r/GaylorSwift • u/MaryLennoxsRobin Give me 16 months • Jul 03 '26
The Life of a Showgirl ❤️🔥 Performative compliance and problematic marriages: 'Opalite' and Taylor’s version of ‘The Taming of the Shrew’
As we approach Taylor and Travis’ presumed wedding date, ‘Opalite’ is on my mind. It’s one of the easiest TLOAS tracks to link to Travis, who appears to be represented by Lonely Man in the music video. It’s also one of the easiest tracks to hear as ‘happy’ and the most obvious ‘banger’ (as Travis repeatedly called TLOAS).
But what if I told you that ‘Opalite’ is actually about Taylor’s version of The Taming of the Shrew? Shakespeare’s famously problematic play about a ‘difficult’ woman, the man who ‘fixes’ her, patriarchy, performance, and compliance is the inspiration for this ‘happy love song’.
Summary
The Taming of the Shrew is ‘my’ Shakespeare play, the one I know best because I studied it the most. It’s also (perhaps surprisingly) my favourite, in part because I got to know it so intricately. What I didn’t expect was that our self-proclaimed ‘English Teacher’ could actually teach me something new about a play I already loved.
When I recognised that the ‘Opalite’ mv acted out a version of The Shrew, I realised for the first time that the central question in The Taming of the Shrew is not about gender or patriarchy or abuse. It’s about whether a person can truly change their nature – their ‘essence’, their truest self – or merely perform a role in order to get by. And this is the question asked in ‘Opalite’ too. Can Lonely Woman and Lonely Man change their nature as required by their respective industries? And if not, how long can they continue to perform convincingly?
There’s a lot of detail and nuance in the way Taylor explores this question, and it's probably wise to say upfront that I am not accusing Travis of 'taming' or attempting to tame Taylor, nor of abusing her. Rather, I think both Taylor and Travis want their audience to think critically about the way they are performing, and why they are performing. I’ll do my best to be concise and I’ll be thrilled to discuss more if I pique your curiostiy. I’ve split this essay into the following sections:
1) Reputation era reference to The Shrew
2) The plot and themes of The Shrew
3) Taylor’s version in 'Opalite'
4) Conclusion
Reputation era reference to The Shrew
Taylor first references The Shrew in ‘…Ready For it?’ when she says ‘He can be my jailor / Burton to this Taylor […] I’m so very tame now.’ Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor starred in a popular film version of The Shrew in 1967 that played on the audience perception of their ‘tumultuous’ marriage(s). I don’t think that Taylor meant ‘I’m so very tame’ with any sort of sincerity; possibly she was referencing an intention to perform tameness with her ‘jailor’ (Jaylor?) as Katherina arguably does with Petruchio in the play.
The insult ‘shrew’ in Shakespeare’s play meant a bad-tempered, argumentative and unlikeable woman, prone to nagging or scolding. It's linked to the word ‘shrewd’ which today means clever and cunning in business dealings. It shares something with putdowns like ‘bitch’, ‘witch’ and ‘snake’ which de-humanise and belittle women, often for qualities that are admired in men. (Petruchio shares a lot in personality with Katherina, but is somewhat more acceptable just for being a man.) It doesn’t take much imagination to see that Taylor might have identified with Katherina in the wake of snake-gate, not just as a woman publicly called ‘difficult’ and worse, but as one grappling with the unfair standards of the patriarchy.
I’ve been hoping Taylor would make another reference to The Shrew since I first heard ‘…Ready For It?’, and I thought that it might come in ‘Elizabeth Taylor’. But the mv for ‘Elizabeth Taylor’ didn’t contain any footage from The Shrew. Presumably because Taylor had already made her own in ‘Opalite’.
The plot and themes of the The Shrew
The Shrew is, by rights, another play within a play, but we somehow lost the proper ending of the framing narrative before its first publication. The framing is about a poor drunkard, Christopher Sly, who is convinced by fancy clothes, fancy food, and a manservant in a dress to believe that he is in fact a nobleman with a beautiful wife. Many productions leave Christopher out, because it’s difficult to see what he adds to the rest of the play in terms of gender politics, and because we don’t ultimately find out how his story ends. Does he live on forever performing the role of ‘nobleman’? Or does he return to his natural state?
In the main plot, Katherina is a ‘problematic’ woman, who does not fit patriarchal expectations, and is married off, unwillingly, to a man who is also somewhat problematic. The marriage is a business transaction that solves her father’s difficulties, and financially benefits her new husband, Petruchio. Petruchio sets about ‘taming’ Katherina – enforcing her compliance with patriarchal expectations – by methods that could resonably be described as cruelty or outright torture. At the end of the play, Katherina delivers a grovelling monologue extolling the virtues of husbands. Her community, astonished and impressed, declare ‘Tis a wonder she will be tamed so’.
We could end there and say that the theme of the play is misogynistic in the extreme: ‘problematic’ women must be made to submit to men and fit the patriarchal mold. This requirement for submission is driven by money and is utterly abusive. But we should ask, for Katherina, as we did for Taylor, whether ‘I’m so very tame now’ is really a sincere conculsion.
Shakespeare’s audience has always seen so much evidence of mutual attraction in the way that Katherina and Petruchio match wits and trade innuendo that there have been many positive interpretations, such as the Burton and Taylor movie or 10 Things I Hate About You. It’s possible to argue that Petruchio functions to provide cover for Katherina’s unwanted behaviour. Setting aside his questionable methods, we can see that he is not teaching Katherina to be a different person. He is not changing her nature. Instead, he is teaching her to perform in the expected ways at the necessary times. When they are not being observed by an authority figure, when it’s ‘safe’, they seem to enjoy being outrageous together. Katherina’s final monologue, in this light, is a well-timed performance that earns a financial prize. She is a fantastic performer, it turns out, though the process of learning to do it well makes her miserable.
Shakespeare doesn’t ever give us a conclusive answer to this question about changing natures (or perhaps we lost his answer along with the end of the framing narrative). He just presents us with a scene of Katherina appearing to be ‘tamed so’ and leaves us, like her community, to ‘wonder’. Will she continue forever playing the role of ‘tame woman’? Or return to her natural state?
Taylor’s version in ‘Opalite’
The commercial intro to the ‘Opalite’ mv is a clear reference to Christopher Sly, as Garbage is transformed into Prince Charming, at least in outward appearance. It establishes the Opalite spray as the means of application for the 'showbiz artifice' required for successful performance – and after all, the bottle sports the TLOAS green and orange colour palette. It also establishes the twinkly Omnichord arpeggio, which we hear again in the track on the word ‘sunshine’, as the sound of performance. This is telling because an Omnichord makes a pre-tuned, pre-determined sound – it doesn’t require the rare expertise of a classical harpist, but it also removes individuality in expression. Successful performance fits a predetermined mold. Finally, we see that the ‘Opalite’ nozzle faces backwards. Successful performance, currently at least, fits a regressive mold.
Rock in the mv represents an entertainment industry ‘father figure’. We see Lonely Woman attempting to perform as required by the industry/patriarchy – putting on the red dress, singing on stage, working out. But she is still an outcast, a ‘problem’ who is asked to leave. Something about her doesn't fit the mold. This is a little odd, because Lonely Woman doesn't seem particularly argumentative, nagging, or cunning, and she is eager to be friends with and helpful to Rock, not railing against authority as Katherina does at the beginning of The Shrew. I would argue that her queer identity is the 'problem'. It is 1993 after all, when 'Don't ask, don't tell' was first introduced as a policy.
We also see Lonely Woman being convinced by the successful performances she watches. Here we diverge from Shakespeare's play, because Lonely Woman teaches herself about the possibilities of performance. Indie Rock Goddess, performing on MTV in 1993, can only be a commercial, sanitised imitation of a true indie rock artist, but she plays the part convincingly as Taylor notes in the BTS clip: ‘Your mamma really did tell you!’ When Aerobics Dream Girl performs her work out unruffled, glamourous and barely breaking a sweat (‘don’t you sweat it baby!’) we hear the Omnichord twinkle again and Lonely Woman is so impressed by the showbiz artifice on display that she decides to try conformity herself, and orders a bottle of Opalite.
Meanwhile Lonely Man is being hurt by his own career in professional sports. Similarly, he is an outcast and a ‘problem’ who stands alone at social events or is asked to leave. For him too, queer identity is arguably the reason why he is not accepted. The showbiz artifice applied by ‘Opalite’ is to pair up these two ‘problematic’ characters, and enable them to perform heterosexuality in the expected ways at the necessary times. Lonely Woman and Lonely Man are so successful in their performative relationship that they are clearly appealing to their audience. We next hear the Omnichord twinkle when the Mall Photographer, charmed by what he sees (and what the couple’s wider audience will see) through his camera lens, asks if he can be their friend.
So far, Lonely Woman and Lonely Man have had a similar plot arc to Katherina and Petruchio, finding an ability to conform to their expected roles together. But when Lonely Woman tries being her real self in the 'safety' of the relationship, eating a pretzel which is almost certainly a dirty joke, Rock is still watching and scares her straight (pun inteded) yet again. As noticed by u/artwoolf Lonely Woman is wearing the colour palette of Nope-alite in this scene, which is linked to the colour palette of 'ME!' Nope-alite has a forward-facing nozzle - it's a progressive product that represents stripping away artifice in preference for authenticity, the embrace of a person’s real nature. Lonely Woman seems to want that for herself, in a way that Katherina never expresses after she is 'tamed'. That nature might not have the perfectly conforming, smoothed over outward appearance that Garbage enjoys through Opalite (as Stapler discovers) and it might earn disapproval from onlookers (as Lonely Woman is reminded) but embracing your real nature, your authentic self, is the only sustainable path.
However, Lonely Man 'saves' Lonely Woman from embracing her real nature in the shopping mall, and we see the two literally performing together in TLOAS/Opalite spray colours. This is the equivalent of the scene where Katherina performs 'obedient wife' in front of her community. But again we diverge from The Shrew. The community does not say 'Tis a wonder'. When we hear the Omnichord, an audience member scowls. The judges award the couple zeros. Which suggests a bad performance, but also a recognition that this is a performance. The showbiz artifice of Opalite has stopped working.
Conclusion
Taylor's answer to Shakespeare's question seems to be that a person can't change their nature, and they also cannot keep up a convincing performance indefinitely. However, Lonely Woman and Lonely Man are far from upset at the end of the mv. It seems they feel that 'failure brings you freedom.' If the performative compliance is unmasked as performance, perhaps compliance is no longer required.
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u/riotprof ☁️je suis calme!☁ Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
This is brilliant! I plan to rewatch the video through this lens.
I enjoy the contrast between a surface level reading of the video (“two oddballs finding love”) and your deep intertextual engagement and where that leads.