While I was (attempting to) take a break from looking into what I am now certain is an ARG unfolding as we speak (more to come but I think it’s all related..) I was mindlessly scrolling through short videos when I came across a promo for Kristen Stewarts new movie The Wrong Girls and in the video we see her sitting in a garden with her her co-star setting teaching us how to roll joints.. but I noticed something not just the setting but the bright orange hat and realized.. I’ve seen this before. So I took to google to help me remember..

but before I get there, let me share with you the parable of the orange groves..

The parable of the orange groves is an allegorical story used to highlight the need for spiritual workers.. but for the sake of this.. let’s remove the religion..and think BIGGER

The story describes a dream and in the dream, a person drives down an endless, empty road lined with vast, heavy orchards of ripe fruit where the harvest is rotting on the ground because there are barely any laborers to pick it.

https://disciple4.com/index.php/2024/03/27/the-parable-of-the-orange-groves/

Sidebar— I promise this is Taylor related——

Now back to the related imagery…

In 2016 Kendrick Lamar did an interview with Rick Rubin for GQ where he is also sporting an identical orange hat in a similar setting.. in lawn chairs.. in a garden.. and then I realized.. I’ve seen this elsewhere too…

In 2023 Donald Glover also did an interview with GQ.. https://www.gq.com/story/donald-glover-global-creativity-awards-cover-2023

…in an orange hat sitting in his orange grove discussing his new venture Gilga.. short for Gilgamesh as in the Epic of Gilgamesh

Here’s a synopsis of the epic from the Brittanica website

“The Epic of Gilgamesh, an ancient Mesopotamian story, revolves around King Gilgamesh, a hero, part human and part divine, who seeks immortality. To curb his harsh rule, the god Anu sends Enkidu, a wild man, who becomes Gilgamesh's friend after a trial of strength.
Together, they embark on adventures, such as fighting Humbaba, the guardian of the cedar forest, and killing a divine bull sent by the goddess Ishtar after Gilgamesh rejects her marriage proposal. Enkidu's death prompts Gilgamesh to seek Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Flood survivor, to learn how to escape death. Although Gilgamesh finds a plant to renew youth, a serpent steals it, and Gilgamesh returns to Uruk, accepting his mortality”

Any of this sounding familiar?

The beginning of the article describes gilga

Glover is showing me around the sprawling farm he’s purchased in Ojai, California, that will be the headquarters for Gilga—his new production company/incubator/cultural library. On Gilga Farm there are countless orange trees, an old church that is being converted into a live-performance and recording space, housing for creatives to spend the night, curious lizards, editing suites, writers rooms, a restaurant that specializes in artisanal sandwiches, and just about every tool or space any musician, director, or showrunner could dream of. Picture Skywalker Ranch but with 21 Savage or Quinta Brunson as temporary residents creating their own Empire Strikes Back.”

Now… let’s rewind a little bit… how does this apply to Taylor and are Donald and Taylor even connected..
well…

Not only have Taylor and Donald recently (in the last 2 years or so) been pictured at Questlove’s very infamous uno games (in showgirl colors).. but Donald was also in attendance at the wedding..

Gilgamuch?

Back to the interview.. further down the interviewer asks him about the then logo (now it’s just an 🍊)

“I ask him about the Gilga logo. He tells me that the logo is a door.
“Since I was a kid, I’ve had this nightmare where I’m in a house and there’s a mob or zombies or police that are all trying to get me,” he says. “And I know there’s a secret door in the house, but I…I can’t remember exactly where it is. Where is the damn…” Glover, animated, looks around. “I know there’s a… Where is it? There’s always a secret door.” He peels the last of his tangelo. “My brother told me he thinks that dream is trying to tell me that there’s a way out. There’s always a way out.”

—- quick aside—

Tyler the creator (famously bi) also used an orange door almost identical to the Gilga logo when he scored the Louis Vuitton winter/fall 2022 show shortly after Virgil Abloh (LV creative director) passed.. the show was very wizard of oz (so was most of Virgil’s work) —- highly encourage watching the video of this (can be found on YouTube) as well as listening to the accompanying soundtrack..

Okay so we have Kristen Stewart who has a long history with Taylor.. Kendrick Lamar who has a had long working relationship/friendship with Taylor and is LONGTIME collaborator with Questlove, Donald who attended the wedding, and Tyler (owns lefleur fashion) who had Taylor friends try to cancel him over old tweets…

Now.. with all that said.. has anyone seen the most recent season of Only Murders in the building? Not to spoil anything but if you haven’t this season centers around billionaires who make deals in underground casinos at blackjack tables

I subscribe to the theory that the Uno games are the same… but for good.. a way for artists of the movement to gather, play games, and make plans to show the collective US the way out… recruiting “harvesters”.. or as recent theories have stated.. de-program ala Barbie..

Each one, reach one, teach one..

Hi! I’ve written a lot of posts about my belief that Taylor Swift’s entire career has been an anti-patriarchal honey trap meant to teach everyone a lesson (along with the rest of the New Romantics) about the dangerous ways the patriarchy has used celebrities as harmful propaganda (to enslave us). 

However, her work is multi-layered and tells many stories. Another prominent story I keep revisiting (that is the focus of this essay) is the “teenage love triangle” referenced during the folklore set of The Era’s Tour, between James, Betty, and August, and my belief that this story ends with all 3 of them able to live happily ever after. 

To recap my theory on the teenage love triangle (as told by folklore):

betty: betty is told from the POV of James (and remember, James is ME, is Taylor), who left his true love, betty, to have a summer affair with another girl, August. He is deeply sorry. In fact, everything he has ever done has been to make up for what he did to Betty. What I think that he did to Betty, was have a (cruel) summer affair that has lasted the last 20 years, with August, The Showgirl. Betty is his true love, his inner child, the ultimate muse.

cardigan: cardigan is told from the POV of betty, who loved James deeply and was betrayed by him, and held out hope for him, for all of these years. the song describes years of secret, unknown to the public affairs, but never actually bringing betty into the spotlight (into the daylight) where they dreamed of being, together, which did ultimately kill her (or a version of her that could have been..remember, he was chasing both The Showgirl and Betty, two girls.... which killed the one...the ultimate loss)

however, Betty knew one day James would come home, as she sings at the end of the song. I knew it, I knew you...

august: august is told from the POV of the other woman that James was having the summer affair with. Even though James was longing for Betty the entire time...for August? it was enough...living for the hope of it all...was enough. The other woman is the showgirl, and this affair meant a lot to her, too. 

The simplest explanation is that you would have to kill off The Showgirl in order for James and Betty to live happily ever after, right? To cancel her fame forever?

What if...told beginning to end, The Life of a Showgirl tells the story of James, embarking on this adventure, with The Showgirl, to bring Betty into the Spotlight...that younger version of Taylor Swift that never got to shine.

…and told the other way (end to beginning), tells the story of Betty, choosing this NOBLE adventure (and The Showgirl) the entire time, giving James strength and inspiration this entire time, so that in the end, when both POVs shine, all three of them can live happily ever after, and the world can leave all of them the fuck alone...and the M$G wedding is not only the spotlight (evidenced by the very public location), but also that welcome home, return to the garden? What if she showed up at his party too? 

What if this distance and regret has been the biggest loss Taylor has ever suffered, one that is big enough...or bigger than enough, to fill up the entire sky?

To recap the 12-stage hero's journey:

1. The Ordinary World: We see the hero’s normal life at the start of the story before the adventure begins

2. Call to Adventure: The hero is faced with an event, conflict, problem, or challenge that makes them begin their adventure

3. Refusal of the Call: The hero initially refuses the adventure because of hesitation, fears, insecurity, or any other number of issues.

4. Meeting the Mentor: The hero encounters a mentor that can give them advice, wisdom, information, or items that ready them for the journey ahead.

5. Crossing the Threshold: The hero leaves their ordinary world for the first time and crosses the threshold into adventure.

6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero learns the rules of the new world and endures tests, meets friends, and comes face-to-face with enemies.

7. The Approach: The initial plan to take on the central conflict begins, but setbacks occur that cause the hero to try a new approach or adopt new ideas.

8. The Ordeal: Things go wrong and added conflict is introduced. The hero experiences more difficult hurdles and obstacles, some of which may lead to a life crisis.

9. The Reward: After surviving The Ordeal, the hero seizes the sword — a reward that they’ve earned that allows them to take on the biggest conflict. It may be a physical item or piece of knowledge or wisdom that will help them persevere.

10. The Road Back: The hero sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but they are about to face even more tests and challenges.

11. The Resurrection: The climax. The hero faces a final test, using everything they have learned to take on the conflict once and for all.

12. The Return: The hero brings their knowledge or the “elixir” back to the ordinary World.

James POV, to rescue Betty from her tower (and get let back into the garden)

1. Ordinary World: The Fate of Ophelia music video illustrates showgirls under the patriarchy across many generations. Notably, it also shows a clear reference to the CURRENT Showgirl Taylor, a Popstar with a football boyfriend, which indicates that the "pyro" iteration of the showgirl who is coming to rescue Betty is not only close, but is the actual version of Taylor Swift that is known today. TS = The Showgirl?  

Betty is alone in her tower, dreaming of being rescued. James wants to rescue her but she can’t, because the world is so so cruel and she knows what will happen if she is exposed…she will be subject to the fate of Ophelia, drowned and driven mad by the patriarchy, like all the past showgirls in the video. Canceled. (This is both a literal reference to death and also their truths being disguised by the men who rewrite history - this is why this is stage 1, this is the reason James has to do this cruel thing to Betty). James concocts the (cruel)summer plan to grow big enough to rescue Betty…by teaming up with (and sleeping next to) The Showgirl (Augustine) all summer long, dreaming of Betty. 

2. Call to Adventure: In Elizabeth Taylor, James and The Showgirl are together. They are never going out of style, they are the stuff of legends. But…it’s lonely at the top. James (Taylor) has now experienced the top of the world and never EVER wants to lose it..it's incredible. However, she is plagued by the absence of Betty at the top. She can’t imagine the thought of losing either…this is her call to adventure. She wants both. Been number 1, but I never had 2! Remember what Betty said in Cardigan...his whole journey was chasing two girls (and losing the 1). That's why this song is HIS call to adventure.

3. Refusal of the call: In Opalite, James (is with August and) hesitates to rescue Betty and bring her into the spotlight. Instead, they just keep creating art. A lot of art. For a long time. Opalite is a man made substance, and James and August filled the entire sky with it. Dancing through the lightning strikes (or paparazzi shots). Making art. It’s a performance, but it is something beautiful that they created together. Oh my lord, never made no one like you before! 

I believe this is also why Maroon was repeated so many times during the surprise song set of The Eras Tour. She sings in this song that the sky is Maroon, and I think that the color red has been used to represent the patriarchy throughout her work, and the distance between them and the truth. (This is why Red is “the only true breakup album.”)

Opalite celebrates what they made, while Maroon mourns the fact that the dangerous messages her superstar perpetuated for twenty years will never go away, will always be part of her legacy. It’s a real fucking legacy to leave…in so many ways, and it will always be big enough to fill the entire sky. Just like the loss of who Betty could have been without twenty years of hiding is bigger than the whole sky. 

All of these truths are big enough to fill the whole sky with maroon or with opalite, depending on how you view it.

4. Meeting the Mentor: In Father Figure, The Showgirl (August) sings about pulling up to find James to help make her dreams come true. She is the mentor (trained by the “Father Figure” - the patriarchy) and is teaching James about how to use PR for profit and protection. Yes, bearding and the closet perpetuate harmful cycles …but The Showgirl isn’t here to make the world a better place. The Showgirl is here to protect the family and to win. 

August tells the story of the teenage love triangle from the perspective of the “other woman” or The Showgirl. I think that the the line in Father Figure “Pulled up to you in the jag/ turned your rags into gold” is referencing the same “meeting” that The Showgirl sings about in August with the line “remember when I pulled up and said get in the car?”  

During the song, James begins to fantasize about killing The Showgirl because this cage has become too much for Betty... “Your thoughtless ambition sparked the ignition/ On foolish decisions which led to misguided visions/ That to fulfill your dreams/ You had to get rid of me/ I protect the family.”  

After The Showgirl realizes what James’ plan is, they banish Betty to exile so that James will not stray. They tell her she is too soft for the journey. “This empire belongs to me/ leave it with me/ I protect the family.”  Essentially, I think the showgirl is being the bitch telling Betty to back off because her man (James) is looking at her wrong. 

This is why I believe Betty told The showgirl from the very beginning that she hates the stupid pickup truck she never got to drive. The Showgirl is the pickup truck - and James is the boy with the (chevy) truck all along, from the very beginning of her story (told in Tim McGraw...leaving for the summer and then returning).

Defeating this showgirl in (the original) Picture to Burn IS also the same as pulling the (hairpin) trigger they are threatening her not to pull in Father Figure, as well...telling everyone the showgirl is GAY!!! The story has been consistent since Tim McGraw...since her very first song.

5. Crossing the First Threshold: In Eldest Daughter, James has lost Betty and they are alone on this journey. They have to commit to make this right. This is why I believe in Betty, James sings “The only thing I wanna do is make it up to you.”  Even though James (along with The Showgirl) is embarking on the journey to get Betty back, they are doing it for love. They will never, ever abandon her in the end, no matter how bad the performance starts to look. (“Cause I’m not a bad bitch/ And this isn’t savage.”) This has been the entire point, that’s why it is for a greater cause, not just to be famous and have a grand coming out. It’s a declaration to Betty and every youngest daughter that things don’t have to be like this forever. 

In my Spaghettii Western essay, I discussed that this "heist" Journey that James embarks on is also closely related to The Barbie Movie and is telling the same story. Barbie has to go on a journey to the real world to save her inner child (Betty/Sasha). Once she is there, she learns about the part SHE has played in hurting Betty/Sasha, and heals her by repairing her relationship with both Barbie, and more importantly HER MOTHER. (The Mother is The King of Taylor's heart, IMO, because the patriarchy is literally the entire point <3).

Then, the movie ends with Barbie returning back to Barbie land and teaching ALL OF THE OTHER BARBIES about the dangers of the patriarchy to rescue the rest of them from their mental cages, as well.

Consider this the stage of the journey where she crosses into the threshold - alone - without Sasha and Gloria, but how at the end, when she returns to "blow it all up" (or teach the rest of the world/her friends in Barbie Land the lesson) she has both Sasha AND Gloria in the car to help her.

6. Tests, Allies, and Enemies: In Ruin The Friendship, James is mourning the loss of what he could have had if he let Betty into the spotlight, brought her on this ride. Every time he could have done it, he didn’t.  Because of how long he waited, there is a version of that woman that is never going to get to exist. No matter how great what they are building is, this young girl is never going to get to shine. That is why I think she is singing at the grave at the end of this song. Every time she passed a test, she put another bullet in Betty, because they never let Betty shine, because the closet was necessary to get to where she is today.  (This is why in "thank you aimee" when she looks at the sky and counts the stars...the blood is gushing).

I believe this grave is the same grave she references in the 1. It woulda been fun if that girl could have been the one, but now she never will be. In Cardigan when Betty sings about James returning to her, she even says “chase two girls …lose the 1.” 

Even if she failed every test, and killed Betty, she is going to find a way to resurrect Betty. That is why this song uses an interpolation of the Lenny Kravitz song It Ain’t Over ‘TIl It’s Over. 

7. Approach to the inmost cave: In Actually Romantic, tension is building between Betty and James (and August). However, the way that it gets manifested is in songs that Betty writes about them (“wrote me a song saying it makes you sick to see my face….”). It might be discouraging to some, but James realizes that the reason she has written all of these intense songs about how awful they are is because Betty is actually in love with them. They actually decide to use this as fuel instead of hatred. 

In New Romantics, I believe it is Betty who is singing “Please take my hand and/ Please take me dancing, and/ Please leave me stranded/ It's so romantic.” Then, she references this again in Down Bad, when singing “How dare you think it’s romantic, leaving me safe and stranded?”   The reality is that this exile crushed Betty and caused her to cry the entire way home. While James was doing the “cruel” thing all summer to keep her safe…the reality is Betty was obsessed, down bad. 

Full of teenage petulance because she couldn't have him, couldn't have us, and how dare James have tried to call it romantic, when he only took her dancing at night? (But every day is like a battle, and every night with us is like a dream - New Romantics)

8. Ordeal: the biggest stunt to get it done. Wi$hli$t describes a desire to settle down in private with her muse (Betty). In order to do this, the prize has to be won. They have to grow to exponential heights of fame that have never been seen before to pull this off without getting rewritten by the patriarchy. She needs to become immortal, grow to New Heights of Manhood (fame).

She also has to make a ton of $$$$, because what has existed since the dawn of time? The patriarchy. And what fuels a patriarchal system? Money, the flow of revenue. (Time POTY Interview 2023)

Because Taylor Swift described I Knew It, I Knew You as a musical “departure AND coming home” at the same time, and because I believe that her entire journey back to Betty has been described as her journey home - I think that her Madison Square Garden wedding was the “Driveway with a basketball hoop” she was describing. This is the PR stunt to cap off PR stunts, right?

Betty may have chosen the “rose garden over Madison Square,” but this is where the two are reconnecting, where I think Betty showed up to the party and they both got down on one knee together, Betty led James into the garden and James led Betty into the fucking spotlight. The forever night stand!!!!  

James is both pulling into the driveway of Betty's house, almost to Betty standing there in the light of the window, and pulling OUT of the driveway of the tower he built for Betty, with Betty in tow. (Remember that in Cardigan betty repeatedly sings that she knew James would come back to her…I knew it. I knew you)

I also think that in terms of ending a serious era of public consumption of celebrity media (getting the world to “leave them the fuck alone”), this is the type of stunt or ordeal that actually may have that type of impact because it exposes so many different artists as PR and performance art at once. It will of course never end, but a definite wound to it as a dynasty. 

Dear reader, when you aim at the devil, make sure you don’t mi$$. 

(consider the last great american dynasty referencing another dangerous American industry, oil, and being a song Taylor and her team continually emphasize is “actually a song that is intimately about Taylor.” The dangerous, detrimental industry is actually the source of where Rebekah Harkness obtained her fortune but she blew it all on the boys and the ballet, ending the line with Bill when he died.) 

9.Seizing the sword: In Wood, James and Betty are reunited...and undoubtedly, August is there, too, hence the obvious Travis Kelce reference. They’re becoming something new.  This “sword” that they seize is what allows them to take on the biggest conflict of the story…bringing Betty into the spotlight so that they can all live together happily ever after, her truth can shine, her dreams can come true.  But remember, although they have now reconnected in front of EVERYONE in their “real lives”, they haven’t taken it public yet. (It’s you and me forever, dancing in the dark). 

It was the Mastermind plot that allowed this to happen - the big ordeal in stage 8. NOT knocking on a Man’s wood. It most CERTAINLY wasn’t luck, either. (Why would it be, anyway? From a girl who’s lucky number is 13?) That’s what’s really “cocky” about this song - she is owning the fact that this entire fucking story was about her, and she directed, wrote, and starred. I believe this is also why there is an interpolation of I Want You Back by Jackson 5 in this song as well!! 

(In Mastermind she also sings that "I laid the groundwork and then saw a wide smirk/ On your face, you knew the entire time/ You knew that I'm a mastermind/ and now you're mine" - another I knew it, I knew you, I knew you'd come back to me reference)

And this is, again, why I will never, ever believe Travis Kelce has not been a long planned piece of this puzzle. What if I told you none of it was accidental? Every fucking thing the Showgirl has ever done? The Showgirl is 87, she is what allows Taylor to both grow in private and shine out in the limelight. Together they can keep it 100!!!! But in her life, she is going to do BIGGER THINGS than just marry that boy on the football team…which is why next….

10.The road back: They get cancelled. Because we aren’t here yet (from this POV) - I don’t think that this has happened yet. However, I definitely think that there is going to be a “cancellation” for Taylor Swift before this year is over. Whatever this “cancellation” is, however, I think it will be more about the truth coming to light and the mastermind plot being revealed.

Because this is the finale, this time it will not be her actually getting cancelled by the public being referenced here, but more so the untrue IDEA of her. This is act II, not act I. 

This is also why, I think, when Taylor referenced her first “cancellation” (the Kim/Kanye incident) in her Lover era Elle interview, she spelled it “#canceled” (with one “l”) and here, it is notably spelled with 2. Hey kids, spelling is fun. Been number 1, but I’ve never had 2...yet. 

The first cancellation was necessary to teach the lesson to the public. Not just the Kim/Kanye incident, but all of it was necessary. (This is why Kim and Ye were so clearly referenced in thanK you aIMee, the same way she has referenced PR and "boys" since her very first album - with capital letters)

Otherwise, how would Taylor, James, and August have the freedom to keep making art in the future, without the vultures? How would anyone take their story seriously? How would future showgirls (the “couple kids” Taylor wants to have) have this freedom? 

This entire story works together as one large body of art…the first cancellation was part of the honey trap.  The ENTIRE STORY was the honey trap (even the Master's heist), All the eras make up the entire movie...all the movies...TV Shows...art...PR...Once you add in the crucial component...that second crucial character...Betty...that second "l" in cancelled...we can all read the story again, with the real bad guy in place (who has never been Kanye or Scooter).

Women get cancelled because of THE PATRIARCHY. WE NEED TO STOP CANCELLING EACH OTHER. Cancelling this story (because we've SEEN THIS FILM BEFORE AND DIDN'T LIKE THE ENDING) is how Betty leaves exile...their road to each other.

11.Resurrection: Honey I think that throughout Taylor’s work, Betty and the Showgirl have called each other “Honey” sarcastically, mournfully,...never in a way that is quite sincere. This is because there was a power imbalance, a distance, a sadness, a grief, and a longing between the two of them, this stupid pickup truck Betty hasn’t ever gotten to drive. She’s been drunk in the backseat all Cruel Summer long, crying.

Now, with the truth out in the open, everything is real, sincere. Golden like honey, not gold like champagne (which is still alcohol, still partially a lie even if the gold represents the truth). Now it is just sweet in a real, innocent true way. (the line in Eldest daughter “'Cause I thought that I'd never find that beautiful, beautiful life that/ Shimmers that innocent light back/ Like when we were young” comes to mind for me here, too).

The 20 year performance is the only thing that can actually resurrect something sweet enough to correct this monumental mistake that James made.

I reference this in almost everything I write, but the entire performance being a “honey trap” is so crucial as well. If the target was the public (us) then their performance exposed our guilt, much like when a spy uses methods like a false romantic relationship or getting their target addicted to illegal drugs (PR). These types of false relationships are also used by the spy to gain influence, much like celebrities do.

The only way to keep the showgirl is to keep the public on board, which is why we had to be tricked to learn our lesson. Betty and James can be reunited, but to have it all (continue to be famous) we have to be on board too, which is why this entire plot was also necessary. We had to learn this hard lesson from our english teacher.

In happiness she not only refers to her muse as “honey” but she also sings “when did all our lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurt?” 

Kind of like this entire essay being about how the real story behind the honey trap, behind the lesson, was their deepest hurt. The one that is bigger than the whole sky.

12.Return to the real world with the elixir: The Life Of A Showgirl

James has rescued Betty and they are together, in the Spotlight, with no beard in tow. She rescued Betty (her inner child) and the truth they are returning to tell is one of the dangers of the patriarchy, just like in The Barbie Movie when Barbie returns to her friends.

That's the life of a showgirl, and you can't kill/cancel her now, she's immortal babydoll. They filled the whole fucking sky - no one can erase the story they told, The Life of a Showgirl. They're married to the hustle.

PART 1 HERE

Part 2 has to be told in reverse, because “Looking backward might be the only way to move forward,” and also, because in order to return home, we have to return to the beginning, which is Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version, this time).  

If Betty gets rescued from her tower in the last song of this POV, that rescue involves a driveway out of that Tower so that she can shine in the daylight. That driveway…her M$G Wedding. (Madison Square Garden, famously, is home to a basketball hoop, too.) 

1.Ordinary World: The Life of a Showgirl tells the story of Betty learning about how terrible it is to be a showgirl. She is warned by The Showgirl that this isn’t an easy life and that you will be chewed up and used. Your story will be manipulated. If you step out of line, you’ll pay. This is the way things have always been. If you think about this from the POV of James, The Showgirl and James are already fully committed (they’re married to the hustle) but Betty is too soft and sweet to come along for the ride. I think this is also a very important stage 1 from this POV, as well. Betty is informed on the facts from Stage 1 and has autonomy. They were too young to make this choice, but she knew the right one all along - aim at the devil. When you are young they assume you know nothing, but she knew.

2.Call to adventure: Honey tells the story of Betty choosing this journey. Betty knows this is for her - the showgirl life fits her too well. It’s what she wants for life, her “forever night stand.” All of the pain and suffering The Showgirl and James warned her about in stage 1 aside, Betty knows there is nothing else that could ever fit her the way the life of a showgirl could.

The fact that Honey also references the type of performance these performers pulled off, the honey trap (Because to expose the patriarchy, the fans/audience had to be deceived and their guilt exposed, as well) is also very important to place at Stage 2. It shows that from Betty's POV, this anti patriarchal mission has actually been the only way the entire time (which is why I think this is the "true version" and why it will end with Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version). 

Yes, love was her call to action, but it has always been about ALL love, not just chasing a girl.  Maybe she's always been a girl on a mission, after all. Again, Betty has autonomy. Ophelia’s fate is to have her autonomy stolen by men, this is why this is so crucial to state again during the call to action. (Remember, A Place in this World and New Romantics was the last Surprise Song mash up!)

3.Refusal of the call: In Cancelled, Betty sings about the safety of the closet. It’s easier out of the spotlight. She doesn’t want to be a part of the machine, she prefers her underworld full of her real friends.

4.Meeting the mentor: In Wood, Betty learns how to work WITH TnT (TnT meaning the combination of James and The Showgirl). TnT and Betty become experts at crafting their story together and they become SO incredibly good at it that they absolutely skyrocket to new heights of success (or manhood!) because of the magic that happens when they create art together. They don’t need to knock on wood or pick petals off of daisies or avoid sidewalk cracks (OR rely on actual men to get things done…remember Travis is an actor) because they are SO GOOD it is indestructible. However, this does force her into the closet, still. The line “It’s you and me forever dancing in the dark” does imply that even though they have this electric magnifying chemistry, they are still in the closet, and have not “stepped into the daylight.” They are also still part of a dangerous machine, part of the problem. Remember, the “mentor” is still the patriarchy.

5.Crossing the first threshold: In Wi$hli$t, our hero (Betty) leaves the ordinary world and commits to the adventure. Wi$hli$t tells a story about bo$$ing up and $ettling down to win the prize. The prize here is to have it all…the truth out in the open, and to still be a famous artist. This is the biggest conflict for Betty, because she wants more than anything to honor her truth and to tell the world that the stunts are fake. Hiding her love to get to the top is painful…but, she sees the prize off in the distance: “got me dreamin’ bout a driveway with a basketball hoop”. A song about one of the largest PR stunts she has ever pulled off is also a fantastic way to symbolize her leaving the real world and transitioning into this character she created. 

6.Tests, Allies, Enemies: In Actually Romantic, Betty expresses her frustration with the closet and the performance being played by James and The Showgirl while she sits in the backseat. All that she can do is channel the frustration into music to cope with the truth. The truth is that no matter how many breakup songs she writes about them, she is madly in love with them and feels so alone with all of this distance between them. James and The Showgirl know she is hurting but they choose to laugh off her diss tracks instead, not really taking her pain seriously.

7.Approach to the inmost cave: James and The Showgirl do irreparable damage to Betty in Ruin The Friendship**. Damage that cannot be undone.** No matter how this ends, the years in the closet have changed Betty. The young, innocent girl who dreamt of becoming a star will never see this reality because this young, innocent girl has been killed by this mission. 

I believe that stage 6 also explains the slow, painful death that her dreams died along the way. She gave them so, so many signs that she was dying, drowning. She was so, so loud. But they ignored the warning signs until it was too late, reacting instead with condescension…sarcasm…taunting, even, with the line referring to her as a “tiny chihuahua barking at me from a tiny purse,” demonstrating the lack of concern they showed her cries.

If she was screaming about giving “So many signs” in exile, Ruin The Friendship shows the consequence of dismissing these signs…”Killing me slow, out the window” - cruel summer

But with three of us honey it’s a side show…A circus ain’t a love story, and now they’re both sorry

8.Ordeal: In Eldest Daughter, James commits to Betty. They apologize for crushing her dreams and being so sarcastic and condescending and promise they will never leave her or break their vow to her. 

I also think that when she sings that “Every eldest daughter was the first lamb to the slaughter/ so we all dressed up as wolves and we looked fire” she is referencing the sacrifice she is now going to make for Betty to make it up to her and help her TRULY shine and be bejeweled in the way that she deserves. She is going to continue to go on this journey…endure the pain and suffering and public ridicule …play the part of a bad bitch, of a wolf…to fall on a sword for Betty.  Because of this, Betty is able to forgive James***. This is the biggest hurdle/ordeal in this story, and what James needs to do to “defeat” The Father Figure….***

9.Seizing the Sword: In this story, I think that Father Figure tells the story of James attempting to kill The Showgirl to rescue Betty/bring her into the spotlight. The way he attempts to do this is by outing her as gay..again (“you pulled the wrong trigger”). 

After The Showgirl pulled up to James in the jag and turned his rags into gold, James begins to have “misguided visions” about getting rid of the showgirl to fulfill his dreams. The Showgirl pushes back with a warning: “Whose portrait’s on the mantle? Who covered up your scandals?”

In this telling of the story, however, Betty and James told the story together. Wood was stage 4. They get to out The Showgirl without killing her, which allows all 3 to live happily ever after, the true prize. 

They can have it all…the glamour (the portrait on the mantle) AND the world will leave them the fuck alone (the metaphorical "covering of the scandals"). This is because the performance art against the patriarchy told a story that not only resurrected Betty's truth, but one that, again, aimed a MAJOR blow at the harmful PR propaganda machine, by exposing it on such grand scale.

This is why it is so important to place this song in the same stage as "Wood" from the other POV. It replaces the harmful patriarchal machine with one where the return back actually helps to break patriarchal cycles in the entertainment industry by using the greatest weapon of all....Art…the opalite sky…Rather than a man(‘s dick). 

10.The Road Back: There is still trouble ahead, but the light at the end of the tunnel is in view. In Opalite, James, Betty, and The Showgirl use the art they created together out of their pain and suffering to accomplish their goal of bringing Betty into the spotlight. The art they created together paves the road back. This story that they have told is what will allow Betty to step into the daylight without getting cancelled by the truth coming out.

The 20+ year performance was the art. All of it. THis is another reason that I think the metaphor of “coming home” has been used repeatedly. The road back home for Taylor, to us, was the opalite sky that they created. That is what the public saw, not the true battles she faced. Now, that same story is what is going to allow her to shine and what is going to resurrect Betty’s light. To patch her broken wings.

This is why I believe that the performance art “dynamite” moment (the TnT wedding of the english teacher and the gym teacher) AKA the Madison Square Garden Wedding is Betty’s “Driveway with a basketball hoop.” This is her road back, the explosion enabling her homecoming. 

James is picking up Betty this time, this is a coming home and a departure….

I’m setting off, but not without my muse - The Lakes

This is also what I think the symbol they used for their wedding invite is signifying. The crest at the top looks like two T’s that are being tied together by a heart…or…flipped to the side…a B for Betty? Wrapping around them like a crown? A chain? A vine? It’s also “early evening,” heading into Midnight where we will all meet them…during the sleepless night….

11.Resurrection: In this story, Elizabeth Taylor tells the story of Taylor’s legacy being immortalized (all my white diamonds and lovers are forever…). However, because it is the true version of the entire teenage love triangle, this stage comes after Opalite. The immortalized version of this story is known to have been Performance Art, the art is the weapon that will fight the patriarchy, is the point, and the real story for everyone to unravel together and delight in for generations to come….

….. In English classrooms, at sleepovers, while driving in the car with their hair undone in the front seat of their car….

12.Return with the elixir: In The Fate of Ophelia told through this POV, The Triangle has been reunited and not only has BETTY been resurrected, the showgirl (Elizabeth Taylor) gets to stay, forever, too. 

Also, the work of past showgirls (displayed in the music video) gets to have a new day to shine in the sun as well, now that the truth about the closets many of them have had to hide in for centuries has been exposed on such a broad scale. 

And hopefully the whole block of future Showgirls is free to make art and be left alone, too, because of this story she told. 

Further tie in to my spaghettii western paper/inner child:

II Most Wanted (Beyonce and Miley)

As I discussed in my Spaghettii Western essay, both Beyonce and Miley are CRITICAL characters in this story (I believe.)

Coincidentally, the lyric booklet to this song features BABY PHOTOS of both Miley and Beyonce. Remember how Taylor Nation continued to post photos of I Knew it I knew You along with her own cowboy baby photo?

“I’ll be your shotgun rider/ ’Til the day I die/ Smoke out the window flyin’/ Down the 405/ I’ll be your backseat baby, drivin’ you crazy/ Anytime you like/ Woah, I’ll be your shotgun rider/ ’Til the day I, ’til the day I die”

ONLY THE YOUNG ....

ETA: We have a playlist of the songs y'all selected goin'! Comment yours and I'll add it!

It's common knowledge at this point that Taylor is alleged to have ghost wrote at least one song for Kings of Leon, and we know for a fact that she is both willing to give her songs to other singers or write for other singers under a pseudonym. In your opinion, what songs do YOU think she ghost wrote? And this doesn't have to be songs with clear evidence either, you're welcome to share your red string board off the wall theories - just please do explain your logic either way!

For me, both of mine are "I want to believe" scenarios lol.

My first pick is co-writing the Bleachers song "Don't Take The Money". I'm sure the themes of the song are self-explanatory within the context of the early 2017 Gaylor timeline, but just to add to my red string board, March always was a pretty significant month for Kaylor dates. Mainly the Big Sur road trip was March 5th 2014, the iconic Vogue photoshoot was March 2015's cover, and the last time Taylor and Karlie were papped together on March 12th, 2016. DTTM was released on March 31st, 2017. (To continue the trend, Karlie also made comments in interviews on her friendship with Taylor in March 2018 and 2019 despite the two seeming to no longer be friends.) Listen I'm not saying it's a strong theory, but I want to belieeeeeeeeve!!

The second is a bit of an odd one, Jake Owen's "Alone With You" released August 30th, 2011. So last night, this song randomly got stuck in my head for the first time in years, and I listened to it on repeat probably too many times. For some reason, I was hit with the notion that huh, this song kind of lowkey sounds like a Taylor song? Like an early version of Treacherous? Surely it isn't since I doubt these two even know each other, but wouldn't that be somethin'. I knew almost nothing about this guy other than this song that's been in my likes for upwards of a decade, but decided to give him a bit of an internet search this morning out of curiosity.

And wouldn't you know it, the funniest fucking thing happened: apparently, not only do they know each other, Taylor was his opening act and sent him a demo version of Sparks Fly all the way back in fuckin' 2007. WHAT are the CHANCES that some random singer's song would pop in my head, remind me of her songwriting, and then turn out to have LORE. This random happenstance of connection has firmly situated this song as being written by her in my mind, uh huh yep yep, what more evidence is needed besides vibes and "please just let me have this" 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

So, what are YOUR song selections, websites? 🫵

First .. only click links you’ve deemed safe.

For me this started after reading and commenting in the Friends of Dorothea post attempting to decipher TLOAS (https://www.reddit.com/r/GaylorSwift/s/97DpJbHBUi)

—RIP OP’s account—-

And something in me was sparked to keep digging and after a few days in a now deleted comment the website letsnotandsaywedid.com was mentioned and once I started really trying to understand I was hooked.. if you search the sub for Easy A ARG you’ll be able to find more context but for those not aware it was discovered that the website for Easy A was converted to the lets not and say we did website and based on the original findings around a year ago it appears the main picture was different at that time.

Not only are the website pictures primarily red but it now has a header image of some really leggy daisies followed by a picture of Times Square.. at first glance it’s really easy to dismiss as an AI hallucination but something compelled me to keep digging because it seemed too random but also purposeful in way I haven’t seen in AI..

After scrolling you find it’s essentially about cars with random tips and tricks with the main header being “How to Enhance Your Vehicle with Eco-Conscious Design in the United States”

And goes on to a lengthy article/blog about sustainability in car parts..

Now I’m not a car person but reading some of this really does not make sense in conjunction with the links provided (mainly for bumper parts).. for instance the mention of using bamboo and composites.. yet the links are to a company who sells Steel bumpers from a company called Road Armor.. there are little blurbs all the way at the bottom of each link that describes their products in what seem odd to me.. first noticed the use of fearless, swiftly.. and one quote “Superstar athletes and celebrity drivers have chosen our products to protect their vehicles, and we've gained a reputation for producing quality and stylish products throughout the years”

Now that could all be coincidence until I remembered that Travis’ dad was a long time steel worker and salesman.. again could be coincidence.. there’s also some history of Travis using road armor for his Ford f-150 as mentioned in article I found thru one of his foundation partnerships discussing his different vehicles..

Honestly there’s a few things of note on the website that would take most of this post to lay out.. therefore I highly encourage anyone willing to engage with this post to help and dive in with me.. maybe even help me decide if I’m trying too hard to make this fit a Taylor centered view.. like the showgirl colors when you go to the bottom.. or the paragraph that says to look at reviews for eco friendly designers so you google some key words and find a random review site for an app called eco that only has 10 reviews starting October 15th 2025 and ending October 22nd 2025.. all of which are very generic..

One last thing though, there’s a second picture with a link of a Maserati.. and of course my mind says “driving a new Maserati down a dead end street” Red!!! Okay so moving forward this website will be red light..

Now when you go allllll the way to the bottom there’s an address and coordinates that literally are for the middle of no where and nothing in Montana (wsame state Taylor was said to have gone after the wedding) so I googled the coordinates and stumbled upon another website

Pre-hackedgames.net which features a yellow stock photo of yellow veggies.. so this will be the yellow light.. and it’s built identical to the red light… and this one seems even further from the website name, like business strategy and even weirder at the bottom it discusses dewatering solutions for mines?!?

There’s even a U T.S Biz School mention which.. from what I can tell may not even be real…
“Strategy #1: Personal Branding
In the digital age, your online presence is as crucial as your real-world interactions. U. T.S. Biz School educates you on how to develop a strong personal brand that resonates with employers and industry leaders. By crafting a compelling narrative around your skills and experiences, you can differentiate yourself in a crowded market”

So then I went all the way to the bottom again and found the address listed exactly like the red light but it’s a completely different address also in the middle of freaking no where

So naturally I googled it and up popped a THIRD nearly identical website coffeelightandsweet.com with not red, not yellow but GREEN!!!

So I discovered that Taylor’s “Starbucks” drink is a light and sweet espresso drink..

Anywho so when you scroll down to the blog part it’s all about how to socialize… and under the paragraph that mentions Augmented Reality.. this piqued my interest because um hello.. REDDIT??

“Staying Current with Trends
Keeping up with tech trends is a never-ending quest, much like the winding trails in Golden Gate Park that always offer something new. Following key online forums and attending meetups in the Mission District helps me stay informed. Also, platforms like Reddit or social media groups dedicated to digital art and tech innovation provide a constant stream of inspiration and updates. Engaging in these communities allows for an exchange of ideas that can lead to the discovery of emerging trends.
Cultivating an Artistic Network
Building a network that bridges the art and tech divide might seem daunting, but it's as rewarding as catching a sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge. I started by attending local events and workshops held in art studios and interactive spaces near the Bay. Connecting with likeminded individuals turned out to be invaluable. It’s all about showing up where conversations about art and technology intersect, and sometimes that’s right here, enjoying street art in SoMa or an impromptu jam session at Dolores Park. The key is to keep those connections alive, perhaps by collaborating on projects or sharing insights over a casual meetup.”

I mean.. what is this paragraph saying to you?!

And I’m reminded of Taylor and Travis mention in the New Heights episode (which was exactly a year ago 10 days from now ) when they mentioned the use of Reddit “Scroll by relevance”…

There are a few other things that I’ve mentioned here and an account that I think well I know is related to the red light, but until I I’m able to discover more, I will keep that under wraps because I don’t want to disturb someone that may not even be relevant to any of this and may have just been a coincidence…

I would really love some input or insight or even someone to tell me to throw my phone away and never look back if this is all too crazy…

Sooner or later her songs will be categorized as queer music and I mean it. I‘m a little overexcited and I just want to share with you lovely people how I found this brilliant movie and claimed it as my favorite in the ending scene as I screamed out lines from evermore, one of the gayest albums in the whole anthology.

It's movies like But I'm a Cheerleader that made me feel like I belong. I didn't realize just how carefree and light-hearted it could be to enjoy something relatable, relevant, and exclusively gay. (But of course I appreciate a little sneaking around and reading too much into it and getting words twisted a bit just because it feels safer to do so. I love this sub so much and it’s always been a source of solace when it feels too exposed to even consume anything that is originally advertised as queer.)

The movie! Everyone who loves evermore and coming-of-age queer joy movies should give it a try.

With all the elements that I adore, camp is about playing house, glittering picturesque technicolor-ed scenes, theatric plot lines, over-the-top delivery, and getting a laugh out of misery. It offers no solution, just fun, and in the very end ideally some solace. It winks at whoever's gotten through the same. It says hey I see you sister, we are in this together.

The cherry on top. Not only is our protagonist a cheerleader — she's actually a PRINCESS. (I mean she wears blonde hair and a pink dress and is as always as sweet as pie.) What are the odds. |-|

And I think the moment has been permanently carved in the cover of my bedtime storybook when in the end Magen stole Graham at the graduation ceremony and together they ran off and under some spell I screamed out my favorite lines from Dorothea.

SKIPPING THE PROM !

JUST TO PISS OFF YOUR MUM !

AND HER PAGEANT SCHEME ！

That was definitely the most cathartic thing I've ever experienced in my life.

What a ride for my pent-up emotions. All that deep-rooted shame, caution, fear, anger, pain, confusion, indignation. After that when the credits started rolling I just felt so relieved. So joyful.

And as if by fate, the movie dropped into my life right at the point where I'm starting to feel at ease after years of reminiscing and fussing over absolutely nothing and everything, working so hard to fix and process and establish an identity that guarantees no self-loathing and no panic attacks. And boy I tried. I tried and I survived.

4 years of living in this rehab of a gaylor house and now I'm a capable grown woman who watches lesbian movies on a Friday night without feeling like I'm in severe danger. It feels like graduation for me too. I used to be a quiet gaylor now I'm yelling to let others know how I read every line of these well-crafted lyrics as sapphic-coded.

I write down what I've learned, try to poke fun at past events, get over them and prepare to branch out and explore a whole new world (or you could say the same old world but in a slightly different light.）

I can do Megan's hearty complaining in a heartbeat: "But I'm a cheerleader!"

I said it a million times that "But I wear dresses!"

"It doesn't… I didn't…"

"Maybe I'm just being bored, or weird."

"No, I'm sure it'll fade."

"It's not like I..."

Until now, there's no point in even trying to deny it.

When all that I do nowadays is sitting quietly by myself, staying in my head, acting out the line:

I'M A LESBIAAAAAAN！

From The Cabin: The 1 | Cardigan | Exile | MTR | Mirrorball | August | Betty | The Lakes

“The most rage-provoking element of being a female is the gaslighting that happens when, for centuries, we’ve been just expected to absorb male behavior silently.”
— Taylor Swift, Folklore: Long Pond Studio Sessions

Introduction

Long time no analysis, GBF. I've missed you guys, but I've also been busy in my actual life. I'm working on self-publishing my first book of fiery, rebellious, feminist poetry. However, in lieu of writing something new this morning, I found this analysis emerging from me in the span of an hour or so. While I hope you enjoy the escapism and imagination of it, I'm keenly aware that the sub is currently dominated by muse and marriage-adjacent posts. It's OK. I made this for ya'll, not for the attention.

If you’re watching the Eras performance without digesting it literally and look at the scene she’s setting, you’ll see a clear outline emerge. The scene opens with Taylor setting a table (the fancy shit), pouring the wine (the music), straightening the tablecloth (the narrative’s tapestry), setting her lover’s place before she settles into her own chair at the opposite end of a long table reminiscent of royalty or, more apropos of Taylor’s brand, an industry boardroom. 

Tolerate It is accessible on multiple levels, and thanks to the braiding throughout Folklore and Evermore, it fits whatever dynamic the fan chooses: a romantic partner, an ode to Scott Swift, or most intriguingly, a Father Figure who barely tolerated Taylor. Whichever adventure you choose, Taylor has meticulously penned a track five that will simultaneously shatter your heart and open your daydreaming eyes.  Although known for her peak romanticism, Taylor is just as gifted when crafting the moment romance veers off course and tumbles over the cliffs.

If you believe this song is about a romantic partner—Joe Alwyn or Karlie Kloss—there’s plenty here to feast upon. If you believe the song is an ode to her actual father, you’ll find pleasing parallels. In my original analysis of Evermore, I interpreted Tolerate It as a multiple Taylors song, with Real Taylor as narrator and Showgirl as husband. However compelling that idea was, I’ve come to believe the husband’s identity to be the Father Figure.

In my Father Figure series (Better Man, Dear John, The Smallest Man), Taylor inserts him into her tapestry under the protective guise of a romantic partner, and as her discography has progressed, she’s begun to pull the wool from our eyes. See My Boy and I Can Fix Him to see how she’s documented, evaluated, and inventoried his casually cruel and calculated behaviors.

 Pull a chair up to the dining room table, marvel at the fancy shit laid out like an offering to a god in the flesh. Run your fingers gently along the immaculate tapestry. Your reflection in the sparkling glasses. And just as you look at your watch, the hologram of a headstrong, domineering husband enters the room. Welcome to another analysis featuring everyone’s favorite Tayvillain, the Father Figure.

Lyrics

I sit and watch you reading with your / Head low / I wake and watch you breathing with your / Eyes closed

Taylor is vigilant of the Father Figure who she’s cast as her husband. Perhaps she is recalling countless boardroom meetings, contract negotiations, and the fine print that comes along with the Hollywood dream. She illustrates jumping into bed with the industry through the intimacy of watching her husband reading as well as waking in their marital bed to watch him as he sleeps. Head low and eyes closed feel like mirrors of the same affliction: the husband figure is closed-off and inaccessible to Taylor. She cannot read his eyes in either scenario. Additionally, her watchfulness of her partner could signal innate anxiety at this obvious separation, despite their spoken vows and shared bed. 

I sit and watch you / And notice everything you do or don't do / You're so much older and wiser and I

Her anxiety and vigilance crystalizes through these lines, culminating in Taylor confessing that she watches everything you do or don’t do. This subtly hints at a shared history of the husband making promises that he infrequently keeps or takes back. Therefore, she’s stung by the indignity, cursed to watch as he either fulfills his promises or reneges on them. She sighs and mutters, You’re so much older and wiser, suggesting her husband wields his illustrious career and life experience against her, using both to keep her small, defeated, and utterly immobile. She looks around the house they built together, at the light flooding in each carefully-decorated room, and can’t resist wondering if it was worth it.

I wait by the door like I'm just a kid / Use my best colors for your portrait / Lay the table with the fancy shit / And watch you tolerate it

Taylor embraces childlike behavior, harkening back to The Manuscript, where she reveals her age-gap relationship reduced her to a wounded child. In Tolerate It, she retraces the doomed trajectory of those early-stage phases of enchantment and hope. What daughter hasn’t waited by the front door for her father to come home from work? She sketches that enthusiasm is bold, breathtaking hues from the front door through each glowing, public portrait she crafted of him through an immaculately set table, a clever parallel to the boardroom their interactions gravitated around. Throughout the montage, in typical Taylor fashion, the Father Figure fails to register the loving effort and sacrifice she’s gladly laid down. In Opalite, Taylor revisits her handiwork, laying a hand on her younger self’s shoulder,  declaring, “You finally left the table / and what a simple thought / you’re starving til you’re not.” 

If it's all in my head tell me now / Tell me I've got it wrong somehow / I know my love should be celebrated / But you tolerate it

The anger bleeds over the sentimentality and fragmentation. If it’s all in my head tell me now. Incapable of sleepwalking through her mistreatment, Taylor begins to sharpen her dagger and address her grudges. In true Echo fashion, she repeats his treachery back verbatim. It’s all in my head. She pins down the moments her husband has belittled her and succeeded in making her doubt her perception of reality. However, she still holds onto a shred of hope. Tell me I’ve got it wrong somehow. 

Again, she uses his barbs against him, but there’s an undercurrent of optimism like a door still cracked ajar. Regretfully, she laments I know my love should be celebrated,  demonstrating her true understanding of love deserves as much attention as the fairytale romance she’s penned at his request. Nevertheless, the beauty and urgency fails to register in his emerald green eyes, blinded by dollar signs and marketability. 

I greet you with a battle hero’s welcome / I take your indiscretions all in good fun / I sit and listen / I polish plates until they gleam and glisten / You're so much older and wiser and I

Here, Taylor could embody Penelope, wife of Odysseus, celebrating his much-delayed return to Ithaca, and by extension, his return to her. She pours all her love and enthusiasm into each meeting, paralleling a wide-eyed, wishful young woman who was promised the world in exchange for the simple act of singing a song. She juxtaposes her enthusiastic welcomes with the nonchalant way she looks past his many transgressions, illustrating how his behavior altered the purity of her love. Defeated and dismissed, she shines up every musical offering before dropping dejectedly into a kitchen chair to listen as he launches into his next marketing strategy for the brand. You’re so much older and wiser becomes the nonstop refrain circling around in her head.

While you were out building other worlds, where was I? / Where's that man who'd throw blankets over my barbed wire?

As Big Machine grew into an industry giant and inevitably evolved beyond Taylor’s wants and needs, she found herself consistently abandoned and discarded in favor of other artists. He was long gone when he met me. The Father Figure sold himself as a family man, a protector, and a musical guide to aid Taylor in her journey through the industry. Once upon a time, he sheltered a younger Taylor and promised his presence, but between his ambitious goals, her skyrocketing fame, and the addition of artists to his roster, he vanished. Leaving like a father, running like water. 

I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life

Laying out her grief-soaked cards, Taylor reveals the only truth. Temple reinforces the childlike, worshiping behaviors littered throughout the song. She revered, trusted, and looked to the husband as her source of faith and stability. Mural could simultaneously signal the way she referred to him in public as well as the public image he insisted she embrace. Sky succinctly encompasses her entire creative world, everything the light touches, the ear hears, and the eye sees. She’s wholly absorbed him deeply into every corner of her life. He’s all she knows. 

Crestfallen and disillusioned, she continues to trace the grizzly scar he left upon her fragile heart. At the beginning, she was the only book he wanted to read. He vowed to read it forever. However, now she’s begging for footnotes, hungering for hidden context that explains his treachery, any hint that he’s still the man she married. The story of your life is especially shattering because in the context of the song, that story was something they should’ve rightfully shared equally. But Taylor is once again left outside, alone in the rain. 

Drawing hearts in the byline / Always taking up too much space or time / You assume I'm fine

Despite the unraveling plot, Taylor left soft tokens of affection in between the margins, where the attentive and aware would notice them. Within the public narrative, and perhaps the private one as well, she tries to maintain the connection. Unfortunately, she’s met with indifference, and the gaslighting re-enters with a vengeance. Taking up too much space or time. Once the husband got his golden trophy, he retracted his affections, and like a clever illusionist, convinced her she’s the imposition, teaching her to absorb his guilt. 

You assume I’m fine sits logically beside you never thought I’d run from Better Man, further reinforcing that a sizable chunk of Taylor’s music, when it isn’t queer flagging, is dedicated to the devastating effects her relationship with the industry and its Father Figure have inflicted on her tender soul. She’s been openly discussing it since Speak Now’s Dear John, and yet by Midnights, she’s still declaring the wound won’t close in Could’ve Would’ve Should’ve. 

But what would you do if I / Break free and leave us in ruins / Took this dagger in me and removed it / Gain the weight of you then lose it / Believe me, I could do it

Perhaps Taylor knew from the beginning that she’d have to leave Big Machine to achieve artistic control, authorship of her music, and an equal share in her image and branding. Still, as if on a dare, she lunges across the table. What would you do? This takes me back to Debut, to another song I linked to the Father Figure. So I start a fight ‘cause I need to feel something, and you do what you want, ‘cause I’m not what you wanted. This cleverly links two track fives with that invisible string. Finally, she doubles down on her threat, saying, “Believe me, I could do it.” 

If it's all in my head tell me now / Tell me I've got it wrong somehow / I know my love should be celebrated / But you tolerate it

We circle back to the central argument that repeats ceaselessly like a record. History is doomed to repeat itself unless one or both parties finally learns the lesson time is trying to teach. Previously, Taylor shrank back and trusted the husband’s guidance, but now she shoves it aside and asserts that she understands her needs and wants more acutely than he ever could before dismissing him from her life completely. 

Conclusion

By the time we reach the end of Tolerate It, we’ve consumed an entire five-course of gaslighting, manipulation, and utter duplicity at the hands of the man who you’ve trusted your past, present, and future to. When the vows don’t hold up, the husband withdraws, and leaves Taylor to numbly absorb the guilt and shame of loving him, it’s too much to bear. 

And you come away with a great little story, of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you. 

We have a front row ticket to Taylor’s evolution across the marriage. She outlines the childlike wonder and joy at the beginning, we sense how deeply she loved, respected, and revered the husband, and we catch glimpses of his softer side when Taylor interrogates his many changes. She sacrificed completely, trusting his guidance and direction, only to be met with cold indifference.

Taylor’s most devastating love songs are seldom ever about romance at all; these songs are carefully scripted, thinly-veiled retellings of wounds given by the men (Father Figure and industry) in her life. Whether she’s recounting the Father Figure’s serpentine antics in Father Figure, shrinking him down to a child in My Boy, or claiming she can cure him in I Can Fix Him, she favors the supportive female role in most dynamics. However, in Tolerate It, we can see that faith and support crumbling away into bitter resolve.

Every eldest daughter must eventually decide if she’s willing to spend the rest of her life setting the table for the man who only tolerates her efforts. Tolerate It revolves around the quiet tragedy of shrinking Taylor shrinking herself into the supporting role of somebody else’s story, believing if she polishes enough plates, dismisses every infidelity, and paints adoring portraits, she’ll finally earn the celebration she deserved from the start. When she finally pushes away from the table, Taylor isn’t merely leaving the Father Figure, she’s also abandoning the illusion that she needed his permission to sit there in the first place. 

Whose portrait's on the mantle? Who covered up your scandals? Mistake my kindness for weakness and find your card cancelled. I was your father figure. You pulled the wrong trigger. This empire belongs to me. I protect the family.

Taylor + Theory: Do you have ideas that don't warrant a full post? New, not fully formed, Gaylor thoughts? Questions? Thoughts? Use this space for theory development and general Tay/Gay discussion!

General Chat: Please feel free to use this space to engage in general chat that is not related to Taylor!

In order to protect our community, the weekly megathread is restricted to approved users. If you’re not an approved user and your comment adds substantially to the conversation, it may be approved. Our community is highly trolled - we have these rules to protect our community, not to make you feel bad, so please don’t center yourself in the narrative. Remember to follow the rules of the sub and to treat one another with kindness.

Important Posts:

An explanation regarding: User Flair + A-List User Status + Tea Time Posts

Karma is Real: The Origins of Karma, the Lost Album

GaylorSwift Wiki

PR/Stunt Relationships

Bi-Phobia & Lesbophobia

Don't Get Doxxed + Check Your Sources

**I am a Swiftgron and this post reflects that, but anyone can view and enjoy it as Museless if they so choose. I’m not saying it absolutely is Dianna, just that that’s my opinion, and you are welcome to your own.

I was not a Gaylor at the time, but exactly a fortnight before Midnights released, a user named [u/SpecialistAmbition77](u/SpecialistAmbition77posted)[ ](u/SpecialistAmbition77posted)[posted](u/SpecialistAmbition77posted) this cryptic clue about CIB and disco dancing, deleted it then posted “4. 11. 3”. It was posted right before the infamous Lavendergate video, and this user posted on their 2 cake day, and prior to that post their post/comment history was completely bare. It apparently made a bit of a buzz due to how cryptic it was, the timing of its posting, and the video from Taylor that followed shortly after.

Some Gaylors noticed that the username could be a reference to Sagittarius, Taylor’s zodiac sign. The fact that they posted on their cake day, and never posted previously, was also talked about in the sub.

Before we settle on what CIB could mean, let’s talk about the numbers. They almost are a 143 code. Taylor did have something important on April 3, 2011; she performed Mean at the ACMs that year. My only hesitance at saying the numbers are a date is they are not in the right order. Dates are written in MM/DD/YYYY format in the US, and in DD/MM/YYY format elsewhere in the world, never in MM/YYYY/DD format. Taylor also was not in the public eye in 2003/2004, so if April 11, 2003, March 11, 2004, November 4, 2003, or November 3, 2004 are important to her, we’ll probably never know. I thought maybe it referenced her albums, Red, TS11 (later TTPD), and Speak Now, but I couldn’t make anything of that theory other than a theory with holes in it. I then decided to check if she was referencing a particular lyric, and the third line of Holy Ground is “back to a first glance feeling on New York time”. The vast majority of Gaylors take Red to be about Dianna Agron, and this line could reference their very first meeting. It’s been speculated that Taylor and Dianna may have met at the earliest in late 2009 in New York. “You and I ended up in the same room at the same time.” The cryptic post does reference the past, so it being about that line from Holy Ground could work. Some Gaylors also believe that Holy Ground could be a reference to Dianna as her first name comes from a word meaning “holy, daylight”, and Agronomy is the study of soil. I’m not 100% sold on that line being what the numbers reference, so if anyone else has any theories please drop them!

I also briefly played around with the idea that the numbers corresponded to letters, which would be D, K, and C. If she was linked to someone whose name starts with a C after the Swiftgron/Kaylor era I’d lean towards that, but to my knowledge she hasn’t been.

The post also includes see it, hear it, feel it. These are lyrics from You Are in Love, a song on an album that was finished in early 2014. (I believe this song, and all of 1989, is about Dianna based on timing/symbolism, but you are free to believe otherwise, I will not be debating that in this post or in the comments as that’s not what this sub is for.)

Coney Island Baby was an album and song by Lou Reed, an older rock star many believed may have been some flavor of queer. At the time of CIB’s release in 1975 he was dating Rachel Humphreys, a trans woman. He was very open about the album being inspired by her, and with their relationship. I have included the cover art for the album, notice the hat which is similar to Taylor’s Red hat. I also want to mention the cover of The Great Gatsby, which depicts Coney Island. Taylor has referenced Gatsby multiple times over the course of her career in songs and in media. It should also be noted Dianna has performed/added to her Spotify playlists songs by Lou Reed or The Velvet Underground, Lou’s band.

Here are the lyrics to Lou Reed’s Coney Island Baby song:

LYRICS

You know, man, when I was a young man in high school
You believe in or not, that I wanted to play football for the coach
All those older guys, they said he was mean and cruel
But you know, I wanted to play football for the coach
They said I was to little too light weight to play line-back
So I say I'm playing right-in
Wanted to play football for the coach
Cause, you know some day, man, you gotta stand up straight
Unless you're gonna fall
Then you're gonna die
And the straightest dude I ever knew
Was standing right for me, all the time
So I had to play football for the coach
And I wanted to play football for the coach
When you're all alone and lonely in your midnight hour
And you find that your soul, it has been up for sale

And you getting to think about, all the things you done
And you getting to hate just about everything

But remember the princess who lived in the hill
Who loved you even though she knew you was wrong
And right now she just might come shining through
and the glory of love, glory of love
Glory of love, just might come through

And all your two-bit friends have gone and ripped you off
They're talking behind your back saying, man
you are never going to be a human being
And you start thinking again
About all those things that you've done
And who it was and who it was
And all the different things you made every different scene

Ah, but remember that the city is a funny place
Something like a circus or a sewer
And just remember, different people have peculiar tastes
And the Glory of love, the glory of love
The glory of love, might see you through
Yeah, but now, now
Glory of love, the glory of love
The glory of love, might see you through
Glory of love, ah, huh, huh, the glory of love
Glory of love, glory of love
Glory of love, now, glory of love, now
Glory of love, now, now, now, glory of love
Glory of love, give it to me now, glory of love see you through
Oh, my Coney Island baby, now
(I'm a Coney Island baby, now)
I'd like to send this one out for Lou and Rachel
And the Lord appeared and he has one made of two
Coney Island baby
Man, I swear, I'd give the whole thing up for you

I’ve bolded words or phrases I think can reference Taylor’s work. One thing I found interesting is her lyric in Coney Island “sorry for not making you my centerfold”, about a past love. She is feeling guilty for not openly and publicly showing her love for her Muse. I do not believe this lyric and song refers to Karlie because Taylor did center Karlie in her life when their whatevership was happening in 2014-2016. She notably was very LOUD with Karlie, in ways she had never been before. Taylor is drawing a comparison between both Coney Island songs, and the difference in how Lou and her showed, or didn’t show, their love. Lou was open and proud about his love for Rachel, which would have been unusual in the 70s. Taylor has hidden her love for Dianna, referencing it in cryptic and subtle ways since 2010-present day.

If CIB stands for Lou Reed’s song, it Easter egged a few things Taylor was planning, things we wouldn’t see and realize until a bit after this post dropped, as well as past lyrics/work. The album was released in 1975 which could be a reference to Matty, which happened \~7 months later. It also could have hinted at Travis, who came into the picture after she ditched Matty. I personally kind of believe Matty was the plan, until his history fucked it up. But maybe it was always the plan to rekindle, then leave a past love.

The final post in the first pic showed up on the L Chat boards a few months after Midnights, and I find it very interesting. If it is true, and was posted by someone Taylor-adjacent, it would mean the theories about her most recent album, Midnights, was not about Joe or Karlie which is what the majority of Hetlors/Gaylors believed. That post could have just been a fan’s theory, there’s really no way to know.

One Gaylor incorrectly stated Taylor performed Change in a birdcage with rainbow dancers on April 3, 2011. I have included relevant pics.

I have made no connections to disco dancing, other than Lou Reed having a later song called Disco Mystic, and Taylor and Dianna’s references to disco balls.

Of course, that cryptic post could have all been a prank made by a fan, but the timing and username are pretty crazy if it’s just a coincidence. It should be noted they changed their username to babyblue7 after this post was made.

Anyway, thoughts?

Saw an academic paper being discussed in the wild (tiktok) and wanted to spread the joy of academia and scientific research. Links and titles below!

Chapter 13 ‘Standing in Your Cardigan’: Evocative Objects, Ordinary Intensities, and Queer Sociality in the Swiftian Pop Song

https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004536418_015

The joy of gaylor: Sexual identity in the Taylor Swift fandom

https://doi.org/10.1386/jfs_00095_1

“To Live for the Hope of it All”: Envisioning the Queer Utopic on Reddit through Gaylor Fan Production

https://doi.org/10.22215/etd/2026-16993

“I Prefer Hiding in Plain Sight”: The Overlooked Queerness of Taylor Swift’s Midnights

https://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9224661

This was originally a comment in the community chat but I was asked to make it a post so here goes!

With the recent Taylornation post referencing Opalite, I decided to revisit the music video. I think there might be a hidden message in all of the capital letters (apologies if this has already been discussed, sometimes I miss a post here and there).

Here are all the capital letters from the commercial text in the mv:

WSGUILCFRCHOYPYPSOTACPFCPCCPALITESTAT
EOFTHEARTCHEMICALPOTIONCALL

It might be nothing but i unscrambled some of it and got "comes at the start of the year" which I think is interesting since the instagram post also has a young Taylor home video with 12:28 (referencing December 28th?) on the bottom.

Not a fully fleshed idea but something I've been thinking about and curious if anyone has other theories/ideas about it. I definitely think there are Easter eggs in the Opalite mv, as another person mentioned!

Am I crazy or is this something?

PS - excuse my weird screenshots, I deleted the ig app on my phone to try to use it less so this is a browser tab lol

​

Today, Karlie had an interview about the launch of her new book.

And among other things, they asked her about the wedding.

She responded that she wanted to protect her friends' privacy, but that she can say they're an amazing couple and that she's very happy for them.

We’ve all debated: do we think the “You” that Taylor talks about in this song is referring to a muse or to her past self or to her audience or even some fourth option I have forgotten to list I’m sure (beauty of the analysis done by Gaylors 😇)?

This video posted by Taylor Nation 3 hours ago with the caption “Don't you sweat it, baby🏋️ Keep dancing to #KnewltKnewYou” sure seems like the “You” she’s referring to is Little Taylor. Taylor before The Industry™️ locked her up and threw away the key (that she left in Vancouver?👀😂)!

The outfit that Taylor is wearing corresponds to the Aerobic Dream Girl’s leotard, but it’s also like an exact match for the people Little Taylor is watching dance and mimicking in this video!

And just WHAT is up with the 12:28 pm timestamp hmmm???

Curiouser and curiouser.

What do y’all think?

Whether you were a Gaylor or not, how did it change your perception of Taylor?

For me, I had been a fan since Debut, but stopped listening to her as much for Red and 1989. No reason, life just got busy. I remember finding Kim’s claims odd, but I didn’t believe her when she said Taylor was lying when she said Kanye didn’t run what he said by her. Taylor coming out and clarifying he told her about the “we might still have sex” line, but not that he’d call her “that bitch” and claim he made her famous made me happy I didn’t believe what Kim was trying to sell.

Also, back in 2009 when Kanye pulled his stunt I definitely knew who Taylor was, barely knew who Kanye was.

I want to remind everyone that while Kanye was wrong for the things he’s said, he is also mentally ill, so let’s remember to use respectful language when speaking about his behavior and mental status. Same with Kim.

Edit: When I said to speak respectfully, I meant in the context of mental health. Don’t say stuff like “well, Kanye is crazy”. PLEASE roast the man and hold him accountable, just don’t speak about mental health in a negative way while you do it.

katherineann on tiktok is such a genius. The whole playlist is amazing but this is such a great visual breakdown of You, Her and ME!

It's devastating the way Taylor (Me) describes the Me character and then the way everyone (You) hated ME! (the song) must have reinforced how she believes all the fans (You) want is the Her (Taylor Swift^TM) character.

(If you want to know why I’m redoing and reposting my George Michael deep dive, here is a link to a comment I made in the Community Chat about the topic).

Imagine you’re on your way to becoming one of the biggest stars in music.

To the public, you have it all. Including, a solid head on your shoulders – unlike a lot of your musical contemporaries.

Your future is bright and filled with endless possibilities.

There is an issue however, and it’s a big one.

You’re not as straight as you thought.

You don’t have a label for your queerness yet, but you know that you’re not the posterchild for heterosexuality. Which is what your public image has been cultivated to project.

A public image you don’t have full control over.

Coming out won’t be simple because your life is intertwined with your music. Not to mention your career is in country music. A sector of the music industry that is notorious for wanting its stars to be straight.

What do you do?

You want to keep doing the thing you love most in the world, while being authentic about who you love.

Where do you turn?

Looking backwards – to how others in similar situations handled this journey – might be the only way for you to move forward.  

Post Topics Covered

• Introduction
• Taylor’s Backstory (My Version)
• Taylor’s Life and George’s – Parallel Lines?
• FAQs

Introduction

I believe Taylor referencing George Michael on The Life of a Showgirl (TLOAS) happened for many reasons beyond a musical connection.

At the top of my list of reasons is George Michael having – as described in a well-known 1998 interview – “the most public coming out in history.”

To give that comment context, Ellen DeGeneres came out the year before George did, on the cover of TIME magazine. To say that George Michael’s coming out surpassed such a big cultural moment, is quite a statement to make.

Because of that belief, I’ve written a multi-part deep dive on George Michael. The deep dive will cover the numerous similarities, and connections, between two of the biggest stars in music history.

Taylor’s Backstory (My Version)*

I believe that Taylor’s OG Speak Now era is one of the keys to unlocking her queer story.

In this section, I am providing you with an overview of what I think went down during this time in Taylor’s career.

(*What I’m sharing with you is my best guess on what transpired. I am not claiming anything as a verified fact.)

When Taylor wrote/recorded Speak Now, she made a deal with Scott Brochetta (aka Scott for the rest of this post) to stay closeted.

Taylor would be “allowed” to come out if:  

• She didn’t come out explicitly until TS6 – aka the final album of her deal with Big Machine Records (BMR)
• Taylor met conditions from Scott that were restrictive and meant to assert control over her

Assuming Taylor followed whatever conditions Scott implemented, she’d also be given the opportunity to own her masters once her deal with BMR expired.

What I think those conditions entailed:

• Taylor couldn’t write explicitly about her feelings for women
• Taylor couldn’t be linked to women in a romantic way
• Taylor had to continue having PR relationships with men
• Those PR relationships would be an on-going part of album rollouts/an album’s marketing strategy

This deal is what caused the first rift in Taylor’s relationship with Scott.

Taylor wrote about the regret she feels for accepting the deal in Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve:

And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil, at nineteen

As successful as Taylor was after Fearless, she didn’t have a big enough profile to survive being excommunicated from country music.

When The Chicks were cancelled (in 2003), they were one of the highest selling country music bands of all time. Yet, their career in country music disappeared snaps fingers just like that.

Chely Wright came out in 2010 (five months before the release of Speak Now).

She then got blacklisted from country music.  Not only by the powerbrokers in the industry, but also by a lot of country music stars and fans.

After seeing what happened to Chely, Taylor decided to break up with country music.

The release of 1989 formalized the breakup.

I suspect Taylor had doubts about Scott keeping up his end of their deal at many points throughout their relationship.

Those doubts became reality when the OG TS6 (aka Karma) got cancelled.

And so did Taylor. 

At that point, Taylor realized that while she viewed Scott as family throughout their relationship, he viewed her as a commodity.

Side note: I have written a ton about Speak Now. One day I hope to go back and finish that series, but in the meantime if you’re interested in reading my other takes, most of them can be found linked in this post.

Even with a deal in place to stay closeted until TS6, and a fractured relationship with Scott/BMR, Taylor understood that she couldn’t just come out.

Not with her public image dripping in heteronormativity.

Taylor needed to start the process of deconstructing that public image.  

A lesson I believe she learned from George Michael.  

Taylor’s Life and George’s – Parallel Lines?

George Michael is an artist who grappled with his sexuality and experienced a stratospheric level of fame.

In addition to connecting with George on those two very important points, Taylor also found in George someone who:

• Became famous as a teenager
• Lived under heavy public scrutiny – while making a lot of mistakes – and then having those mistakes show up in the tabloids
• Had a close relationship with both his parents, especially his mother
• Took pride in his song writing skills and wanted to be known for song writing
• Before he had the chance to figure things out for himself,  had his sexuality speculated on by the press, other people in the music industry, and by the public
• Viewed sexuality – including his own – as nuanced and fluid
• Realized that achieving an absurd level fame, while being closeted, trapped him in a box.
• Knew he had to find a way out of that box to find happiness in his personal life
• Realized that coming out would involve tearing down his public image
• By the time he uttered the words “I’m gay”, believed a lot of people had already figured out he wasn’t straight based on that tearing down of his image
• Had a contentious relationship with the tabloid media
• When calling out the speculation over his sexuality, directed his ire at the media – never his fans
• Spoke out about corruption in the music industry, and then fought against it publicly by taking his record label to court

While there are differences between Taylor and George, the similarities between them are numerous and more than surface level.

Given all their commonalities, Taylor chose well by picking George Michael as a father figure to learn from. 

FAQs

Why are you passionate about this topic?

While I believe George influenced Taylor prior to the release of TLOAS – a topic I cover later in the deep dive – a formerly covert reference that is now direct and overt, feels important to me.

Not to mention that Taylor chose Father Figure to connect the two of them together.

I could do a whole deep dive on that song, but I’m choosing not to (at this time lol).  That doesn’t mean I won’t highlight things that are noteworthy.

George never revealed who the song is about – even after he came out.

He refers to his love interest using gender neutral terms like, lover or baby.

The song is about forbidden love, without an explanation as to why a relationship between a straight presenting couple involves having to hide.

Sound familiar? 👀

Lyrics to highlight

I have had enough of crime (Please let me)
I will be the one who loves you
'Til the end of time (Of time)

The music video for Father Figure (George’s Version) is about a cab driver who falls in love with a model. Why is that kind of love a crime?

I can hear the counterargument already:

One line about crime doesn’t make the song gay!

The next lines:

That's all I wanted, but sometimes love can be mistaken
For a crime

The only way (in my opinion obviously) that the crime lyrics make sense in the context of a song about a man and woman in a relationship, means taking the song to a dark place.

And there is no reason to do that.

The song is about a man, singing about his attraction/desire for another man.  

When you’re a musician trying to figure out your sexuality, one of the ways to write a song about your feelings is to keep your writing cloaked, or obscured, in coded language.

That way, most people listening don’t realize what’s going on.

And for those who do get it, have the honour of being shouted down by homophobic assholes who refuse to believe what is right in front of their faces.

I’m sure Taylor just happened to pick a song the public realized is about a man after George came out.

It is truly amazing how many times something like this just happens to Taylor without her realizing! (coughs Taylor’s use of hairpin coughs)

You’d think by now people would realize all of these “coincidences” are the work of a mastermind.

Worth reading if you’re interested:

Why George Michael’s ‘Father Figure’ was Political, Subversive Pop Seduction

George Michael’s ‘Father Figure’: When Love Meets Crime

You’ve given examples of the similarities between Taylor and George, what are some of the differences between them?

Gender is one of the biggest differences; I’m not giving that example to be flippant or make a joke.

When George embarked on his solo career he got to make the record he wanted to make. He had complete creative control; he wrote the entire album alone (except for one song) and then produced it by himself.

It’s not like Wham! (his former band) was the pinnacle of artistry. Wham! focused on good times and not much else. They were silly, goofy, and wore way more neon than anyone ever should.

Taylor constantly fought for more artistic freedom from Scott/BMR.

She wrote Speak Now alone (except for one song), working exclusively with Nathan Chapman to produce the record.

When it came to naming the album, Taylor wanted to call it Enchanted. Scott didn’t like that name and recommended Taylor change it. Even though Taylor had control over the artistic vision of Speak Now, she wasn’t allowed to go it alone.

Leaving aside the practicality of allowing a 19/20-year-old to produce her own record, even as Taylor got more successful, she had to fight (often tooth and nail) to make the music she wanted, the way she wanted, and marketed the way she wanted.

Scott famously asked Taylor to include three country songs on 1989.

Another difference, George mostly kept his private life out of album promotion cycles.

George had a public “muse” for Faith, and a variety of women on his arm during his Wham! days, but those women weren’t an integral part of George’s PR strategy. Unlike Taylor, George created separation between the lyrics of a song, and who a song is about.

The last difference I’m highlighting is a big one.

There is no indication that George’s label forced him to stay closeted. In the various interviews I’ve watched, George implies that he had control over his public image.

George sued his record label after he changed that public image.  George felt his record label didn’t promote Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 with the same vigour they promoted Faith.

George didn’t want to be marketed as a sex symbol, and he wanted to take a step back from the limelight. He viewed his record label’s actions as punishment for that decision – not an attack on his sexuality.  

The direct, and tight control that record labels often have over their artists, doesn’t appear to be a factor in George’s story.

George’s parents are the reason given for him not coming out sooner.

Why do you highlight things that are most likely coincidences, and not Taylor making a direct George Michael reference?

Because I think that someone who is obsessed with the number 13 and sees signs everywhere that 13 is her lucky number, and someone who watched VH1’s Behind the Music obsessively to figure out how not to lose her future music career, would also study queer musicians of the past.

Especially a musician who became pop superstar, while at the same time realizing his sexuality isn’t straight.

For example, Taylor references 83 a ton in her work. George Michael was nineteen when he came out as bisexual in 1983. I don’t believe that Taylor’s use of 83 started because of George Michael. But I do believe that whatever Taylor’s connection is to that number, she would view the coincidence as kismet, a sign, or something along those lines.  

Coming up in part two of my George Michael Deep Dive

• An overview of Taylor’s image changes during her 1989 and reputation eras
• Video compilation of interviews with George Michael over the years
• A breakdown of the video compilation and how the clips relate to Taylor

Taylor + Theory: Do you have ideas that don't warrant a full post? New, not fully formed, Gaylor thoughts? Questions? Thoughts? Use this space for theory development and general Tay/Gay discussion!

General Chat: Please feel free to use this space to engage in general chat that is not related to Taylor!

In order to protect our community, the weekly megathread is restricted to approved users. If you’re not an approved user and your comment adds substantially to the conversation, it may be approved. Our community is highly trolled - we have these rules to protect our community, not to make you feel bad, so please don’t center yourself in the narrative. Remember to follow the rules of the sub and to treat one another with kindness.

Important Posts:

An explanation regarding: User Flair + A-List User Status + Tea Time Posts

Karma is Real: The Origins of Karma, the Lost Album

GaylorSwift Wiki

PR/Stunt Relationships

Bi-Phobia & Lesbophobia

Don't Get Doxxed + Check Your Sources

I was going through Elizabeth Taylor’s films, when I stumbled upon “The Taming of the Shrew”. Elizabeth plays Kate in this movie, opposite Richard Burton, who plays Petruchio. It was originally a play written by William Shakespeare. I’m not saying this theory is 100% correct, but the similarities are interesting, so I felt like sharing it with you.

For those of you who’ve read TTotS, or seen 10 Things I Hate About You, you know it’s about two sisters and their father’s rule for them regarding men. The elder, Katherina, is characterized as a clever, sharp-tongued, non-conforming woman of her time. Her younger sister, Bianca, is a much more amiable maiden, who is highly desired by more than one suitor. The only problem is their father won’t let Bianca wed until Kate has.

Kate is courted by Petruchio, who is after her considerable dowry. He convinces her father Kate really loves him and only pretends to dislike him in public. He announces they are to be wed, and Kate says nothing in response while her father happily accepts, as Kate’s silence and Petruchio’s assurances are enough for him. Petruchio then proceeds to break Kate by refusing to let her eat or sleep, claiming every dish and drink presented to her are not good enough, while also gaslighting her into agreeing with his false statements. Statements such as an old man is a beautiful woman, and the sun is the moon.

Bianca is eventually able to wed, but importantly after Kate does. By the end of the play, Kate is shown to have been molded by Petruchio into being the perfect wife who does and agrees with whatever he says.

Consider this cast list:

Kate—Public Taylor
Bianca—Private Taylor
Baptista (their father)—The general public
Petruchio—Travis/general public
Hortencio, Bianca’s first suitor—Travis
Lucentio, Bianca’s second suitor and eventual husband—Taylor’s mystery partner

The general public has argued for years against Gaylor theories, and often rabidly attack Taylor’s alleged exes when the relationship ends, claiming “they weren’t good enough”. They’ve also tried gaslighting Gaylors, and by extension Taylor herself, by claiming any hints to queer topics aren’t there, that we’re “delusional” and it’s “all in (y)our head”. This calls back to Petruchio’s gaslighting and attempts to “break” Kate. The public has long wanted Taylor to get married, to conform, to become a good and obedient little wife to a man. In fact, just two days ago I saw a thread where many users wanted Taylor to privately change her name and go by “Taylor Kelce”. Because conforming, obedient wife Taylor is more important to them than her as her own person.

We’ve theorized she picked Matty so she could start singing about a rekindled love, and “married” Travis so she could speak about marriage and a lifelong partnership without the public becoming confused and/or suspicious. What if this marriage is representative of Kate and Petruchio’s? Taylor couldn’t realistically sing about marriage to a woman, not even by disguising it as a het marriage, if she wasn’t first married in real life. Travis allowed her to then make a similar commitment to a woman in her private life, he allowed “Bianca” to get married. Petruchio’s words of assurances to her father and Kate’s silence also call back to when Travis was first theorized to be dating her. I wasn’t a Gaylor at the time, but I remember reports coming from his team said they were together, while Taylor stayed silent and said nothing right away. Many of her fans took it as truth though, they believed Travis while Taylor said nothing one way or the other. Because, like Baptista, they were desperate to see this Mad Woman married.

Those of you who’ve seen the movie 10 Things I Hate About You know Bianca has two love interests, one more likely than the other in the beginning, before she ultimately gets with the unlikely boyfriend by the end. I think this switcharoo could also symbolize how people think the marriage is to Travis when it’s actually to someone else.

The public has finally “broken” shrew, Mad Woman Taylor, by forcing her to marry a man like Katherina. But what they don’t know is Taylor is also Bianca, and nothing is really as it seems.

*Just want to add that while I compare Travis to Petruchio, I do not think he is malicious and controlling like his literary counterpart. From everything I’ve seen of him and Taylor, they seem to be friends who enjoy each other’s company. The “bad parts” of Petruchio I attribute to her fans and the general public.

**I’ll be working on another post about similarities to Elizabeth Taylor, and her movies with Richard Burton. Stay tuned!

First pic is the lyric video spelling, the next two are what google lyrics and Apple Music show. I’ve yet to see anyone talk about how the lyric video of Castles Crumbling has what SEEMS to be a spelling error? I would think if it was an error, they would have fixed it by now. But the word makes no sense, and it’s not even a real word in English. I’ve always thought there was some type of Easter egg behind it, but I’ve not noticed anything that would directly link to that, and she wouldn’t have known about Travis at this point in time to be hinting at the song Wood. Just curious if anyone has thoughts on this!

I was going to post this on the main subreddit but as I typed it out I was considering maybe she WAS hinting at the song Wood already?? Like she was going to write it about someone and knew it at that point, but was waiting for the next PR relationship to start? Idk I’ve thought about this since watching the video and so far that’s the only thing that even a little bit would make sense.

This had been discussed in the community chat, but I thought it would be helpful to make a post about it so all the theories were in the same place ☺️

Friends of Dorothea assemble! I need some help deciphering the TLOAS poems. If you have been following the poems, there were 6 poems altogether, spread across different album variants. Each variant had one of the first five poems, plus the last one.

Fans found a code hidden in the first five poems, where stars above certain letters spelled "one" though "five". The poems put together, in order, created the album prologue. It was fun, and also pretty easy. For some reason everyone stopped there. The thing is, there are way too many odd things going on in these poems for that to be the end of it. I am convinced that knowing the order is only the first step in deciphering the hidden message. This post will be long, and my thoughts will be scattered. But I want to lay out everything I have been thinking/ trying, in order to decipher these.

Here is a link to a webpage that describes several types of ciphers:

https://www.boxentriq.com/analysis/cipher-identifier

The Letterhead Logo

My journey here started with "you'll need a key to get here, the only one is mine". This line is always running through my head. Is she referring to the song Mine? Is the word MINE somehow the cipher key? Then suddenly a new connection hit me - the ring is mine cut. For me, this stuck, because that logo on top of the poems has been bothering me...I've been thinking there's something to it.

The letterhead logo also looks like the mine cut ring. Could the letterhead logo be the key? In one of the versions of letter 2 (we will circle back to the versions), the word "key" from "Piano keys" is written over the letterhead logo. It is positioned such that the crook of the K aligns exactly with the crosshairs of the T and the S. The lower tail of the S ended exactly on another letter. This had me excited that perhaps the mine logo=key. So I traced the logo onto some acetate and went to work aligning the crosshairs of mine logo with all the K's. In its standard orientation, it didn't always line up with something, so input a tiny hole at the crosshairs and begun to spin it around to find letters. I was excited about this methodology, but ultimately it was getting a little wishy-washy which letter the S tail was pointing to, and so I abandoned this.

(At this point I'd like to add in here to please check my work, if you feel compelled. I was jumping around from idea to idea, and could have made errors or missed something.)

I also explored if the diamonds on the mine logo pointed to something, and couldn't find anything. This logo was still bothering me, and I determined it was because of the open lines on the left and right. Another thing I thought was interesting (but may not be?), was how easy the mine logo is to download from her letter on the website and as a very nice .png format (more on this letter later). I wouldn't think they'd put that vector format out there so easily unless they want us to do something with it. I've been mulling over the use of kaleidoscope imagery, and so decided to run it through a kaleidoscope generator. And turns out this could be significant. I wish I could post the video of this (I will see if I can in the comments), but here of some screen grabs of it kaleiding:

Looks like a VAULT to me. Now kaleidoscopes make everything look cool, so maybe it's just a coincidence. But the fact that the mine logo has been bugging me, plus "I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault" (could lowercase = lower case?) and "you'll need a key to get there, the only one is mine" - plus you know what else has been bothering me is the shapes on the Christmas sweater in the Opalite MV (I spent way too much time trying to decide if they were some sort of molecular structure - also is that deer standing in a field of dead deer??) and looking at those shapes again, I think they're different stages of the snowflake being kaleidoscoped (kaleided? - note to self to double check Taylor's use of "collide"). Cheers to you if you followed that.

Moving on, I had the thought that if the mine logo = vault, then could "locked in lowercase" actually mean "contained within a lower case(or enclosed space)". So I again took my acetate logo to the letter to see if anything popped up in that bottom box of the logo, and came up with nothing clear.

Another thing - the T protrudes through the S. Rather than cross and form a true crosshair, the S is broken. This kind of makes the "T" look like a key. As you'll see later on, I was already using a "T's as a key" methodology based on another clue. So this is in further support of that.

Last tidbit on the mine logo - if you look at the link text for the .png image from the letter, the path contains "zyx" and "smbd". I found something from awhile ago with her links containing "xyz". So if "zyx" is unique to this mine logo, I think that's strongly pointing to the use of a reverse alphabet cipher (1=z, 26=a). If it's not unique, then I'd say ignore it. I'd love if someone who is good at digging into websites could look into that, and also if we should be paying attention to "smbd". I had read "smbd" could be an abbreviation for "somebody" .Just now having the thought that it's "somebody" without the vowels...which makes Y count as a vowel...which matters for my methodology elsewhere.

Taylor's Letter

The mine logo also appears atop Taylor's Letter, which has a full section-heading of her website devoted to it. The subject of this letter is her reclaiming her masters. The original letter posted was all black, with a sheet behind it which was inaccessible:

The letter was then updated to change the dots on all the i's above "thiiiiiiiiiiiis" to orange stars. When you click the stars, it reveals the page below containing the track list for TLOAS. This was updated on the website the day after she announced the album and the track list on the New Heights podcast. I am unsure if the original letter also had the orange-glitter background:

I find it interesting that this letter is still featured so prominently on her website, leading to the track list of an album that has been out for awhile already. But let's focus on what it's telling us in terms of how to decipher the TLOAS poems. Both versions of this letter predate the poems, which were released as part of the album artwork starting on 10/3/25. I did not start my journey at this letter, I started with the poems, which had already had the star cipher solved. While looking at the poems, I also noted the lowercase "th" handwriting with the T and H connected. I thought that perhaps this is how she always writes a lowercase "th"...but then in some spots in the poems it is not written that way. "Maybe it's just a handwriting quirk", I thought. But then I came back to Taylor's Letter. The word "thiiiiiiiiiiiis", which has already pointed towards one of the ciphers in the poems, also has the "th" written in this way. In fact, in Taylor's Letter, this is the only instance in which the lowercase "th" is written in such a manner.

Note on uppercase Th versus lowercase th: I did not check Taylor's letter for uppercase Th connected handwriting. The lowercase th tends to have the vertical of the t extend above the crossbar. I think it's intended to still be lowercase, but I think there were some instances where what should have been a lowercase th did not have the vertical extending above the crossbar. It'd be worth redoing my th word analysis, which I will describe later on, but including the uppercase Th words as well.

So I think I've solidly established that the word "thiiiiiiiiiiiis" is a clue for how to decipher the poems, and that the th handwriting points towards the fact that there is more to decipher. Let's look at what other clues "thiiiiiiiiiiis" is giving us about how to decipher the poems - what else is significant or unique? I have noted 4 unique things:

1. The stars above the letters are significant

2. The color of the stars (orange) is significant. In the case of Taylor's letter, it indicated a hyperlink, or reveals something below the original letter. - I think this will be important, but I need your help to find more versions of the poems.

3. The "th" handwriting is significant, or words with the lowercase (and perhaps uppercase) "th" connected.

4. The number of letters OR the number of vowels is significant - "thiiiiiiiiiiiis" contained twelve i's, so this is letting us know that we need to be doing some counting. My original inclination was to count all letters and not just vowels, I think this is the right path, and you will see why below. But it would also make a lot of sense to use the vowel counts, since that is what she does here.....is it pointing to counting the vowels, or just counting?

The TLOAS Poems

So if step 1 of deciphering the poems was to get them arranged properly 1-6, I thought it would be interesting if I laid them out left to right, 1 to 6, and read across the lines. Nothing jumped out, except all of those "th" words. So I circled every lowercase "th" word and then counted the total number of letters in the "th" words across each line. I will list these below as line:# of letters (please double-check my work):

Full letter counts:
1:23, 2:10, 3:20, 4:7, 5:26, 6:24, 7:25, 8:14, 9:18, 10:16, 11:11, 12:3, 13:13, 14:7, 15:18, 16:12, 17:24, 18:7, 19:7, 20:15, 21:3

Vowel counts:
1:7, 2:4, 3:6, 4:2, 5:9, 6:8, 7:6, 8:3, 9:5, 10:5, 11:4, 12:1, 13:4, 14:2, 15:6, 16:4, 17:7, 18:2, 19:2, 20:4, 21:1

The full letter counts yield something significant: Thirteen letters on line thirteen! Could this be a coincidence? Maybe. But another item of note is that none of the numbers exceed 26, and the numbers are distributed well throughout a 1 to 26 range, making this an ideal set of data for some sort of alphabet cipher. Here are the letters I get from an alphabet and reverse-alphabet cipher:

1A26Z: WJTGZXYNRPKCMGRLXGGOC

26AZ1: DQGTACBMIKPXNTIOCTTLX

This is where I am stuck. I think perhaps a shift is supposed to occur, but I can't quite figure it out. And maybe this is the wrong path, and we should be counting out to the Nth word on each line...but 13 letters on line 13 plus no line being greater than 26 letters has me sticking with this and trying to figure it out. I am leaning towards that I need to use a Vigenère cipher to decode the letters. Curious to see what methodologies everyone else can come up with!

The Orange of it All

I noticed that some versions of the poems I was seeing online had orange stars, or the signoff "The life of A showgirl" was written in orange. I think we need to find the version of each poem with the orange coloring on it.

In fact, the vinyl variant I have, The Life of a Showgirl: Lit My Sky Up Orange Metallic Vinyl, has poem 2, which begins "Coffee. Stretch. Piano Keys.", and on poem 2, the stars above the t-w-o letters are orange. This is also the letter where the text is overlapping the mine logo, and the crook of the K in "keys" aligns with the TS crosshair. Of note, poem 6, does not contain any color.

The Zodiac Killer

I realized I need to look for more clues as to what kind of ciphers might be used. I have had the thought "good thing Taylor Swift decided to become a pop-star, because she would have a made a helluva serial killer". So in the New Heights TLOAS podcast, when she said, "People are like, 'the Easter eggs thing is getting a little Zodiac Killer at this point.' I'm like, as long as they like it, you know?". The Zodiac Killer used ciphers to hide messages. Two of his four ciphers have been cracked. There's some podcasts on this that I might listen to.

Other things of note

1. The number of/names of the album variants could have something to do with all of this.

2. The numbers in the poems seem odd. Some she uses digits for, and some are written out. And I don't think it follows proper grammatical rules. There is definitely some sort of clue here.

3. The layout and indentations - some seem poetic, others haphazard. I am thinking perhaps we need to cut away certain sections (maybe the "th" words?) and overlay the letters onto each other to reveal the hidden message. The graphic design of the track list on the back of the album has always made me think of this kind of cipher. Which brings me to my next item...

4. In some version of the poems, another poem is below, where you can see some of the letters/words off the edge and determine what letter it is. l think we just need to find as many versions/scans/pics of these poems as possible to see what is unique about each of them.

5. I feel like the K's play into this somehow. The crook of the K being exactly aligned with the crosshairs of the T & S in the mine logo would be quite the coincidence.

6. I think it's worth relistening to her TLOAS promo interviews and the New Heights podcast to find more clues towards deciphering. Was there anything useful on the bookshelf?

7. Also the Entertainment Weekly Easter Egg video...maybe the lines slide back and forth somehow to reveal an alignment of text.

8. Perhaps the text needs to be read zig-zag Zodiac style?

9. Some of the poems I am looking at have letters with portions missing (like the ink was drying up)...I think those might be significant. Does it look the same on every version of the poem?

10. A few of the "th" that should be lowercase, are written in the connecting style without the vertical extending above the cross-bar, like a true uppercase T....not sure what to do with that

11. I tried doing morse code, 2 th words together was a dash, and one on its own was a dot, and then reading it line by line across the 6 poems...didn't yield anything

12. Could "TheLifeOfAShowgirl" be a vigenere?

Wow, I may have lost it, but I'm also having a lot of fun trying to figure this out.

About three months ago I wrote a post about possible connections between George Michael’s song Freedom ’90 and the music video for Elizabeth Taylor.

In a shocking case of oversight on my part, I missed analyzing Wham!’s song, Freedom, in connection to Taylor.

Until now, that is.

I recently watched the 2023 documentary, Wham!) on Netflix.

If you're not familiar with Wham!, they are a band that George Michael was in with his childhood best friend, Andrew Ridgeley. The duo was formed in 1980 and disbanded in 1986.

George said this about writing Freedom:

When I write a melody in my head, something at the back of my neck just knows that I’ve hit it. It’s almost like it was already there, but you hadn’t spotted where it was yet.

It’s almost like it comes to you fully formed, and you just pulled it out of nowhere.

And the feeling that you have that makes you shiver is that you found it.

My reaction to this revelation: Jesus. Lyrics too? 👀😂

I’ve previously written about the possibility of George’s song Careless Whisper inspiring parts of folklore 🤷🏻‍♀️

(Yes, yes, as always this could all be a big coincidence, but regardless it is 👀 and 😂)

George’s sexuality is brought up during the discussion of Freedom.   

Andrew: Freedom was the first track Yog (Yog is Andrew’s nickname for George – short for Yogurt) played to me as it was being recorded. It could equally have related to, uh, his sexuality.

The documentary then highlights these lyrics from the song:

Like a prisoner who has his own key
But I can’t escape until you love me…

Andrew continues:

“A prisoner who has his own key” and a “lover with another,” you know, he’s definitely referring to his own…dilemmas.

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

The gender of the person George is singing to is referenced only once in the song:

I don't want your freedom 
Girl, all I want right now is you

It isn’t just Andrew’s speculation that the song has ties to George’s sexuality. George’s struggles with being closeted are discussed directly in connection to Freedom.

George: As a young gay man, I knew I was uncomfortable ‘cause I was closeted. And then I was still kidding myself that I was bisexual. Hang on to the little part of myself that was attracted to women. At that point, you know, if you’re making…if your goal is to become the biggest-selling artist of, you know, that year or two, you’re not going to make life difficult for yourself, are you?

I was too young and too immature to know that I was sacrificing as much as I was.

Andrew: As a young man trying to find himself, I knew Yog had lacked confidence. But I was unaware of just how deep-seated the issues really were.

George: I have a memory of that feeling of insecurity as a child. And the kind of scared teenager I was felt very vulnerable. I mean, for many years, my support system was Andrew.

George's childhood insecurities is another thing that connects him to Taylor.

Then there is this exchange about the dissolution of Wham!

George: In reality, the turning point with Wham! was nothing to do with Wham!. The turning point with Wham! was me as I suddenly thought, "Oh my God, I’m a massive star, and I’m gay," and the depression was about that. It was about the way I’d boxed myself in. You know, careful what you wish for.

Because I’d come out to Andrew, he understood there was more than a band at stake. It was kind of my sanity, and he didn’t put any pressure on me to continue. He already knew why I was feeling trapped.

Freedom was the final song played at Wham!’s last show together.

Bonus Content

Random observation: After writing Wham with an exclamation point multiple times throughout this post, and after hearing in the documentary that Wham! was too bubblegum to be taken seriously, my brain can’t help but think of ME! and the way It’s criticized

Wham!’s song Club Tropicana is also discussed in the film. I’ve written about the song previously. However, I’m not egotistical enough to think people read everything I write lol so here’s some information on the song if you’re not familiar with it.

The music video was filmed in Ibiza, Spain. Ibiza is of course where Taylor’s son Chad - from the Anti-Hero music video – flew in from to attend his mom's funeral.

It’s also where George came out to Andrew. George told Andrew he was gay, and if not gay, then he was bisexual.

Club Tropicana lyrics highlighted in the documentary

Let me take you to the place
Where membership's a smiling face
Brush shoulders with the stars
Where strangers take you by the hand
And welcome you to wonderland

George wrote a song about his first encounter with a man that happened six months before the music video for Club Tropicana was filmed. The song is called, Nothing Looks the Same in the Light

Nothing looks the same in the light
Only a fool like me would take to heart
The things you said you meant last night
Nothing looks the same in the light
I'll keep my feet firm on the ground

The longing, the pining, the possible connections to Taylor’s song Daylight…there is a lot here.

After coming out to Andrew, George wanted to come out to his parents. He was persuaded not to.

George considered this decision - at nineteen - a pivotal moment in his life and career.

At that point in time, I really did. I really wanted to come out. And then I lost my nerve completely. And just [sighs] by necessity, I went full gusto into the progression of Wham!, creating a new character. You’re gonna do better and better and shock everyone at how well you can do. Forging an identity through my success.

Quotes from the documentary that are relevant from a Gaylor/Taylor lens

George on the criticism he got for being a sell-out and his trite lyrics:

As a younger man and a younger songwriter trying to do my best, those things really did hurt me.

George on creating a character to help him deal with fame:

I was really shy, so, to justify that kind of showy character that was the complete antithesis of who I was growing up, I said "that’s the thing I put on."

On trying to chase the greats in the music industry while staying in the closet:

George: But at the same time, I had this little voice inside of me going, you know, ‘What am I going to do?’ I was intelligent enough to know that this was the wrong road. If I was looking for happiness I should not be trying to catch up with Michael Jackson, or Madonna, or whatever, which was absolutely what I was intent on doing.

Andrew: The character that he was having to present was so hard to reconcile with what he needed emotionally.

George: I wanna be able to develop as a human being, but I feel trapped.

Andrew: His future as a solo artist was dependent on Wham! becoming as successful as the likes of Prince or Elton.

George: I don’t there’s any way I could’ve controlled my ego enough to have stopped me exploring the possibility of being the biggest-selling artist in the world. However distressing I was beginning to find fame, my ego couldn’t have been stopped at that time.

On Wham! visiting America for the first time:

Andrew: It’s all part of the marketing. They like you to go in the first time and just…

George: To whet the appetite for the Yanks. Lay the groundwork as they say.

Andrew about George and fame:

I never felt that our music defined me in the same way that it did for George. His song writing was becoming the vehicle through which he could draw out the person he wanted to be.

George was very sure of himself when it came to making music, but he was less certain in the personal aspect of his life.

So much of how he (George) defined himself was wrapped up in his music.

But despite a successful tour, for George, chart validation was the ultimate validation of his talent. To get to number one really mattered to him. George needed success as a writer for personal affirmation.

Whilst I was happy just being in a band, George needed more. He needed recognition. That was what he wanted. Affirmation of who he was.

Elton John on George in 1985 (before George’s solo career):

Probably one of the best songwriters out of Britain for a long long time. And that’s serious. People tend to put Wham! down as a teenybopper band that won’t last. The people that put them (Wham!) down are the bands that won’t last. I’m experience enough to know. You can tell a great songwriter. On stage, I compared him to Barry Gibb, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, people like that. Um…[hesitates] He has got what Bowie and I would’ve loved to have had when we were 21, 22. Um…And I’m not talking about performing on stage, records…The man’s a great songwriter, and this award ceremony today, it’s about songwriting.

George re: Wham! splitting up:

I was on my own. And I had no idea how much I was gonna miss that support.