THE 13 QUEER TROPES OF TAYLOR SWIFT

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)