I saw your 1989 rewatch post and i was wondering about your comment: the New York story still continues.
I think in this side of swiftie fandom we can agree new york is karlie. However, I have seen so many analysis and lyric parallels of New York symbolism as proof of a kaylor break up.
I believe kaylor is still together, but I am having a tough time with what new york means after folklore and evermore. “I left a part of me back in New York” “she still is 23 inside her fantasy,” all of coney island paint at not so great picture compare to the new york of Lover.
What are your thoughts?
Sorry in advance if this sounds like rambling
She is still in New York regardless of how sad the songs sound. The story is still tied to New York.
I think there is this weird thing we tend to do when Taylor writes a sad song. We automatically assume it’s about a romantic break up and I think that is a product of her old reputation, sadly.
I think Taylor recognizes love is a lot more complex than Romeo and Juliet and it comes with ups and downs. We saw this on Lover. Riding the highs and treading the lows but all the while just hoping to get back to mundanity and normality. I think Taylor realized the lows and the highs make for a more entertaining story so she takes snapshots and zooms in on specific feelings and moments from her past and explores the stories that can come from them with new perspectives.
I also believe Taylor has been singing about her own personal journey and her struggles with anxiety. As well as her choices that led to a specific place or point in time and fighting her own demons while worrying about how someone could love her with her flaws. These concepts were on Lover as well.
Folklore and evermore honestly feel like purgatory to me, if that makes sense. They exist in a pocket dimension where Taylor is wandering around an old abandon town with no choice but to reflect on her past. She is forced to face her demons. She can’t hide from her thoughts. And sooner or later she realizes that the only way out is through and maybe if requires leaving all the baggage behind because you can’t leave the same way you came in.
“You know I left a part of me back in New York” means exactly that: She left part of herself in New York. (She had to leave something behind but she didn’t want to).
Conclusion:
The story is still in New York. Just on the outskirts of town. Coney Island is still in New York. It’s in Brooklyn. She did her photoshoot for the albums in Upstate New York.
She’s still writing the story:
“If the story's over. Why am I still writing pages?” - DBATC
“Pages turn and stick to each other” - RWYLM
I’m sorry again if this was rambly.
loving how karlie casually confirmed that the initials on the pavement in soho were in fact written for her —a rep era kaylor fan theory— in the same breath that she says that her husband carved them in there, when we have literal multiple timestamped photos that show how her initials had a TS next to them years before half the pavement was ripped up and he added the J!and nobody’s batting a fucking eye!!
Me! // Lavender Haze // The Ladder (the first nationally distributed lesbian publication in the United States) // Lavender Haze tour visuals (web weavings)
But wait SR, what if, WHAT IF, KK attends SNL tomorrow because they actually met in the Red era and it’s the 13th! I will literally die, dead 💀 like my soul will leave my body, if she makes an appearance at the show or the after party.
C’Mon Taylor honor your vow and be over dramatic to commemorate the day you met your lover! 🥰 we have full faith in you!!!
Here’s why:
Louis’s infamous “if that” expression of distaste towards Haylor was immediately followed by him saying “I’ve met her before, she’s a lovely girl.”
Not only that, he mentioned how great she is UNPROMPTED at least twice in his interview with Forbes and Telegraph.
They literally partied together.
Taylor’s AT&T NOW commercial ft. Her locked in the closet, her climbing out of the closet through the air vent before arriving in the studio to record music.
Taylor’s AT&T NOW commercial also included her googling the picture she saw on a guy’s shirt.
Louis wearing MJ’s Billie Jean t-shirt in Back To You teaser for everyone to Google the lyrics: Billie Jean is not my lover. She's just a girl who claims that I am the one. But the kid is not my son
In another commercial, Taylor wore rainbow, and rode a unicorn cat. (Hint: What word did Harry use to call a cat and got grounded for being inappropriate?)
There is no subtlety in this household.
Louis’s rainbow Apple t-shirt which led to the Bullshit 2.0 and the dagger tattoo, probably.
Oh yeah, let’s talk about tattoos.
1. Harry, birds don’t have eyebrows. (They kinda do. But it’s a meme at this point.)
2. Louis, Kevin is a pigeon, not a swift bird. HOW COULD YOU?
What a coincidence that Louis randomly picked the name DIANA as promo song for Midnight Memories. Almost like a tribute to Dianna Agron who was once aboard SS Swiftgron with Taylor while Haylor was happening on paper. Or that Harry’s Fine Line theme colors being 🏳️⚧️ a trans flag and STYLE music video from Taylor’s 1989 included a scene of this man looking at himself in the mirror only to see a reflection of a woman.
Or that Louis’s song Fearless seemingly referenced Karlie Kloss as the second wife of Taylor in (colourful) Suit & Tie era, aka Lover. Just for the first Taylor’s Version album to be FEARLESS.
It’s almost like they’re all closeted queers in the same industry or a Copy of A Copy of A Copy or something.
I didn’t know then that the cycle would keep going on and on and they would find something new I wasn’t doing right… and I would keep accommodating, over-correcting to appease my critics…
(the most important words Taylor has ever said, okay)
Did you ever realize how in the Lover video Taylor 'lassoed' her lover like a cowboy would do? And then how Karlie posted on IG 6/25/19 "My Cowboy" (wyoming stunt that had a bunch of rich business people there, not friends), and then the Lover video came out on 9/22/19 so Taylor was nodding to that? How Karlie's a cowboy like her, conning all the rich folks? I swear to god these women! They've got some tricks up their sleeve, takes one to know one! Bandits riding away into the sunset.
😳 Remember on the Wyoming trip when Derek posted that video of Katy singing ‘one of these things is not like the other’ in a country voice and then panning to Karlie on a horse? Then the YNTCD video with Katy and Taylor coming out days prior on June 17th?
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
SHE SHINES ME UP LIKE GOLD ON MY ARM
I LOVE TO SEE HER FACE IN DAYLIGHT
THAT THE LOVE IS REAL
THAT THE SHOE MIGHT FIT
I hope next year treats you kindly, but above all else, I hope you treat you kindly.