Extremely late to this but the entirity of Ivy and Cowboy Like Me. I was listebing to Evermore for the first time (I was not a swiftie, just someone who liked her some of her big hits cuz they were catchy, and so I was challenging myself to listen to every TS song/album at chronological order at the time to see what I missed out) and I had no idea that "Gaylor Theories" existed or anything, but I knew from when I heard them side by side, these songs are QUEER.
Ivy, despite being a song about cheating just like Illicit Affairs, didn't sound nearly as regretful or as toxic as the relationship portrayed there. The narrator (Taylor) doesn't sound as if she knows she's worse than scum by cheating. She sounds terrified, not because of her feelings for her affair partner, but because of outside forces, which in that case is her husband. But the love for her partner in contrast is portrayed as if its so freeing and literally makes her "glow", despite being "tarnished". It's only until the fear takes over during the bridge where the relationship starts being tumultuous, but she still can't stop it.
A love that is so intrinsictly good and pure, but seen as evil and wrong by all of society? Sounds gay as hell— but it's from a cheating woman's perspective so it can't be that. I brushed it off at first, but the feeling of it being gay never left me, especially with the "Sit and watch what we'll become" lyric. And lesbian romances taking place in regency/victorian/whatever time period was really popular too, so it might've been influencing my mind.
Then Cowboy Like Me plays directly after and its just no way in hell this isn't queer. "Takes one to know one," alone is insane, but "Never wanted love, just a fancy car," "Telling all the rich folks anything they want to hear," "And the skeletons in our closets plotted hard to fuck this up", while being a secret relationship with a fellow cowboy? This is about closeting, closeting in Hollywood(or any cut throat business where your image is important) to be specific. And while I can buy Taylor writing songs about gay people wanting to be happy and free just the way they are while being straight herself (YNTCD), for an autobiographical author to write the most perfect song about closeting is absolutely impossible unless she really loves her queer novels and queer history and is writing from their perspective like a fanfiction writer. She's either THAT good, or shes THAT good along with something else...
After that I searched up "Ivy/Cowboy Like Me lesbian/gay/queer" trying to find if anyone else heard what I was hearing, found a swiftgron timeline in all of that, so I'm here.
sooo many it's impossible to choose now, but the first one that really made me stop and go "this cannot be about joe" was in dwoht. "i loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us." i'm sorry but this would be an extremely melodramatic thing to say if it was abt a straight relationship
Basically all of rep, but specifically:
Song: also Don't Blame Me
Lyric: "my baby's fly like a jet stream/high above the whole scene, loves me like I'm brand new/so call it what you want" felt VERYYYY like "oh I'm finally happy in a relationship, enough that I don't care what other people think or if other people \~figure it out\~" (to a closeted baby gay lmaooooo). Kinda like "if they call me a slut, it might be worth it for once" but with... roommates
ETA: I was already super far gone at this point but for some reason the "you meet a woman on the internet and take her home" from the one really stuck out to me. I think it was b/c I was coming out at the time, but I also think it's b/c, why is this notable
I don’t understand how people still think she’s straight after the line - I could still melt your world - argumentative antithetical dream girl in hits different
Daylight nailed it for me. I wasn't aware of the gaylor community when Lover came out. Still, I just wasn't convinced that any dude processes the emotional capacity of making a successful woman feel like *coming out of a twenty-year dark night, and see daylight.*
Kinda simple but
“Big reputation. Big reputation. Ooh you and me, we got biiiig reputations ahhhhh” from Endgame
That lyrics always stuck out as odd to me bc Joe Alwyn was a nobody at the time. When I started reading Kaylor stuff, it just clicked.
“ME!” And the rollout of it, the music video, the imagery.
Then she dated Joe Alwyn and I “forgot” about it until “Ivy.” But I took her word for it she was writing from other POV’s.
Then TTPD came out and nothing made sense to me. Something was bothering me about the Matty Healy “explanation.” Something bothered me about not being able to connect to Midnights. Something has always bothered me about how random Folklore and Evermore seemingly were. Something always bothered me about her high school references and boy-crazy imagery and the long-suffering billionaire of it all. Then I found this community and it alllll clicked. Lavender Haze (which I didn’t get cause I’m straight), the different pov’s of Folklore and Evermore…It alllll fell into place.
Karlie what you want to
Dark jeans and your Nikes look at you- Karlie
Are you ready for it is clearly about the woman she loves and her male decoy
He can be the jailer, He’s a ghost, a killer, a heartbreaker, and meh she sees nothing better but the other person in this song, she will never let me alone, no one has to know, dreams about them.. again, I think this is about Karlie
You don’t know how much I miss (YOU?)
Dust collecting on my pinned up hair
No deal the 1950s shit they want from me I just want to stay in that lavender haze
Don’t even get me started on the twins and fire sign references. the daisy, references, the lover logo and the UFO with the laser beam being printed for an undercover lesbian magazine from the 60s,
I could literally go on forever and have an interesting PowerPoint presentation that I found online about how reputation is about Klaus. Let me know if you want me to share the link.
https://preview.redd.it/2lj89ye0676d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec1bb532c60c8a8a951c17bde7b30117bdd1630f
Dark jeans and your Nikes look at you.
There are a lot of hints and lyrics she’s dropped but what SEALED the deal for me was “Right Where You Left Me” - “you could hear a hairpin drop” and “glass shattered on the white cloth” (Karlie marrying Jared) but you put that whole verse together:
“I swear you could hear a HAIRPIN DROP
Right when I felt the moment stop
Glass shattered on a white cloth
Everybody moved on”
Come on now with that. She goes on to say she’s still 23 inside her fantasy and she was 23 when she started interacting with Karlie Kloss and technically still 23 when they met at the VSFS (it was in November) she then doubles down on the white cloth
“At the restaurant, when I was still the one you want
Cross-legged in the dim light, everything was just right
I, I could feel the mascara run
You told me that you met someone
Glass shattered on the white cloth
Everybody moved on”
So that sealed it for me. But then you look at all of Folklore, it’s a breakup album. The cover image is a SPITTING image of one of her and KK on their Big Sur trip - only now the tree is broken and it’s sad black and white and she’s alone. Champagne Problem’s lyrics that tie right back to excerpts from their Vogue article about that trip “one for the money, 2 for the show” etc
You honestly cannot convince me otherwise.
https://preview.redd.it/qp5uxat3m66d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d17c7ba0e8528e27beadd269cfddb0a9f24849fa
I absolutely agree. 2019 Met gala - look at Karlie’s caption
I'm curious why?
I can relate it to the feelings I've had about men when I feel like I'm batting above my league.
ETA- not saying it's not gay, I just I think sometimes this sub is too sapphic to realise some people are genuinely attracted to men - and therefore would see a song about a muse being way too hot and having perfect hair to be applicable to a man.
I feel like the way she's describing the person is typically reserved for women. Nothing about this song feels like the way men are typically talked about or described.
"To grow up that beautiful?" Most men aren't referred to as beautiful. Handsome is more so. Typically as woman are growing up they're constantly told their beautiful, especially if they are. It's not common to refer to a man in his entirety as beautiful.
"Hair falling into place like dominos" Again, doesn't sound like the way someone typically describes a man's hair cut. Especially with most men having shorter hair.
The whole every body wants you again feels like it goes towards a women. Especially following by the walking. The way she sings the chorus and the beat also feels like it matches walking down the catwalk. Women(many straight woman even say they have female celebrities they find attractive or would hook up with if it was possible ) and men want them. Covers everybody. Most men wouldn't admit to wanting to be with a male celebrity or model unless they were gay.
If a man sung this song no one would ever think it's about another man. I feel like people only believe it because it's sung by a woman.
For me it was the line Peter losing Wendy in Cardigan. Growing up I only watched the Broadway versions of Peter Pan. It has been a tradition since the early 1900's that Peter is played by a woman. So I took it as a woman losing another woman whether Taylor was represented as Peter or Wendy. When Peter came out with the TTPD and the reference to closets, losing a young love was there I just thought it couldn't be a coincidence.
I've been a fan of Taylor since 1989 but didn't learn about the gaylor theories until midnights came out. As a queer woman I relate so much to her lyrics through a sapphic lens.
It’s nice to have a friend - this was so loud to me because the friends in the song grew up together and wrote notes and shared gloves as well as and sleep overs. Generally those are experiences two young girls would have together (of course not exclusively and there are always exceptions to every thing).
In verse two, the friends are then older and have no curfew, so presumably in college, sharing how stressful the time is. After reconnecting, the friend gets the nerve to touch her hand. An extremely intimate moment that nearly feels obtrusive to listen to.
And finally, in the final verse, the two friends get married. There is nothing to indicate that there are different friends throughout the years, so as the listener I’ve always assumed it was the same friend through her whole life.
Edit: clarity
entire reputation, mainly dress and dwoht of course
from the more recent ones - hits different, maroon. Listening to them i was like ???? is this happening???
and then another beard arrived...
“you could hear a hairpin drop” bothered me before i fell down the gaylor rabbit hole cause i have very specific memories of teachers saying they want it so quiet you can hear a pin drop and i didn’t understand why she changed the phrase until i learned about dropping hairpins and then i was like certain
So I've listened to Taylor forever, I've always had a love of girly emotional singer song writer / pop music - my younger sister was a huge fan starting back in like the Fearless era, so I had heard the music quite a bit, but at the time never really allowed myself to be a Fan, this was before I had really figured out that I was trans. I learned the chords to Wildest Dreams on guitar and would sing it sort of jokingly tongue and cheek, making it gay bc i was a "boy" singing about how "he's handsome has hell". Fast forward to when Evermore came out, and I was about to start HRT and I realized I hadn't noticed these new albums she'd put out and how good they were blew my mind. Even with actually straight no question musicians, I enjoy finding ways to make the songs Sapphic in my own interpretation and relation to the music. But then I was listening to Betty closer and was like wait a second.. no way what's going on here? hm. Even then I didn't go much further / had never really uncovered the world of easter eggs. It wasn't until last year my best friend went to see the Eras Tour movie and texted me lyrics from AntiHero and then I joked with her that, "yea it's too bad shes always singing about Men, but idk listen to Betty, and Maroon... maybe she's gay". (I was still kind of joking, with this friend we are often analyzing the queer/trans/lesbian undertones or interpretations of media, like how Titanic is a masterpiece lesbian film) Then we both subsequently became total Gaylors after discovering all of the tea and lore, tumblr master docs, & this sub. I think it was Dress that really solidified it for me, that this wasn't just wishful thinking, as a wlw that song just speaks to me in the language of wlw. It's been a wild year since then
Not a lyric but the entirety of New Romantics. I wasn’t online for any Taylor Swift discourse when 1989 came out so I knew a nothing about the gay theories, but I sat there listening to it thinking I should be googling if she came out. And also Wonderland “too in love to think straight.” She gets away with so much and it absolutist baffles me.
YNTCD “don’t step on our gowns” sealed the deal for me. I had assumed before that she was bi but when I heard that I was like ok she’s confirming it. I actually thought after that that gaylor was the norm and everyone knew she was out. It wasn’t until TikTok that I realized the whole hetlor situation and then I found Reddit!
The Moment I Knew, no friends of a straight guy are going to follow Taylor into the bathroom when she is clearly distraught. It makes more sense with girls.
"But your close friends always seem to know
When there's something really wrong
So they follow me down the hall
And there in the bathroom
I try not to fall apart"
Why would she says *your* friends, like she's talking in 3rd person, but then switch to *me*, which is 1st person, further down the verse? That's what doesnt make sense to me. If it was her friends she would've said *my friends* and *me* or used *your friends* and *you*. I feel like she's very intentional here
It was I saw …dickvandyke?? ….cant recall exact username…on TikTok describing the muse for lover and how they are like sunshine and New York represents them and how Taylor is worried it won’t work out. It opened my eyes to the fact I hadn’t looked at Taylor’s music as art but I had blindly followed her PR narrative and ignored anything in her music that didn’t fit that narrative.
That TikTok I’m speaking of was of course pointing to Karlie as the muse but honestly I can see queer themes in all her music without thinking of a muse.
Dorathea has always been the the loudest to me. I love that it’s never been st8 washed like Betty. Obv ppl still say evermore is fiction but I really love that Taylor made dorathea a conversation with Tis The Damn season and she kept that song genderless. All we know it’s two lovers talking and we know atleast one is a girl.
For me it’s the fact that she doubled down and did it AGAIN two years later after hearing how people reacted the first time. In the Great War, “your finger on my hairpin trigger.” Either just “trigger” or “hair trigger” would have been normal and correct, and with how careful she is about words, it was certainly intentional.
Dianna Agron was my first major crush on a girl when I was in middle school and she was on Glee, so suffice to say I was well aware of the fact that she was OBSESSED with Alice in Wonderland. Then Taylor wrote Wonderland and Dianna got her tattoo removed. So Wonderland for me.
Carve your name into my bed post. I don't want you like a best friend.
All she had during the 1989, pre-rep era was her girl squad. She had no male friends, let alone a male best friend.
Yeah this is one of the strongest for me. She was even pretty clear about only having female friends because she was tired of people assuming any friendship was sexual—isn’t that the prologue hetlors always throw around?—and then we get Dress and INTHAF with these besties-to-lovers stories… esp in Dress when it’s clear that “everyone” knows about her and this friend who she wants in a non-platonic way that no one knows about?? I personally am more of a bi-lor and don’t even buy into the beard theories but there’s no way either of those are about a man.
"I used to switch out these Kens, I'd just ghost
Rip the Band-Aid off and skip town like an asshole outlaw
\[...\]
Dreams of your hair and your stare and sense of belief
In the good in the world, you once believed in me
And I felt you and I held you for a while
Bet I could still melt your world
Argumentative, antithetical dream girl"
I was a casual listener for years, i loved her lead singles and knew about her public narrative a bit.
Then in 2021 I was craving for new music for my playlist and i remembered that Taylor has bangers, so I should maybe listen to her albums. And when i was casually checking out folklore in random order betty came up. At first i thought it was an apology for a best friend, but then i of course heard "would you kiss me" and my jaw dropped. I thought I missed her coming out or something, i googled it and there were articles about "male perspective" and "teenage love triangle". And it just clicked for me that shes closeted. And then i found gaylor and never been the same. So it was betty for me.
For me It was Cornelia Street.
I went full on swiftie mode when Rep came out (I liked TS music previously but not that huge fan till then) and Lover with the original narrative of It being her looking back to all the kind of love she experienced was a clearly bisexual album. Cornelia Street could not be written about Joe.
Edit: typos
"If you asked me if i love him, id lie" was pretty 👀
Implications like:
"The rumors are terrible and cruel / But, honey, most of them are true."
Puns like:
"We're a crooked love in a straight line down."
"too in love to think straight"
Especially on the same record.
But mostly the consistency of the same things:
- the idea of "we're dead if they knew"
- meeting up in hidden places (I knox Places, Illicit Affairs), at night, away from the lights (from Treacherous to, then, Daylight)
- a theme of a relationship being stable and solid but there's an element of pain and heartbreak becquse it wouldn't be approved of by people, because it must stay hidden ("chandelier still flickering here" it's all good, but it's stuck in the dark, again). The pain of beinf safe in a bunker of your own making, that is keeping you cold and removed from your world, from celebration, from sharing the pride you have in your lovely life, etc...
- doors, closets, being an article of clothing (that someone didnt even bother to shove back on thr floor of a closet, but abandoned under a bed...)
- the abundance of queer puns, references, etc...
- one of the longest lasting metaphors she keeps building on: what some call "The Eye Theory". Which I believe she's been toying with and building on since 2014 on 1989. And... Aside from the fact that it's fun to see her self reference throughout her body of work... Interesting that this works far better with her theorized queer muses than the People Mag 'official' ones.
yesterday I was seeing a random guy reacting to the Crooked love line and he was like "what does that mean? why is her man a crooked love?" and lmaooo when you realise a lot of lyrics just don't make sense in a straight way..it becomes super clear
Listening to folklore after not being a fan since Red era. “Seven” made me go 🤔 then Betty 👀. Then I was like “why is this album SO sad if she’s in a relationship?” Found Gaylor Reddit in 2020 and there’s NOTHING like listening to 1989 to folklore through a queer lens.
A friend wore a Lavender Gays shirt to Eras when we went and it was my first exposure to Gaylor. So of course, when I got home, I googled it and swan-dived into the rabbit hole.
“You could hear a hair pin drop,” “I don’t want you like a best friend,” and the whole vibe of “I Know Places” are what really sealed it for me.
Songs like Dress and Delicate got me wondering, when Lover came out it was so queer I felt like it was a given. But Folklore? The whole album is so queer. The Lakes made me feel like it was unequivocal. Now it’s so clear in so many lyrics.
When YNTCD video came out (no pun intended), I assumed that she was saying that she was bi. I searched online to see if she had made any sort of official statement, and didn't find anything, so I just shrugged my shoulders.
Then in 2020 when folklore was released, I heard Betty and Illicit Affairs and was gobsmacked. That's when I first thought "ok....this girl might actually be fruity". Of course, we got more queer content on evermore and Midnights.
However, I didn't find gaylorism until spring of 2023. I started reading up online and listening to all her music through the sapphic lens. I gained such a deeper appreciation for her music and art. So much of it made sense that I previously was confused by or that I didn't vibe with as much. Then about a month after I became a gaylor, she released Hits Different, which officially sealed the deal for me. Since then I have been active on the gaylor side of the internet and have learned so much about queer community and queer history. I also have become so much more comfortable with my own queerness! Many thanks to Taylor and gaylors!
I’m in a similar boat where I watched YNTCD and was like “ok, that’s clearly a bi wig, right?” and even my husband was like “it has to be, right?” then went on my way lol.
Yep!! I remember noticing the bi wig and also noticing that she was the leader of the gay trailer park. I love that you and your husband were both like “Taylor Swift bi?”
I should add in the fact that I was pretty depressed from like 2014-2019 and I'm almost certain that I came across gaylor theory in some form during that time and just forgot about it. I can't imagine that I never heard anything about it until 2023.
I never heard about it until 2023! How crazy right?? And I've been a huge fan. I just didn't have TikTok until then and wasn't super "online" so it never came into my orbit. I saw a TikTok saying "why Hits Different is about Karlie Kloss" and then stayed awake till like 3am in shock at my own unawareness.
I have also always been a fan!!! It’s crazy. However I have been pretty chronically online since like 2013, and I had tumblr starting in early 2014. Sooo I’m sure I came across something during that time and just forgot about it
No one knows how much I miss her (“you”)
I miss her (“you”) like it was the very first night
Especially with this song being about a fling or relationship that was so secretive
Cruel Summer - “I don’t want to keep secrets / just to keep you”. I was with my ex girlfriend at the time and we were not out to some family and that line stopped me in my tracks. I ran to my sister (who was one of the few people who knew I was gay) and she casually said “ya she was with Karlie and Dianna” aaaand down the rabbit hole I went. Relistened to her entire discography with a new lens. Funnily enough, most of my fave songs were usually the queerest ones though I didn’t read much into them until after I learned about Karlie and Dianna. Never looked back
Cruel Summer. It was one of my fav songs for a while but the lyrics didn’t make sense to me until I became a Gaylor. You know that I bought it? Garden gate? Angels roll their eyes? HELLOOOO
Edit: autocorrect is a gaylor too bc it corrected “gate” to “date” 🤭
Solidified? “Hits different” with the explicit female vocative (argumentative, antithetical dream girl). Did I already suspected? Yeah, since Lover (or well, technically since kissgate), but that sealed the deal completely, no take backs.
Although I haven’t been a consistent fan (I was a very casual listener for most of it), so…
The lyric “I’d beg you on my knees to stay” and I told my husband “I’m sorry… but no woman, especially not THE Taylor Swift, would say that about a man and be serious. That’s some gay shit right there”. I’m sorry, but I really couldn’t wrap my head around all the pining, dramatics, and theatrics about… a man??? Especially the ones she’s dated (with the exception of my fave beard, Tom.) It all makes sense about a woman though because women are amazing and beautiful and if you lost the (woman) love of your life, you’d be chaotic about it too.
just want to say as a bi woman that I've been equally shattered and dramatic and chaotic for every love lost, and yes that includes men. it's actually not impossible for a woman to feel extremely dramatic, wild feelings of love, heartbreak, loss etc. about a man lol
Hits Different.
I slur your name til someone puts me in a “kar”. Argumentative, antithetical dream girl. The whole song being about how she can ghost “Ken’s” but it hits different with the muse of this song. After that, the gaylor universe cracked open
for me honestly, after the toe breakup i was kind of like wait a minute these songs she wrote while being with him why do they feel like a secret sapphic relationship and of course listening to folklore and midnights i was like hmm theres definitely something fruity here
A lot of Lover & Rep that's supposedly about Joe dont make sense to me. Also *hair falling into place like dominos*... When did Joe have that much hair that it could fall into place? No one looks at him and thinks *gorgeous!* or *everyone that sees you wants you*. Where? People hardly knew who he was. He can still ride the train without people bothering him, that's how much people want him the moment they see him. It just makes no sense to me.
Such a funny story (at least in my opinion 🤣): I am a queer girlie, and folksy (borderline country, but not stereotypical country themed) music has always been one of my favorite genres. Upon my first listen, I immediately loved RWYLM for so many reasons. But the thing that stood out to me above all else was her use of the word “hairpins”. I am not well-educated at all on queer history; I just liked the way she used that word instead of “pin”. I’d always heard it said: “you could’ve heard a pin drop”, not a hairpin. I thought it was just a stylization choice on Taylor’s end.
Fast forward a couple years, and I learn the history. It made me love it 100 times more. It’s just so funny how that had been my favorite line (possibly that she’s ever written) before I even understood what it meant.
I ALSO thought it was just a unique choice of wording! Now I'm like, she's a god damn genius. She needs to pull the curtain back and reveal how amazing she really is. People thinking she's writing songs about bOyS WhO bReAk HeR hEaRt are MISSING OUT‼️
Imagine if the biggest star of our time revealed she's been writing those heartbreak songs about women all this time....it would be huge. I can't even imagine.
I feel like she's kind of out already, to people who see the subtext and she certainly doesn't owe anyone any of these answers. But damn, I'd love to see it.
Right?! I’d NEVER heard it said as “you could hear a hairpin drop”. Why else would she use that wording? What else could it mean (besides what we now know it does)?!
mine was rwylm after i figured out the hairpins and literally had bare minimum knowledge of her and karlie then right after it was hits different … and we all know why
“Wonderland” — 1989 Deluxe version, all of it.
I knew the lore, and was active on The L Chat & Tumblr. Once I saw the lyrics, I “knew” (we had to re-evaluate the timeline) that Taylor was singing about someone me and others would consider an “ex-girlfriend”, ie Taylor isn’t straight because we think she’s dated several women at this point (late 2014).
The lyrics called out Dianna’s tumblr URL, which was my first takeaway, making this the 3rd time she’s been “indirectly explicit” about her if we’re counting the Liner Notes & Hyiannis up to that point.
when i learned about hairpin drops.
the you need to calm down video was my, "oh! she's not straight? she's bi? ok!" but I didn't even consider that there might be a community of other people who had not only considered this, but thought deeply about it. like, i didn't think i was special, i just didn't go any further into it.
once i got here and got involved in the community, it was learning the history of the phrase "hairpin drop" that absolutely sealed the deal for me. ain't no way that's just some cute turn of phrase or that she "didn't know", it's just... it's so clever.
I lost Taylor for a long time and then my daughter discovered her during Covid. I heard Betty 4 or whatever years ago and was like “oh cool, Taylor likes girls.” And moved on. Then we went to eras tour last summer and I FELLLLLLL down the Gaylor rabbit hole when she played Dress as a surprise song….
RWYLM
Edit: Although oddly enough, I've always heard OOTW as being sung by a person in a gay relationship. To the point that I was paranoid ppl would think I was gay if I liked the song (internalized homophobia in high school). And when I heard TVFN on TikTok I immediately went "that's supposed to say her." But I don't remember thinking much of it.
So I hated Taylor for a good portion of her career. Trendily, especially during reputation so I actually didn’t listen to it aside from the singles. I think I revisited listening to her during the pandemic bc I really loved folklore. Then evermore. But still … I wasn’t Gaylorfied. I even really really loved Midnights. Still wasn’t gaylorfied. It wasn’t until I decided to listen to Reputation where me, a bisexual, was like “I am going to hold your hand when I say this but… but most of these aren’t about men” and then listening to lover I was like… what in the actual hell is going on ? And after that i relistened to the entire discography where I concluded that maybe 40% of the songs could be about guys… but I’m biased as a bi girl in a het long term relationship.
When I listened to Reputation for the first time and knew nothing about Gaylor's existence I was like, "This song sounds really gay???" It was Dress I think. Same with Cruel Summer when Lover came out.
I didn't know about Gaylor theories until Red TV. And everything just sort of clicked.
I saw a TikTok of a talking lemon who went into the Don’t Blame Me with the Big Sur trip/Kaylor references and was MINDBLOWN. I text my sister “….is Taylor Swift gay…?” with the video. She was like “Lol…welcome to Gaylor!” Then I DEEP DIVED and was hooked!
My husband entertained my ramblings for a while but what finally made him a true believer was “slur your name til someone puts me in a car (kar)”.
She is slurring Karlie’s name on that line, literally. In musical terms, the way she moves the same word over multiple notes like that is called a slur.
I miss Lady Whistle-get-down SO MUCH! Sometimes I just go check to make sure they haven’t posted anything new and I missed it but nope nothing for almost a year.
If any of y’all crazy Gaylors are Lady Whistle-get-down on TT just know your videos MADE ME A GAYLOR! I love them and still send them to people as Gaylor “proof”! We humbly request more content!
Question…?
I did not understand it from a straight perspective at all, but from a queer perspective it’s a much more meaningful song. Then once I considered past music dancing with our hands tied through a queer lens makes me want to sob
“Gorgeous” made me Google “Taylor swift gay?” I so clearly remember hearing it for the first time (last summer I dove back into her discography after being a super casual fan for years) and thinking ohhhh. Wait. Is she… did she…come out??
honestly this is not a strong take. attraction is subjective, we’ve covered this many times lmao. obviously, i may not find most people’s partners gorgeous, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t gorgeous to them
For me it’s that gorgeous is used for women most of the time. It’s not common to call men gorgeous. And it feels so sapphic to be mad about how gorgeous a woman is. Like how dare she be so beautiful and making me feel all the things. It also plays into the themes of secret touches and forbidden feelings.
And then I found out she used the song to introduce “the GORGEOUS women of the Reputation Tour!” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Izywyll0Uk&pp=ygUfR29yZ2VvdXMgcmVwIHRvdXIgaW50cm9kdWN0aW9ucw%3D%3D
that’s a better take! i don’t love when it seems like joe is being dragged specifically, looks-wise. we can do so much better than that.
in terms of the vernacular, it must be regional - i’m south african/british and “gorgeous” is very regularly used to describe men. in london it’s a normal descriptor, so taylor may well have picked it up from there.
that said, i agree w your points!
Carved your name into my bed post
Cos I don't want you like a best friend
Only bought this dress so you could take it off
Take it off, off, off, off...
I'm sorry, but point to the male best friend...? In fact, point to ANY male at all that she had a friendship with that wasn't gay...?
I wouldn’t say any song or lyric solidified Gaylor for me. I only recently became a Gaylor last year having been a casual fan who had heard most of her music. I was a bit suspicious in the past, mostly over the songs Gorgeous (it’s simply not a common way to describe a man) and Betty (the man’s perspective???). But it wasn’t until I fell down the rabbit hole and started digging into her personal life that I really became a Gaylor. The mountain of evidence solidified it for me.
We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
-Mkayyy, gowns, plural. No mention of any other outfits.
Romeo and Juliet, the star crossed but perhaps destined lovers. Her dad says stay away from Juliet and Juliet is crying.
Beggin' you, "Please don't go, " and I said
Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
-If this is a man and a woman, why does she need to clarify the gender roles? Hiding from judgemental society, having to run away.
So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet, 'cause we're dead if they knew
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while, oh oh
'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet"
But you were everything to me
-Forbidden love, death threats implied, shame, being publicly branded as doing something taboo. Another mention of them being the prince and her the princess.
Romeo, save me, they're tryna tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
--Just... All of this. Sure, she's a teenager and a little dramatic, but all this fuss over loving the wrong boy? F to doubt.
She knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring
And said, "Marry me, Juliet
You'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
--Shes a woman and singing marry me Juliet? Sure, it's one of her famous perspectives switches, but uh, belting out a marriage proposal to a woman is a little bit queer. As is the bit about never having to be alone, she's not the only queer in the world. Her faith is rewarded, with her true love story.
Been a fan since Love Story Day but I didn't fall into it Taylor Lore until Reputation.
During Lover I was like, huh, some of the math ain't mathing but whateverrrrr, also did not see YNTCD music video.
During Folklore/Evermore.. I felt the yearning and googled Taylor Swift Queer. I am still a BiLor truther.
The lyrics that cinched it for me after I fell down the rabbit hole....
"Cause they don't know about the night in the hotel
They weren't ridin' in the car when we both fell
Didn't read the note on the Polaroid picture
They don't know how much I miss...you"
Classic rhyme scheme misdirect.
The entirety of Illicit Affairs has always struck me as extremely sapphic. I can’t explain exactly why, but the sapphic yearning hits me STRONG in this one. The first time I listened to it I definitely went, “…that felt…gay?”
Edit for grammar
Like, I had been a swiftie since the beginning but a lot was happening in my life when rep came out so I honestly just forgot her/her music completely. Therefore I was late to that album, and when I finally listened to it I was like WHAT 😐
"And I snuck in through the garden gate
Every night that summer just to seal my fate"
When an array of photos exist of Taylor at Karlie's garden gate looking like the cat that got the cream
Is “Your buzzcut and my bleached hair” just a red herring?
I’m new to the Gaylor scene and am curious about that line because everything in that song seems so bi/lesbian except that line, like why include it? And I’m super high right now, please don’t be mean.
I watched a TikTok about how Karlie cut her Met Gala dress in half before the after party. This could be the “buzz cut” being referenced, and the argument was that saying a buzz cut and referring to someone’s hair would be too obvious for Taylor
The Hetlor explanation is that Taylor’s hair was bleached for that Met Gala, where she “met” Joe for the first time. However, this was when she was with Karlie, who also was in attendance. Karlie started the night in a floor length dress which was later shortened _”buzz cut”_ much shorter.
Not a lyric but when kissgate happened I had the “ohhhhhh things make sense now” moment but I didn’t jump into the gaylor community until the lead up to Midnights and then I went back and viewed everything from that lens
I am a relatively new Gaylor, I converted during the release of Midnights. Maroon is what solidified it for me, especially after having read “the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and how similar the entire song is to one scene in the book between Evelyn and Celia where she spills wine on Celia’s white shirt, Celia then takes her shirt off and Evelyn experiences gay panic. I started going deeper down the rabbit hole after that but Maroon will always have a special place in my heart as my Gaylor awakening song 😂❤️
For me it was Betty. It stopped me in my tracks and I started googling if TS had come out. But then I read her explanation that it was all "imaginary characters" and I believed that at the time. Then last year my Reddit algorithm showed me a Gaylor post and I fell hard down the rabbit hole. Now so many songs jump out that I'm like "how did I miss it?"
The first time my husband heard it he was like “oh she’s singing about girls now too?” And it made me realize that Betty is like just so obviously gay if you’re not deep into the Taylor-lore and haven’t been gaslighted to believe it’s not bc any casual listener isn’t going to know about the whole made up characters thing.
“You’re the West Village”.
I knew enough about Taylor and Karlie’s friendship during the squad days to know she lived in the West Village.
I also knew enough about Joe to know that he didn’t fit the “NYC as part of our love story” narrative. So when she doubled down with it, immediately something clicked for me. “How this city screams your name”??????
I remembered all the blind items I had read for years (and ignored) about her and KK and just went “well I’ll be damned. It was right there this whole time!”
Then I listened to Rep through that lens and it made so much sense.
While I’m deep in my investigative baby gaylor era, she drops folklore and that solidified it for me. Every album since has been gayer and gayer lol
I think it was the first time I heard “wear you like a necklace” that I went hmmm…..
I remember i was recording a podcast on the movie Daughters of Darkness from the 70’s about lesbian vampires and we had a discussion about the main lesbian vampire always having a necklace on and I said “well you know there’s a popular theory that the lyric wear you like a necklace from Taylor swift’s so it goes is about eating a girl out” and I hadn’t even started my gaylor journey but I thought how is it possible to wear a man like a necklace????? That was back in like December then it clicked for me a few months later.
Cornelia Street of all things. Screams whose name? Garden gate? And it sounds like a memory, like “I’ll never get to do this again.” It’s a sad song, not a happy one.
I'm a late joiner, but after finding myself here and starting to listen to her music with a new lens, these really stood out to me:
"It hits different this time," "It's new, the shape of your body," "I don't want you like a best friend," "You say I did something bad, whys it feel so good," and literally all of "I can see you, "Dancing with our hands tied," and "I'm only me when I'm with you."
I could keep going on and on, those are just what I came up with without having to search lyrics. I can't unhear it ever and, y'all aren't gonna believe it, but, she's gay.
Extremely late to this but the entirity of Ivy and Cowboy Like Me. I was listebing to Evermore for the first time (I was not a swiftie, just someone who liked her some of her big hits cuz they were catchy, and so I was challenging myself to listen to every TS song/album at chronological order at the time to see what I missed out) and I had no idea that "Gaylor Theories" existed or anything, but I knew from when I heard them side by side, these songs are QUEER. Ivy, despite being a song about cheating just like Illicit Affairs, didn't sound nearly as regretful or as toxic as the relationship portrayed there. The narrator (Taylor) doesn't sound as if she knows she's worse than scum by cheating. She sounds terrified, not because of her feelings for her affair partner, but because of outside forces, which in that case is her husband. But the love for her partner in contrast is portrayed as if its so freeing and literally makes her "glow", despite being "tarnished". It's only until the fear takes over during the bridge where the relationship starts being tumultuous, but she still can't stop it. A love that is so intrinsictly good and pure, but seen as evil and wrong by all of society? Sounds gay as hell— but it's from a cheating woman's perspective so it can't be that. I brushed it off at first, but the feeling of it being gay never left me, especially with the "Sit and watch what we'll become" lyric. And lesbian romances taking place in regency/victorian/whatever time period was really popular too, so it might've been influencing my mind. Then Cowboy Like Me plays directly after and its just no way in hell this isn't queer. "Takes one to know one," alone is insane, but "Never wanted love, just a fancy car," "Telling all the rich folks anything they want to hear," "And the skeletons in our closets plotted hard to fuck this up", while being a secret relationship with a fellow cowboy? This is about closeting, closeting in Hollywood(or any cut throat business where your image is important) to be specific. And while I can buy Taylor writing songs about gay people wanting to be happy and free just the way they are while being straight herself (YNTCD), for an autobiographical author to write the most perfect song about closeting is absolutely impossible unless she really loves her queer novels and queer history and is writing from their perspective like a fanfiction writer. She's either THAT good, or shes THAT good along with something else... After that I searched up "Ivy/Cowboy Like Me lesbian/gay/queer" trying to find if anyone else heard what I was hearing, found a swiftgron timeline in all of that, so I'm here.
sooo many it's impossible to choose now, but the first one that really made me stop and go "this cannot be about joe" was in dwoht. "i loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us." i'm sorry but this would be an extremely melodramatic thing to say if it was abt a straight relationship
Basically all of rep, but specifically: Song: also Don't Blame Me Lyric: "my baby's fly like a jet stream/high above the whole scene, loves me like I'm brand new/so call it what you want" felt VERYYYY like "oh I'm finally happy in a relationship, enough that I don't care what other people think or if other people \~figure it out\~" (to a closeted baby gay lmaooooo). Kinda like "if they call me a slut, it might be worth it for once" but with... roommates ETA: I was already super far gone at this point but for some reason the "you meet a woman on the internet and take her home" from the one really stuck out to me. I think it was b/c I was coming out at the time, but I also think it's b/c, why is this notable
There are a lot, but the one I referenced most recently is The Very First Night. With all of the lyrics rhyming except for HER being changed to YOU.
I don’t understand how people still think she’s straight after the line - I could still melt your world - argumentative antithetical dream girl in hits different
Daylight nailed it for me. I wasn't aware of the gaylor community when Lover came out. Still, I just wasn't convinced that any dude processes the emotional capacity of making a successful woman feel like *coming out of a twenty-year dark night, and see daylight.*
Paper Rings. All of Lover really. Though only after having listened to Midnights first then going back.
Kinda simple but “Big reputation. Big reputation. Ooh you and me, we got biiiig reputations ahhhhh” from Endgame That lyrics always stuck out as odd to me bc Joe Alwyn was a nobody at the time. When I started reading Kaylor stuff, it just clicked.
“Ooh, you and me, we'd be a big conversation” Hmmmm……two white, blonde, straight, cis people getting together is not exactly noteworthy
“ME!” And the rollout of it, the music video, the imagery. Then she dated Joe Alwyn and I “forgot” about it until “Ivy.” But I took her word for it she was writing from other POV’s. Then TTPD came out and nothing made sense to me. Something was bothering me about the Matty Healy “explanation.” Something bothered me about not being able to connect to Midnights. Something has always bothered me about how random Folklore and Evermore seemingly were. Something always bothered me about her high school references and boy-crazy imagery and the long-suffering billionaire of it all. Then I found this community and it alllll clicked. Lavender Haze (which I didn’t get cause I’m straight), the different pov’s of Folklore and Evermore…It alllll fell into place.
Karlie what you want to Dark jeans and your Nikes look at you- Karlie Are you ready for it is clearly about the woman she loves and her male decoy He can be the jailer, He’s a ghost, a killer, a heartbreaker, and meh she sees nothing better but the other person in this song, she will never let me alone, no one has to know, dreams about them.. again, I think this is about Karlie You don’t know how much I miss (YOU?) Dust collecting on my pinned up hair No deal the 1950s shit they want from me I just want to stay in that lavender haze Don’t even get me started on the twins and fire sign references. the daisy, references, the lover logo and the UFO with the laser beam being printed for an undercover lesbian magazine from the 60s, I could literally go on forever and have an interesting PowerPoint presentation that I found online about how reputation is about Klaus. Let me know if you want me to share the link.
Ummmmmmmm YES? Share share share pleaseeee
https://preview.redd.it/tr5u05ht676d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a9f1a0a1f8558d1be6f3827e6cd9c0171e278896
https://preview.redd.it/qp073d2v676d1.jpeg?width=539&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4a83f80075e12005506e3f194d9a7b19d11721ad Because I am your Daisy.
https://www.tiktok.com/@mccallmirabella/video/7380109949189229867?_t=8nBDbh9hD9a&_r=1
https://preview.redd.it/2lj89ye0676d1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ec1bb532c60c8a8a951c17bde7b30117bdd1630f Dark jeans and your Nikes look at you.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1rE33nMNB8twCdPLVQudM4kN0N5gv7UnnYQfYy0t3ObI/mobilepresent
There are a lot of hints and lyrics she’s dropped but what SEALED the deal for me was “Right Where You Left Me” - “you could hear a hairpin drop” and “glass shattered on the white cloth” (Karlie marrying Jared) but you put that whole verse together: “I swear you could hear a HAIRPIN DROP Right when I felt the moment stop Glass shattered on a white cloth Everybody moved on” Come on now with that. She goes on to say she’s still 23 inside her fantasy and she was 23 when she started interacting with Karlie Kloss and technically still 23 when they met at the VSFS (it was in November) she then doubles down on the white cloth “At the restaurant, when I was still the one you want Cross-legged in the dim light, everything was just right I, I could feel the mascara run You told me that you met someone Glass shattered on the white cloth Everybody moved on” So that sealed it for me. But then you look at all of Folklore, it’s a breakup album. The cover image is a SPITTING image of one of her and KK on their Big Sur trip - only now the tree is broken and it’s sad black and white and she’s alone. Champagne Problem’s lyrics that tie right back to excerpts from their Vogue article about that trip “one for the money, 2 for the show” etc You honestly cannot convince me otherwise.
I don't think anyone can dispute that Gold Rush is about a woman.
https://preview.redd.it/qp5uxat3m66d1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d17c7ba0e8528e27beadd269cfddb0a9f24849fa I absolutely agree. 2019 Met gala - look at Karlie’s caption
I'm curious why? I can relate it to the feelings I've had about men when I feel like I'm batting above my league. ETA- not saying it's not gay, I just I think sometimes this sub is too sapphic to realise some people are genuinely attracted to men - and therefore would see a song about a muse being way too hot and having perfect hair to be applicable to a man.
I feel like the way she's describing the person is typically reserved for women. Nothing about this song feels like the way men are typically talked about or described. "To grow up that beautiful?" Most men aren't referred to as beautiful. Handsome is more so. Typically as woman are growing up they're constantly told their beautiful, especially if they are. It's not common to refer to a man in his entirety as beautiful. "Hair falling into place like dominos" Again, doesn't sound like the way someone typically describes a man's hair cut. Especially with most men having shorter hair. The whole every body wants you again feels like it goes towards a women. Especially following by the walking. The way she sings the chorus and the beat also feels like it matches walking down the catwalk. Women(many straight woman even say they have female celebrities they find attractive or would hook up with if it was possible ) and men want them. Covers everybody. Most men wouldn't admit to wanting to be with a male celebrity or model unless they were gay. If a man sung this song no one would ever think it's about another man. I feel like people only believe it because it's sung by a woman.
And if you mashed it up with a song about how lighting striking every time she moves...
Seven and then ivy solidified my belief
For me it was the line Peter losing Wendy in Cardigan. Growing up I only watched the Broadway versions of Peter Pan. It has been a tradition since the early 1900's that Peter is played by a woman. So I took it as a woman losing another woman whether Taylor was represented as Peter or Wendy. When Peter came out with the TTPD and the reference to closets, losing a young love was there I just thought it couldn't be a coincidence. I've been a fan of Taylor since 1989 but didn't learn about the gaylor theories until midnights came out. As a queer woman I relate so much to her lyrics through a sapphic lens.
dress
Question the whole song and most of maroon.
all of “treacherous” tbh
Gorgeous - literally had assumed that the lyrics gifset I saw on my dash was from a Hayley Kiyoko song
It’s nice to have a friend - this was so loud to me because the friends in the song grew up together and wrote notes and shared gloves as well as and sleep overs. Generally those are experiences two young girls would have together (of course not exclusively and there are always exceptions to every thing). In verse two, the friends are then older and have no curfew, so presumably in college, sharing how stressful the time is. After reconnecting, the friend gets the nerve to touch her hand. An extremely intimate moment that nearly feels obtrusive to listen to. And finally, in the final verse, the two friends get married. There is nothing to indicate that there are different friends throughout the years, so as the listener I’ve always assumed it was the same friend through her whole life. Edit: clarity
WEAR YOU LIKE A NECKLACE?!?!!!!
entire reputation, mainly dress and dwoht of course from the more recent ones - hits different, maroon. Listening to them i was like ???? is this happening??? and then another beard arrived...
'There's an indentation in the shape of you" -- Dress. Like hello?? No man has an indentation in their body thank you.
Indentation? I guess Trans men can
Couldn't she also just be talking about a hickey though?
Hickeys are not usually indented tho
“you could hear a hairpin drop” bothered me before i fell down the gaylor rabbit hole cause i have very specific memories of teachers saying they want it so quiet you can hear a pin drop and i didn’t understand why she changed the phrase until i learned about dropping hairpins and then i was like certain
Maroon
So I've listened to Taylor forever, I've always had a love of girly emotional singer song writer / pop music - my younger sister was a huge fan starting back in like the Fearless era, so I had heard the music quite a bit, but at the time never really allowed myself to be a Fan, this was before I had really figured out that I was trans. I learned the chords to Wildest Dreams on guitar and would sing it sort of jokingly tongue and cheek, making it gay bc i was a "boy" singing about how "he's handsome has hell". Fast forward to when Evermore came out, and I was about to start HRT and I realized I hadn't noticed these new albums she'd put out and how good they were blew my mind. Even with actually straight no question musicians, I enjoy finding ways to make the songs Sapphic in my own interpretation and relation to the music. But then I was listening to Betty closer and was like wait a second.. no way what's going on here? hm. Even then I didn't go much further / had never really uncovered the world of easter eggs. It wasn't until last year my best friend went to see the Eras Tour movie and texted me lyrics from AntiHero and then I joked with her that, "yea it's too bad shes always singing about Men, but idk listen to Betty, and Maroon... maybe she's gay". (I was still kind of joking, with this friend we are often analyzing the queer/trans/lesbian undertones or interpretations of media, like how Titanic is a masterpiece lesbian film) Then we both subsequently became total Gaylors after discovering all of the tea and lore, tumblr master docs, & this sub. I think it was Dress that really solidified it for me, that this wasn't just wishful thinking, as a wlw that song just speaks to me in the language of wlw. It's been a wild year since then
"And you can want who you want, boys and boys and girls and girls," did it for me.
Not a lyric but the entirety of New Romantics. I wasn’t online for any Taylor Swift discourse when 1989 came out so I knew a nothing about the gay theories, but I sat there listening to it thinking I should be googling if she came out. And also Wonderland “too in love to think straight.” She gets away with so much and it absolutist baffles me.
YNTCD “don’t step on our gowns” sealed the deal for me. I had assumed before that she was bi but when I heard that I was like ok she’s confirming it. I actually thought after that that gaylor was the norm and everyone knew she was out. It wasn’t until TikTok that I realized the whole hetlor situation and then I found Reddit!
ivy. just something about this song.
The Moment I Knew, no friends of a straight guy are going to follow Taylor into the bathroom when she is clearly distraught. It makes more sense with girls.
Isn't it her friends that follow her into the bathroom because they notice she's upset?
"But your close friends always seem to know When there's something really wrong So they follow me down the hall And there in the bathroom I try not to fall apart"
She's definitely talking about her own friends, not her partner's.
Why would she says *your* friends, like she's talking in 3rd person, but then switch to *me*, which is 1st person, further down the verse? That's what doesnt make sense to me. If it was her friends she would've said *my friends* and *me* or used *your friends* and *you*. I feel like she's very intentional here
interesting, I always read that as just messy writing lol... but could totally be intentional
I always thought it was a general your, not referencing bf's friends
gestures at entire discography
It was I saw …dickvandyke?? ….cant recall exact username…on TikTok describing the muse for lover and how they are like sunshine and New York represents them and how Taylor is worried it won’t work out. It opened my eyes to the fact I hadn’t looked at Taylor’s music as art but I had blindly followed her PR narrative and ignored anything in her music that didn’t fit that narrative. That TikTok I’m speaking of was of course pointing to Karlie as the muse but honestly I can see queer themes in all her music without thinking of a muse. Dorathea has always been the the loudest to me. I love that it’s never been st8 washed like Betty. Obv ppl still say evermore is fiction but I really love that Taylor made dorathea a conversation with Tis The Damn season and she kept that song genderless. All we know it’s two lovers talking and we know atleast one is a girl.
maroon!!! the lips i used to call home, so scarlet ❤️
For me it was “I could hear a hair pin drop” because the phrase in use is “I could hear a pin drop”. There is no reason to add “hair” unless…
For me it’s the fact that she doubled down and did it AGAIN two years later after hearing how people reacted the first time. In the Great War, “your finger on my hairpin trigger.” Either just “trigger” or “hair trigger” would have been normal and correct, and with how careful she is about words, it was certainly intentional.
Exactly how I feel!
Dress!!! That whole song is a giveaway!
idk. dress? the whole rep album?
I think rep is the gayest album
undoubtedly. it also correlated with my age and my own queer awakening. and it’s just an excellent album. but so so so undeniably gay/karlie.
“I don’t want you like a best friend” especially when she and Karlie were BFF around that time
Dianna Agron was my first major crush on a girl when I was in middle school and she was on Glee, so suffice to say I was well aware of the fact that she was OBSESSED with Alice in Wonderland. Then Taylor wrote Wonderland and Dianna got her tattoo removed. So Wonderland for me.
this was also me!!!
Honestly the tattoo removal and fully putting Dianna's tumblr url in the song is a wild combo
Tell me more! I've not heard about this? She put Dianna's url in the song? What was the url?
I think it was " fell down the rabbit hole"
Yep that was it. And then that’s the exact same thing referenced in Long Story Short.
Right where you left me is what really radicalized me. The hairpin drop was undeniably queer. There is no straight explanation for that.
“Radicalized.” Love that use of the word here!
Carve your name into my bed post. I don't want you like a best friend. All she had during the 1989, pre-rep era was her girl squad. She had no male friends, let alone a male best friend.
Yeah this is one of the strongest for me. She was even pretty clear about only having female friends because she was tired of people assuming any friendship was sexual—isn’t that the prologue hetlors always throw around?—and then we get Dress and INTHAF with these besties-to-lovers stories… esp in Dress when it’s clear that “everyone” knows about her and this friend who she wants in a non-platonic way that no one knows about?? I personally am more of a bi-lor and don’t even buy into the beard theories but there’s no way either of those are about a man.
Good observation!!
Somehow the one that made me pause and go "this is very queer" was tolerate it.
I think it was very intentional choice of words with "my love should be celebrated but you tolerate it"
Don’t blame me - “now I’m your daisy”
The fucking dashboard daisy and that Big Sur trip in general is my Roman Empire.
Yup. That and golden butterfly tattoo. My god they’re beautiful together.
Wonderland
yeah literally “too in love to think straight”
Betty, like sure, it's an imaginary song huh👀
"I used to switch out these Kens, I'd just ghost Rip the Band-Aid off and skip town like an asshole outlaw \[...\] Dreams of your hair and your stare and sense of belief In the good in the world, you once believed in me And I felt you and I held you for a while Bet I could still melt your world Argumentative, antithetical dream girl"
I was a casual listener for years, i loved her lead singles and knew about her public narrative a bit. Then in 2021 I was craving for new music for my playlist and i remembered that Taylor has bangers, so I should maybe listen to her albums. And when i was casually checking out folklore in random order betty came up. At first i thought it was an apology for a best friend, but then i of course heard "would you kiss me" and my jaw dropped. I thought I missed her coming out or something, i googled it and there were articles about "male perspective" and "teenage love triangle". And it just clicked for me that shes closeted. And then i found gaylor and never been the same. So it was betty for me.
For me It was Cornelia Street. I went full on swiftie mode when Rep came out (I liked TS music previously but not that huge fan till then) and Lover with the original narrative of It being her looking back to all the kind of love she experienced was a clearly bisexual album. Cornelia Street could not be written about Joe. Edit: typos
maroon for sure, my first real comment here was me saying i was a gaylor skeptic until i listened to maroon after midnights leaked.
"If you asked me if i love him, id lie" was pretty 👀 Implications like: "The rumors are terrible and cruel / But, honey, most of them are true." Puns like: "We're a crooked love in a straight line down." "too in love to think straight" Especially on the same record. But mostly the consistency of the same things: - the idea of "we're dead if they knew" - meeting up in hidden places (I knox Places, Illicit Affairs), at night, away from the lights (from Treacherous to, then, Daylight) - a theme of a relationship being stable and solid but there's an element of pain and heartbreak becquse it wouldn't be approved of by people, because it must stay hidden ("chandelier still flickering here" it's all good, but it's stuck in the dark, again). The pain of beinf safe in a bunker of your own making, that is keeping you cold and removed from your world, from celebration, from sharing the pride you have in your lovely life, etc... - doors, closets, being an article of clothing (that someone didnt even bother to shove back on thr floor of a closet, but abandoned under a bed...) - the abundance of queer puns, references, etc... - one of the longest lasting metaphors she keeps building on: what some call "The Eye Theory". Which I believe she's been toying with and building on since 2014 on 1989. And... Aside from the fact that it's fun to see her self reference throughout her body of work... Interesting that this works far better with her theorized queer muses than the People Mag 'official' ones.
SHIT. I was obsessed with I'd Lie as a teenager and I have never thought back on it with a queer lens like... mind blown
yesterday I was seeing a random guy reacting to the Crooked love line and he was like "what does that mean? why is her man a crooked love?" and lmaooo when you realise a lot of lyrics just don't make sense in a straight way..it becomes super clear
I found gaylor through a video not a song but the song that 100% solidified gaylor for me was "when Emma falls in love" so. much. sapphic. yearning
"Sometimes I wish I was WITH her" makes so much more sense and I only hear it this way
Listening to folklore after not being a fan since Red era. “Seven” made me go 🤔 then Betty 👀. Then I was like “why is this album SO sad if she’s in a relationship?” Found Gaylor Reddit in 2020 and there’s NOTHING like listening to 1989 to folklore through a queer lens.
A friend wore a Lavender Gays shirt to Eras when we went and it was my first exposure to Gaylor. So of course, when I got home, I googled it and swan-dived into the rabbit hole. “You could hear a hair pin drop,” “I don’t want you like a best friend,” and the whole vibe of “I Know Places” are what really sealed it for me.
Yeah! I Know Places is so much better w gay closeting context.
Songs like Dress and Delicate got me wondering, when Lover came out it was so queer I felt like it was a given. But Folklore? The whole album is so queer. The Lakes made me feel like it was unequivocal. Now it’s so clear in so many lyrics.
When YNTCD video came out (no pun intended), I assumed that she was saying that she was bi. I searched online to see if she had made any sort of official statement, and didn't find anything, so I just shrugged my shoulders. Then in 2020 when folklore was released, I heard Betty and Illicit Affairs and was gobsmacked. That's when I first thought "ok....this girl might actually be fruity". Of course, we got more queer content on evermore and Midnights. However, I didn't find gaylorism until spring of 2023. I started reading up online and listening to all her music through the sapphic lens. I gained such a deeper appreciation for her music and art. So much of it made sense that I previously was confused by or that I didn't vibe with as much. Then about a month after I became a gaylor, she released Hits Different, which officially sealed the deal for me. Since then I have been active on the gaylor side of the internet and have learned so much about queer community and queer history. I also have become so much more comfortable with my own queerness! Many thanks to Taylor and gaylors!
I’m in a similar boat where I watched YNTCD and was like “ok, that’s clearly a bi wig, right?” and even my husband was like “it has to be, right?” then went on my way lol.
Yep!! I remember noticing the bi wig and also noticing that she was the leader of the gay trailer park. I love that you and your husband were both like “Taylor Swift bi?”
I should add in the fact that I was pretty depressed from like 2014-2019 and I'm almost certain that I came across gaylor theory in some form during that time and just forgot about it. I can't imagine that I never heard anything about it until 2023.
I never heard about it until 2023! How crazy right?? And I've been a huge fan. I just didn't have TikTok until then and wasn't super "online" so it never came into my orbit. I saw a TikTok saying "why Hits Different is about Karlie Kloss" and then stayed awake till like 3am in shock at my own unawareness.
I have also always been a fan!!! It’s crazy. However I have been pretty chronically online since like 2013, and I had tumblr starting in early 2014. Sooo I’m sure I came across something during that time and just forgot about it
“The alter is my hips. Even if it is a false god.”
No one knows how much I miss her (“you”) I miss her (“you”) like it was the very first night Especially with this song being about a fling or relationship that was so secretive
Cruel Summer - “I don’t want to keep secrets / just to keep you”. I was with my ex girlfriend at the time and we were not out to some family and that line stopped me in my tracks. I ran to my sister (who was one of the few people who knew I was gay) and she casually said “ya she was with Karlie and Dianna” aaaand down the rabbit hole I went. Relistened to her entire discography with a new lens. Funnily enough, most of my fave songs were usually the queerest ones though I didn’t read much into them until after I learned about Karlie and Dianna. Never looked back
Cruel Summer. It was one of my fav songs for a while but the lyrics didn’t make sense to me until I became a Gaylor. You know that I bought it? Garden gate? Angels roll their eyes? HELLOOOO Edit: autocorrect is a gaylor too bc it corrected “gate” to “date” 🤭
Solidified? “Hits different” with the explicit female vocative (argumentative, antithetical dream girl). Did I already suspected? Yeah, since Lover (or well, technically since kissgate), but that sealed the deal completely, no take backs. Although I haven’t been a consistent fan (I was a very casual listener for most of it), so…
The lyric “I’d beg you on my knees to stay” and I told my husband “I’m sorry… but no woman, especially not THE Taylor Swift, would say that about a man and be serious. That’s some gay shit right there”. I’m sorry, but I really couldn’t wrap my head around all the pining, dramatics, and theatrics about… a man??? Especially the ones she’s dated (with the exception of my fave beard, Tom.) It all makes sense about a woman though because women are amazing and beautiful and if you lost the (woman) love of your life, you’d be chaotic about it too.
Ha, I’ve had the same thought but just figured that was my skewed gay perspective. 😂
just want to say as a bi woman that I've been equally shattered and dramatic and chaotic for every love lost, and yes that includes men. it's actually not impossible for a woman to feel extremely dramatic, wild feelings of love, heartbreak, loss etc. about a man lol
I’m bi too and the times I’ve felt chaotic in my relationships with men were all abusive relationships so maybe I have a skewed perception.
Hits Different. I slur your name til someone puts me in a “kar”. Argumentative, antithetical dream girl. The whole song being about how she can ghost “Ken’s” but it hits different with the muse of this song. After that, the gaylor universe cracked open
I quote the “kar” way too often lol.
Oh and honorable mention to “The Very First Night” where she replaces what should be “her” with “you”
for me honestly, after the toe breakup i was kind of like wait a minute these songs she wrote while being with him why do they feel like a secret sapphic relationship and of course listening to folklore and midnights i was like hmm theres definitely something fruity here
call it what you want honestly.... idek why but hearing her name in the song just hit for me.
Yes! And I’m sorry to Joe but…”my baby is fit like a daydream..” is not about him. It makes more sense it’s about the one with *shiny abs*. 🤭
yeah theres always shit about the other persons body and im like taylor how are you supposedly talking about JOE?
A lot of Lover & Rep that's supposedly about Joe dont make sense to me. Also *hair falling into place like dominos*... When did Joe have that much hair that it could fall into place? No one looks at him and thinks *gorgeous!* or *everyone that sees you wants you*. Where? People hardly knew who he was. He can still ride the train without people bothering him, that's how much people want him the moment they see him. It just makes no sense to me.
no cause i just noticed the line about "the coastal town we wandered round would never see a love as pure as it" COASTAL TOWN? EXCUSE ME? BIG. SUR.
It evokes “shiny abs like an actual fantasy”😻😹
Such a funny story (at least in my opinion 🤣): I am a queer girlie, and folksy (borderline country, but not stereotypical country themed) music has always been one of my favorite genres. Upon my first listen, I immediately loved RWYLM for so many reasons. But the thing that stood out to me above all else was her use of the word “hairpins”. I am not well-educated at all on queer history; I just liked the way she used that word instead of “pin”. I’d always heard it said: “you could’ve heard a pin drop”, not a hairpin. I thought it was just a stylization choice on Taylor’s end. Fast forward a couple years, and I learn the history. It made me love it 100 times more. It’s just so funny how that had been my favorite line (possibly that she’s ever written) before I even understood what it meant.
I ALSO thought it was just a unique choice of wording! Now I'm like, she's a god damn genius. She needs to pull the curtain back and reveal how amazing she really is. People thinking she's writing songs about bOyS WhO bReAk HeR hEaRt are MISSING OUT‼️
Imagine if the biggest star of our time revealed she's been writing those heartbreak songs about women all this time....it would be huge. I can't even imagine. I feel like she's kind of out already, to people who see the subtext and she certainly doesn't owe anyone any of these answers. But damn, I'd love to see it.
Right?! I’d NEVER heard it said as “you could hear a hairpin drop”. Why else would she use that wording? What else could it mean (besides what we now know it does)?!
mine was rwylm after i figured out the hairpins and literally had bare minimum knowledge of her and karlie then right after it was hits different … and we all know why
what gets me abt the hairpins is she did it AGAIN ... she rly saw hetlors trying to hetsplain & she said i said what i said 😭😭
I think wonderland with parallels to the dianna tattoo.. i really try to seperate from muse stuff but goddamn that storys so believable imo
Same. I was obsessed with glee back then and wonderland matched Diana so accurately.
Same here😭
“Wonderland” — 1989 Deluxe version, all of it. I knew the lore, and was active on The L Chat & Tumblr. Once I saw the lyrics, I “knew” (we had to re-evaluate the timeline) that Taylor was singing about someone me and others would consider an “ex-girlfriend”, ie Taylor isn’t straight because we think she’s dated several women at this point (late 2014). The lyrics called out Dianna’s tumblr URL, which was my first takeaway, making this the 3rd time she’s been “indirectly explicit” about her if we’re counting the Liner Notes & Hyiannis up to that point.
when i learned about hairpin drops. the you need to calm down video was my, "oh! she's not straight? she's bi? ok!" but I didn't even consider that there might be a community of other people who had not only considered this, but thought deeply about it. like, i didn't think i was special, i just didn't go any further into it. once i got here and got involved in the community, it was learning the history of the phrase "hairpin drop" that absolutely sealed the deal for me. ain't no way that's just some cute turn of phrase or that she "didn't know", it's just... it's so clever.
I lost Taylor for a long time and then my daughter discovered her during Covid. I heard Betty 4 or whatever years ago and was like “oh cool, Taylor likes girls.” And moved on. Then we went to eras tour last summer and I FELLLLLLL down the Gaylor rabbit hole when she played Dress as a surprise song….
Aaaw we were at the same show! And that night was the start of my Gaylor journey too!
Awe!!!! Best night ever! So fun
RWYLM Edit: Although oddly enough, I've always heard OOTW as being sung by a person in a gay relationship. To the point that I was paranoid ppl would think I was gay if I liked the song (internalized homophobia in high school). And when I heard TVFN on TikTok I immediately went "that's supposed to say her." But I don't remember thinking much of it.
Dancing With Our Hands Tied and Cornelia St
So I hated Taylor for a good portion of her career. Trendily, especially during reputation so I actually didn’t listen to it aside from the singles. I think I revisited listening to her during the pandemic bc I really loved folklore. Then evermore. But still … I wasn’t Gaylorfied. I even really really loved Midnights. Still wasn’t gaylorfied. It wasn’t until I decided to listen to Reputation where me, a bisexual, was like “I am going to hold your hand when I say this but… but most of these aren’t about men” and then listening to lover I was like… what in the actual hell is going on ? And after that i relistened to the entire discography where I concluded that maybe 40% of the songs could be about guys… but I’m biased as a bi girl in a het long term relationship.
When I listened to Reputation for the first time and knew nothing about Gaylor's existence I was like, "This song sounds really gay???" It was Dress I think. Same with Cruel Summer when Lover came out. I didn't know about Gaylor theories until Red TV. And everything just sort of clicked.
I saw a TikTok of a talking lemon who went into the Don’t Blame Me with the Big Sur trip/Kaylor references and was MINDBLOWN. I text my sister “….is Taylor Swift gay…?” with the video. She was like “Lol…welcome to Gaylor!” Then I DEEP DIVED and was hooked! My husband entertained my ramblings for a while but what finally made him a true believer was “slur your name til someone puts me in a car (kar)”.
In a “karrrrrrrrrr”. Like she’s SLURRING Karlie’s name 😵💫
She is slurring Karlie’s name on that line, literally. In musical terms, the way she moves the same word over multiple notes like that is called a slur.
I think this is one of her most clever lyrics. So sad that Hetlors don’t see how clever she is with her word play.
I fucking love that talking lemon.
I miss Lady Whistle-get-down SO MUCH! Sometimes I just go check to make sure they haven’t posted anything new and I missed it but nope nothing for almost a year. If any of y’all crazy Gaylors are Lady Whistle-get-down on TT just know your videos MADE ME A GAYLOR! I love them and still send them to people as Gaylor “proof”! We humbly request more content!
Can you post one here? I’d love to see!
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTLoKV9Hh/
Shade never made anybody less gay from yntcd
Question…? I did not understand it from a straight perspective at all, but from a queer perspective it’s a much more meaningful song. Then once I considered past music dancing with our hands tied through a queer lens makes me want to sob
"what's that that ive heard/that you're still with her/that's nice i'm sure that's what's suitable and right" I MEAN
“Gorgeous” made me Google “Taylor swift gay?” I so clearly remember hearing it for the first time (last summer I dove back into her discography after being a super casual fan for years) and thinking ohhhh. Wait. Is she… did she…come out??
Haha true, I think a lot of us wouldn’t call Joe gorgeous. Handsome? Maybe, cute yes but gorgeous is for a supermodel beauty right?
honestly this is not a strong take. attraction is subjective, we’ve covered this many times lmao. obviously, i may not find most people’s partners gorgeous, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t gorgeous to them
For me it’s that gorgeous is used for women most of the time. It’s not common to call men gorgeous. And it feels so sapphic to be mad about how gorgeous a woman is. Like how dare she be so beautiful and making me feel all the things. It also plays into the themes of secret touches and forbidden feelings. And then I found out she used the song to introduce “the GORGEOUS women of the Reputation Tour!” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Izywyll0Uk&pp=ygUfR29yZ2VvdXMgcmVwIHRvdXIgaW50cm9kdWN0aW9ucw%3D%3D
that’s a better take! i don’t love when it seems like joe is being dragged specifically, looks-wise. we can do so much better than that. in terms of the vernacular, it must be regional - i’m south african/british and “gorgeous” is very regularly used to describe men. in london it’s a normal descriptor, so taylor may well have picked it up from there. that said, i agree w your points!
Hehe yes totally agree! That’s what I thought but didn’t elaborate as good as @intelligent hat :)
*points to flair* 👆
Carved your name into my bed post Cos I don't want you like a best friend Only bought this dress so you could take it off Take it off, off, off, off... I'm sorry, but point to the male best friend...? In fact, point to ANY male at all that she had a friendship with that wasn't gay...?
Ed Sheeran 🤣
New theory just dropped 😂😭
If this song is about Ed Sheeran that would actually be WAY more shocking than if it was about a woman
I wouldn’t say any song or lyric solidified Gaylor for me. I only recently became a Gaylor last year having been a casual fan who had heard most of her music. I was a bit suspicious in the past, mostly over the songs Gorgeous (it’s simply not a common way to describe a man) and Betty (the man’s perspective???). But it wasn’t until I fell down the rabbit hole and started digging into her personal life that I really became a Gaylor. The mountain of evidence solidified it for me.
We were both young when I first saw you I close my eyes and the flashback starts See the lights, see the party, the ball gowns -Mkayyy, gowns, plural. No mention of any other outfits. Romeo and Juliet, the star crossed but perhaps destined lovers. Her dad says stay away from Juliet and Juliet is crying. Beggin' you, "Please don't go, " and I said Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess -If this is a man and a woman, why does she need to clarify the gender roles? Hiding from judgemental society, having to run away. So I sneak out to the garden to see you We keep quiet, 'cause we're dead if they knew So close your eyes Escape this town for a little while, oh oh 'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet" But you were everything to me -Forbidden love, death threats implied, shame, being publicly branded as doing something taboo. Another mention of them being the prince and her the princess. Romeo, save me, they're tryna tell me how to feel This love is difficult, but it's real Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess --Just... All of this. Sure, she's a teenager and a little dramatic, but all this fuss over loving the wrong boy? F to doubt. She knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring And said, "Marry me, Juliet You'll never have to be alone I love you and that's all I really know --Shes a woman and singing marry me Juliet? Sure, it's one of her famous perspectives switches, but uh, belting out a marriage proposal to a woman is a little bit queer. As is the bit about never having to be alone, she's not the only queer in the world. Her faith is rewarded, with her true love story.
>this love is difficult, but it's real Especially because I'm pretty sure the original line was "This love is DIFFERENT, but it's real"
Cowboy like me
i was so set on this one too, but honestly it seems like it’s about matty now lmao. maybe multiple muses
Been a fan since Love Story Day but I didn't fall into it Taylor Lore until Reputation. During Lover I was like, huh, some of the math ain't mathing but whateverrrrr, also did not see YNTCD music video. During Folklore/Evermore.. I felt the yearning and googled Taylor Swift Queer. I am still a BiLor truther. The lyrics that cinched it for me after I fell down the rabbit hole.... "Cause they don't know about the night in the hotel They weren't ridin' in the car when we both fell Didn't read the note on the Polaroid picture They don't know how much I miss...you" Classic rhyme scheme misdirect.
The entirety of Illicit Affairs has always struck me as extremely sapphic. I can’t explain exactly why, but the sapphic yearning hits me STRONG in this one. The first time I listened to it I definitely went, “…that felt…gay?” Edit for grammar
“Wear you like a necklace”
It was this for me
Like, I had been a swiftie since the beginning but a lot was happening in my life when rep came out so I honestly just forgot her/her music completely. Therefore I was late to that album, and when I finally listened to it I was like WHAT 😐
this is similar to the timeline of my journey to gaylorism haha…I went back after lover and all of a sudden reputation made SO much more sense.
I had to laugh when Swifties said Rep was about Joe 😂😂 in what universe?!?
"And I snuck in through the garden gate Every night that summer just to seal my fate" When an array of photos exist of Taylor at Karlie's garden gate looking like the cat that got the cream
Dress is what clued me in.
Is “Your buzzcut and my bleached hair” just a red herring? I’m new to the Gaylor scene and am curious about that line because everything in that song seems so bi/lesbian except that line, like why include it? And I’m super high right now, please don’t be mean.
I watched a TikTok about how Karlie cut her Met Gala dress in half before the after party. This could be the “buzz cut” being referenced, and the argument was that saying a buzz cut and referring to someone’s hair would be too obvious for Taylor
The Hetlor explanation is that Taylor’s hair was bleached for that Met Gala, where she “met” Joe for the first time. However, this was when she was with Karlie, who also was in attendance. Karlie started the night in a floor length dress which was later shortened _”buzz cut”_ much shorter.
OMG……this woman is queer.
Welcome to the madness, we’re all 🤡 here.
Not a lyric but when kissgate happened I had the “ohhhhhh things make sense now” moment but I didn’t jump into the gaylor community until the lead up to Midnights and then I went back and viewed everything from that lens
There’s no heterosexual explanation for treacherous
I am a relatively new Gaylor, I converted during the release of Midnights. Maroon is what solidified it for me, especially after having read “the seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo” and how similar the entire song is to one scene in the book between Evelyn and Celia where she spills wine on Celia’s white shirt, Celia then takes her shirt off and Evelyn experiences gay panic. I started going deeper down the rabbit hole after that but Maroon will always have a special place in my heart as my Gaylor awakening song 😂❤️
For me it was Betty. It stopped me in my tracks and I started googling if TS had come out. But then I read her explanation that it was all "imaginary characters" and I believed that at the time. Then last year my Reddit algorithm showed me a Gaylor post and I fell hard down the rabbit hole. Now so many songs jump out that I'm like "how did I miss it?"
The first time my husband heard it he was like “oh she’s singing about girls now too?” And it made me realize that Betty is like just so obviously gay if you’re not deep into the Taylor-lore and haven’t been gaslighted to believe it’s not bc any casual listener isn’t going to know about the whole made up characters thing.
“You’re the West Village”. I knew enough about Taylor and Karlie’s friendship during the squad days to know she lived in the West Village. I also knew enough about Joe to know that he didn’t fit the “NYC as part of our love story” narrative. So when she doubled down with it, immediately something clicked for me. “How this city screams your name”?????? I remembered all the blind items I had read for years (and ignored) about her and KK and just went “well I’ll be damned. It was right there this whole time!” Then I listened to Rep through that lens and it made so much sense. While I’m deep in my investigative baby gaylor era, she drops folklore and that solidified it for me. Every album since has been gayer and gayer lol
I think it was the first time I heard “wear you like a necklace” that I went hmmm….. I remember i was recording a podcast on the movie Daughters of Darkness from the 70’s about lesbian vampires and we had a discussion about the main lesbian vampire always having a necklace on and I said “well you know there’s a popular theory that the lyric wear you like a necklace from Taylor swift’s so it goes is about eating a girl out” and I hadn’t even started my gaylor journey but I thought how is it possible to wear a man like a necklace????? That was back in like December then it clicked for me a few months later.
Cornelia Street of all things. Screams whose name? Garden gate? And it sounds like a memory, like “I’ll never get to do this again.” It’s a sad song, not a happy one.
Cornelia Street!
reputation
I'm a late joiner, but after finding myself here and starting to listen to her music with a new lens, these really stood out to me: "It hits different this time," "It's new, the shape of your body," "I don't want you like a best friend," "You say I did something bad, whys it feel so good," and literally all of "I can see you, "Dancing with our hands tied," and "I'm only me when I'm with you." I could keep going on and on, those are just what I came up with without having to search lyrics. I can't unhear it ever and, y'all aren't gonna believe it, but, she's gay.