#fucking invasive the same thing you hate the other people doing to taylor's life and not to remind you that you have zero fucking clue of

[chappellrroan]

people who still hate Joe Alwyn need to get a life asap

[jakeperalta]

Hi. I’m interacting non-anonymously in what I hope is a show of good faith, and I hope you’ll treat me the same. This is gonna be long, forgive me.

The majority of current kaylors is young queer people. They’re minors. I take issue with the previous message suggesting that they just need to realize not everything has to be gay to be enjoyed because?? No. It’s not on them. That’s not the point. The point is that these young people have been manipulated into believing a conspiratorial narrative because they are vulnerable - manipulated by these horrible older straight women who are taking advantage of them. I’ve read at least three different stories from minors who, when they realized there’s no way kaylor is real, broke down in some capacity. Blaming fifteen year olds who feel so desperately alone and thus fall for a conspiracy is simply not helpful. It actually makes it worse, because all you’re doing (general you) is isolating them from other people and other points of view, which just means this kaylor community is even more essential for them. Let’s call out the people taking advantage of them!! (These are also people who have outed minors to their families.)

Secondly, I think it’s important to recognize that thinking Taylor Swift is gay is *not* the same thing as harassing her, being invasive, not respecting her privacy, etc. there are people who are absolutely fine with doing that, and that’s fucked up, I’m not arguing that. This is where I hope you’ll treat me kindly and not mock me: I don’t think Taylor Swift is straight. I’m a gaylor. But I think she’s gay in the same way that I think Walt Whitman is gay - there is queer coding in their lyrics and poetry respectively. Believe it or not, it’s not actually creepy to say “hey.... dude.... this sounds really gay.” It’s not invasive to point out literary themes. And no, it’s actually not a sad way to spend my time. Like, it’s my time first of all, and second of all if analyzing lyrics and imagery brings me delight, that’s pretty great. I can do that, and I do do that, without harassing anyone. It’s not the same.

Thirdly, talking about “hey, Taylor used rainbow motifs constantly in the lover era.... gay question mark????” is also not the same as invading her privacy, because it is something she publicly did. It wasn’t some kind of plane tracking shit or harassing the Alwyns, it was a whole ass music video that she purposefully put out. And looking at that, talking about that kind of symbolism, is also not hurting anyone. Conspiracy blogs believe Taylor is lurking, secretly watching kaylors, sending them anons encouraging them, but... Taylor doesn’t. She has a life. So my (and my friends’, who are equally logical) measly blog is not something she cares about. It doesn’t harm her for people to question her sexuality - like, basically every celebrity in her generation at this point has capitalized on queer fans seeing themselves in them. She doesn’t care what we say on our own. It doesn’t actively hurt her for me to make a gifset of lyrics I think are gay lmao. And I want to say that none of us like... bother taylor or anyone else irl. obviously!!

Finally (and I really do apologize for the length of this), the fact that there are people who believe that karlie has a fake baby and her real baby is in hiding, that karlie has faked her conversion, that joe alwyn isn’t the love of taylor’s life, that karlie and taylor are married, and my absolute favorite, that karlie kloss is a double agent spying on the kushners for the FBI.... it’s funny, you know? It’s humorous. Except it also isn’t, because it’s absolutely disgusting. It’s creepy, it’s horrific, it represents the worst in our culture. My argument is not that this isn’t despicable, because it fucking is. But I believe that there is nuance here.

I used to hate all gaylors. I made fun of them. And it wasn’t thinking Taylor’s gay that made me change my attitude. It was realizing that conspiracy theories only survive when there is a power imbalance. Someone holds the power, and they should be toppled. They should be shattered like marbled statues. But not everyone holds the power.

this is all very polite so honestly no offence but I'm just not invested enough in any of this to to into depth so I'll just sum up my thoughts:

I know a lot tinhatters are minors and I've only ever spoken about the concept, I don't call out individuals

I've never said that saying she's gay is the same as harassing her but I think both are weird just on different levels

we can explore her lyrics from a literary analysis standpoint without turning into theories on her private life

[the-desolated-quill]

Quill’s Swill - The Worst Of 2019

Congratulations! You’ve made it through another year! You’ve faced many obstacles and overcome many adversaries to arrive here, at the dawn of a new decade. So as we prepare to leave the 2010s and make our way into the 2020s, lets take a look back at the challenges and hardships of 2019. And by challenges and hardships, I of course mean shitty fiction and media.

Yes, it’s time for yet another edition of Quill’s Swill, where we mark the absolute worst stories that the industry had to offer over the past year and proceed to tear them to shreds. Think of it as like voiding your bowels before the New Year.

As always remember that this is my personal, subjective opinion. If you happen to like any of the things on this list, that’s fine. More power to you. Go make your own list. Also bear in mind I haven’t seen everything 2019 has to offer due to various other commitments. So as much as I really, really want to, I can’t put Avengers Endgame on here. I know what happens. It sounds fucking terrible, but I haven’t seen the film, so it wouldn’t be fair of me to put it on the list, even though it would most definitely deserve it.

...

Seriously, read the synopsis of Endgame on Wikipedia some time. It’s like fanfic written by a nine year old. It’s truly shocking. And now it’s the highest grossing movie of all time? Give me strength.

All In A Row

Don’t you just hate it when you’re expected to parent your autistic child? Like actually show love and care and consideration to your offspring. Look at him, expecting you to treat him like a human being. Selfish bastard! If only there was a play that explored the horrors of having to be a decent person to your own flesh and blood and how objectively awful it is. If you’re one of those people, then the play All In A Row will be right up your street.

Premiering on the 14th February at Southwark Playhouse in London, All In A Row was a total shitshow to say the least. The playwright, Alex Oates, claimed to have ten years of experience working with autistic children, which you wouldn’t have believed if you saw the play as the autistic child at the centre of the play, Lawrence, seemed more like a wild animal than a person. In fact two of the main characters compare him to a dog. And if you thought this wasn’t dehumanising enough, Lawrence isn’t even a child. He’s a puppet. Yes, it’s as bad as it sounds.

All In A Row seems to place all of the blame for the family’s predicament on the autistic child, who’s presented as barely functional, bordering on bestial. There’s no effort to really make an emotional connection with Lawrence (how can you? He’s a puppet!) as the play instead focuses on how this kid has effectively ruined this family’s life because of his autism and aggressive behaviour. Speaking as someone on the autism spectrum, I can say quite confidently that this play is fucking despicable. Badly written, badly conceived, insulting and downright mean spirited. I wouldn’t want Oates looking after my autistic children, that’s for damn sure.

Anthem

EA is back and this time they’re dragging the critical darling that is BioWare down with them.

Anthem was a desperate attempt to jump aboard the ‘live service’ bandwagon, trying to replicate the success of other video games like Overwatch, Destiny and Warframe. They failed spectacularly. The game itself had more bugs than A Bug’s Life, loot drops were often stingy and unrewarding, loading times were farcically long, and the story and worldbuilding was fucking pitiful. Oh yeah, and if you played it on PS4, there was a good chance it could permanently damage it. Thankfully I have a uni friend with an Xbox One and they allowed me to play the game on that. It was a crushing disappointment, especially coming fresh off the heels of Mass Effect Andromeda, which didn’t exactly set the world on fire back in 2017.

It didn’t help that EA’s reputation was in tatters thanks to the lootbox controversy of Star Wars Battlefront II and having to try and win back the trust of fans, but worse still reports began to service of what went on behind the scenes at BioWare during the game’s development. Apparently the game’s story and mechanics kept changing every other day as the creative directors and writers didn’t have the faintest idea what kind of game they wanted to make, and the developers were often forced to work obscenely long work hours in abusive crunch periods to get the game finished for launch. It got so bad that, according to an article on Kotaku, some members of the team had to leave for weeks or even months at a time to recover from ‘stress casualties.’ 

To think this was the same company that gave us Mass Effect, Dragon Age and Knights Of The Old Republic. Thank God that Obsidian Entertainment is there to pick up the slack on the RPG front because I think it’s safe to assume that BioWare won’t be around for much longer at this rate.

The Lion King (2019 remake)

Here we go. Yet another live action remake of a Disney classic. Excpet it’s not live action, is it? Well... it’s live action in the sense that Dinosaur was live action (remember that film? Don’t worry if you don’t. No one does). Real locations but CGI characters. Millions of dollars spent on cutting edge tech to create photo realistic animals... and the film ends up duller than a bowl of porridge that really likes trainspotting.

It’s not just the fact that The Lion King remake is yet another soulless cash grab from the House of Mouse, it’s also the fact that it’s done really badly that upsets me. The Lion King works as an animated film. Bright colourful images, over the top song and dance sequences and vibrant character designs. As a ‘live action’ film, it just looks awkward and stilted. None of the animals are very expressive, leaving it up to the poor voice actors to carry the film, and to cap it all off the CGI isn’t even all that convincing in my opinion. At no point did I look at Simba and go ‘oh yeah, he looks like a real lion.’ It’s so obviously fake. In fact it reminds me of those early 00s movies like Cats & Dogs or Stuart Little where you see the jaws of the talking animals moving up and down like some messed up ventriloquist act or something. And here’s me thinking cinema has evolved past this.

BBC’s The War Of The Worlds

Remember Peter Harness? That guy who wrote that Doctor Who episode about the moon being an egg? Yeah, he’s back and he’s doing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War Of The Worlds. And guess what! It’s fucking ghastly! :D

The three part BBC mini-series was without a doubt some of the worst telly I think I’ve ever seen. It’s staggering how clueless Harness is as a writer. For starters he managed to achieve the impossible and somehow made a Martian invasion of Earth boring. I didn’t even think it was possible, but somehow he pulled it off. Then he sucks all tension out of the story by revealing the ultimate fate of the Martians at the beginning of the second episode, so now any threat or danger has been chucked out of the window because we know that the main female protagonist Amy at least would survive. And then finally he takes a massive dump over the source material by having humanity weaponise typhoid to kill the red weed rather than just having the Martians die of the common cold like in the book. Because God forbid us Brits should be presented as anything other than heroic and dignified.

So what we’re left with is a poorly realised allegory with ineffectual horror tropes full of OTT progressive posturing in a pathetic attempt to make Harness and the BBC look more liberal than they actually are. There’s no effort to really explore the themes of imperialism and colonialism outside of casual lip service, and we barely get a glimpse of the dark side of humanity. Everyone is presented as flawed, but basically awesome or, in the case of Rafe Spall’s character, utterly gormless. Our TV license fees help fund this shit, you know?!

And if you think this was bad, just wait till New Year’s Day where we’ll get to see Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ butcher Dracula. Can we stop giving these beloved literary icons to these hacks please?

Glass

I liked Split. It wasn’t an amazing movie, but it was entertaining with some good ideas, a great performance from James McAvoy and was a true return to form for M Night Shyamalan. That being said, I wasn’t keen on the idea of it taking place in the same universe as Unbreakable. I feared it would be a step too far and we’d end up having something like... well, something like Glass.

On paper, Glass isn’t a bad idea. The idea of superpowers being a delusion is legitimately intriguing and could have been a great post-modern deconstruction of the superhero genre. Except Shyamalan never actually does anything with it. The first act drags on and on with absolutely nothing happening, none of the characters really grow or change over the course of the film, Bruce Willis in particular is basically only here for an extended cameo as his character does pretty much nothing for the majority of the film, and then the entire film is undermined by that stupid Shyamalan twist. Turns out superhumans are real and there’s a big cover up. Oh great! So not only does it render the entire film pointless, it also undoes what made Unbreakable and Split so good. They’re no longer people capable of extraordinary feats via rational means. They’re just superhuman. They can do anything. Sigh.

Shyamalan... maybe it’s time to give up the director’s chair, yeah?

Cats

Oh come on! Don’t act surprised! Did you honestly think I wouldn’t put Cats on this list?!

Cats, without a doubt, is the worst film of the decade and, yes, the CGI is terrible. Not only are there these sub-human cat mutants running around, we also have mice and cockroaches with child faces, James Corden coughing up furballs, Taylor Swift trying to give the furries in the audience boners, Idris Elba looking disturbingly underdressed and Rebel Wilson being... well... Rebel Wilson. It’s a disaster of a film. And really, should we even be surprised? We all knew this was going to suck. And no it’s not because of the CGI. I thought the CGI in Pokemon: Detective Pikachu was creepy as well, but at least it had a decent script and good performances to back it up. No the reason why Cats sucked is because... it’s Cats. It’s always been that bad. No amount of ‘advanced fur technology’ was going to change that. It was still going to be a confused, plotless mess with one dimensional characters and bad songs.

The only consolation I had was that I didn’t waste money buying a ticket. A friend of mine snuck me into the premiere and we watched it in the projector room. The plan was to make fun of it and have a laugh, but we didn’t even do that because honestly there’s nothing to really make fun. There’s only so many times you can take the piss out of the CGI and honestly the film was just boring more than anything else. It doesn’t even have the distinction of being so bad it’s good like Sharknado or Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. It’s just bad, period.

I just hope we don’t see something similar happen to Starlight Express. Just think. Anthropomorphic, singing trains on roller skates. Shudder.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

Finally we have yet another cynical cash grab from Disney.

I confess I didn’t exactly go into The Rise Of Skywalker with an open mind. I was never all that keen on a sequel trilogy in the first place, and neither The Force Awakens nor The Last Jedi ever convinced me otherwise. Admittedly they weren’t bad movies. Just derivative and painfully uninspired, and I was expecting more of the same for Episode IX. What I got instead was quite possibly the worst Star Wars film since Attack Of The Clones. Yes, it’s that bad.

This film is very poorly made, filled with plot contrivances and logic holes galore. I lost count of the number of times the protagonists got into a dangerous situation because of Rey constantly wandering off like a confused toddler lost in a shopping mall. Oh and we finally find out who her parents were and it was quite a twist, but only because it was really stupid. Of course we didn’t see it coming because nobody would have guessed it would be something that moronic. I feel JJ Abrams’ stupid ‘mystery box’ philosophy is to blame for this. It’s derailed countless franchises before such as Lost and Cloverfield, and now Abrams has fucked up Star Wars because he’s obsessed with mystery for the sake of mystery and Disney are so lazy that they couldn’t be bothered to plan an actual trilogy out properly beforehand. Instead they just wing it, making it up as they go along, which led to Rian Johnson ‘subverting our expectations’ and left Abrams desperately trying to pick up the pieces. 

In fact a lot of The Rise Of Skywalker seemed designed specifically to appease people of both sides of the wide chasm The Last Jedi had created. The roles of characters of colour like Finn and Rose were significantly reduced, Poe and Finn don’t end up together because of homophobia, but we do see two women kiss in the background of one two second shot that could easily be cut out when they release the film in China, Kylo Ren gets his stupid redemption even though he hasn’t fucking earned it, Lando Calrissian shows up for no fucking reason, Rey is given ‘flaws’ relating to her parentage in order to combat those accusing her of being a Mary Sue, but they’re the boring kind of flaws that don’t have any real impact on her character, and that ghastly ship Reylo is made canon even though it makes no sodding sense in the context of this movie, let alone the whole trilogy. They even go to the trouble of baiting us with a FinnRey romance before pulling the rug out from under us. Then, just to add insult to injury, the film retroactively ends up making the entire original trilogy completely pointless. All because Disney wanted more dollars to put in their Scrooge McDuck money bin.

The Rise Of Skywalker, and indeed the entire sequel trilogy, should serve as a cautionary tale against the dangers of hype and nostalgia. The reason The Force Awakens was successful wasn’t because it was a good movie (because lets be brutally honest here, it really fucking wasn’t). It was because it gave gullible Star Wars fans warm fuzzies because it reminded them of A New Hope whilst tempting them with the vague promise that things might get more interesting later on. And when that didn’t materialise, quelle surprise, the fanbase didn’t take it very well. I would love to think that this will serve as an important lesson for the future when people go and see Disney movies, but who am I kidding? I guarantee at some point we’re going to get Episodes X, XI and XII and we’ll have to go through this sorry process all over again.

So there we have it. The worst of 2019. May they rot forever in Satan’s rectum or wherever it is stories go to die. Tomorrow we’ll take a look at the other end of the spectrum. Yes it’s the Quill Seal Of Approval Awards! The best of the best! Who shall win? The suspense is killing me! Ooooh, I can’t wait! You’ll be there tomorrow, won’t you? Of course you will. How could you not?

[peppersjam]

My Top 10 Albums of 2019

2019 presented me with a handful of incredible events and memories (I turned 30, I got married, etc.), while also serving me a big challenge (my partner is temporarily living on the other side of the country). In a poetic world, these things would have a significant impact on the music that I listened to and loved, but no, not really. This year is pretty on the nose for me, music-wise. Oh, except that I got really into Taylor Swift in the second half of the year.

Before we hop into boring Steve's boring top 10 list, let's revisit the 2018 list. The only album on the list that I barely listened to in 2019 was Cardi's Invasion of Privacy. Everything else gets at least semi-regular spins, although I'd elevate Historian, boygenius, and Big Red Machine above these others.

My biggest disappointment this year was Charli XCX's CHARLI, which is a solid album, but it didn't grab me nearly as much as Pop 2 did a couple years ago. It hasn't stuck in my rotation.

Runners up:

Bon Iver - "i,i" (I love it when I listen to it, but for some reason I'm not often compelled to listen to it)

Ariana Grande - "thank u, next" (Staple of early 2019, but fell off)

Carly Rae Jepsen - "Dedicated" (Great, but I'd rather listen to E•MO•TION)

Taylor Swift - "Lover" (Some true standout tracks, like Lover and Paper Rings, but too many cloyboys and CRJ rip-offs)

Weyes Blood - "Titanic Rising" (I could see this growing on me over the years, like a Radiohead record)

And the pre-2019 albums that should've made my respective yearly lists:

Beyoncé - "4" (2011)

Beyoncé - "BEYONCE" (2013)

Big Thief - "Capacity" (2017)

Big Thief - "Masterpiece" (2016)

Perfume Genius - "No Shape" (2017)

Snail Mail - "Lush" (2018)

Taylor Swift - "Red" (2012)

10. Big Thief – U.F.O.F

Early in the year, I "discovered" Big Thief. I don't know how I missed them before. Specifically, the song "Masterpiece" got right up in my brain and has been hanging out there since. Then Big Thief gave us U.F.O.F. which was yet another great Big Thief album. See #3 below.

9. Andrew Bird – My Finest Work Yet

Look, I'll stop putting Andrew Bird records on my end-of-year lists when he stops making them.

Andrew Bird turned a corner with the release of Are You Serious where he basically acknowledged that he was now going to work with other people and write scrutable songs. It was a good album, but My Finest Work Yet refines this Andrew Bird 2.0 and delivers some of his... finest work yet ("Sisyphus," "Manifest," "Olympians"). While I still prefer earlier Andrew Bird (A Nervous Tic Motion into Fake Palindromes into Measuring Cups... my gosh, that's 10 incredible minutes of music), I understand why he's moved on to something else.

8. JPEGMAFIA – All My Heroes Are Cornballs

I've been in a rap rut. Kanye is putting out self-indulgent gospel albums. Chance and Drake are boring now. JAY Z is working with the NFL.

But the rut is mostly a lack of imagination on my part. There's a lot of rap out there that hasn't made it through my naive filter, and I want to seek more of it out in 2020. Case in point: JPEGMAFIA. He's weird, political, funny... all the things that the aforementioned rappers aren't (or at least, aren't anymore). All My Heroes Are Cornballs is the most hypnotic rap album I've listened to in years. The glitchy beats and effortless flow makes it impossible to turn off mid-album.

7. BROCKHAMPTON – Ginger

GINGER is a proper follow-up to the SATURATION trilogy. While Iridescence had some good tracks on it, the overall experience was jarring (not without reason, given what the group was going through with Ameer). GINGER reads (ok, plays) like an album in a way that the Saturations never did. While it may be spiritually linked to the Satursation, it's a complete departure sonically. Even though it's more constrained and less bombastic than their hits from that era, it feels much bigger and, ahem, More Important. That might not be to the taste of some of their fans, but I'm happy to have both versions of BROCKHAMPTON in my music library.

6. Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell!

Music publications couldn't get over the fact that on NFR!, Lana, yes LANA DEL REY, was wordsmithing at a high level. Is it that hard to believe that someone would become a better poet as they gained more life experiences, inching closer to the mystical 10,000 hours? Some of the praise may have gone a little overboard (and, frankly, seems rooted in a narrow, misogynistic view of Who Can Do Music Good™️™️™️), but I agree with the underlying principle of the praise: that this is a collection of well written and well performed songs. It has my favorite album closer of the year, "Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have - but I Have It." I get chills just thinking about it.

5. Clairo – Immunity

I enjoyed my first listen.

On my second listen, I wondered if it was maybe too simple. I didn't listen again for several months.

But then, when I was working from Pittsburgh the week before Christmas, I listened again. And I couldn't stop listening. It's simpler music than many of the albums on this list, but it appeals to me for the same reason I had a fixation with Snail Mail's Lush this year: it's incredible that songs that sound so "simple" (and I truly do not mean simple in an insulting way) can still be different than anything we've heard before, and can still transfix us in new ways. Behold ye, the power of combinatorics!

4. Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride

Channel Orange to Blonde was 4 years. There's nothing you can do to get your favorite artists to make music faster. There's some beauty in that... that if an artist is financially successful enough, they don't need to rush.

Modern Vampires of the City to Father of the Bride was 6 years (i.e., 20% of my lifetime). But at least there are no duds here, and "Harmony Hall" might sneak into my hypothetical favorite-songs-of-all-time pantheon.

3. Big Thief – Two Hands

Oh, but then a few months later, Big Thief gave us another album. They started working on it right after they finished U.F.O.F, which tracks based on every interview I've read with Adrianne Lenker. She talked about the insane touring and album release schedule they've been on in the past four years, but her point wasn't "I'm getting tired," but rather "let's see if I can do this forever." I saw them play at The Fillmore after they released Two Hands and I got the sense that Adrianne has to make and perform music. She was uncomfortable engaging in the standard nearly-identical pleasantries that artists share with the audience. She was shy. She was surprised to find that we were hanging on her every word and chord. It was relatable. She's the closest to a genius I've seen in an indie rock band in the last several years, although I'm sure she'd hate anyone calling her that.

That genius produced Two Hands, an affecting indie rock record that practically demands that you close your eyes because you need to experience it and only it.

2. Tyler, the Creator – IGOR

This year, I listened to IGOR over and over again. The hooks, verses, beats, and vibe are all infectious. Boring Steve says "hey, look, it's just a great album." I don't have a deeper thought about it. I eagerly await Tyler's next project.

1. Nilüfer Yanya – Miss Universe

This year, like 2009 a decade ago, was an exciting year to be an indie rock fan. Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver cemented their elder ("elder") statesperson statuses, Big Thief came into their own as a true force of nature, and acts like Clairo and Nilüfer made me extremely jazzed about the Ghost of Indie Future.

Nilüfer has a unique and delightful voice that punches through some really fun songwriting and arrangements. Like, what a dumb, awesome lyric:

Although I cannot tell if I'm paranoid

Or it's all in my head, it's all in my head

Miss Universe is her debut full-length album, and it's a lovable and off-kilter thesis statement for what I assume will be a lovable and off-kilter music career. I can better explain why some of the other albums on this list are great, but suffice it to say, the system rewards unique performances.

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

How do you feel about this Kaylor obsession? i find it disrespectful

I’m going to be honest with you, I’ve thought of 20 different ways to write this as to make sure it didn’t come off in a way I didn’t mean it, but I’ve realised just I’m probably going to get criticised either way so writing what comes to me is probably easiest.

To start this, I want to speak a bit about myself. It’s not directly relevant to Kaylor, but I think it’s important in understanding where my perspective comes from. I say that because I will be the first to admit that I come from a very privileged position in comparison to most. I’m a white, cisgender bisexual girl who grew up in a rich, pretty forward thinking city and even though we were definitely poverty line poor, we never went without the essentials and thanks to the government scheme, I was able to go to university along with not having to worry about going to a “worse” school in my childhood because schooling is not as heavily linked with location here as other places. I mention this because with the exception of the church, my catholic grandparents and one or two assholes, I have rarely had issues with my sexuality. 9 times out of 10 if it’s brought up, it is me casually saying it. Most of my friends are queer, and while my family have their less than perfect moments with it (mostly ignorant comments), I have never been at risk of homelessness or abuse or suicidal ideation over my sexuality and have never felt like my parents nor siblings nor friends loved me any less because I wasn’t straight. That’s not to say where I live doesn’t have queerphobia because friends of mine have faced abuse and/or homelessness and/or committed suicide over it, but once again, I have been so privileged to have not. Once again, this is not directly related to Kaylor, but I am well aware it is a very different perspective than what most people have and I definitely feel it shapes and contextualises what I’m about to say so it’s important to say.

Kaylor is a very nuanced topic for me… moreso than any other ship, real or not,  I want to say that I personally don’t believe any romantic relationship Taylor had was fake. Do I think she had deeper feelings to some over others? Yes. Do I think her and/or certain partners knew that their relationship would give them extra publicity and that was an added bonus to the relationship? Sure. But I do not think she went into any relationship being like “The only thing I’m getting out of this person is their publicity”, especially after the world starting in on their “Taylor Swift is the problem” rampage. In saying this, I think Taylor showed us with Joe that it is possible for her to only show the relationships she and the other person wants to show and it wouldn’t surprise me if he wasn’t the first. I feel I should also mention that in my younger years, I was a major Swiftgron shipper… not to the extent that I feel every RED song + Better Man is about Dianna, but I definitely shipped it hard and believed it happened. Likewise, I got the vibe with other females Taylor hung around at certain points even if I didn’t ship them as strong as Swiftgron. So, as you can imagine, I’m not opposed to the idea that Kaylor had something other than a platonic relationship at one stage. If they came out today and said everything the Kaylors said was right, I’d support their relationship. However I am not someone who believes that they are this massive romantic love story that’s included beards for years, especially not ones related to the Trumps. Perhaps they had something for a short time in the past, and hell, I’d even believe Gorgeous is about Karlie, but I do not think that they are secretly together when lets be real, Taylor isn’t particularly getting anything out of Joe promotion wise if he is a beard. And before someone says “she got someone who she can say her Reputation love songs are about”, there are a total of 3 songs on that album that she couldn’t spin to be about someone else, as a platonic/family based love song or a general observation on her anxieties. Of those, one of them could have easily been reworded to be about friendship/family over romantic love. Like it just really does not make sense to me that they would play their cards that way when it’d be simpler to just keep her “single” if her and Karlie were actually together. It especially doesn’t make sense now because quite frankly, Taylor has done nearly everything she can to make it clear that even if she has conservative followers, she is not a conservative person and is very ready to defend and support the queer community. And yes, I know that coming out is very different than giving support, but with the seemingly genuine “I don’t care what anyone but my loved ones think of me” attitude she’s been giving off in the last year or two, I genuinely feel like beards are off the board if indeed they were ever on it.

Regardless of how I feel about the ship though, I don’t like that Kaylors cross boundaries. I want to make it clear though that it is not just the Kaylors that do this. I didn’t like how Tayvin fans constantly spoke about Calvin’s dick and made comments about the sex they were supposedly having, Same with Joe/Taylor fans. I didn’t like hearing how Haylors (and other shippers) tracked Taylor’s plane. And in general, I hated how this fandom kept making “Not 10 months sober anymore!!!” jokes. As a whole, I think this fandom has crossed a lot of lines it shouldn’t have and in part that’s why I am grateful for the Reputation era because it somewhat forced us to take a step back and reconsider that stuff. And I say us because I will fully admit that in my younger days (early to mid teens) while I didn’t go as far as some other fans, I was far too obsessed with Swiftgron for my own good and crossed a lot of lines because of it. But as I’ve aged I’ve realised two things. 

Firstly, it’s invasive as fuck and goes against my “treat people how you would like to be treated” way of life. I was talking to friends a few weeks ago and I mentioned that I would hate to be famous because I know that because of the way I am with my friends, I would have fans being like “[insert female friend here] isn’t really with [insert boyfriend of 5+ years here]. Clearly her and Jess are in a relationship! Here’s the receipts!” or “[insert brother’s ex girlfriend here] and [insert brother here] were never in a relationship in their teens. Jess and [insert brother’s ex girlfriend here] clearly were in love but couldn’t be together because of the age difference so [insert brother here] stepped in to be a good ally and said he was dating [insert brother’s ex girlfriend here] instead!”. And here’s the thing, I could probably laugh that off as a “oh those silly shippers” thing, but I also know that I have a few closeted friends who would be literally scared if a rumour like that got thrown around about them just because they associated with me. I have other friends, both queer and not, who would lose family over it. And in general, the remainder would be rightfully annoyed that their relationships were constantly being belittled and being accused of lying about them. And people can make the argument that they’re just trying to uncover the truth so Karlie and Taylor can live their “authentic” lives, but like it’s not your place to do that. It’s not anyone’s place but Karlie and/or (preferably and) Taylor’s if in fact they are in a relationship. If they are romantically involved and hiding it, they have done it for a reason and that should be respected.

Secondly, and somewhat tied to the first point; it doesn’t matter. Look I love Taylor, I do, but at the end of the day, whether Kaylor are together or not does not matter. Same with Taylor/Joe, same with Sweeran, same with Swiftgron and same with literally any other ship you can think of. The world is and always will be bigger than Taylor and her partner. Would Taylor showing off a female partner be nice given how big she is? Yes. But the truth of the matter is in a hundred years, almost nobody is going to give a fuck about who Taylor’s partners were and which songs are about who. Like I genuinely believe that who Taylor is with, male, female or otherwise, is never going to make history like just say Ellen and Portia. The world moves way too fast for that and to be honest, at least where I live, we’re not really in a moment of time where Taylor coming out would be seen as a big deal to most people for more than a few months. To her fans it obviously would be, and I get that, I really do. It would be incredible to think that I have something so formative in common with Taylor and could look up to her in another way. But at the end of the day, not only does Taylor’s partners not matter in the sense of I don’t know these people and it doesn’t and shouldn’t impact my life, but it’s not Taylor’s job to be that person a lot of fans want her to be. Obviously if she so chooses to be and is said person then I would welcome it with open arms, but I would rather use my time being that person and supporting artists like Janelle Monae that are that person than trying to force Taylor to be that person when at this point in time, she has chosen not to openly be that if she is at all.

Anyway, this is far longer than I intended it to be, but that’s basically all my thoughts on the topic.

[cowboylikedean]

Anonymous Said:

What I was trying to say yesterday with the asks that didn’t go through…it makes me sad that haylories feel the need to devalue H&Ts other relationships (another sign of tinhatting. Larries are fond of this too). Take their most recent relationships/flings/whatever. Haylories were crying “PR!!!!” For both hiddleswift and hendall. Taylor was on a break and so was harry. Why would they need PR? And both looked pretty happy with those ppl, so haylories find excuses for why they were happy. “Well harry and Kendall were always drunk on that yacht”. “Tom is an actor, he pretends for a living and Taylor was acting too”. And they ignore the similarities between haylors relationship, and harry and Taylor’s other relationships, which is again cherry picking their proofs. Harry and Taylor share clothes/accessories = it’s true love! Harry and Kendall share clothes/accessories = it doesn’t mean anything, harry does that all the time OR (my favourite) it’s a coincidence and they probably had the same hat before. Taylor and harry go on public outings holding hands, and Taylor meets Harry’s family = true love! Taylor and tom go on public outings holding hands and Taylor meets toms family = PR!obviously!! It makes me sad. I saw on a confession blog someone said about Larries that they’re not actually fans of the real Harry and the real Louis, but fans of the fictional relationship THEY’VE created, and I think haylories have gone down that path too. I don’t have hope that they’ll ever be supportive of Taylor and harry end up with other people. They’ll both be married to others with kids and haylories will still be sitting here crying “PR!”

~this is a very long reply sorry i got carried away~ I agree on all of this. It’s really frustrating. 

Particularly because it leaves no room for ambiguity. This is what bugs me about all tinhatters... this idea of All Or Nothing. To them, it’s not possible that hiddleswift and hendall were real and Harry and Taylor will always mean a lot to each other. By their actions, hiddleswift and hendall seem to cancel out the love and connection Taylor and Harry have to these people.... Which is ridiculous. That’s not how people work. Just because someone matters doesn’t mean someone else doesn’t. Like shit.. my parents divorced when I was 6. My mom remarried when I was almost 18. My parents aren’t in love with each other and they’ll never be together again (thank god), but the matter deeply to each other. My dad is still a very important person in my mother’s life, not just as the father of the three children they share but also as her first husband and a relationship she saw lasting forever. A wirlwind that lasted 14 years total and started with an accidental meeting that turned into a first date because neither wanted to say goodbye. The fact that my parents’ history matters enough to my mom that it is one of her favorite things that she can say that through all of it, the fights and bullshit of the downfall of their relationship and aftermath, they have come to a point where they’re friends doesn’t negate her relationship with her current husband. My mother’s current marriage to her husband doesn’t mean that her relationship with my father isn’t or cannot be one of mutual trust, love, care, compassion, and friendship as it is. The same goes for Harry and Taylor. Any relationships they get in don’t negate their love and care for each other. 

It takes me back.. last year this time, Harry was getting off the yacht.. actually that was a year ago today (thanks facebook lookback lol). Taylor was dating Calvin. We all knew this. They didn't call tayvin PR because they weren't this bad in early 2015 when tayvin started... but New Years Eve 2015/2016 when we got the first photos of the yacht, haylories stood with others who hate hendall because it challenges their view of Harry and his personal life calling it PR. This was the beginning of haylories actually using larries to back them up. During this five day period of yachtgate, I saw several haylories reblogging larries with their illogical reasons why the yacht was a PR stunt... 

Things like: “why are they standing where they know the paps can see them” (ridiculous - it’s a yacht. There’s not that much room. Also, I know they’re great photos.. but it’s not like the paps were on a little boat right next to the yacht... it’s called long lens cameras... the same kind that caught Taylor in Hawaii.) or “that’s too much PDA for it to be a normal vacation” (lololol they’re on vacation?????) to “why is Jeff also on the yacht? why are they signing papers? see? It’s about business.” (Jeff is Harry’s best friend??? and like we don’t know what the papers were (harries who tell you otherwise are full of shit too) and also it’s none of our business???) or “the only reason ellen would be on the yacht is because it’s PR” (??? i still to this day don’t know why ellen was on that yacht other than a personal reason like happening to be in St. Barts and being invited to chill. how does this even make sense) 

And like don’t get me wrong, I participated in some of that shit... but I also never seriously used the phrase “PR stunt.” I always saw it as a vacation fling that was made Extra and Over The Top by paps, fans, and our good friends the media and general public. The haylories literally and seriously saw it as a PR stunt. 

PR for what? Well I’ve only ever gotten the answer about PR for Kendall... the newest season of KUWTK was coming up and they needed hype... But what about Harry? Nothing. The harries have chimed in and said it was “to distance Harry from 1d and the 1d image” which makes no sense.. but haylories have offered nothing.

Same with hiddleswift. Haylories and others who believe it was PR talk about what PR Tom could need or get from it... putting his name in the forefront of people’s minds while the Bond considerations were happening for instance. Promo for the filming of Thor for instance... But there’s nothing that Taylor was promoing. Nothing she could have been promoing. It was bad press for her and contrary to the saying, some press is bad press.... So wtf was the PR angle? 

And then this leads me to......... 1. I have always said it’s really sad seeing haylor stans of all people accuse a ship of being PR. We all know what it’s like to see that happen and literally... Hunters and foxes much??? like not to be That Taylor Stan but like... IKP isn’t just talking about the media and the GP. It’s talking about fans who accused PR stunt and used that as an excuse to be invasive and nasty too. OOTW refers to “couldn’t take the heat.” That heat is all of it. The fans too. We should know more than anyone why that shit is harmful and we shouldn’t do it.

but 2. You refer to a confessions blog that says that the larries aren’t fans of Louis and Harry but rather the fictional relationship between them that they created... And like.. I’ll take that a step further and say what many others have said as of late... the larries are actively against Louis and Harry. They fling personal insults at Louis and his family. They yell negative things about potential Big Moves for Harry’s career. They’re nasty and they work against them as people and professionals. The same is true here. 

I have no idea what happened between hiddleswift, but I think it would be foolish to rule out the idea that the bad press and negative fan reaction wasn’t a part of it. If it got to haylor, who’s to say it wouldn’t get to hiddleswift? Either way, it wasn’t nice and the stuff people were saying about her was nasty. 2015 was a tough year for this fandom, and I’ll be the first to admit that some of the things we all as people who didn’t like tayvin said and did were not okay. It was heartbreaking to see that carry over to summer 2016 with even nastier stuff being said for less. Seriously... I remember there were some fans that took photos on their phones of the yellow dress before the paps showed up and people were saying how she’d called them. I saw people say that say that she’d instructed random strangers to take photos of her. That is ridiculous! 

And then as for hendall.. When the Anne iCloud leak happened, these people fed, contributed to, and used for their own beliefs the larries’ posts (again) about how this leak was a fake done for PR reasons to push the narrative that hendall was dating. They opted for harassing Anne, Harry, and family and making fun of them... saving the photos that their legal team was trying hard to get off the internet and reposting them with long explanations about why that photo was “obviously fake.” Speculating stuff about how it’s “weird” to have so many pictures of your son and his vacation girlfriend. Posting about how why would Harry have taken photos with Anne’s camera. Making mountains out of molehills. It was obvious that Anne, Harry, and family were hurting and frustrated by the whole thing... and the haylories were fucking awful!

It’s just clear to me that Taylor and Harry and their personal wellbeings don’t mean that much to these people. The Idea of Haylor as an Established Romantic Relationship means a lot to these people... but Taylor Swift and Harry Styles as people... not so much.

[gyrlversion]

Jonas Brothers Chasing Happiness: 11 Revelations From Their New Doc

During the opening minutes of Chasing Happiness — the Jonas Brothers documentary premiering on Amazon Prime on Tuesday (June 4) — Kevin waxes poetic about how the band needs to change. They need everyone to be comfortable, he says, and have open and honest dialogues and not look at the past through rose-colored glasses. Eventually, Nick interjects, telling his oldest brother, “I think you’re afraid to be confrontational with me.”

It feels like a private moment; like we’re not supposed to be listening to their conversation. That sense of voyeurism trickles on for the next 90 minutes, as the John Lloyd Taylor-directed doc chronicles the band’s improbably rapid rise to superstardom, their break-up, and eventually, their chart-topping 2019 comeback. We see Kevin, Joe, and Nick speaking candidly together and individually, and their words give some illuminating context to the band’s new album, arriving on Friday (the doc even features some snippets of unreleased songs!). Below, check out 11 of the biggest things we learned from Chasing Happiness.

They were shut out by their church

After Jonas Brothers got signed, the label had a vision of them as a punk-rock band. That obviously didn’t pan out, but the music the boys were making was still edgier than what people had expected — especially since their father was the pastor of a church. “I think there was some judgment on us for not being a Christian band,” Nick said. “Singing about girls started to become an issue.” Eventually, Kevin Sr. resigned after facing mounting pressure, and the family subsequently lost their home. Around the same time, the band was dropped from their label, but the boys kept writing songs and eventually scored a lucrative record deal with Disney.

Nick’s diabetes diagnosis was a “life-shifting moment”

While the band was grinding away with a grueling touring schedule, Nick started showing some scary health symptoms — he started getting moody and agitated, lost a bunch of weight, and could never quench his thirst. He eventually got diagnosed with diabetes, but the band ultimately decided not to tell the label because they were scared of being dropped. It was a “life-shifting moment for everybody,” Joe said, even recalling, “I passed out in the hospital room because I couldn’t see him hooked up to all these wires.”

Nick was head-over-heels for Miley Cyrus

“I think my brothers and I became closest when we found a common ground beyond music and family: girls,” Nick said. While Kevin confessed that he and Joe “were, like, wingman-ing each other constantly,” Nick only had eyes for one girl, after the band made a cameo on Hannah Montana. Kev recalled, “That changed girls for Nick forever. When he met Miley, I think that kid’s head exploded.” From them on, Nick adorably admitted, “I started writing about love. And I actually knew what it felt like.” Cue “Lovebug!”

They regret their Disney Channel show, Jonas

In a current-day scene where the brothers decide to play a drinking game that basically involves answering tough questions as honestly as they can, Nick said his biggest regret with the band was Season 2 of their Disney Channel sitcom. He admitted it was a “bad move” that “stunted their growth,” explaining, “We couldn’t evolve because of it.” Kevin added that the show was presented to them as a way to keep them relevant while they were touring, but it wasn’t on-brand with them or their music. The show, they lamented, presented them as younger and more “uncool” then they really were. (It did, however, give us “Pizza Girl,” and for that, we are eternally thankful.)

Joe felt like a failure after his fizzled attempt at solo stardom

During a hiatus in 2011 and 2012, Nick ventured off to Broadway and made music with his own side project, Nick Jonas & The Administration. Joe, meanwhile, attempted to make it on his own with a solo R&B/pop record that quickly flopped. “The music didn’t do as well as I had anticipated,” Joe said about it, adding that “it was my first failure” and it was “embarrassing” to feel like he couldn’t do anything without his brothers.

Kevin’s reality show became a big point of contention

While Nick and Joe were off pursuing solo careers, Kevin was “living [his] best life” as a newlywed. After marrying Danielle Deleasa, the couple documented their lives on an E! reality show called Married to Jonas, which ran for two seasons. His youngest brothers weren’t thrilled about the invasion of privacy, admitting they didn’t want anything to do with it because they didn’t want the show to dictate who they were in the public eye. “Our whole life was a closed-door meeting, and Kevin invited cameras into that meeting,” Joe explained. “We felt like he was going to air out a lot of our shit that we didn’t want people to know about.” Needless to say, tensions were building in the band, which ultimately leads us to…

The band’s split was devastating on all fronts

Jonas Brothers reunited in 2013, but it wasn’t the same; Joe flat-out admitted, “We were not happy,” while Nick confessed, “We hate each other, basically.” Nick admitted he had a panic attack the night before breaking the news to his brothers that he wanted to call it quits, and Kevin said Joe “shut down” and took the news the hardest. “I felt betrayed. I felt lied to. I felt angry. Numb,” Joe said of his reaction. “What hurt the most is that it came from Nick. Because he is my best friend and I thought that me Kevin and Nick were going to do this forever and it was us against the world, you know?”

Joe and Nick thought Kevin was holding them back

In one of the hardest moments to watch, the boys recalled how, after the band broke up, some radio stations threatened to never play JB’s music or any of their solo music if they didn’t show up for some promised radio gigs. Nick and Joe went, but Kevin was told that he didn’t need to go. He said it was the “hardest moment of [his] entire life” watching his younger bros play the band’s music without him there, and Joe candidly told him it was because he and Nick thought they were being held back.

“I think it was because we thought you were holding us back,” he confessed. “That’s the truth. I think there was moments that Nick and I wanted to do our own thing and we felt like your focus was not in it anymore and it wasn’t a priority for you. Starting a family was, and your guitar playing kind of fell in the backseat.” Joe continued by saying that he now realizes how “fucked up” that was, and apologized to Kev that he had to go through that.

“Please Be Mine” is still a certified jam

Confession: there are two times I cried while watching this documentary. The first was early on, with old footage of the brothers playing “Please Be Mine,” a love song they wrote in their basement that went on to become the closing track off 2006’s It’s About Time. The second time was towards the end of the doc, with current-day footage of them performing the song, sounding just as heavenly as ever. “Eight years, still a jam,” Nick noted after they finished it. Truer words have never been spoken.

They’re all family men now

And now, I present you with the cutest quotes from all three brothers about falling in love with their respective wives. Here’s Joe: “The impact of falling in love has made me want to be a better man, a better person, and ultimately, made me a better brother. Kevin: “We all spent time apart truly coming into our own. I focused on my family, on being the best husband and father that I could be.” And, finally, Nick: “The time apart was necessary. I was able to pursue different creative avenues and experiment with life in a way I never could before. And it led me to find something greater than I could ever imagine: love. And this love has changed my life forever.”

Frankie’s the biggest JB fan ever, thankyouverymuch

Stick around during the end credits for a glimpse of the Bonus Jonas! The youngest JoBro, 18-year-old Frankie, makes the cutest cameo, telling the camera, “I am their number one fan. I know every lyric of every song. I love their music so much.”

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