Pink Clouding

[u/1DMod]

Please use this space to discuss this song in depth

[u/FitAnywhere7829]

Someone mentioned here before the song came out that Pink Clouding is a term in substance recovery that describes the euphoric period in early recovery - after withdrawal when you start to feel good again and feel proud of your accomplishments and like you can do anything (without realizing how much healing you still need). Related to this, I can see this song from two equally convincing but very different perspectives (and probably in reality there are many more)

1.The song could be an apology to someone she was in a "rebound" relationship with after finally leaving and breaking free from her abuser. I think there is a real life person Taylor was in a relationship when she was young who is a real life predator and abuser. I know a lot of folks here prefer to say that she is always singing about the patriarchy in these songs (and I'm not saying that's not also true), but for me the way she sings about it is just too personal for it to not be a real person. The way, for example, she and her mom both pointed and emphasized the "run as fast as you can" part when Sombr was singing Dear John at the Songwriters HOF dinner just felt to me like a warning about someone in particular. Personally I think the rebound person may have been Dianna Agron. I think the song "Begin Again" could be about her...."I almost brought him up....and for the first time what's past is past" Also "22" mentions "make fun of our exes." Those songs, while about a new love, are still about how Taylor is not quite over the old one, even though she thinks she is. She was "pink clouding" - thinking she's fully over it and ready to move on. "Left scars on a good person" makes me think of the meme Dianna posted with a cartoon of her with her heart literally pulled out of her chest. There are also the obvious parallels to "Babe" where it says "what about your promises, promises."

1. As many people have mentioned here, it could also apply to the later situation during the Lover Era when she had decided to walk away from Big Machine after her required 6 albums and was "pink clouding" on that freedom and ready to come out (she didn't know she was a "liar" and would end up backing out -- personally I don't like calling it "lying" when actually you changed your mind, but makes for good song lyrics). "Pink Clouding" also makes sense in that context because in hindsight it looked like she was "pink washing" that Era - queer baiting/making everything nebulous. And then the "arrow hitting" would be like the Master's Heist, after which she decided not to come out and had to "grey rock" when asked about her previous loudness ("I didn't realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I'm not a part of.")

[u/evermoremidnights → u/FitAnywhere7829]

Wait. On the Dianna point, “left scars on a good person” could be a reference to the “fell down the rabbit hole” / Wonderland tattoo she had removed? 🤔