My Tears Ricochet Theory

taylor: i am obviously very heterosexual 🙄

also taylor: remember when we hung out in closets and then you left me inside the closet, back when you were mine, and then said you’d come back for me after you grew up? are you still a natural scene-stealer? can you still read my mind, twin? things were always so easy for you and i’m jealous and think about you and our oceans of promises every time we cross jet plane paths. i waited through a bunch of useless, masquerading men for you to come back

also taylor: once you touch up your makeup i’m going to flip you around and fuck you inside this closet and then leave you there like a house party and torpedo your life the cars you’re really bad at driving

also taylor: bisexual lover of mine from a decade ago, do you remember when i switched out all my partners over the last decade and it still wasn’t enough to keep us together and i still wonder if we would’ve worked out and how it would’ve been if we were brave? i changed myself a million times hoping you’d come back and i guess i am trapped in this scarlet maroon hell i built with my former roommate.

Tbh SR, I think differently than most of your anons/followers. I think that Karlie is already fully done with Jerk or at least by February not March, she is fully done and let me tell you why.

Taylor in Bejeweled MV has a clock that says “exiles ends, 2, 3”. This is clearly their exile. Them finally being seen together in public. Or at least clearing feud rumors.

I think that in Jan Taylor will be either dropping the LH mv, doing something unrelated OR keeping quiet as she is now. Then by February we might see a bit of her, then March as we all guessed is the actual sunrise.

But it won’t be a contract ending, instead a Kaylor reunion. First of all, it’s their anniversary month. Second thing is in the video it says “EXILE ends” that doesn’t sound to me like a contract ending, but their exile ending as in them finally being able to be seen together.

Cause after that scene Taylor takes her cloak off and is walking a runway THEN she meets Dita while wearing a 1989 outfit???? That gives reunion vibes to me.

In my opinion, a Kaylor reunion on tour is the best and most subtle thing they could manage. It’s gonna be the perfect opportunity. It doesn’t have to have any explanation, just one of Taylor’s friends attending one of her shows. Simple. They also pulled it off around 2018. Imo, they will try to do it again. They would kill all the rumors by just one move. Also it’s easier for them cause they won’t be interacting in front of anyone, but just seeing Karlie in the crowd and having Taylor take a photo with her backstage is MORE than enough to give everybody the middle finger.

As Karlie said, Jerk is her last client and her last stunt looks like a last push to the “they tried to work on it” but failed. I think she either will announce the divorce around February or after March, and if I’m right, after her reunion with Taylor on tour.

Also Taylor has been alluding a lot to the “six years” thing since Midnights dropped. First in her LH video she mentioned “six years of weird rumors”. Six years of Kaylor feud weird rumors right?

Then in Glitch “our love blackout”. This all looks like Taylor is definitely reuniting with Karlie to some degree.

I hope I’m right, but I also might be wrong.

I love your analyzes and your blog. think is a bit offensive the way you demand support for Taylor when she uses queerbaiting as mkt tool only to deny it 15 days later when the money from attention, GP, pink money and general swifties was made. Now she wants the country radio so james is straight. Taylor is a unique case of closeted because she wants to be in and out to profit from both sides. Taylor plans to be cruel and has nothing to with her coming out. I NOW country radio didn't ask for it

I understand that you are frustrated and you have every right to your feelings (yes, even to your offence). I would point out, however, that:

I do not “demand” anything. It is absolutely your prerogative to withhold your “support” financially (you do not have to purchase her music or her merchandise) or as a “fan” (you do not have to participate in her fandom online or at all). I would only ask that if you choose to stay, you consider that “coming out” is contingent not only on an individual’s personal safety and security, but often also on their psychological readiness. This is not only for Taylor’s benefit, but also for the benefit of anyone who is closeted. The only person anyone owes it to to come out is themselves - at their own convenience and only if they believe it to be in their best interest. No one is obliged to come out - ever. We should not be expected to make exceptions of ourselves in order either to correct the ignorance of a society that presumes straight is default or to satisfy other people’s curiosity.

There is an inherent contradiction in your claim that Taylor is both “queerbaiting” and “closeted.” If she is part of the LGBTQ+ community, she is unable to “queerbait” by definition. I will concede the possibility that I am wrong - perhaps she is not “closeted”- but considering that she has never confirmed her sexuality publicly, it is important (again also for the benefit of anyone who actually is in the closet) not to assume in the absence of any clear indiction to the contrary that she is therefore straight. Besides reinforcing the notion that queerness is necessarily performative - in order to be queer you must first announce that you are - as if the closet itself and the process of coming out aren’t first and foremost inventions of the cishetero-patriarchy and we couldn’t exist authentically without them (is Queen Latifah who has a wife and child somehow less queer because she hasn’t stated that she is?), the logical extension of your argument otherwise is that only people who are publicly out ought be allowed to identify themselves with queer culture. This would effectively be to exclude LGBTQ+ people from their own community. It is also antithetical to the stated aims of that community - the acronym LGBTQ+ has historically included anyone in the closet who wises to align themselves with the community without also outing themselves under the umbrella “ally.” As such, it is wrong to assume that all publicly identified allies are straight (or cis).

Whether or not country radio asked for it (and you don’t know for a fact) is almost irrelevant. It is still conservative and it still operates according to certain conventions that apply even without them being consciously articulated. As someone who started their career in country music, I can only assume that Taylor is well aware of these codes of conduct whether they are tacit or not (and, even if times are changing, it is not a stretch to imagine that her previous experiences of homophobia in that industry will have shaped her expectations of it in the present.)  

What she said in no way detracts from our ability to read the song as queer. That she wrote it from the perspective of a seventeen year old boy does not alter the fact that, when the song is performed, it is performed by Taylor, who is a woman singing about/to another woman. This is what most people’s first impressions will be and that by itself is significant. She also immediately followed up her explanation by stating that the protagonists (James, Inez and Betty) were named after her “friends’ kids.” As the lyrics themselves are, therefore, ambiguously gendered - if the actual James is (as far as anyone knows) not a boy, then fictional James isn’t automatically a boy either - I object to the claim that James is necessarily “straight” in consequence. 

Finally, I am not saying that you cannot be critical. But, if you have to fault Taylor for something in this case, let it be her failure consistently to acknowledge that her actions (negatively) affect her LGBTQ+ fans as well as herself. She is allowed to panic or to react instinctively and impulsively to something she has been conditioned to regard as a threat. However, it is imperative that her own internalised homophobia (?) should not be a pretext for homophobic attacks by her fans. 

🔈SOUND ON🔈

As you probably already know, Jack Antonoff and Taylor Swift have worked on many of her albums together and are pretty close friends. So, did Jack accidentally slip one of Taylor’s secrets during this interview with Marc Maron? I’ll let you decide! Here’s the transcript:

Jack: “There’s a better chance that if I’m working with a woman we’re going to get along. They’re not going to say like, “this dude f*cking gave it to me last night” or like “I just piled through like these 4 guys over the weekend””

Interviewer: “Hahaha. You’re not going to have that conversation with Taylor Swift?”

Jack “No”

Interviewer “Hahah, okay”

Jack: “I like women. And particularly gay women.

Interviewer “Heh. Yeah. (Pause) Is she gay??”

Jack (Fumbling) No...but, but I work a lot with Sar-Tegan and Sara and they’re gay.”

Interviewer “(Joking tone) Are you sure we don’t have a breaking story here? Did you just tip it? (Normal tone) well, that’s nice”.

🖐🏻

raise your hand if folklore has been an escape, a cosy refuge, and a lifeline for you in your darkest hours

Her latest album, folklore, is a refreshing departure from all that. It’s a newish sound for her, but the narrative style she uses on some of the album’s best tracks feels at once familiar and novel. It’s a callback to some of her earliest work. It’s “Enchanted” off Speak Now with its neutral pronouns and lyrics about being kept awake until 2 a.m. plagued by the “lingering question … ‘who do you love?’” It’s “Breathe” all over again. It all set the stage for “betty,” a song about a love triangle which, depending on how you listen to it, could be about three women and absolutely zero men. To arrive at that interpretation, you need to know that, like much of Swift’s best songwriting, it’s all coded: Swift is named for James Taylor and all three of the names used in the song — James, Inez, Betty — are the names of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’s three daughters. James is a woman and Betty, the classmate she pines for the entire song, is too. When James skateboards past Betty’s house, she can’t breathe.

It still works even if you don’t subscribe to the theory that James is a woman. In that read, Swift’s still singing as James. She’s donning a male persona, embodying him in a sort of musical drag. It takes Lover’s “The Man” from hypothetical to very literal. William Bowery, a songwriter nobody has ever heard of, has a credit on the track. There’s some speculation that this is Swift herself, once again using a male pen name. (She’s previously written as Nils Sjoberg when she didn’t want anyone to know it was her.) 

It’s a heteronormative interpretation of the song’s love story, but one that doesn’t make the song any less queer. (Plus, if you listen to “betty” as a trio with “cardigan” and “august,” you’ll still find the supposed love triangle arc has no male pronouns.) Consider it a more fluid version of what Swift did with “Love Story,” a song that on its surface sounds like it’s about a straight couple, but if you listen more closely, if you want to hear it differently, a queer narrative reveals itself. A story about a father who won’t let Juliet be with the person she loves. A male name — Romeo, James — used as a cover story. In “Love Story,” Swift sings and writes as Juliet. What she does with “betty” is a savvy move that frees her up to weave plot from a whole new perspective and give her queer fans what they’ve been thirsting for, all at the same time. Conspiracy theories about Swift still abound. The whole album is in lowercase save for Bon Iver’s name. His initials spell … you know. William Bowery is an anagram for “wow I’m really bi.” And in a real back-breaking reach, some stans say if you listen to “Mad Woman” around the 1:15 mark you can hear the phrase “Taylor Kloss come out” hidden inside the lyrics. (The actual words are “till her claws come out.”)

Link

i’m sure someone can provide a better quality screenshot, but i’m pretty sure she’s holding a spade card at 6:51 👀

on october 11th 2016 taylor went to the waverly inn for dinner with a few friends and (correct me if i’m wrong) that’s when we have determined that the All Part Of The Fucking Story tablecloth happened on account of the bodyguard from that night being snapped with a big folded white piece of paper in hand

and um so, i was looking up about the inn and get a load of the name of a nearby establishment:

St Tropez West Village....??

@taylorswift show us how you’ll be listening to the 10 minute version of “All Too Well”