🦎 Lizard. 20+.
Jaina Solo is my best friend. I write about my OCs (and others) a lot. Mostly Star wars and DC Comics. Returned Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Does this song ever explicitly state that this story takes place in the wild west? No. Is it all I can think of when I listen to it on repeat? Absolutely.
Director's Cut:
-Referenced Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron to draw the Horse. Enjoy it, bc I will never be able to draw anything like it again.
-I believe it was echo-jedis that had the idea for Hunter to have a painted horse (I think that's what they're called, it's been a while since I was a horse girl) with spots that resemble his tattoos, so that's what I tried to emulate here. The coloring was inspired by a horse my aunt owned when I was younger.
-I've been admiring the coloring of the mountains near where I live for so long and this finally gave me the chance to color it. 😁
-The Tortured Poets Department is all really a Western story and you can't change my mind.
To recognize TERFs, anti’s, fash, incels and other internet shitstains, one pattern you need to recognize is this:
They take some normal human behavior
Explain it in the darkest, most bad faith way possible
And then ignore any other, often more realistic, explanation.
A simple example:
A lot of adults watch TV shows about high school relationship drama.
Dark bad faith take: all these adults are obsessing over teenager sex lives because they want to fuck teenagers.
More realistic explanation: a lot of adults have memories of their own high school relationship drama that they like to relive, process, etc through media.
Another realistic explanation: People can empathize with the stories of hobbits, dragons, defense lawyers, plucky detectives, space rebels, talking dogs and teenagers in high school without always having a desire to fuck the characters involved. It is possible to just enjoy a story as a story without it fulfilling some emotional of sexual need.
Like, when you take a tiny step back, it becomes clear that the jump from ‘adults watch high school dramas’ to ‘they all want to fuck teenagers’ is absolute moon logic.
This logic only works if you assume the absolute worst possible things about the group you’re talking about. This logic works if the only lens you can see a group through is ‘predator’ and you do not acknowledge that they are completely humans who can just do non-predatory things like ‘enjoying stories’.
And assuming the absolute worst possible things about a specific group while denying their complexity and humanity… well, that is absolutely key to what TERFs, anti’s, fashos, incels, etc. do.
Taylor Swift and other poets in conversation with Roland Barthes's "The Death of the Author" (1967) and Michel Foucault's "What is an Author?" (1969)
I want to say thank you to @ttpds @youmeetyourself and @ohdorothea. This post would not exist were it not for your musings on the topic, our conversations, and your encouragement. Seriously, thank y'all.
Sources:
Unless otherwise noted, lyrics are from Genius and screenshots/scans/etc are from taylorpictures.net
Barthes, Roland. "The Death of the Author"
"delicate" music video
"Dear Reader" lyrics
Foucault, Michel. "What is an Author?"
"Style" music video
"mirrorball" lyrics
Barthes
Taylor Swift before singing "betty" on the Eras Tour in Glendale, AZ on March 17, 2023 (text from @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes)
Siken, Richard. "The Torn-up Road" in The Iowa Review
Promotional image for The Tortured Poets Department from Swift's social media
Savage, Mark "Midnights: What we know about Taylor Swift's songwriting" for BBC.com
Foucault
reputation prologue
Barthes
Promotional image for The Tortured Poets Department
Barthes
Halsey. "Gasoline" lyrics
"mirrorball" lyrics
Barthes
Florence & the Machine. "King" lyrics
"Dear Reader" lyrics
Foucault
"22" lyrics
Foucault
"Out of the Woods" music video
"...ready for it?" music video
"Anti-Hero" music video
"look what you made me do" music video
"if you're anything like me" from the reputation magazines
Foucault
Album covers for the Taylor's Versions of Fearless, Red, Speak Now, and 1989
Taylor Swift in Musicians on Musicians: Taylor Swift & Paul McCartney for Rolling Stone
"look what you made me do" music video
"the lakes" lyrics
Foucault
"look what you made me do" handwritten lyrics from the reputation magazines
"my tears ricochet" lyrics
Foucault
"my tears ricochet" lyrics
"look what you made me do" music video
Foucault
"hoax" lyrics
"why she disappeared" from the reputation magazines