Nicetohaveafriend - Nice To Have A Friend

So I merged the two Dress performances videos from Nashville show with Taylor singing the first part on the b stage where Karlie was standing.

I am dusting off my little blog here because TTPD has my mind absolutely reeling. I am really wondering if anyone else listened to this and had this feeling that the album confirmed everything that they were thinking was going on with her. I know we talk so much about reading her songs beneath the surface of muses or certain details used to craft a story, but to me, TTPD reads so strongly of her reckoning with her life in the industry. like, it's so much more than the relationships. it's the comp het, it's the religious trauma, it's the being exploited as a child star, it's deep wound of abandonment and neglect when she as a person got split off from her brand and both could not thrive, it's giving everything to this brand and career and fandom and that still never being enough. it's her codependency with the very people that exploit her. it's the fact that she is bigger than she ever imagined and none of it feels how she wanted. it's the simultaneous love and resentment she has towards her family, and relationships, and career, and yes, even her fans.

the rawness of this album, the unrefined feel, the summation poem talking about this as mania, the continuation of the cage imagery and themes of escaping to her mind/fantasy, the coping with criticism, numbing it all with alcohol, the willingness to burn it all down and disgrace her name because none of this is what she wants or at least not how she wants.

I have seen so many criticisms of the album and honestly, I understand where they are coming from, but I also think the things they criticize make the exact point of what this body of work is - something that exists for it's own sake to turn things back on the people that made her into what she is now. art created not to be acclaimed but because it demands to be expressed. it is an exorcism, an expulsion. it is something that erupted from her. and it's so meta because this fandom and the industry are voyeurs in an echo chamber so desperate to see what they want that they miss that this is about them. that is what makes it brilliant to me - it is self-indulgent and metaphorical, and complex, and so direct, but yet still masked just enough that people miss it. her entire life has become performance art. it is a play within a play. and I fear the audience has not caught on.

it feels like she is reclaiming it all. I feel like this could either be a hint at a new beginning or a signal that she has broken and this is the end. this felt like the tell-all memoir written in code that everyone else will finally understand when she really leaves this spotlight. it's the lucky one come to life. she is daydreaming about fucking it all and leaving this life behind so she can finally have some goddamn peace.

I love this album for it as art. it is so expressive. it is so heartbreaking. it's messy and nuanced, and I think it is going way the fuck over most people's heads, especially when you really dig into poetry being the theme and the specific works she references. it's only been a week and I am just starting to really dig in but talk about a fucking iceberg.

huxley: Matty Healy and Taylor Swift before the The 1975 London show - Night One 📸 @jordhughesphoto (x)

Reminder that Stonewall wasn’t about marriage equality. Stonewall was about police brutality. It was about systemic abuse and subordination. Stonewall was spearheaded by black trans women. As we celebrate Pride 2020, within the context of the Black Lives Matter riots, it’s imperative that we remember that.

Riots in protest of police brutality are the reason that we have more rights today. Do not forget your roots.

You can’t celebrate Pride while simultaneously condemning the Black Lives Matter riots and protests that are happening right now. Know your history.

I've been breakin' hearts a long time

most fun I ever had, and I’d do it over and over and over again if I could

TAYLOR SWIFT ― Attends the MTV Europe Music Awards 2022 held at PSD Bank Dome on November 13, 2022 in Duesseldorf, Germany.

cowboy like me - now I know I’m never gonna love again

we don’t need a hundred posts from the fandom listing reasons why you shouldn’t doxx and out someone and why it’s fucked up to do. what we need is a heavily homophobic and specifically lesbophobic fandom to realize everything they have done to contribute to what’s happening right now. any post you’ve ever made or reblogged or liked about how it’s gross for sapphics to speculate about taylor’s sexuality or to read her music as gay, any post you made joking about how you don’t hate the gays you just hate kaylors (who are mainly sapphics), any post about how it’s an invasion of privacy or disgusting or uncomfortable or projecting to speculate if taylor is part of the lgbtq+ community, any post that targets and alienates and isolates lgbtq+ fans is what allowed this to happen. doxxing and outing is not the first time this has happened in this fandom and it sadly will not be the last. if you’ve ever supported the posts that contributed to this culture that makes sapphics, minors and adults alike, a target of hate and violence, if you’ve ever thought it would be fun to make an anti kaylor blog and spend your free time screenshotting and publicly making fun of queer fans, if you’ve ever followed an anti kaylor/gaylor blog and read their posts for fun, if you’ve ever logged in to hate-read posts from kaylors and privately make fun of them in groupchats with your homophobic friends, if you’ve ever posted things like ‘why can’t kaylors just all die,’ if you’ve ever made tasteless jokes and laughed at our expense on your blog, you contributed to minors being outed, poc being outed, sapphics in countries where it’s not safe to be gay being outed. 

you’ve contributed, whether you think you have or not. we’re telling you that you have and you continue to and i hope the guilt of this eats you alive. i hope the idea of your homophobic posts leading to real people being outed haunts you. and don’t think you’re innocent if you’re just some blog who has never *really* said anything *too* bad. if you’ve ever made a complete mockery of kaylors/gaylors just because you’re uncomfortable with the idea of taylor being with women, you contributed to this culture that makes other people think it’s okay to go to the extreme lengths of outing someone. you are fucking responsible. and who are the ones who have to pay the price for your reckless and dangerous homophobia you’ve been perpetuating in this fandom? it’s the lgbtq+ fans erasing their social media (the only safe space they had to talk about being lgbtq+) and running for the hills and fearing for their safety and their lives all while you all are posting photos of the folklore photoshoot and talking about how pretty taylor is. 

your homophobia has lead to real people being outed to their families and friends. you, yes, you. and the best you can do is say “it’s bad to out people!! friendly reminder!!!” as if everything you’ve been posting for the past six years since taylor joined tumblr has not contributed to letting people think it’s okay to out someone. i’ve been watching people be outed and threatened for five years, it’s happened to me, it’s terrifying and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. don’t write panic posts about how it’s awful to doxx and out people. instead step back and evaluate who the fuck you are as a person, what you can do to remove all of your homophobic microaggressions from this fandom, and why you think real people being outed is proper retribution for them thinking taylor swift might be gay.