You Should Make A Masterpost Of Taylor Singing About How Her Lover Walks :)

Things I can’t wait for:

you ever think about what kind of scene would be taking place during sweet nothing given that it’s a song about a midnight?

taylor isn’t stupid

taylor swift is famous for the easter eggs, hidden codes, and secret symbology she leaves for fans, giving them clues as to who her songs are about (or supposed to be about), when new music or content is coming, and other insights into her life and what her art represents.

she posted red shoes on her 22nd birthday in 2011 as a clue to let people know the title of her next album - red:

she posted a picture of herself playing scrabble in the fall of 2018 as a clue that the count down to her new single would start on national scrabble day six months later:

so this brings us to the lover era

taylor hid so many clues in this era that she was not straight and we know taylor hides clues because of examples like the ones i provided.  she’s maniacal and unhinged but it is 100% what she does.

the first big thing is she released her single me! on LESBIAN VISIBILITY DAY:

i don’t even think taylor is a lesbian 😭i think she’s some brand of bisexual but this still feels like a signal that she isn’t straight.  we know taylor knows about which national days are what because she keeps up with it all enough to easter egg national scrabble day plus this is her big “lgbt ally era” (🙄) so you would think she would be keeping up with the days of awareness for members of the lgbt community.

and whether you think taylor was trying to come out that way or not, a lot of the internet did, and they went and wrote articles about it (lots of articles) (more on that later).

then there was the bi flag colored “proud” bracelet she pictured on her wrist and posted to ig:

turns out a fan made this for her because they were bi and proud about it but i don’t understand why she pictured that bracelet, she didn’t have to, she could have turned it so you couldn’t see the word proud.  regardless more articles got written about how people thought taylor was coming out as not straight.

then there was the straightest gayest clusterfuck that was the yntcd music video in which taylor basically made herself the center of a gay pride riot in a gay trailer part.  in the music video she represented all the gay pride flags and she posed with two herself:

the bi pride flag (yeah some people say there’s green at the top of her hair, i don’t care the colors are there):

and the pansexual pride flag:

both these pride flags were not represented anywhere else in the music video - just those scenes with taylor.

this prompted more people to wonder if taylor came out

it also prompted a lot of people to accuse taylor of queerbaiting, appropriating and infringing on gay culture, and overstepping her bounds as an ally.  all responses to yntcd were loud 

are you noticing a pattern? the lover era was just: taylor does something gay.  people write articles about how they think she just came out/otherwise comment on her sexuality.

now you know taylor, who is obsessed with the media’s perception of her would have known about this.  you know her publicist would have been duty bound to let her know, “hey taylor, all this gay stuff you’re doing? it’s making people speculate that you’re gay.”

and you would think that maybe if taylor didn’t like or appreciate this speculation around her she would have toned down the gay for her next project.  instead she aired miss americana in which she listed gay pride as one of the things that made her, her.

as if that weren’t enough the next album she dropped was extraordinarily gay:

in folklore you have betty in which taylor sings about wanting to kiss a girl and yeah maybe it’s “from a male perspective” but 1. that’s a gay thing to do anyway and 2. the character that is the supposed male is named after an irl girl.  we also get seven in which taylor sings to a childhood love who is a girl and she says they’ll have to hide in the closet.  taylor isn’t stupid.  she knows what being “in the closet” means.  she is a writer and a brilliant one at that.  she could have said anything- hide in the corner, hide in the cabinet, she very specifically chose the phrase that means to hide the truth about your sexuality.

and lest we forget about illicit affairs in which taylor sings to a lover who is cheating on a man with her.

and that’s just the explicit stuff, the entire album is laced with queer themes and coding other than just those songs.

many people wrote about and commented on how gay folklore was.

so the next thing taylor does?  drops another super gay album including another love song canonically about a woman.

so antis, take note.  taylor is not stupid.  she doesn’t mind the speculation about her sexuality.  i’m not saying she’s for sure gay.  but if she’s not she absolutely is leaning into stirring on speculation anyway.  and tbh if she’s ok with baiting this heavily and she’s not gay she might just be a terrible person? so reconsider your hetlor stance because a straight taylor = a baiting and unhinged taylor.  so you don’t need to keep policing gaylors and telling them not to speculate about taylor’s sexuality.  she is signalling to us that she is not straight which she 100% does not have to do.  no one made her pose with the pan flag,  no one made her write seven, no one made her include gay pride in a list of traits that define her in a documentary that she produced.  this is purposeful on her part.  it doesn’t mean she’s for sure gay but it does mean she wants people to wonder if she’s not straight.

What are the top three things that happened in the last year or so that make you so confident they are still together? No “sources”. No small coincidences. Real things that make sense. No eye theory allowed! Go!

ok anon, i’ll bite!

-taylor’s sudden and sustained use of baby, child, and father imagery and language from lover era through folklore and evermore and now. karlie has done some of it too.

i could list it all up but this post would get very long and it’s, you know, a touchy subject. but i think it’s been pretty noticeable if you’ve been open to it. plus idk, taylor creates a whole album about a secret love and talks about wanting to be her lover’s end game but somehow it’s not supposed to include starting a family? and if it does it needs to be done publicly?

-taylor’s continued use of the crest symbol (something kaylors identified far earlier than swifties)

beyond the Lover music video, we see it in the evermore album photos, and she’s now used it on The Vault. it’s the snake looking like an S and the butterfly looking like a K, for me. plus.. crests are made for *families*

-social interactions with mutual acquaintances.

for example, cara delevigne going to see taylors SNL performance and also publicly sending karlie bottles of wine. misty copeland dancing for taylor’s AMA performance and then also posting a pic wearing a LIKE A KLOSS tshirt to instagram. lily aldridge wishing karlie a happy birthday using a pic where taylor’s right there in the frame. the haim sisters hanging out both with taylor and with karlie on multiple occasions. etc. and then brandon maxwell adding taylor swift songs to his runway shows, and christian siriano often featuring pics on instagram of taylor in dresses he’s designed. all this while karlie hosted project runway with them as judge and mentor. if you believe taylor and karlie were ever together, these kinds of sustained moments should give you pause because they just wouldn’t happen if there was a breakup.

***

honorable mentions:

-taylor making the noticeable public pivot towards “fictitious songwriting” with folklore and evermore.

this isn’t so much a proof as something that i think really sets her up well for the future. for me, trying to wean the public off of searching for connections between lyrics and her real life is a way of protecting what she has. plus it has allowed her to write about a greater variety of things.

-the red rose dresses

i’m sorry say what you will about twinning being abstract (yes sometimes it is) but, this kind of thing is just obvious. what’s more, we can deduce that taylor started working on that video before karlie started designing her dress, and karlie then designed hers, debuted it, and taylor then went and did the video without change. to a similar extent you could argue a similar pattern with the yellow dresses in 2019 (elle cover/off-white runway) and the orange thing (yntcd/carolina herrera vogue cover/adidas/match.com) that went into 2020. there’s a pattern of one of them debuting a look, the other puts out a similar look, then it gets revealed the other was working on it earlier, etc… plenty of opportunities to course correct these bold primary color twinning moments if they didn’t want anything to do with one another.

-taylor continuing to wear the vsfs ring (which is undeniably a kaylor bat signal)

on significant days such as kissgate anniversary in 2019, while accepting an award in 2021, and at her birthday party just this month. honestly i could write a dissertation on other jewelry things (karlie wearing the cartier necklace through the pandemic onset and her pregnancy, the alison lou of it all… or the awe le duo necklace lolol, but the angel wing ring takes the cake)

moreover, it’s just all this and every other thing, in aggregate. they’ve both maintained my attention!

♠️ The blue will remain true. - 12/30/2018

I believe this riddle was a hint that Taylor’s truest songs about her current situations (relative to the time they were made) will reference blue.

Examples:

“And it's new, the shape of your body/ It's blue, the feeling I've got” - cruel summer

“I blew things out of proportion, now you're blue/ Put you in jail for something you didn't do/ I pinned your hands behind your back, oh/ Thought I had reason to attack, but no” - afterglow

“I'm with you even if it makes me blue” - paper rings

“Time, wondrous time/ Gave me the blues and then purple pink skies/ And it's cool, baby, with me” - invisible string

“But I'm a fire and I'll keep your brittle heart warm/ If your cascade ocean wave blues come/ All these people think love's for show/ But I would die for you in secret” - peace

“Don't want no other shade of blue but you/ No other sadness in the world would do” - hoax

“Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest gray? A universe away” - Coney Island

“Gray November/ I've been down since July/ Motion capture/ Put me in a bad light” - evermore

“Show me a gray sky, a rainy cab ride/ Babe, don't threaten me with a good time” - London boy

There is very little blue in evermore. I believe the use of gray in Coney Island is tied into the use of gray in evermore and London boy. In the LPSS Taylor describes the love part of hoax as who would you want to stay with gray skies everyday. So if we understand gray skies as storm clouds blocking the blue skies then I’d compare it to a beard maybe blocking the truth. Like a true face hiding behind the beard.

Hiii can you do the pronouns percentage with lover and folklore in? I've just seen the one with rep included but FOLKLORE IS SO GAY. Also you're doing gods work thank you so much 💕

Hi! I’ve updated the charts to include Folklore - there is actually already a post which includes the pronouns from Lover (here) if you’re interested to see what has and hasn’t changed.

As always, the songs not included in these charts are those from Taylor’s unreleased catalogue; those for which Taylor is credited as co-writer, but which were released by another artist (e.g. Kellie Pickler’s ‘Best Days of Your Life’); and her OSTs (Eyes Open, Safe and Sound, Sweeter Than Fiction, I Don’t Wanna Live Forever and Beautiful Ghosts).

The charts are organised as follows below.

Songs with unqualified “male” (pro)nouns — “he” functions as Taylor’s primary romantic interest:

Tim McGraw

Teardrops on My Guitar

Stay Beautiful

I'd Lie

Fifteen

Hey Stephen

Forever & Always

I’m Only Me When I’m With You – “Just a small-town boy and girl”

Today Was a Fairy-tale – ‘You were the prince/ I used to be a damsel in distress’

Dear John

Better Than Revenge

Superman

Red

I Knew You Were Trouble

The Moment I Knew

Girl at Home

Blank Space — “You're the King, baby, I'm your Queen”

Style

Shake It Off

Wildest Dreams

You Are in Love

…Ready for It

I Did Something Bad

King of my heart – “King of my heart, body and soul”

Call It What You Want

Better Man — “I wish you were a better man”

Cruel Summer – “He looks up grinning like a devil”

Lover – “I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover”

I Think He Knows

Paper Rings – “Wrap your arms around me, baby boy”

London Boy

Songs with qualified “male” pronouns:

Tied Together with a Smile — not autobiographical.

Our Song — uses reversed perspective.

Love Story — uses reversed perspective.

The Way I Loved You – constructs an opposition between ‘he’ and the gender non-specific ‘you,’ who is the true romantic interest.

Haunted — constructs an opposition between ‘he’ and the gender non-specific ‘you,’ who is the true romantic interest.

Speak Now — uses reversed perspective.

Starlight — not autobiographical.

Begin Again — constructs an opposition between ‘he’ and the gender non-specific ‘you,’ who is the true romantic interest.

New Romantics — it is (arguably) unclear whether the single male pronoun refers to a romantic interest of Taylor’s own (or of her fellow new romantics).

Don’t Blame Me — Taylor’s primary romantic interest is the gender non-specific ‘you,’ however note: ‘I’ve been breakin' hearts a long time, and/toyin’ with them older guys.’

Gorgeous — constructs an opposition between ‘he’/ ‘a boyfriend’ and the gender non-specific ‘you,’ who is the true romantic interest.

Getaway Car —constructs an opposition between ‘he’ and the gender non-specific ‘you,’ who is the true romantic interest.

Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince – it is not only arguable that the ‘heartbreak prince’ is independently a gender-neutral epithet (as claimed by Halsey) but also that “me” and “the heartbreak prince” is the proper syntactic pair (“it’s you and me…Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince”)

Songs with “female” (pro)nouns:

 A Place in This World — ‘girl’ is self-referential. The song’s subject is not romantic in nature.

Should've Said No — ‘her’ refers to the third party in Taylor’s relationship with a romantic interest whose gender is non-specific (you).

Mary's Song (Oh My My My)

Invisible — ‘she’ refers to Taylor’s rival for the affection of a romantic interest whose gender in non-specific (you).

The Other Side of the Door — ‘she’ refers to the third party in Taylor’s relationship with a romantic interest whose gender is non-specific (you).

White Horse — ‘she’ refers to the third party in Taylor’s relationship with a romantic interest whose gender is non-specific (you).

You Belong with Me — ‘she’ refers to the third party in Taylor’s relationship with a romantic interest whose gender is non-specific (you).

Mine — uses reversed perspective; ‘she’ is self-referential. Taylor’s romantic interest is gender non-specific (you).

How You Get the Girl — ‘her’ may refer either to Taylor herself or to her romantic interest.

This is what you came for

Babe — ‘her’ refers to the third party in Taylor’s relationship w/ a romantic interest whose gender is non-specific (you).

End Game — ‘girl’ occurs only in the featured parts. Taylor’s own romantic interest is gender non-specific (you).

The Man – “what’s it like to brag about…getting bitches and models.”  

ME! – “baby girl when it comes to a lover.” Note that “you’re the kind of guy the ladies want” is implicitly contrasted with “and there’s a lot of cool chicks out there” which is the “one of these things” that “is not like the others, like a rainbow with all of the colours.” Taylor has further stated that ME! Is her first song about “baby chickens.”

The Last Great American Dynasty — “she” refers to Rebekah Harkness, the biographical subject.  

Mad Woman — “she” is the wife of the subject “you,” rather than a romantic interest of the persona “I”.

Betty — uses reversed perspective, although the argument can also be made that actually “James” is a girl/Taylor herself.

Songs with gender-neutral pronouns:

Picture to Burn

Cold as You

The Outside

A Perfectly Good Heart

Jump Then Fall

Untouchable

Come in with the Rain

Superstar

Fearless

Breathe

Tell Me Why

You're Not Sorry

The Best Day — the lyrics are not romantic.

Change — the lyrics are not romantic.

Beautiful Eyes

I heart?

Sparks Fly

Back to December

Mean — the lyrics are not romantic.

The Story of Us

Never Grow Up — the lyrics are not romantic.

Enchanted

Innocent

Last Kiss

Long Live

Ours

If This Was a Movie

Crazier

Christmases When You Were Mine

Christmas Must Be Something More

State of Grace

Treacherous

All Too Well

22

I Almost Do

We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Stay Stay Stay

The Last Time

Holy Ground

Sad Beautiful Tragic

The Lucky One

Everything Has Changed

Come Back... Be Here

Welcome to New York – note, however: “you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls.”

Out of the Woods

All You Had to Do Was Stay

I Wish You Would

Bad Blood

This Love

I Know Places

Clean

Wonderland

Look What You Made Me Do

So It Goes

Delicate

Dancing with Our Hands Tied

Dress

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things — the lyrics are not romantic.

New Year’s Day

I Forgot That You Existed

The Archer

Cornelia Street

Death by a Thousand Cuts

Soon You’ll Get Better – the lyrics are not romantic

False God

You Need to Calm Down – (i.) the lyrics are not romantic and (ii.) both “my gown” and “his gown” are subsumed by “our gowns.”

Afterglow

It’s Nice to Have a Friend

Daylight

Christmas Tree Farm

Only the Young – the lyrics are not romantic.

The 1

Cardigan

Exile  — in lyrical terms, the love interest is gender neutral (“you”); the pronoun “he” describes this “you’s” new lover.

My Tears Ricochet

Mirrorball

Seven — the pronouns are gender neutral (“you”) but the love interest is, arguably, female coded. Thus “your braids like a pattern” and “pack your dolls and a sweater.”

August

This is me trying

Illicit Affairs —  the love interest’s pronouns are gender neutral (“you”). However, they are arguably female coded. Thus, “leave the perfume on the shelf that you picked out just for him.”

Invisible String — the love interest’s pronouns are gender neutral (“you”). Note, however, “for the boys who broke my heart.”

Epiphany — the lyrics are not romantic

Peace

Hoax

The Lakes

nonono she said “I LOVE YOU KARLIE” on her bday then she said “can’t wait for a lifetime of adventures together” and now we have “I’m never gonna love again” and “ forever is the sweetest con” im just going through it today, sorry maddy

happy first anniversary of exile being released as a single for karlie's birthday. i could go into the whole "you're the west village" -> "you were my town" .. "we rule the kingdom inside my room" -> "you were my crown" ... "stay here honey i don't wanna share" -> "i can see you staring honey, with his arms around your body" .. "cruelty wins in the movies" -> "i think i've seen this film before and i didn't like the ending" ... "salute to me like the american dream/i'm your american queen" -> "you're not my homeland anymore" .. "fighting with a true love is boxing with no gloves" -> " i can see you staring like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me/those eyes add insult to injury" ... "we were crazy to think that this could work" -> "we always walked a very thin line" .. "remember how i said i'd die for you/i'd marry you with paper rings/you know for me it's always you/i stay when it's hard or it's wrong or we're making mistakes/at every table i'll save you a seat/baby all at once this is enough" -> "i gave so many signs/you didn't even see the signs" thing but it might b too much for a tuesday morning 😑🚬

How Taylor herself told us about Kaylor?

In the folklore: the long pond studio sessions, before singing the lakes, Taylor said “we’d gone to the lake district in England, a couple of years ago” without explaining the “we” word.

The interview was taken in 2020, so “a couple of years ago” means:

Taylor and the person, in my opinion, her lover, went to the Lake District in 2017 or 2018. 

While the lyrics of invisible string says

bold was the waitress on our three-year trip getting lunch down by the Lakes she said I looked like an American singer

Czytaj dalej

sometimes the universe

...just says it shall be...

i mean seriously... can you believe this pic of karlie existed back in... august 2012?? with a gold heart covering over the other side of her face??? like...?!?! between this and the sweet escape coincidence unearthed by @daydreamlibertine i am truly beside myself

thanks to @blogbeautiffulthings for this truly hidden gem!! i can’t believe i’ve never seen it.

here’s more from the photoshoot that it is from:

karlie seems to be wearing her jennifer meyer initial necklace in this shoot as well.

really i’m just enamored by karlie showing off some very rare left-side eye 😂 and also like, it’s at such a particularly good angle...

...so naturally 🙈 i took the liberty of flipping it, zapping the saturation, and overlapping:

what a fit!

also it kind of reminded me of something

a taymoji of taylor in a hoodie, oddly misplaced within the I Did Something Bad pack

hark...!

is that a crack of the knuckles over a keyboard that i do hear? why yes concerned reader, i am aware this hoodie references a particular preexisting look of taylor’s. no, concerned reader, i am not aiming to say that this taymoji is meant to reference this one time back in 2012 when karlie modeled a black hoodie. after all this is a taymoji quite squarely of the:

BLIND FOR LOVE

gucci look from the lwymmd video.

that’s right.

blind 👁

for love 💛

♪♬♩♫♪♬♩♫

*postscript*

also like, in rewatching the behind the scenes for this scene why does taylor go out of her way to make a scene out of one of the guys that has a hole cut out of his tie?

🤨hmm?? 🤨🤨🤨 hmmmmm???