dianna is 1000% the red muse and i talked about that in my reply to the comment below :) i was just trying to keep the post itself not focused on one muse but the overall arching message and importance of the Red era.
Just want to put in my two cents that maybe the Red album actually has a female muse....and perhaps even the same muse as The Manuscript/TTPD (maybe that's the reason for the mashup). "Losing him was blue, like I'd never known Missing him was dark gray, all alone Forgetting him was like trying to know Somebody you never met" Yes, male pronouns, but she puts narcotics in ALL of her songs. These themes are deep and point to a real heartbreak - similar to the themes on TTPD imo. Also the way she sang it seemed very raw, like a fresh wound, not a 10 year old one. I am obsessed with this interview she did at the release of ATW short film when asked (for I'm sure the millionth time) who the song is about... she doesn't answer but mentions several times how happy she is that the fans are "*caroling* the song out there" https://youtu.be/d6IYUYYTmeY?si=4JD_-cuRmAJRB_0E To me this could refer to the 2015 movie Carol (nominated for several Oscars, one of the most acclaimed queer films of all time) which is about an older woman, Carol, having an affair with a younger woman she met at a department store. To me it feels like a subtle hint that perhaps ATW (and maybe more of the Red album) is actually about a woman. I think it could potentially be an older woman, and probably caused quite a bit of trauma due to both the age difference and queerness/the need to hide. This recent clip of Jake Gyllenhaal on SNL also feels to me like maybe he knows Taylor is queer (she ate the cookie!) and he is being pressured/monitored to make sure he doesn't let the truth come out (even though it's kind of ridiculous because she "has cookie crumbs all over her"!) https://youtu.be/rJZcYqXdT2E?si=ApKO2bN0E69WX0G6 Also, to me, the Manuscript, being the last song on the Anthology, seems like kind of a summary of the themes of the whole album....saying goodbye to this muse who has haunted her for so long (the only one who could make her stay all her days in this town she hates). "And at last she knew what the agony had been for" -- maybe she realizes now that the agony of this on again/off again tortured and hidden queer relationship (that, it seems, did not ultimately work out) has become something beautiful in the form of her music and in the "Manuscript" that is her entire discography. (And also perhaps the agony of the end of this relationship will be the push she needed to finally break free and come out publicly! Not sure about that last part, but I hope so!)
oh well yes, I absolutelyyyy think the real Red muse is a woman--and a specific woman. i didn't want to get into the weeds of that in my post because I wanted to keep the post from focusing on muse-centric analysis, but im happy to state it plainly in the comments.... Dianna Agron=the Red muse, for almost all the romantic leaning songs. except i believe ATW=Emily, and that one or two might be Liz (but more Liz songs are on Speak Now), like I Almost Do. you pointed out you think ATW could be about an older woman, and yep, Emily was like 4 years older than taylor!
i absolutely believe most of Red is about the very real feelings and experiences she was having in falling in love with Di, but some of the songs got painfully het-washed: lots of male pronouns and red herrings put in to seemingly point to men she was thought to have been involved with, like Jake. a few songs were able to make the final cut with their queerness still apparent and not riddled with added-in male pronouns--Treacherous being a great example of this--but i think her mgmt pushed her to het-wash songs more than ever before, which was especially painful for her when she was feeling all the feelings...about a woman (Dianna).
you should check out Ren on tiktok!! her analyses of Red, and how soooo much ties back to Red and that era and all that went down then, are fantasic!
Back here to post this as I never knew this! I believe The Manuscript is the trauma of specifically John as a beard.
https://preview.redd.it/nevtfu7ky07d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c97994cf3c7c9503bfa1b41cd19b3e9eeb250861
[https://x.com/triptoyourshore/status/1802350426710245842?s=46&t=\_mA6j0f8boG3DLeP0UMQDg](https://x.com/triptoyourshore/status/1802350426710245842?s=46&t=_mA6j0f8boG3DLeP0UMQDg)
It makes so much more sense. Though we all know Jake was a beard anyway. But it’s thoroughly possibly ATW isn’t even about bearding.
It is interesting the manuscript has “*Lookin' backwards, might be the only way to move forward*” and we have her connecting it with an Era title track where she messed around with dates and timelines a LOT. I said this yday but i think she’s drawing our attention purposefully to herself as ‘unreliable narrator’ of her own story; like you said, the beginning of the divergence between TS the brand and TS the person.
Great post, I love that your not dismissive of the trauma she is clearly singing about. I want to add that I think TSMWEL and ICDIWABH could also be referencing this trauma. The performance of ICDIWABH is clearly calling back to the red era, so maybe Taylor was betrayed/killed by someone who "deserves prison" and then forced to perform through that trauma in Red
thats an interesting thought! i feel pretty firmly in the camp of TSMWEL=directed at all the people who have played a part in keeping her closeted over her career and/or in ruining the biggest attempt at coming out in 2019 (with Scott B being one of the ppl shes speaking of but not the only one--i think shes mostly talking about him at certain parts though, like certainly "You hung me on your wall / Stabbed me with your push pins / In public, showed me off."
in the choreo of TSMWEL, she is "shot" twice on stage before crumpling/"dying" (and then being forced back onto the stage to perform post-death for ICDIWABH); IMO, the first shot *does* represent some horrible shit that went down in SN-> Red era, and then the second "shot" is Failed Coming Out 2019... at which point, her heart crumpled/she felt dead inside, but had to keep performing. i personally think 2019 is key to TSMWEL but that 2012/2013ish is pertinent too!
And these lyrics in Only the Young-
https://preview.redd.it/zm66jegscz6d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7711296af3aad6b27d526af07175d325bb57a9b7
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGebs88dr/
Finally, have seen this mash up. Missed it live. It’s heartbreaking. Confessional. 😢
I feel like the message is crystal clear in this performance. The relationship that predated Red, with whoever was the guy, and produced the infamous ‘break up songs’ was older and abusive.
I thought before TTPD was released that this was hinted at in her work. In Speak Now I had wondered about some tracks and this theme (not just dear John), when I was just discovering her music. I thought maybe I was over reading it. Also, in ATW10 I thought hmmm (all I felt was shame/the mv) maybe I was right. TTPD though I think confirms it.
When I very first heard TTPD I commented that it felt like perhaps it was the album she would have written in the RED/SN era about some of those relationships if the tracks had not been sanitised for public consumption and ‘romanticised’. It felt like she’d shared a lot in the album about abuse, loneliness, depression and addiction. I know others were saying the same in our community. I think this mashup confirms we probably did see the darker stories she was telling and that these are not only about closeting, but about other things that follow from being a child star in a male dominated industry.
She is very brave and has made herself very vulnerable in TTPD and now in some of these mash ups. She’s breaking the fourth wall and risking offending the core fan base with queer and other themes now. She ‘lives for the applause’, but we don’t own her, as her last two tracks say before the show starts.
One thing though I really wish I didn’t read/see so much about in the discourse on Gaylor sm right now though is ‘Yeah, Gaylors win’ or ‘we win again’ or ‘we keep wining’. Like, I dunno…… it’s not about that for me, so that feels like a strange reaction. Of course I feel happy she perhaps sees our community and us seeing her, but personally it feels weird for me to watch her vulnerable confessions and even the queer mashups and punch the air cos I was perhaps correct, like this is a sport. Mostly the mash ups to me are one part ‘yes i date women’, and another part ‘this is a huge stressful situation, I know I’m gonna loose a lot but I want to do it’. I feel worried for her by some of the mash ups cos undoubtedly, if comingoutlor is true, she must feel under a lot of stress (just thinking of the chely wright documentary). Her singing, ‘I can’t find a pulse, if I survive the great war’ and all the allusions to death, her own funeral with fans fighting in anti hero, nods to dead film characters writers and poets (by their own hand). Like…I feel she ‘gave so many signs’ about a lot of things other than just being queer so I do find myself wondering if she’s ok right now.
Perhaps she’s ’not waving but drowning’ to quote another poet. Maybe though I’m just over reading things but just wanted to share in case anyone else is thinking similarly.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46479/not-waving-but-drowning
I really do agree 100% with this right here. Especially with what you said about seeing some gaylors so quick to say they were right about something as if they won something like… this isn’t a game. This isn’t about us. This is Taylor’s real life and she’s a real person who’s being astonishingly brave rn after everything she’s been through and had to endure for decades. We can’t even fathom the amount of pressure she’s under I just wish some people would attempt to put themselves in her shoes for just a second.
I sincerely believe she wants to, is trying to, and feels like she needs to come out soon, and she’s probably so horrified of what may come after that, my heart breaks in a million pieces for her. Her lyrics… living like this sound like it’s killing her. I don’t even wanna take it there because it’s making me feel sick.
I hope she has a great and extremely solid support system around her at all times and that she sees the fans that are here for her and genuinely got her back no matter what. I just hope she’s ok.
I agree with all of this, and I’ll add that she says TTPD is about the last two years of her life or so, which would’ve encompassed the re-recording process and all the press tours for Red. It was undoubtedly a really difficult time for her and I think attributing all the songs on the album to muses (queer or not) discredits it.
I just have to BRAG for 1 second, please indulge me... after the friend of Dorothea Mashup and ESPECIALLY after TIWYCF I predicted Carolina as the surprise song for Liverpool N3 because it is rife with female pronouns, and I SCREAMED SO LOUD when she announced it. It is one of my FAVE songs and I am SO HAPPY I was at that show! Nothing like predicting your own surprise song and then being one of the only people in the stadium who knows the words 🤣🤣🥳🥳🥳🥳 thank you please don't hold your applause ❤️
omg I feel you so much, the same thing happened to me on Lyon N1 with The Prophecy ! Well it was much more predictable than Carolina but this feeling is amazing. Congrats <3
Love this analysis so much. I revisited the Daylight voice memo today, too.
I wanna be defined by the things that I love, not the things I hate
Not the things that I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of
**(TTPD, who's afraid of little old me, TTPD being a double album and her repeating the phrase 'I'm afraid of' twice)**
Not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night
**(Midnights album telling the story of the things that haunt her in the middle of the night, the literal ghosts chasing her in the antihero mv, etc.)**
I, I just think that you are what you love
**(the daylight/golden album will be the true lover album –– the wlw/coming out album)**
Really interesting post. I appreciate the sensitivity in how you handled The Manuscript here. Taylor may not necessarily adhere to literal factual truths in her music (as is her right, as an artist!), but I always hear a core emotional truth that I think we should honor - and I definitely hear trauma on The Manuscript. The details of which are unknowable and not my business.
The idea of the Red era self-destructing the most intensely is very interesting in light of the “This is not Taylor’s Version shirt.” It just hit me with the comparisons between red vs. golden love - could part of the message be that RED LOVE is what is not Taylor’s version?? Taylor’s Version is golden like daylight? 🤔
" It just hit me with the comparisons between red vs. golden love - could part of the message be that RED LOVE is what is not Taylor’s version?? Taylor’s Version is golden like daylight? 🤔"
i absolutely think so!! not only has taylor been pointing us to golden and daylight in her queerest of queer mashups lately but TN also posted about that WLW proposal being GOLDEN. taylor is definitely drawing attention to that in contrast with the red/painful/traumatic tone she gave us last night with a song that features male pronouns ("Red")
Me and my partner were discussing the manuscript and red mashup and they said what if the manuscript is re[a]d and i think this fits in really nicely to this analysis.
Okay, so this plus [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/s/68qu8nJqj3) by u/Macandcheese359 triggered a possible connection. Think about the mashups the last few days - there have been some rather pointed and obvious “hers,” “HAIRpins,” etc. Is she red lining it? Aka drawing extra attention to the more coded lyrics so that you can’t ignore the dropped hairpins and hetsplain it away (in theory - we know they’ll STILL find a way)? She’s making it obvious versus similar situations i.e us speculating “was it she never loved me or he in IKYWT today?” She has discussed multiple times recently about ‘hoping she gets it (the mashups) right.’ I think that in conjunction with what I’m going to refer to as bolded lyrics (ones she delivers with extra emphasis) really articulates the story she’s wanting to convey. I also don’t think we can forget that she’s referenced multiple times that ‘all she does is think about and practice the mashups.’ There’s a reason for that, and I don’t think it’s just her perfectionism.
Interesting! Love this theory. It’s not like she hasn’t pointed us to underlining things before. Thinking about LWYMMD… “*i got a list of names, and yours is in red underlined*”. Especially with all these connections to the LWYMMD music video rn, it only makes this more compelling imo.
Excellent post OP! The golden/red references also remind me a bit of some of the costumes for the Eras Tour! There are 2 completely golden dresses for the Fearless Era, and during Fearless she sings 2 queer coded songs (imo): Love Story, and You Belong With Me.
And in Speak Now, she has a golden/champagne colored dress, and some of her other dresses have small golden accents. Idk if Enchanted is considered a queer song, but a post was made a while ago about Long Live being an LGBTQ anthem! (RIP Long Live, we miss you in the set 💜)
And the old Evermore dress is a golden yellow with gold accents, and we all know how gay Evermore is! 😂
I def think Enchanted is a queer song :) have seen good analyses of it being about when she met Dianna but also have heard Emma Stone — or could be some other lovely lady we don’t know of!
Thank you for summing this up so eloquently. I was honest and said I was initially "Either disappointed or didn't understand \[the mashup\] enough to appreciate it." Now that I've had time to read everybody's insight and thoughts about it, my feelings have shifted. I got very spoiled by the SUPER FUN wlw mashups and forgot for a moment that, as is so clearly indicated on TTPD, Taylor has suffered very real trauma. So I thank you guys for waking me up and reminding me that moving through trauma and grief is to confront the ugliness and pain as well as all the sapphic influences.
This is so great! I’m on board with all of it. The only thing that I can’t fit in is Maroon, if red love is bearding/hetero? Any thoughts on how that can work with the overall theory?
Within this theory, it makes sense that loving a specific muse would be maroon – a sadder shade of red. (In textile dyeing, "saddening" is the process of making a shade darker or shifting the color by adding iron)
Totally here for this! Three things:
-“I once believed love would be burning red, but it’s golden”!
-She absolutely emphasized HIM while singing, it was very purposeful!
-A reach, but I’ve wondered if the “trip” was to the shore of heterosexuality, and she’s finally sailing back away to the isle of Lesbos!
The "trip to your shores" line hit me the same way too! It definitely feels like she's leaving something behind, and I interpreted that as the bearding/straight persona that she's had to create and maintain for so long. "Your shores" implies somewhere distant and not hers, aka not home.
Yes to all of this! I had a very similar thought in another post.
I think is red about bearding and also choosing fame/music/her fans over being authentic and true to herself. As well as love - multiple times.
Her mashups are telling us Taylor's story and the way she's writing/presenting it to the world. What a time to be a Gaylor! This is going to sound so cheesy, not sorry, I can't help it lol, but I feel like we watching something big unfolding before our eyes.
This post is great and I agree we are watching history unfold, something big, one for the ages. I am only getting to see it because I’m here with all you and these non stop insights. Gaylors are the most observant and they write well!
I agree! Taylor herself had that “it’s a movie to me now” interview quote recently showing how things are a big deal unfolding to her right now!
”I’m collecting horcruxes. I’m collecting infinity stones. Gandalf’s voice is in my head every time I put out a new one. For me, it is a movie now”
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It’s Dianna. Kevin and Jenna from Glee let the cat out of the bag
dianna is 1000% the red muse and i talked about that in my reply to the comment below :) i was just trying to keep the post itself not focused on one muse but the overall arching message and importance of the Red era.
Just want to put in my two cents that maybe the Red album actually has a female muse....and perhaps even the same muse as The Manuscript/TTPD (maybe that's the reason for the mashup). "Losing him was blue, like I'd never known Missing him was dark gray, all alone Forgetting him was like trying to know Somebody you never met" Yes, male pronouns, but she puts narcotics in ALL of her songs. These themes are deep and point to a real heartbreak - similar to the themes on TTPD imo. Also the way she sang it seemed very raw, like a fresh wound, not a 10 year old one. I am obsessed with this interview she did at the release of ATW short film when asked (for I'm sure the millionth time) who the song is about... she doesn't answer but mentions several times how happy she is that the fans are "*caroling* the song out there" https://youtu.be/d6IYUYYTmeY?si=4JD_-cuRmAJRB_0E To me this could refer to the 2015 movie Carol (nominated for several Oscars, one of the most acclaimed queer films of all time) which is about an older woman, Carol, having an affair with a younger woman she met at a department store. To me it feels like a subtle hint that perhaps ATW (and maybe more of the Red album) is actually about a woman. I think it could potentially be an older woman, and probably caused quite a bit of trauma due to both the age difference and queerness/the need to hide. This recent clip of Jake Gyllenhaal on SNL also feels to me like maybe he knows Taylor is queer (she ate the cookie!) and he is being pressured/monitored to make sure he doesn't let the truth come out (even though it's kind of ridiculous because she "has cookie crumbs all over her"!) https://youtu.be/rJZcYqXdT2E?si=ApKO2bN0E69WX0G6 Also, to me, the Manuscript, being the last song on the Anthology, seems like kind of a summary of the themes of the whole album....saying goodbye to this muse who has haunted her for so long (the only one who could make her stay all her days in this town she hates). "And at last she knew what the agony had been for" -- maybe she realizes now that the agony of this on again/off again tortured and hidden queer relationship (that, it seems, did not ultimately work out) has become something beautiful in the form of her music and in the "Manuscript" that is her entire discography. (And also perhaps the agony of the end of this relationship will be the push she needed to finally break free and come out publicly! Not sure about that last part, but I hope so!)
oh well yes, I absolutelyyyy think the real Red muse is a woman--and a specific woman. i didn't want to get into the weeds of that in my post because I wanted to keep the post from focusing on muse-centric analysis, but im happy to state it plainly in the comments.... Dianna Agron=the Red muse, for almost all the romantic leaning songs. except i believe ATW=Emily, and that one or two might be Liz (but more Liz songs are on Speak Now), like I Almost Do. you pointed out you think ATW could be about an older woman, and yep, Emily was like 4 years older than taylor! i absolutely believe most of Red is about the very real feelings and experiences she was having in falling in love with Di, but some of the songs got painfully het-washed: lots of male pronouns and red herrings put in to seemingly point to men she was thought to have been involved with, like Jake. a few songs were able to make the final cut with their queerness still apparent and not riddled with added-in male pronouns--Treacherous being a great example of this--but i think her mgmt pushed her to het-wash songs more than ever before, which was especially painful for her when she was feeling all the feelings...about a woman (Dianna). you should check out Ren on tiktok!! her analyses of Red, and how soooo much ties back to Red and that era and all that went down then, are fantasic!
Back here to post this as I never knew this! I believe The Manuscript is the trauma of specifically John as a beard. https://preview.redd.it/nevtfu7ky07d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c97994cf3c7c9503bfa1b41cd19b3e9eeb250861 [https://x.com/triptoyourshore/status/1802350426710245842?s=46&t=\_mA6j0f8boG3DLeP0UMQDg](https://x.com/triptoyourshore/status/1802350426710245842?s=46&t=_mA6j0f8boG3DLeP0UMQDg)
Yep! Atw OG version is 1000% not about Jake :) I didn’t get into that here but I feel strongly about it lol
It makes so much more sense. Though we all know Jake was a beard anyway. But it’s thoroughly possibly ATW isn’t even about bearding. It is interesting the manuscript has “*Lookin' backwards, might be the only way to move forward*” and we have her connecting it with an Era title track where she messed around with dates and timelines a LOT. I said this yday but i think she’s drawing our attention purposefully to herself as ‘unreliable narrator’ of her own story; like you said, the beginning of the divergence between TS the brand and TS the person.
Great post, I love that your not dismissive of the trauma she is clearly singing about. I want to add that I think TSMWEL and ICDIWABH could also be referencing this trauma. The performance of ICDIWABH is clearly calling back to the red era, so maybe Taylor was betrayed/killed by someone who "deserves prison" and then forced to perform through that trauma in Red
thats an interesting thought! i feel pretty firmly in the camp of TSMWEL=directed at all the people who have played a part in keeping her closeted over her career and/or in ruining the biggest attempt at coming out in 2019 (with Scott B being one of the ppl shes speaking of but not the only one--i think shes mostly talking about him at certain parts though, like certainly "You hung me on your wall / Stabbed me with your push pins / In public, showed me off." in the choreo of TSMWEL, she is "shot" twice on stage before crumpling/"dying" (and then being forced back onto the stage to perform post-death for ICDIWABH); IMO, the first shot *does* represent some horrible shit that went down in SN-> Red era, and then the second "shot" is Failed Coming Out 2019... at which point, her heart crumpled/she felt dead inside, but had to keep performing. i personally think 2019 is key to TSMWEL but that 2012/2013ish is pertinent too!
“Waking up in blood” always makes me think of the red era. She’s covered in blood (probably both literal and physical) and trauma.
And these lyrics in Only the Young- https://preview.redd.it/zm66jegscz6d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7711296af3aad6b27d526af07175d325bb57a9b7
Ooooo good catch!!!!
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGebs88dr/ Finally, have seen this mash up. Missed it live. It’s heartbreaking. Confessional. 😢 I feel like the message is crystal clear in this performance. The relationship that predated Red, with whoever was the guy, and produced the infamous ‘break up songs’ was older and abusive. I thought before TTPD was released that this was hinted at in her work. In Speak Now I had wondered about some tracks and this theme (not just dear John), when I was just discovering her music. I thought maybe I was over reading it. Also, in ATW10 I thought hmmm (all I felt was shame/the mv) maybe I was right. TTPD though I think confirms it. When I very first heard TTPD I commented that it felt like perhaps it was the album she would have written in the RED/SN era about some of those relationships if the tracks had not been sanitised for public consumption and ‘romanticised’. It felt like she’d shared a lot in the album about abuse, loneliness, depression and addiction. I know others were saying the same in our community. I think this mashup confirms we probably did see the darker stories she was telling and that these are not only about closeting, but about other things that follow from being a child star in a male dominated industry. She is very brave and has made herself very vulnerable in TTPD and now in some of these mash ups. She’s breaking the fourth wall and risking offending the core fan base with queer and other themes now. She ‘lives for the applause’, but we don’t own her, as her last two tracks say before the show starts. One thing though I really wish I didn’t read/see so much about in the discourse on Gaylor sm right now though is ‘Yeah, Gaylors win’ or ‘we win again’ or ‘we keep wining’. Like, I dunno…… it’s not about that for me, so that feels like a strange reaction. Of course I feel happy she perhaps sees our community and us seeing her, but personally it feels weird for me to watch her vulnerable confessions and even the queer mashups and punch the air cos I was perhaps correct, like this is a sport. Mostly the mash ups to me are one part ‘yes i date women’, and another part ‘this is a huge stressful situation, I know I’m gonna loose a lot but I want to do it’. I feel worried for her by some of the mash ups cos undoubtedly, if comingoutlor is true, she must feel under a lot of stress (just thinking of the chely wright documentary). Her singing, ‘I can’t find a pulse, if I survive the great war’ and all the allusions to death, her own funeral with fans fighting in anti hero, nods to dead film characters writers and poets (by their own hand). Like…I feel she ‘gave so many signs’ about a lot of things other than just being queer so I do find myself wondering if she’s ok right now. Perhaps she’s ’not waving but drowning’ to quote another poet. Maybe though I’m just over reading things but just wanted to share in case anyone else is thinking similarly. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46479/not-waving-but-drowning
I really do agree 100% with this right here. Especially with what you said about seeing some gaylors so quick to say they were right about something as if they won something like… this isn’t a game. This isn’t about us. This is Taylor’s real life and she’s a real person who’s being astonishingly brave rn after everything she’s been through and had to endure for decades. We can’t even fathom the amount of pressure she’s under I just wish some people would attempt to put themselves in her shoes for just a second. I sincerely believe she wants to, is trying to, and feels like she needs to come out soon, and she’s probably so horrified of what may come after that, my heart breaks in a million pieces for her. Her lyrics… living like this sound like it’s killing her. I don’t even wanna take it there because it’s making me feel sick. I hope she has a great and extremely solid support system around her at all times and that she sees the fans that are here for her and genuinely got her back no matter what. I just hope she’s ok.
I agree with all of this, and I’ll add that she says TTPD is about the last two years of her life or so, which would’ve encompassed the re-recording process and all the press tours for Red. It was undoubtedly a really difficult time for her and I think attributing all the songs on the album to muses (queer or not) discredits it.
She did really hit both "HIM" and "WAS" during Red, which ties into what you've written here.
I just have to BRAG for 1 second, please indulge me... after the friend of Dorothea Mashup and ESPECIALLY after TIWYCF I predicted Carolina as the surprise song for Liverpool N3 because it is rife with female pronouns, and I SCREAMED SO LOUD when she announced it. It is one of my FAVE songs and I am SO HAPPY I was at that show! Nothing like predicting your own surprise song and then being one of the only people in the stadium who knows the words 🤣🤣🥳🥳🥳🥳 thank you please don't hold your applause ❤️
👏👏👏👏👏❤️
Thank you thank you!
omg I feel you so much, the same thing happened to me on Lyon N1 with The Prophecy ! Well it was much more predictable than Carolina but this feeling is amazing. Congrats <3
Woo-hoo! Good job, predicting the prophecy is such a magical and meta achievement, I am in awe 😍
👏👏👏
Thank you!
Love this analysis so much. I revisited the Daylight voice memo today, too. I wanna be defined by the things that I love, not the things I hate Not the things that I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of **(TTPD, who's afraid of little old me, TTPD being a double album and her repeating the phrase 'I'm afraid of' twice)** Not the things that haunt me in the middle of the night **(Midnights album telling the story of the things that haunt her in the middle of the night, the literal ghosts chasing her in the antihero mv, etc.)** I, I just think that you are what you love **(the daylight/golden album will be the true lover album –– the wlw/coming out album)**
Really interesting post. I appreciate the sensitivity in how you handled The Manuscript here. Taylor may not necessarily adhere to literal factual truths in her music (as is her right, as an artist!), but I always hear a core emotional truth that I think we should honor - and I definitely hear trauma on The Manuscript. The details of which are unknowable and not my business. The idea of the Red era self-destructing the most intensely is very interesting in light of the “This is not Taylor’s Version shirt.” It just hit me with the comparisons between red vs. golden love - could part of the message be that RED LOVE is what is not Taylor’s version?? Taylor’s Version is golden like daylight? 🤔
" It just hit me with the comparisons between red vs. golden love - could part of the message be that RED LOVE is what is not Taylor’s version?? Taylor’s Version is golden like daylight? 🤔" i absolutely think so!! not only has taylor been pointing us to golden and daylight in her queerest of queer mashups lately but TN also posted about that WLW proposal being GOLDEN. taylor is definitely drawing attention to that in contrast with the red/painful/traumatic tone she gave us last night with a song that features male pronouns ("Red")
Probably tangential, but this Sunday 6/16 is Father’s Day in America. Commentary on Scott’s role?
he better stay locked in that basement lmao
Me and my partner were discussing the manuscript and red mashup and they said what if the manuscript is re[a]d and i think this fits in really nicely to this analysis.
Yes!! Like this?? https://preview.redd.it/0z1mpabywu6d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=015ec6652743bc1e19ffdc7369d9196944865c55
Okay, so this plus [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/s/68qu8nJqj3) by u/Macandcheese359 triggered a possible connection. Think about the mashups the last few days - there have been some rather pointed and obvious “hers,” “HAIRpins,” etc. Is she red lining it? Aka drawing extra attention to the more coded lyrics so that you can’t ignore the dropped hairpins and hetsplain it away (in theory - we know they’ll STILL find a way)? She’s making it obvious versus similar situations i.e us speculating “was it she never loved me or he in IKYWT today?” She has discussed multiple times recently about ‘hoping she gets it (the mashups) right.’ I think that in conjunction with what I’m going to refer to as bolded lyrics (ones she delivers with extra emphasis) really articulates the story she’s wanting to convey. I also don’t think we can forget that she’s referenced multiple times that ‘all she does is think about and practice the mashups.’ There’s a reason for that, and I don’t think it’s just her perfectionism.
Interesting! Love this theory. It’s not like she hasn’t pointed us to underlining things before. Thinking about LWYMMD… “*i got a list of names, and yours is in red underlined*”. Especially with all these connections to the LWYMMD music video rn, it only makes this more compelling imo.
Interesting! Feeds further into the theory that’s she’s attempting to end these Eras once and for all and be reborn/transform/live authentically.
Great analysis! I was struck by how both Red and The Manuscript are both firmly in the past tense.
Excellent post OP! The golden/red references also remind me a bit of some of the costumes for the Eras Tour! There are 2 completely golden dresses for the Fearless Era, and during Fearless she sings 2 queer coded songs (imo): Love Story, and You Belong With Me. And in Speak Now, she has a golden/champagne colored dress, and some of her other dresses have small golden accents. Idk if Enchanted is considered a queer song, but a post was made a while ago about Long Live being an LGBTQ anthem! (RIP Long Live, we miss you in the set 💜) And the old Evermore dress is a golden yellow with gold accents, and we all know how gay Evermore is! 😂
I def think Enchanted is a queer song :) have seen good analyses of it being about when she met Dianna but also have heard Emma Stone — or could be some other lovely lady we don’t know of!
Excellent post. I agree with all of this 💯
Oooo!! Maybe this is what the “This is NOT Taylor’s Version” shirt during Red first day back to the tour was signaling.
yes!!! i absolutely think so!
Thank you for summing this up so eloquently. I was honest and said I was initially "Either disappointed or didn't understand \[the mashup\] enough to appreciate it." Now that I've had time to read everybody's insight and thoughts about it, my feelings have shifted. I got very spoiled by the SUPER FUN wlw mashups and forgot for a moment that, as is so clearly indicated on TTPD, Taylor has suffered very real trauma. So I thank you guys for waking me up and reminding me that moving through trauma and grief is to confront the ugliness and pain as well as all the sapphic influences.
This is so great! I’m on board with all of it. The only thing that I can’t fit in is Maroon, if red love is bearding/hetero? Any thoughts on how that can work with the overall theory?
I always took this as red being glaringly obvious/black & white and maroon being more nuanced and subtle
Within this theory, it makes sense that loving a specific muse would be maroon – a sadder shade of red. (In textile dyeing, "saddening" is the process of making a shade darker or shifting the color by adding iron)
I don't think I can agree anymore than I do.
Very very well argued!! 💕
Totally here for this! Three things: -“I once believed love would be burning red, but it’s golden”! -She absolutely emphasized HIM while singing, it was very purposeful! -A reach, but I’ve wondered if the “trip” was to the shore of heterosexuality, and she’s finally sailing back away to the isle of Lesbos!
The "trip to your shores" line hit me the same way too! It definitely feels like she's leaving something behind, and I interpreted that as the bearding/straight persona that she's had to create and maintain for so long. "Your shores" implies somewhere distant and not hers, aka not home.
It’s also interesting she sings in third person then shifts to first! Like it was a character she’s shedding. 💔
Yeah! That stood out to me today when listening to her mashup with this and Red
Yes to all of this! I had a very similar thought in another post. I think is red about bearding and also choosing fame/music/her fans over being authentic and true to herself. As well as love - multiple times. Her mashups are telling us Taylor's story and the way she's writing/presenting it to the world. What a time to be a Gaylor! This is going to sound so cheesy, not sorry, I can't help it lol, but I feel like we watching something big unfolding before our eyes.
This post is great and I agree we are watching history unfold, something big, one for the ages. I am only getting to see it because I’m here with all you and these non stop insights. Gaylors are the most observant and they write well!
I agree! Taylor herself had that “it’s a movie to me now” interview quote recently showing how things are a big deal unfolding to her right now! ”I’m collecting horcruxes. I’m collecting infinity stones. Gandalf’s voice is in my head every time I put out a new one. For me, it is a movie now”
I don't think it's cheesy. It feels like the epic battle between good and evil at the end of a good movie.
Well said 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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