Peter is brand Taylor talking to real Taylor, I Look in Peopleâs Windows is real Taylor talking to brand Taylor (the two were supposed to become one, but the more famous she gets the harder it is)đđ
The whole theme of the album is Taylor herself and her career and how the industry has affected her, joe/matty/travis/kim are just red herrings bye im gonna go cry listening to Peter
(more detailsâŹïž)
Iâm not saying that some songs arenât about those specific people, Iâm just saying theyâre only PART OF the theme, I believe her father (and other big heads in the industry) had a big influence on her career and forced her to stay in the closet from the very beginning, that messed her up, she had to hide her true self and keep bearding, and in 2019 she planned to come out but didnât because of the masters heist, now itâs because sheâs gotten more famous than ever that she has too much to lose. So maybe these men he dated, she did like them and she had multiple feelings when these relationships ended, but itâs all part of who the industry had made her into; she had one true love (maybe Karlie) but she couldnât be with that person thatâs why some songs are about a true deep love lost, but thatâs still part of the âher careerâ theme, because of her career, she canât be with that person. (more detailsâŹïž)
Whatâs really interesting in this theme is that sheâs calling out her father in multiple songs because he really made her life harderâŠ
In Cassandra, (the obvious theory is that Cassandra representing gaylors bc weâve been saying the truth but never believed. And the first verse is about her getting the news of her masters heist just before her coming out plan, and then âstoneâs thrownâ is referencing Stonewall.) And in the bridge âThey knew the whole time that I was onto something. The family, the pure greed, the Christian chorus line. They all said nothing. Blood's thick but nothing like a payroll. Bet they never spared a prayer for my soulâ sheâs saying her family knew something but said nothing because greed and money, we saw the leaked emails of her father and how he cares more about making money out of Taylorâs career than caring about her as his daughter, so I think this bridge is about her father, also about religious trauma may or may not due to him.
In The Bolter, âA curious child, ever reviled by everyone except her own father. With a quite bewitching face, splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless, excellent fun 'til you get to know her, then she runs like it's a raceâ sheâs talking about herself being a precocious uniquely intelligent ambitious child, which everyone reviled except her father. why? because he wanted to invest money on her, he controlled how she conducted her career from the beginning.
Whatâs crazier is that Robin may be about her father too. That song sounds like a sweet song but sheâs faking it like âall this showmanship to keep it for you in sweetnessâ. If sheâs referring to her father (only wanting to make money out of her career) in this song then âyouâre an animal, you are bloodthirstyâ makes so much more sense. And the âburied down deep and out of your reach, the secret we all vowed to keep it from you in sweetnessâ her father probably knows about her queerness but wants her and everyone to keep it quiet.
In But Daddy I Love Him, âpeople only raise you to cage youâ is pretty obvious about her father forcing her to stay in the closet, and âpeople try and save you cause they hate youâ is literally about homophobes. âDutiful daughter, all my plans were laidâ is about her father laying all the plans for her, which isnât always what she wants. âI'd rather burn my whole life down, than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning. I'll tell you something about my good name, it's mine alone to disgraceâ reminds me of that scene in Miss Americana where her father was lecturing why she couldnât public her opinions. âThinking it can change the beat of my heart when he touches me. And counteract the chemistry, and undo the destinyâ is so queer coded. âSanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see / You ain't gotta pray for meâ another reference to religious trauma.
So all of this, about her father, about her lover and other men, itâs all connected to her career and sheâs looking back at it, thinking and reflecting on it, thatâs it thatâs the blog
I definitely think she was not planning to go, but her fans and the media are lunatics about basically forcing her to forgo any proper rest. They donât give a damn about her.
Not Karlie posting âMy plus 2â with the 𫶠emoji 6 hours ago and then Taylor announcing the eras tour movie on disney plus⊠with the 𫶠emoji. đ€
Okay bare with me here because my thoughts are literally chaos right now! Going to try and take you through the ninja katana that just happened to my brain!
1. Everyone has been focusing on this album being white. Taylor wore a white dress, Taylor used the đ€, etc etc
This has been bothering my photographer mind since I very first saw the cover. That cover is not black and white. That cover is Sepia.
Rep is Black and whiteâŠ..Folklore as well (though more muted and grey than stark black and white like Rep)
Poets is Sepia!
Now obviously there is no Sepia heart emoji so it could be that simple BUT Taylor is a mastermind and she doesnât do accidents. The Sepia toned album cover is not white and that immediately drew attention to it when everyone is focused on the white aspects (which also lended itself nicely to the Rep TV/Poets bait and switch)
2. So I decided to go learn about the history of Sepia and quickly came across this very interesting article. I started reading. Immediately aspects of this colours history started setting off lightbulbs đĄ
Sepia comes from the Cuttlefishâs defence mechanism. When under attack the cuttlefish releases a cloud of ink to distract the predator and make a swift (SWIFT!!) escape!?!?
Already we have the ink tie in specifically mentioning jet black (like the octopus and squid) but the cuttlefishâs defender cloud is sepiaâŠâŠthis album is a defence mechanism so she can distract the predators (hetlors/the press) to make her escape to safety. Itâs the bait and switch. The distraction. The decoy.
This was already enough to have my jaw on the floorâŠbut wait! Thereâs more!
3. Sepiaâs use in photographyâŠ
This love story began in black and whiteâŠin Reputation.
đ¶I once believed love would be black and whiteâŠ.but itâs golden (Daylight)
This cover photo is very clearly Daylight after the long and tortured MidnightâŠ.now she only sees Daylight!
Sepia has come to represent a by-gone ageâŠ.
Everyone thinks that Kaylor is over and done. Just an ended friendship, a burned bridge, no longer relevantâŠbut the act of making that relationship look old was actually used to preserve that love and allow it to be long lasting!
Thereâs also the very obvious photography connection with the Polaroids significance to Kaylor.
Also note the nod to 1920sâŠ.along with the Clara Bow track pointed at that era hereâs another possible link to the roaring 20s
Another link to Daylight coming after MidnightâŠthe opening of the Karma music video shows the Midnights album which turns into a golden sunlight over the golden Taylor statue. Midnight to Daylight.
So as if all of this wasnât already enough I kept reading and the next paragraph made me screamâŠ..
The Wizard of FUCKING OZ you guys!!!!
(Side note that we have the Blake/Taylor Dorothy and Ariel combo call back here as well! Worth noting maybe Daddy I Love Him will shed some light on this Halloween PartyâŠwe know our đ anon wanted us focusing on Halloween! Maybe this evening was significant in the story!)
So everyone thinks of it as black and white but itâs actually SepiaâŠ..yes yes go onâŠ..
So youâre telling me to create the illusion (đ¶All eyes on me your illusionist) of sepia to colour they were using a body double. A double! A bait and switch! A stand in! Like every single beard relationship and every single Karlie stand in we have been seeing lately! Blake at Beyonces premiereâŠ.Keleigh at the Golden Globes, Keleigh as the bride, etc etc etc.
Slight of hand, more illusions and bait and switch imagery to make the art work and the magic happen.
Hits different is the most explicitly gay song Taylor has ever released
'Bet I could still melt your world, argumentative, antithetical dream girl' she is directly addressing her dream girl here. She's saying she could melt the dream girl's world. Literally what else could that possibly mean?
'I used to switch out these Kens' for what? It could be she's referring to men as Kens because she plays with them like dolls, but specifically 'switch out' rather than 'play with' implies she's switched them out for something else, like another Barbie - something I've found to be a common experience among girls who like girls.
Also 'asshole outlaw' reminds me of her country roots, and country music is generally very homophobic and sexist. She used to comply by these standards and mindsets but not anymore. Now, 'don't need another metaphor, its simple enough' she doesn't need to disguise it as friendship, instead she's writing song explicitly about this dream girl who she's in love with and skipping the metaphors for other more direct references:
Like references to other songs too, like mentions of summer because of Cruel Summer with 'freedom felt like summer ... now the sun burns'. 'I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate' when the only garden gate Taylor's been seen around is Karlie's. The matching lyric: 'I'm drunk in the back of the car and I cried like a baby coming home from the bar' matches with 'I never don't cry at the bar ... I slur your name 'til someone puts me in a car' she's drunk and says 'Karlie' or 'Kar' which is mistaken for 'car'.
A New Romantics reference too, which is such a gay anthem I could write a whole other post about it. 'Like waiting for a bus that never comes' is to me a weirdly out of place lyric just like 'we wait for trains that just aren't coming'.
I'd even argue 'I heard your key turn in the door down the hallways/Is it okay? Is it you?/Or have they come to take me away?' is asking if interacting with Karlie at all is okay to do at all, if she can focus on the public drama about them actually being about her and Karlie, when all she can think about is being found out and taken away from her fame and reputation.
Then of course 'each bar plays our song nothing has ever felt so wrong' meaning 'their song' must be a popular and mainstream song to be played at bars so often, or more broadly could mean mainstream love songs in general which are mostly straight and don't feel right to her for some reason. Her friends tell her that's okay because 'love is a lie' but she knows they're only saying it to make her feel better, when that's not the real reason why 'moving on was always easy'.
Despite all the men she never really liked and the love that never felt right to her, this one person 'hits different'. You as the listener have a choice, either hear she's with her dream girl and it feels right, or that she 'just needed to meet the right guy', as straight people tell lesbians their entire lives.
This has been a gaylor essay thank you for reading