Not Taylor Making An Alice In Wonderland Reference On The Tonight Show 😂

“Willow’ is about intrigue, desire, and the complexity that goes into wanting someone. I think it sounds like casting a spell to make somebody fall in love with you.”

Im.. Soft 🥺🥺🥺

cr. 

I have kind of an alternate theory on this line from “this is me trying”:

Pulled the car off the road to the lookout / Could’ve followed my fears all the way down

I’ve seen a lot of folks interpret it as s*icidal thoughts, which it definitely could be, and if so, I hope Taylor is getting help. 

But what struck me when I listened to folklore as a whole and considered her past work is the idea that jumping off the cliff may symbolize her coming out journey, where finally taking that leap would mean publicly coming out.

Let’s consider for a moment that Taylor’s car ride is her life in general. She’s on the road, always moving forward, always reinventing herself and planning and staying the course. Analyzing Taylor’s use of cars in her music is a whole separate topic, but for the sake of my argument, let’s say this car she’s in on “this is me trying” symbolizes her life’s journey.

She decides to pull the car over to the lookout. She takes a detour from her plans and her forward journey. What does she see when she peers over the edge? Her fears, some of which we can reasonably interpret as her fear of coming out publicly. She doesn’t make the leap, though. Something holds her back. Thus, “this is me trying”. She wasn’t quite ready to do it, but she’s trying. She makes folklore instead of turning to the whiskey to help process those feelings.

We hear similar themes on “my tears ricochet”, “hoax”, and “the last great american dynasty”.

On the first, she sings:

And I still talk to you, when I’m screaming at the sky

Many of us suspect that Scott & BMR were a big reason why Taylor decided not to come out early on in her career. Even if that’s not the case, it’s reasonable to assume that Taylor & Scott had many conversations about it, and Scott certainly knew that Scooby managed Karlie. If we believe that the masters sale prevented her coming out last summer, I’m thinking it makes a lot of sense that when Taylor is pulled over at the lookout and about to jump, she’s screaming at Scott to the sky. Not only was the sale what betrayed her, but the foiled coming out plan after so many years.

On the second, she sings:

Stood on the cliffside screaming, “Give me a reason”

I think this just echoes so many of the same anxieties. She’s just questioning everything, all of her life choices, why she’s in this position between a rock and a hard place, why she can’t just be “normal” (as in not famous) and live peacefully with her lover, why this love is so hard, why these outside forces are derailing her plans, etc, etc. She’s desperate. She’s at the cliffside and she’s ready to jump, but she can’t. She’s seeking any explanation for all of the feelings she’s having.

On the third, she sings:

They say she was seen on occasion pacing the rocks staring out at the midnight sea

Although this line is about Rebekah, I would argue that the purpose of TGLAD is to draw parallels between this “mad woman” (according to the town) and Taylor herself. Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that Taylor relates to this behavior of pacing the rocks, and even if it’s not literal for her, she understands the anxiety inherent in someone who does so. “The Archer” could’ve been born out of this line in TGLAD (not saying it was but that it’s thematically similar). Taylor is pacing that cliffside and staring out at her fears in the stormy sea.

In this context, I also think it’s interesting that Taylor used a Humpty Dumpty reference to describe herself in The Archer:

All the king’s horses, all the king’s men / Couldn’t put me together again

Humpty Dumpty was literally sitting on a wall and fell off. He couldn’t be put back together. I think this is what Taylor fears the most from taking that leap, that she will never be the same. CAUSE WHEN SHE BREAKS, IT’S IN A MILLION PIECES.

This got long, but I hope you enjoy!

Taylor has literally been like:

maybe reputation’s themes of love in secret and secret moments no one knows about and stolen stares and pining for someone gorgeous will convince them. no?

okay maybe lover’s crystal skies, rainbows eeeverywhere, gay pride parades, gaylor park, marrying your childhood friend, and stepping into daylight motifs would work. no? that didn’t do it?

fine. here’s an album about childhood love, about loving a girl with braids who has to hide in closets and a girl named betty who I just want to kiss in the garden in front of her stupid friends. how about now? do you get it yet?

new folklore theory coming in HOT

ok - so the basically theory is that the entire album is about tay’s inability to grow up because she is forced in the closet, a motif that we saw in The Archer with the line “I never grew up, it’s getting so old”, but that we see recurring in folklore - in the way that most songs are reliving youth or mourning loss.

On the album cover we have taylor standing amongst the trees, dwarfed by them, looking up at them - as if they have had the opportunity to grow up to the sky, but she is still on the ground, much smaller:

We also have several kid songs, like seven and then obviously the teenage trio in Betty, cardigan, and august - but these characters show up over and over throughout the album, just not as teenagers. 

Illicit Affairs seems to be about the August woman (”meetings in parking lots”/”meet me behind the mall”), James seems to be the narrator in this is me trying (”if I showed up at your party”/”I’m here in your doorway” and “the rust on your door I never needed anything more”/”had the shiniest wheels now they’re rusting”), and betty’s cardigan shows up in invisible string (”wool to brave the seasons”).

The love triangle story is told over and over again from different points of view during different periods of life. This mirrors what Taylor has had to deal with in her relationships, as everything feels like a love triangle when she and her lover are also juggling beards. So instead of growing out of this messy, love triangle phase Taylor is trapped in it.

There are also a TON of references to her old music in this album (I will post a list eventually but dang it is going to be so long), as she rehashes the past and examines this pattern.

Do you think that bothers taylor that people speculate about her sexuality?

no.

listen to episode 3 of the podcast.

in summation: celebs who do not want their sexualities speculated on do not signal the way taylor does.  they do not make themselves the center of an lgbtq trailer park in a music video.  they do not release a song called me! on lesbian visibility day with the phrase “me! out now!” they do not deck themselves in rainbows and sing “i want her midnights” on national television.  and they definitely would not allow a documentary to air that they produced in which they list “gay pride” as part of a list including “everything that makes me, me”

i am confident that taylor is signaling to her lgbt fans and wants us to know that she’s one of us.  if i were not extremely certain of this i wouldn’t even have this blog or podcast.  speculating on someone’s sexuality that signals as much and as loudly as she does is fine from a respectful distance. (click here to see blog rules on keeping a respectful distance.)

Wow

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no I don’t think I’ll do that haha!!

Now I know why Taylor put a harmonica in Betty...

I used to scream ferociously any time I wanted.

if we take lover album and some songs there as a marriage confirmation, the baby next summer makes so much sense. and how tay tried to get it in our brains with having many child/family themes on folklore/evermore. nothing was a secret it was just well hidden.