Before Folklore Came Out, I Would Tell People That Liking Taylor Swift Was The Straightest Thing About

Before folklore came out, I would tell people that liking Taylor Swift was the straightest thing about me. Then folklore, evermore, and Red TV came out. As I saw the queer themes in those albums, I began seeing them in reputation, 1989, Speak Now, Fearless, and debut. The themes have always been there, fluctuating in subtlety but steadily increasing since 1989. So why did I think of Taylor Swift as so quintessentially straight? You guessed it: Compulsory heterosexuality and heteronormativity.

Taylor was supposed to be universally relatable. When she explained her songs, she refrained from using gender-specific language. Us. We. That person. Someone. And people that as “Me. I. A man. That guy I told everyone I was dating.” We were told she dated men, and a woman dating a man = heterosexual. No other options.

Even now, Genius will remove lyric annotations that imply her lyrics might not be about a man. Even with Hits Different, Question…? and Maroon. Taylor says reputation is about Joe and swifties believe her bc “Taylor wouldn’t lie to us!!!” even though there’s so many inconsistencies with the narrative that Rep is about Joe.

To say outright or even imply that Taylor might write songs about women because she likes women is met with scores of comments about how we “shouldn’t speculate on her sexuality!!! she said she’s straight!!! stop being disrespectful!!!!” But Taylor, as she has never said the words “I’m gay” has never said the words “I’m straight.” What she has done is align herself with. LGBTQ artists (YNTCD music video, Phoebe feat., posting support for queer musicians on social media, and, of course, the Pride parade that is her list of openers for the Eras Tour).

If Taylor didn’t people thinking she’s queer, she would’ve thrown in “as a straight woman…” in her speech before performing Delicate at multiple Pride events, when being interviewed about her advocacy during the Lover era, or at literally any point in her adult life.

Writing about women from the male perspective is queer. Her dressing in drag for the Man music video and showing herself in bed with a woman is inherently queer. The way she writes songs about her love interests’ girlfriends is queer. People bend over backwards to justify the gay shit she does, the same thing people have done for centuries with Sappho, Emily Dickinson, Louisa May Alcott, and so many sapphic artists throughout history. Taylor Swift is THE songwriter of our generation. She IS the music industry. But swifties, and hetlors all the more, would rather believe she is stupid and ignorant rather than intentionally using phrases like “hairpin drop,” “lavender haze,” “all the bricks they threw at me,” “you’re the West Village.” When she describes her muses as having scarlet lips, having hair that falls into place like dominos and braids in a pattern, gorgeous, it’s just because she thinks men are really pretty I guess (insert MetGala 2016 Joe photo). When she describes men as toys, playthings, “dudes who give nothing,” she’s being satirical. When she says “weird rumors,” that can’t possibly refer to rumors about marriage, pregnancy, or her having had multiple children during the pandemic. It’s *weird* to say that Taylor is queer. It’s weird and bad and gross. Why? Because people saying this believe being queer is weird, bad, and gross.

But it’s not weird. Being queer is beautiful, a gift. And that gift comes with a world that hates who we are. Of course Taylor is too soft for all it. And I admire her softness, that she continues to write vulnerable music. Midnights (esp 3am Edition and Hits Different) holds her loudest lyrics. She’s never beating the rumors and she doesn’t want to. Even if she never says the words “I’m gay/bi/pan/a lesbian,” the eardrum-shattering volume of her lyrics is more than enough for me.

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heyslytherin

5 years ago

it’s so sad if it’s true that she can’t come out....she could be the example for other idols to do come out,but on the flip side I get why she won’t do it...regardless of that we support our LGBTQ+supportive queen I guess

Do any of you guys think Sunmi wants to come out like right now despite the damages it could have to her career. There was for example her little slip up at that concert and her brushing it off afterwards on Twitter. It seems like she wants to come out (if she is indeed lgbt) but isn’t really considering or is prepared for the backlash it could cause

I honestly think that the concert wasn’t really a slip up at all, I think she said what she said intentionally however once it blew up herself/company e.t.c saw how potentially damaging to her image in Korea this could be so they back tracked and claimed for her words to have been misunderstood, which I think is quite a bad excuse.

Sunmi is very good at english, yes she isn’t fluent but she can articulate and structure full sentences and they make sense, she understands english, I don’t understand how you can say that “LGBT” is a side of your personality when you actually mean that “supporting the lgbt community” is a side of yourself ? That’s a big chunk of important words to miss out if you don’t want to be misunderstood, another thing to follow up with that is she didn’t even correct herself after she had said it. I understand saying it and then realising it doesn’t sound right or you’ve made a mistake then correcting yourself, but the fact she didn’t correct herself and then didn’t even speak on the matter until hours later when it was trending on twitter.

I do think she may have said it thinking it wouldn’t be uploaded anywhere and that the show was a safe place to express herself so I understand why she might have said what she did however I do think it’s somewhat reckless when there’s bound to be hundreds of people filming you if you’re not prepared to face the “consequences” afterwards, I think she may have been in the moment and blurted out her true feelings without intending to and then obviously it was too late to take back. I think she “wants” to come out, I mean most people do don’t they? We want to be out and proud and for everyone to embrace us but we also know the reality of the world is that a lot of people will not like it AT ALL, we are fearful of the consequences and our safety is more of a priority, so we keep it to ourselves or to the people we trust. So yeah I think she wants to be out (if she is gay) but I don’t think she would ever choose to jepordize her career by doing so, which is why I think she made that tweet, I don’t think anybody forced her to, I think she may have been advised to because if Korean media catch wind of it she’s going to be absolutely slated, but I do think it was her own choice to make the tweet as she cares about her image and career too much.

Honestly it really couldve been a mistake she made in the moment and maybe didn’t realise but I am somewhat doubtful about that, also if you guys want me to do any analysis posts on any solo artists or actors let me know and I can do some research and make a few :).

- Caitlin

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heyslytherin

9 months ago

This is a lesbian and no one can convince me otherwise.

It’s the way she try’s to tone it down at first but absolutely decides “fuck it” and starts singing about a woman’s cherry chapstick 😘🍒

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heyslytherin

8 months ago

We Could Only Hear Our Short Breaths, And Sometimes Wan Viva's Strange Voice. The Small Girl Seemed To

We could only hear our short breaths, and sometimes Wan Viva's strange voice. The small girl seemed to know what kind of voice I wanted to hear. I actually liked every voice she made.

Affair The Series | EP.5 [4/4]

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heyslytherin

1 year ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/s/NqaA7M6PPm 🫣 it's just insane how Taylor's PRomance machine has been working so well for years and all the people really believe she was in love with all those men and wrote all those love songs about them.

Link

It’s a good post isn’t it?

There’s no doubt about Travlor, it’s the most obvious PR ship ever. Even if I believed it was real, I couldn’t doubt they’ve been milking the hell out of it since day one.

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heyslytherin

1 year ago

Nice to probably have her in the team

Did Billie just come out?

https://x.com/popbase/status/1724098158706450671?s=46&t=OnZ0f24mD0XxPzNjM5Rv8Q

I mean hasn’t she come out multiple times in one way or another over the last few years? Her statement is the epitome of “I was scared of pretty girls and starting conversations” which is the gay experience™️

She’s always posting telling things in her ig stories, like her simping over women and other gay stuff etc… which reminds me, I screenshot this the other day