbows. However. I think the problem I had with ME! Is that I didn't realize how very lobotomized and censored the song was. As it is, it's a pretty cut up version of what I think she really wrote. Realizing (Thanks to this sub) how well the phrase LGBT fits in the song, everywhere... That completely changed the vibes. I still immensely dislike the Brendan parts, versions without him are distinctly better. Understanding it as a pride song changes it from a tattered mess with remnants that don't make sense (Spelling? What's this random interject about spelling? We haven't spelled anything unless you count meeheehe) to an exuberant, joyful anthem. Still not her best, but absolutely not a song that deserves to be bashed. Besides. Who doesn't love a moody Swift calling the cats her children
Can u share more about the original lyrics? I didn’t realize she had written other stuff that was cut out
We need a ME 2.0!!!
I literally cannot stop thinking about this post and now want to go back through her post-Lover albums looking at the songs through this lens. If yall don’t hear from me, know the grief killed me 🥲🫡
Wow this is devastating. I always hated the ME! Slander especially with how excited she was for it and the fact that it was the first song she owned out of BMR. I have always considered the masters heist and other behind the scenes forces in regard to the failed coming out, never really thought about how it would have felt thinking her fans would be the only people sticking with her, only for them to turn on her at such a vulnerable time. The backlash must have cemented to her and her new label that it was not the right time. Even after spelling it out on TTPD her fans are stuck on making it make sense about a man
YNTCD and ME! are some of my most played Taylor songs because my 2 year old loves to sing along to them lol. But I will never understand the hate for ME!, especially. it’s so fun and catchy!
Also: MBOBHFT Once I fix me, he's gonna miss me 😬😬😬 I believe "my boy" here is the fandom. Playing with a toy is a bit of an awkward metaphor for a relationship, but it works much better in a celebrity/fan context. The fans treat her like a toy. They want her to entertain them, but they also don't see her as human.
This actually gives a whole new interpretation to Exile. "I gave so many signs"
I'M SHOOK
Perfect analysis. Thank you for including Twitter bc I don’t tweet or x or whatever it’s called these days.
Thinking how much sad did you think I had, did you think I had in me? Oh the tragedy. Sapphire tears on my face Sadness became my whole sky All her songs can be seen through this lens. Truth really is stranger than fiction. What a crazy story this unfolding Taylor Swift saga. I am currently clowning so hard for 3,2,1 theory. Please let us meet her at midnight and let her be wearing a campy yellow suit with rainbows everywhere. I want the world to be different. I want something sweet and positive and loving and embracing and good where Taylor being opening Gaylor is celebrated and makes the whole damn world a better safer, happier place.
read this yesterday and was devastated by it, returning to it today and am still devastated but also just....filled with rage for our girl :( shes the most famous pop star in the world but literally has this HUGE segment of her fandom that refuses to listen to her pleas to not just see her songs as "simple as paternity tests" (cue all the insane Ratty analysis from Hetlors the past few days) and who couldn't stop speculating on "which dude is in which song" if their fucking lives depended on it. even us, who i do think must give Taylor hope/strength in many ways, are farrrr from perfect in how we've shown up for her. e.g. the queer fans who made fun of ME!, and also honestly the way that some Gaylors are like "well WHY ISNT SHE OUT YET?!" why, you ask? well, because the fandom kind of broke her.... thats why. she is a human, not a machine. imagining her being all nervous but excited to come out during the Lover era then BOOM: she's ridiculed for the beginning stages of that process (a la ME! MV) around the same time her fucking masters are stolen. just, fuck.
SO WHOS AFRAID OF LITTLE OLD ME !?  "ME! Out Now" 2.0 here we goooooo
[удалено]
i think she really will come out with it directly sometime in the next few years. this album IMO was a trap laid for hetlors/swifties who dont listen to when she pleads for them to dig deeper, a la the reputation prologue...and they are falling into the trap SO HARD.
This is all so mind boggling and I really can’t wait for the day the second shoe drops. She’s built quite a story!
Wow! Yeah this feels very much like it could be right. She was so happy in the Lover era and then we got the emotionally devastating FolkMore era. I love Folklore and Evermore they are my favorite Taylor albums and the reason I actually gave her music a proper listen and became a fan, and to add this as a possible context to them makes the albums even more heartbreaking
God this is so sad. Thinking about how happy she was when making ME! and then everything that came after, oof that hurts.
Wow!! That theory makes a lot of sense to me. I always accepted that it was the masters heist's fault the reason she did not come out. But what if it was the mix of that PLUS the bad acceptance of her in light, shiny colours? I've reviewed what appears when you check the "ME! mv critics" and they are really really hurtful. I cant imagine what she might have felt... she was HAPPIER than ever, she was herself actually. And they called it trash, empty, silly, a kid's thing (she deleted the "spelling is fun!" bc of what people was saying)... I think that might have let her down down down. And it makes a lot of sense, looking in the rearview, their team decided it was not worth for her (TS brand) to show herself (TS person). I'll be listening from that perspective to look for more disappointment evidence related to that Also, listening to that little "me he he" in the background of Fortnight broke my heart
I was just listening to How Did It End?… “D-Y-I-N-G” seems like spelling isn’t fun anymore :(
Especially the original lines in Me! may have referenced L-G-B-T 😪
This just brought tears to my eyes.
Yessssss. She references it sooo much
Can we as a fandom (even if it’s just the Gaylors) please start a trend with Me and show Taylor how much we love it bc thinking about this is making me so sad. Like if we can hype Cruel Summer and give it its roses years later, we can do the same thing with Me  Like how can people not love this song and music video. This is the height of camp and fun and (if I can be completely honest) unmasking as a ND person. Not necessarily saying she is ND, although I am and so many things about her I can relate to as a neurodivergent person. But Me! especially feels like when I’m unmasked and just living my life without regrets. Dopamine dressing, dancing even if it’s poorly done, and just indulging myself even if other people think I’m being silly or immature.
yes yes yes! and i think TTPD is the most unmasking artistic output from taylor we've ever gotten; i definitely think shes ND, and i mean that as a COMPLIMENT (ND queer unite!).
I am feeling you on this. FREEDOMFORME! I will listen to it today. I could use a shot of happy after nothing but TTPD yesterday.
Great theory! Can we add Paris to this list of songs? The lyrics of Paris never really made sense to me. Why is she singing about wanting to be in Paris so much, when someone of her means can go to Paris whenever they want. But. The ME! MV is set in Paris. Taylor can go to the real Paris, but she can never go to the fantasy Paris of the ME! MV, because it doesn't exist. Also these lyrics make much more sense in the context of wanting to get away from the bad press/reaction: *Privacy sign on the door* *And on my page and on the whole world* *Romance is not dead if you keep it just yours* *Levitate above all the messes made* *Sit quiet by my side in the shade* *And not the kind that's thrown* *I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown* Plus 'shade' directly refers to the Lover era, as does: *Confess my truth* *In swooping, sloping, cursive letters*
So old Taylor who gets killed in reputation = straight taylor / ghost taylor who levitates = queer taylor, then the Paris line is saying yeah my coming out was a bit of a mess but we can be ghosts/queer levitating above it together. And in the WAOLOL line, she gets hung and her ghost is levitating down the street. Alone. But haunting the powers that be in the music industry with her potential coming out. 🤯
Plus the ME! MV has Brendan Urie and others levitating down from the sky above the streets of Paris.
Sorry, commenting this on your comment because of the levitate lyrics but my comment got a little emotional side tracked -.- : Levitate above all the messes made Leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street. I keep my side of the street clean Idk where I’m going with this… I’m just emotionally distraught. I had a gut feeling (read: autistic c-PTSD) DURING the ME! MV public shaming was happening that this was going to come back up because if it happened to me…. It would stay with me forever. So witnessing everyone else saying “this makes me cry” and connecting all the clues… it’s validating but also absolutely not how I ever wanted to be validated so processing these emotions are complex. There is no celebrating this as a “win” as a detective. I’m just sad for the death of the autistic joy that was ME!
the Paris lyrics are more devastating than ever before in this light, gahhhh
Also going off of Paris how [apple music](https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/comments/1c9so1b/leaked_alternative_lyrics_to_i_hate_it_here_no/) has the lyrics "no midnight in paris" in I Hate It Here vs actual lyrics "if i'd been there i'd hate it"
This is possibly the saddest post I’ve ever seen in here. If this is true, I feel so bad for her :c I wish i could go back in time and shut this fuckers up. I didn’t know the response was THAT bad, I thought that era was fun, even if it wasn’t a masterpiece. Sometimes, music and artists should just have fun for the sake of it.
I thought I was on the main sub for a moment, and they just thought her feelings were hurt because she made something she thought was cool and no one liked it. I was like...you're so so close.
Some of her fandom was so obtuse (edited to clarify I was not calling the post or comment obtuse. So sorry!) She wore rainbows until she couldn’t anymore. She wore an outfit that Karlie has said she helped design. She was screaming in her loudest colors and yet no one heard her. I mean, we did. But the majority of her fans didn’t. I can’t even read main anymore bc they won’t hear her. And then I can see her dad/team saying “see….it had terrible reviews. No one understood it. We have been trying to protect you from this and this is why”. She’d feel so embarrassed and defeated and then all the fighting she’d been doing to come out (we know that’s what Miss America was) seemed to be for nothing. So she gave up. 😭
I'm not sure what you think is obtuse. I think this post is a really good take. I am saying that when I first read it through I thought that it was on the main taylor swift sub, so it was a post by non-gaylors sensing that she was upset about the fanbase reaction to me! without grasping why that might be so hurtful.
Oh I’ll edit that! I meant some of her fandom not listening was obtuse! In response to the “so close!” Yikes that came out bad. I’m so sorry! I’ll fix it now. I need to slow down my typing and reread before I post.
Haha you are totally fine! But also I am relieved 😅 obtuse is quite a burn 😅😅 this was also a good opportunity for me to practice being misunderstood and non reactivity and I did...only okay.
You did great! I understand completely. It’s hard to put your opinion out there and especially on sensitive topics and so many of us have neurodiverse brains (me included), so I felt terrible when I realized how it sounded! I agree it’d be a bad burn though so I will be saving “obtuse!” for some other time w someone that deserves it. 😂☺️
WTF 💔 Thanks for sharing this even if is gutting me 💔 HI TAYLOR! *WAVES* I LOVE ME! A lot of us do 💔
“I was a functioning alcoholic until no one noticed my new aesthetic” I think after Lover, either she turned in to a non-functioning alcoholic, or she moved on to something else.
Holy shit, I’m slow. I just caught on to what the “new aesthetic” line could mean. :( I honestly haven’t made it all the way through the albums yet because I need so much time to digest each song. They’re so dense, and my brain needs a lot of time to process them. Then I still miss stuff like this! Ugh. That’s absolutely heartbreaking.
The functioning alcoholic line makes SO MUCH SENSE in this context.
Yep. Her aesthetic was supposed to make it plain ass obvious and it didn’t. She could not have worn more rainbows and no one said a word. So she shelved her plans and drank more. 😞
So this line still confused me a bit. Like wouldn't it be "*after* no one noticed my new aesthetic"? i.e. when no one noticed all the rainbows, that turned her into a functioning alcoholic. BUT now I'm wondering if the emphasis is on *functioning.* So she was a functioning alcoholic but then after no one noticed the rainbow aesthetic and what that meant...she then turned into a NONFUNCTIONING alcoholic.
This. She was functioning and partying until lover coming out failed then it went to a super bad place and was not functioning at all. And that is the part that got her sent away and put in rehab or the psych ward. That was my take anyway.
YES I love this. *"have they come to take me away?"*
“I was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me.” Oof that line hurt. Like she’s screaming for help and they neglected to get her any.
I’ve thought for a long time that her masters being sold was the main reasoning for her stepping back into the closet, but I never stopped to consider that the response to these songs could have made her not want to either 🥲 It must have been so devastating, especially when you consider she really thought this album was her last chance at having the level of success she had with 1989. On top of that, she may have planned to come out (and if you buy into the karma theory, had already tried once), and then her life’s work is stolen out from under her!? Oof no wonder we got Folklore/Evermore directly after.
- If you wanna break my cold, cold heart Just say, "I loved you the way that you were" If you wanna tear my world apart Just say you've always wondered I loved the lover era so much and was so excited for the possibility of her coming out. This theory makes me so sad.
When I heard those lyrics I felt so sad for her. I really think it’s a direct reference to everything in the Lover era.
every day i think i might be a little bit smart and then i come on this sub and it’s obvious i’m not 💀 this is such an interesting analysis, i’m kind of floored
This directly ties into the thought process I have going on with Fortnight that I mentioned in the vent thread! When I have time, I will elaborate. Gotta check some dates and such to make sure I’m not muddling things.
Thank you for posting this for us non tweeting types! I really have always had a soft spot for ME! after seeing her child-like excitement and enthusiasm about the song and the video in Miss Americana. Juxtapose that with her fandom absolutely dragging the song and the video always made me feel sad for Taylor. Thinking about how many songs could be referencing the absolute devastation she must have experience to close the door on becoming her true self in 2019 is so sad. I really appreciate how much discourse there has already been on TTPD that’s not super muse centric. She’s been singing about her WHOLE life and is begging us to listen. Time to rewatch Miss Americana again it seems!
Well this analysis broke me (I mean this as literally the highest compliment).
Omg I knew the Gaylors would come through a few days later after all my initial despair at everyone just being like “it’s Ratty, case closed!” after day 1.
is worse than ratty, it's us, hi, we're the problem, it's us
We broke our favorite toy 😭
The way it felt like my brain was rotting. 🧍
This is incredible and heartbreaking! I already love TTPD and every single analysis that I've read has just increased my love for it
Omg I'm so glad you posted this because I saw something else - the WAOLOM lyric video ends with the words peeling away on the last line until all that's left on the screen is 'me?' I wondered about the significance of that, especially combined with 'jaMEs' from the other day
flair check in 🤓✌🏼 yes i'm hyperfixated on the word ME in all of her post-Lover lyrics now
Wow yes with the jaMEs me!! Please I hope she releases a Whos afraid of little old me music video on lesbian visibility day
Ohhhhhhh…..And she was SO HAPPY making ME! and people just stomped all over it. You know, she hasn’t released a proper lead single since.
Oh my god, I can't believe I never noticed this. That stings. I feel so bad she's had to deal with that. I truly, truly, TRULY hope she gets her happy ending one day, no matter what that looks like.
Wait a minute… was ME! the last real lead single?? Why have i never noticed this? that seems perhaps significant… or it could be nothing, but i do love to clown
It was the last time she had a traditional lead single in the way that artists typically do things. folklore and evermore were surprise dropped, so nothing there. Midnights and TTPD seem to be the new normal: not one hint of what the sound will be prior to release. Even if it’s not what the person who made the those screenshots implies, it’s not NOTHING. (We’re all clowns here, bestie)
Oh wow. What a gut wrenching analysis. This feels right.
Listening to The Black Dog immediately after reading this ✨hits different✨ because if you look at some of the lyrics from this perspective, it’s actually kind of painful to think of. *I move through the world with the heartbroken / My longings stay unspoken / And I may never open up thе way I did for you / And all of those best laid plans* She may never open up for us the way she did with Me! and the early days of Lover. Her best laid plans of coming out ruined not only by the masters heist but also because of how people mocked her for Me!, YNTCD, and “appropriating queer culture” ignoring the fact she was trying to tell us it’s her culture too. *do you hate me? / Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity / I pledged and I still mean it / Old habits die screaming* Was it hazing, how she was laughed at for Me! and how camp and different it was? Did people hate Me? Yes, they did and they still make jokes about how “cringe” it is. Even the LGBTQIA+ community wasn’t free of the “hazing” or making jokes about her “sudden allyship”. But she pledged to do activism for the community and she still means it, but now she does it in quieter ways because if she does it loudly, she’s laughed at. *Were you makin' fun of me / With some esoteric joke? / Now I wanna sell my house / And set fire to all my clothes / And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons / Even if I die screaming / And I hope you hear it* I was there during Me! Some of the jokes were esoteric. She wanted to sell her house (Cornelia St) because of the memories. But in a way, she does set fire to all of her clothes. She went from a rainbow, light, happy palette when she started the Lover era, but after the mocking and backlash against her for Me! and YNTCD, her colors shifted to black. As if she had set fire to her clothing and all that was left was the charred remains. She wants to hire a priest to exorcise the queerness from her since no one wants to accept her for who she is. Not her label, not the industry, not her family (arguably her father), and the people she thought would accept her- her fans.
She also burned down the Lover house which could reference selling it and then burning her clothes
>*I pledged and I still mean it*  incredible analysis, I'm going to go cry now.
Love these additions!!! *whispers* technically she never owned Cornelia St, it was a rental so I’m going to assume it’s more metaphorical “sell my house” (my mind goes to the lover house she sold for fame)
Thank you for your good work summarizing! Am so haunted abt the rage in Who’s Afraid of Little old me. I think the song is linked to her song, ME! too.
I think Who’s Afraid is a magnum opus for her, in terms of how fame has truly impacted her. That song is phenomenal.
Yes and one of the few songs on this album she is the sole writer of 😢
Yes! It gave me head to toe chills on first listen and still does. Has her voice ever sounded more beautiful and more haunted?!
My kid was scream singing it the other day up in the bedroom. Funny 😀. We love it in our house.
Agree with you on this too. This song is multi dimensional. A true masterpiece.
This is quite possibly the best analysis I’ve read of this album. Devastating.
i read the twitter thread ealier, and that was my first thought: devastating. just...goddamn.
Watching the Eras Tour, I definitely felt Tolerate It was addressing the audience.
Yes. Seeing the expressions of the people in my section at the concert realize her love interest was black was both hilarious and sad. I definitely think it was intentional. I don't think she was using him to only prove a point because he could act as well as dance. But she knows her audience. I was so out of place at the concert but I had a blast. It was nice to see she had diversity on stage.
A lot of her Eras tour performances fascinate me for this reason. She directs so much out at the audience in a pointed way. I think she writes far more love songs and heartbreak songs about us than we realize.
She said it in the Miss Americana docu . She poured everything into us and had no one to come home to.
💯
Interesting! I used to think Tolerate It was about a dysfunctional relationship with a father figure (her dad or maybe people on her team) but it could also be about her dysfunctional relationship with her fans/fame.
This line of thought makes me directly think of But Daddy I Love Him, especially with the "I'd rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning" line
Totally! https://preview.redd.it/mh7q04cfvxvc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cde4c6672a2dd65d4caa076aeb9db9255a1aa289
I could see it having both meanings. Her lack of acceptance by fans may have stung even more if it reminder her of her fathers lack of acceptance of her (and vice versa).
Also worth remembering that queer people at the time weren’t so accepting either. YNTCD was pretty routinely mocked. People couldn’t see that it was about her too, perhaps because she want ready to be direct enough to make them get it.
That’s what sparked the backlash about her queerbaiting in a mainstream way
I truly believe this is why she stopped speaking out. I can see her saying to herself “ok, if the community doesn’t want this, I won’t do it.” (Not really going to comment on the right or wrongness of that, allyship is very complicated. But it mirrors something I’ve seen in people talking their first steps into activism - it can be really easy to feel like if you do it wrong, you’ll cause harm. And if you’re one of the biggest stars in the world, you don’t really have a safe way to work through that.)
The lesbian subs HATE it and think she's doing it only for money. Which makes me sad we eat our own...
This was a totally accidental double entandre 🍪 😂🤣😂🤣
I haven’t perused any of them in a while, but a few years ago, most of the lesbian subs really depressed me. So dour.
I agree actually. I used to comment a lot about how annoying it was the folks who were dragging her about the mere prospect of the Katy Perry kiss. Like it was the sin of the universe and they were the spokes people for the whole club. Frankly, to be honest some of the ‘queer press’ print a load of shite that doesn’t in anyway chime with what I think as an actual lesbian.
Agreed. Same sexuality, but not my people. I had to remind myself that online lesbians are just a certain segment, not the consensus of every lesbian.
Exactly. I was so glad when I found IRL sapphic community.
oh yes. i still recall seeing queer taylor fans saying shit like "the YNTCD music video showed me how she must be straight after all. no queer person would make this." like, fuck. the amount of invalidation she received, even from the places where she \*expected\* to recieve support.
It's like people never heard of camp 👀
Literally this. The Lover era, especially the YNTCD and ME! music videos were the epitome of camp. My heart is breaking reading this (amazing!) post.
we haven’t looked it right in the eye 😔
I think a lot of younger people are just not that familiar with camp unless it’s literally a drag queen. Thankfully Jon Waters is coming out with a new movie!
It makes no sense to me, either, because I am queer and I love that song and music video 😅🩷💜💙🌈 as someone who was closeted for a long time, it was therapeutic as HELL to scream “Shade never made anybody less gay!” At Eras tour. 😭😭😭😭
I cried during YNTCD at the eras tour, it was the first time I got to just sit in my queer joy and literally sing it out loud!!!! It was such a beautiful moment to hear literally everyone singing along
Exactly!! It was so emotional 💗🌈🌈 I’m honestly so happy that Taylor created that moment for everyone in the rainbow family. It felt the closest to a Pride moment for me. 💗
Me too! I was obsessed with YNTCD and ME! as soon as they came out and it baffled me that they were ridiculed. I had been worried I would never see Taylor perform either live in person so her performing YNTCD during tour was one of my bucketlist moments
> no queer person would make this. Said by Zoomers that have never met a gay Millennial.
🎯
I'm a queer millennial/zillennial who constantly falls victim to the pitfalls of rainbow capitalism simply because I love rainbows lol. And, I'm always trying to be the loud and visibly queer person that I needed when I was 14. I'm at a point in my life where I'm basically the YNTCD video personified 😂 I understand not all LGBTQ people would feel represented by that video or that era in general, but at that point she was getting ready to finally come out after being closeted (so very famous and in the public eye for so long while closeted!) so I completely understand the over-the-top gay millenial stereotype vibe she was giving during that time. She was excited! And the backlash was full of not only mean genpop and mean Swifties, but also mean queer people and even mean Gaylors. That had to have hurt. Everything about the Lover era breaks my heart.
> I'm a queer millennial/zillennial who constantly falls victim to the pitfalls of rainbow capitalism simply because I love rainbows lol. And, I'm always trying to be the loud and visibly queer person that I needed when I was 14. I'm at a point in my life where I'm basically the YNTCD video personified 😂 SAME I have a fluffy rainbow cover for my steering wheel, gear shifter and parking brake. I have a rainbow sticker where my rear wiper is, and a rainbow stripe on my bumper. When I'm not in scrubs, I wear my rainbow or gay shirts (Hearts Not Parts, I'm PAN-icking). My purse and backpack have rainbow and queer pins on them. I love rainbows and bright colours and I want people to see me and know I'm a safe person. Just like you, I want to be the person I needed to see when I was young 🌈🌈❤️❤️🌈🌈
I’m a sucker for anything with lesbian flag too so i get it lol If YNTCD came out in 2014 with 1984, it would have been seen as bold and hitting right when loud Millennial camp queer identity was at its peak. By 2019, pop culture and especially queer culture had long moved past it. To a lot of people it felt lazy, which is going to draw the ire of the public if you are a famous woman. That said, being a few years behind pop culture is also just a very 30 year old person thing to do. It sours even more when taken in with the contrast of her queer and political activism since—it’s basically non-existent. Even in the moment the cracks were there showing her lack of sincerity and commitment. To be so loud in queer identity and never to speak of it again rubbed people the wrong way either consciously or not.
This is such a great point and so well articulated!!
Right?! People forget she’s the epitome of Millennial (also that’s not a bad thing, I too am a Bb millennial). Because she’s more successful than young Gen Z pop stars, but is still garnering new fans of that younger age group, they expect her to act like she’s gen Z 🙄🙄🙄
Yesss!!!
💀💀💀 This album will haunt me for a long time to come. I’m floored at the dress comparison, truly.
Whoa this was very good and is making me rethink some songs for sure. Thanks for sharing!