#here meaning the swiftie fandom not tumblr

[jakeperalta]

looking back in my archive (a hobby of mine) and I'd totally forgotten how many angry messages I got back in spring/summer 2020 for daring to be critical of taylor like I was fully prepared to leave the fandom in that time and in hindsight if I hadn't been lured back in by the excitement of folklore I probably would've been out of here years ago

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

My Exit Note (for now) - and A Letter to Taylor

I’m so very sorry to the lovely people on here who will be saddened to read this, but this will be my last post for a while. I re-joined tumblr in June last year to re-reconnect to this lovely community, and it genuinely seemed so much safer to do than back in 2017. I thought the fandom had gained some perspective as a whole. But after only 7 months, the fandom (and by that I mean swifties) has once again become a battle ground for us, fuelled by none other than Taylor herself, and I’m no longer willing to gloss over that. I’m choosing my own peace.

It may seem like a very fickle move after only 7 months in this space, when the good people on here are genuinely some of the kindest and most intelligent people I’ve ever met online, but let me explain why I need to take a break. I don’t intend to leave Taylor Swift and her art behind and never look back. In fact, I have Eras tour tickets for the summer and I want to give myself a chance to actually be excited about that by the time June comes around. But it’s all too familiar, pretty much exactly the same reason I left tumblr the first time in 2017. I’m here to discuss and analyse Taylor’s art with likeminded (queer) people and I can’t respect the artist of that very art when she continually gives her toxic ‘fans’ ammunition to come into our safe space and harass us and then watches as we scramble to keep ourselves safe amidst abuse and threats. They are doing this in HER name. Members of a marginalised community she claims to be an ‘ally’ to are being doxxed and harassed in HER name and she’s doing nothing. If anything she’s fanning the flames while it burns. Whatever it is that she’s doing with her brand right now, her silence when her own crazy fans are sending DEATH THREATS to people for simply interpreting her art, means that I cannot be part of that right now. I thought the fandom had changed, that Taylor had grown more confident defending what she stands for, but clearly, I was wrong.

The tipping point back in 2017 for me, was when she told those kids from the rep secret sessions that the album was all about her darling bf and gave them permission to go after anyone who said otherwise. And boy, did they take that seriously. They came after us in our little corner for gushing over how beautifully gay those songs were, fuelled by words straight from the horse’s mouth. SHE sent those people after us. Because she wrote the gayest album in history and she couldn’t deal with the noise getting too loud. And I lost all respect for her. It was only in 2019 when she was suddenly draped in rainbows that I carefully looked at gaylor spaces online again, because it seemed like she was finally actually committing to it. But we all know how that ended… So, to see one of those very rep secret session kids on my YouTube feed yesterday picking apart this beautiful NY Times article with lies and inaccuracies in the name of Taylor’s straightness, just reminded me whose side she decides to put herself on. She invited those people to her house. She caters to them, not us. She made them think they were her friends and then sent them after us. With HER OWN WORDS. And I can’t be in the trenches for someone who hands my bullies a gun and points at the target.

I will leave my blog active this time, so my content will be here for people to engage with if they want. But I won’t be on here to receive your messages or dm’s. I’m sorry that I’m leaving you guys at a time where we need to stick together, but I’m getting more anger and hurt out of this than joy atm and that’s always the time for me to put myself first and step away. I hope that we will come together again when the tide changes, I’m still somewhat convinced that the clock is ticking towards a better time for us, but I need Taylor to come through for us (and herself) before I can look at her again. And I promise if that happens, I won’t hold a grudge.

And lastly, here’s something I’ve never done because I’m not crazy enough to think that Taylor sees us on here, but I don’t have any other social media and I had to get this off my chest. (If you have twitter/instagram, maybe do something similar, you never know, she might actually see it and I think she needs to know how much hurt she’s causing with this)

Dear Taylor, @taylorswift

What are you doing, love? I wish I could actually ask you that. In fact, I’ve wished it many times throughout the decade that I’ve been a fan of your music. I’ve wished that I could tell you what your music meant to me when I was heartbroken, and how much joy it brought me when I was young and felt invincible. You changed my life when you proudly held a girl’s hand in public with a smile that showed me that love is there for people like me to find, after all. And when the world was hard on you, I wished I could ask you if you were ok. But today, I just want to ask you this: what have I done to deserve you sending the worst kind of people after me? Time and time again. And you can’t tell me you didn’t know that would happen, I know you’re smart. I know you know the kind of people I’m talking about, the ones that worship you like a God, that will stop at nothing to defend the version of you they have in their heads. The ones you built your empire on. Good on you, but when did you stop caring for the people that actually see you and read the words you put out into the world for us? Was that not what you wanted? I can’t claim to understand how you live the life you’ve chosen, but at least your art was always there to bring joy to my life and community when I needed it. I didn’t need you to be a hero, but now you’ve become part of the problem.

So, here’s the thing: choose a side. Commit to us, or let us go. This line that you’re walking has reached the end. You want to be an ally? Fine. Let me help you with that: Don’t claim to be a safe space for queer people and then throw a grenade into our community and watch it burn. That’s not what an ally does. Don’t appropriate our culture by using our pride flag colours or the colour lavender and then deny the cultural and historic significance of those colours, effectively erasing their meaning. That’s not what an ally does. And most importantly, don’t let people be slaughtered, gaslit and harassed on the internet, or mainstream news, for interpreting your music as queer. A young queer woman, who is an incredible journalist, got called ‘inappropriate’ and a liar on national news yesterday, because she picked up what you’re putting down in your music and wrote an article about it. An incredible article by the way, one that made us all feel seen and validated. And then you’re letting old white men on national television call that inappropriate and invasive. You may not have said those words, but you let them stand there uncommented, let your cultish fans think that their hero is offended by being presumed to be gay. You guessed it, that’s also not what an ally does. A marginalised group of your fans got DEATH THREATS in your name in the last 24 hours because we pick up on queer flagging in your art. And you did nothing. You handed our bullies weapons and left us to fend for ourselves. That is not a safe space for LGBTQ people. And for that reason, you’re losing me.

Because I have nothing to believe. Unless you actually choose me (and yourself for that matter). Just once.

Until then,

J

[taylortruther]

Idk if this is an unpopular opinion or more of an observation: this fandom is very much not normal about gay men. It makes a 100% sense that conversations about homophobia in the fandom mainly are about sapphic swifties, because they are a huge part of the fandom and face intense harassment. Men generally are less prominent within the fandom, so I see why people don't always think about how they are spoken about. However, because of this and the fact that "twitter gays" are enemy of the state for swifties on that platform because of their frequent dislike of Taylor, it can feel like homophobia geared towards gay men is a free for all. And I don't just mean the absolutely horrendous comments people leave on Twitter, but also the way people talk about Joe's "lack" of masculinity or make jokes about him being bi* in a way that reduce (male) bisexuality to something ridiculous. Even the anon you got after somebody said Joe would have been good in Challengers felt (unintentionally) dismissive of him potentially playing a gay role. Why is that? This might also be a tumblr thing where the demographic of the website is a bit different then on twitter, but the fact that one of the main groups that regularly get harrassed by Swifties are gay men is frequently ignored and that rubs me the wrong way, and I think it relates to how the fandom in general talks about gender and sexuality.

*addition: the assumption that Joe must be queer because of his quiet demeanor or the field he works in was huge in the fandom at some point and it has always felt icky to me and very much tied to traditional gender roles, which is something this fandom is very infected by. But this was also very en vogue in gaylor spaces, for obvious reasons, but there is also a convo to be had about how gay women don't always treat gay men with dignity or respect. (Their male privilege is not a catch all excuse.)

you're preaching to the choir here. it stems from the same issues of misogyny and homophobia as the anti-wlw sentiments though. like, it's wrong for women to express sexual desire over another woman, especially one like taylor, whose femininity is pretty paramount to her persona. and in comparison to uber-masculine travis, joe becomes "gay," just like josh kushner was called gay in kaylor circles because of his ~mannerisms~ or perceived lack of masculinity. there are many other things to say about this phenomenon but it should be very obvious to everyone by now that swifties (like the rest of the world, but it's highly visible in this fandom due to who taylor is and how she looks) have very intense opinions about what femininity and masculinity should look like. and if someone in the universe steps out of line then it's criticized pretty openly.

[kellykswift]

Yesterday was a shock in so many ways. Not only were the shows we had all been waiting for so long cancelled, but also because we were suddenly confronted with the fact that there was a planned terrorist attack, where people could/ would have died while enjoying a concert. 💔😭

I am from Austria, and when the news dropped (around 10 am on 07.08.) that there was a suspected terrorist attack, I had a feeling that a cancellation might happen. Because the police and authorities usually do their job properly, this must have been a serious concern (they evacuated the town of the suspect until late afternoon). So I really wanna thank the authorities for acting quickly! 🖤

I am still very sad that we couldn’t go to the show as planned and that I might not be able to see Taylor ever in my home country. But I am also very grateful that this decision was made in order to keep everyone safe. Even if the danger had been minimized (they never wrote "eliminated" for a reason), there would still have been a weird atmosphere where people didnt feel safe. We wouldn’t have had the show Taylor was so proud of over the last 1.5 years. Taylor and her crew deserve better. She put her whole heart into that show and it makes me sick to my stomach that she probably feels very bad about the cancellation (please don’t).

Another thing I realized yesterday was the solidarity in the Swiftie community. As part of this small corner of the internet, we know how messy it can get within the fandom. But not yesterday. Swifties from different parts of the fandom comforted each other. Swifties from all over the world tried to organize friendship bracelet trades, and Swifties who have a ticket to the London show offered theirs for face value. I could go on and on and on about this….

I know a lot of people feel heartbroken right now, and I am one of them. But I also feel very proud at this moment to be part of this amazing community and fandom (especially my bubble here on Tumblr). Those terrorists might have taken the concerts from us, but they will never take what it means to be a Swiftie. We can get through this together. There might be another chance to see her (well, my dream would be that she adds another date for all those who had tickets in Vienna, maybe in Munich or another European city), and if not, I have made my peace with it because I ll still gonna have her music.

All I can do today is stream her songs and remind myself how many times Taylor's music has been a source of strength, comfort, and joy in my life. Her lyrics put me through moments of heartbreak, celebration, a coming out and everything in between. Since 2009, her music has been there for me, and I know it will continue to be there, especially today ( I can do it with a broken heart ).

Last but not least, I hope that everyone, including Taylor and her team, are safe, and please don’t be afraid of our beautiful country. I would rather mourn over a concert than someone losing their life.

Thanks so much to everyone who has reached out to me on here! It truly means a lot! 💜🫶

So my friends and I are doing a movie night on Saturday, wearing our costumes, watching the Eras Tour and move on from this. I am wearing a very specific bracelet today because thats what i am going to do today. @taylorswift @taylornation

[idsb]

slightly random, but: i remember once, years and years ago, there was a coding fuck up on livejournal and suddenly ip addresses were visible next to all anonymous comments, and it turned out soooo many people had been anonymously saying hideous things to their own friends and then swooping in on their logged-in account to "defend" the friend from the mean "anon". whenever i see mean anons being sent to people on here all i can think of is that. there's no way the angry swiftie hater who spends all day long on swiftie tumblr sending unhinged messages ISN'T one of us 👀👀👀 one day they'll fuck up and forget to click anon and we'll finally work it out

I will not spill the beans on it exactly, however there is very fucked up evidence of this being the case across this fandom at least one time. So I would not be surprised at all!

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Sorry pls ignore my last ask BPP. Your point about Seven being the 'Dynamite' equivalent in solo era is a good one and explains the treatment it got. After the BB article I also now understand why BH dropped LC. If BB believed the LC record was 'tainted' with Chinese cash and BH never had that 'Dynamite' promotion plan for it, everything that's happened makes sense. But it still leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. I can't wash it out. Are we now at the mercy of BB's whims? Also don't you find the support for Seven excessive? Is the elimination of direct to consumer sales enough to explain that kind of support to keep it number 1? I'm just trying to understand how the company is thinking about things without victimizing the members. They all seem to be still working with purpose so I feel they don't feel shortchanged, but from the outside looking inside it doesn't feel fair.

*

Ask 2:

Hi BPP,

Re: bb article

1. Do you think there will be additional changes coming, making sales even less relevant for bb charts?

2. I absolutely hate that it is again Jimin that takes the brunt of all this bulshit, I really do. He doesnt deserve this at all. But he is strong, he will be OK. That being said, its making me really upset IRL, so I will have to do some me time.

3. I would be interested to know your outlook on BB as a whole when it comes to BTS and their future in US market (if you have talked about this pls refer me to the post)

My opinion is, that while BB is paramount when it comes to big awards season, eventually BB and the awards themselves serve as a kind of promotion, to validate the artist to their (potential) fanbase, keep them invested etc. BTS guys do all of that on their own, with their music, personalities and lyrics. So going forward, if they dont chart as much, dont win as much... It will not matter in the long run. Their fan base is so solid that I trully believe they will have no problem selling multiple stadium stops 25 years from now. Easily.

There will be a significant fandom fall off, when all the people who are here for bragging rights lose their interest. And that is a good thing... But the people who will stay, who love the guys for who they are and for their art, those whose love does not depend on how many grammy noms or BB H100 they recieve... These people will stay and buy the tickets. And their numbers will still be enourmous. Enviable. More than the majority of the western industry plants can only dream of.

Rant over. Have a good weekend

*

Ask 3:

The latest Billboard discussion is disheartening, but the NYT article description of U.S. conservatives aping the tactics of Swifties and BTS fans to get their nefarious messaging across is even more so. Have we opened the gate for the Trumpsters of the world?

I was struck by this partvof the original question to you"

'... figure out a way to truly determine which songs are most popular (whatever that even means anymore)....'

So, how can we ever know what is truly popular? Are fervent fans willing to devote time and resources to get their fave to the top really the best arbiters? Even if they number in the millions, we are still looking at support that is far deeper than it is wide.

I mean, better than the suits deciding, I guess? Or is it just another group--this one outside of the target country--imposing their agenda on the population? One has the goal of making money; the other of winning a fan war.

So, how do we ascertain what is truly popular with the much-vaunted GP? Or doesn't it matter?

***

I've said many times on this blog that I'm not a writer, and that English isn't my first language, so I suppose it's unsurprising that despite my efforts putting my thoughts to paper/Tumblr, I'm still unable to fully communicate it in a way people understand right away, to eliminate/answer a lot of questions that I believe should be clear to infer from what I've written before. So rather than write a massive post like before where my key points could get lost, I'll pick out key questions from your asks and give fairly brief answers to each one. I'll work my way from the top, down.

Hi Anon(s),

Select answers below:

"Also don't you find the support for Seven excessive? Is the elimination of direct to consumer sales enough to explain that kind of support to keep it number 1?"

I think the results speak for itself. Dynamite and the PET got what is easily the biggest support any BTS release had gotten to date at the time - all of it tailored to mirror how American labels promoted their tracks, *and* the fandom had D2C sales buttressing it as the primary support mechanism. Like, please read that sentence again and think about what it means. Sales are the easiest and most transparent way for the fandom to influence charts, and so was always preferred for ARMY. Even if you weren't in the fandom then, understand it's impossible to overstate how much D2C sales mattered. With that now out of the question, everything we're seeing for Seven for me feels like a given, especially after the Billboard article.

"Do you think there will be additional changes coming, making sales even less relevant for bb charts?"

Yes. But not 'less relevant' in a sense, more like differentiated and treated as its own thing, perhaps in a separate chart.

"I would be interested to know your outlook on BB as a whole when it comes to BTS and their future in US market (if you have talked about this pls refer me to the post)"

This probably requires its own post but the long-short of it is: just like Ticketmaster, Billboard is only one arm of one of the largest private monopolies in the US entertainment market - PMC, and as such they serve as gatekeepers of sorts. Their interest in BTS (and k-pop by extension) lies primarily in how they can profit off the group/fandom, which so far BigHit and ARMY have created very limited avenues for. BigHit's strategy until now has been to expand BTS's reach without relying on the PMC apparatus, using it only for select releases that are explicitly tailored for it e.g. Seven and PET. While I don't think this strategy will change dramatically, every change from BB is to force more compliance with their apparatus. BTS will continue facing handicaps from PMC so long as BigHit continues limiting how PMC can profit from BTS for each release. (This sentence makes sense in my head but if it's not clear, please let me know.)

*

"Have we opened the gate for the Trumpsters of the world?"

Well, yeah. But ARMYs can't take all the credit. After all, ARMYs are only doing what the Bey Hive and Swifties have been doing for almost a decade with none of the scrutiny. BTS, more than any other group, actually has the absolute numbers in demand and grassroots support to justify it as they're comparable to the afore-mentioned artists, proven by their concert showings not just in the US but worldwide, as far back as 2018. People only started paying attention to ARMYs' movements because BTS didn't look like the sorts of people they expected to see at the top of the charts. Everybody took notice, including a political faction in the US that in recent years has moved more aggressively into the entertainment sphere to influence culture, such as Ben Shapiro's entertainment empire, movies like Sound of Freedom topping box office charts, and conservative country singers pushing Reagan-esque talking points to the top of music charts. So it's basically the result of timing and opportunity.

"So, how can we ever know what is truly popular? Are fervent fans willing to devote time and resources to get their fave to the top really the best arbiters? ... how do we ascertain what is truly popular with the much-vaunted GP?"

I've talked about this before I think. You can find my views on it in my Masterlist, and I've linked the post here.

*

People sent in more asks on BB but I've since lost interest in this topic and will post my responses when I feel like it, much later, using the same format I've used to answer the asks above. The truth is that while I understand why many people feel like everything that's happened so far with Seven and Jimin is unfair, I think a lot of the discourse is awfully reductive, actually does a disservice to Jimin and BTS, and that there's a much bigger picture here that's more consistent with how BTS has operated for the last 10 years.

This is probably not the best analogy, but one way I think of BTS is like a Swiss army knife, with each member being a separate tool. And that at different points, in various markets, BigHit and BTS are testing various approaches to expand their reach while aiming to maintain the market share they've gotten so far. The group has always had projects they release that have more artistic merit and cache, versus projects made by all appearances to be purely for commercial purposes to expand the reach of the group. For example, consider how BigHit promoted Butter/Permission to Dance, compared to the BE album, or how Seven was created and promoted relative to Indigo. To go back in even further in previous years, I remember how BTS appeared to center Jimin in Blood, Sweat & Tears era to build out his and their presence in Korea, and Taehyung in DNA era where his and BTS's presence in China ballooned in 2017.

While in the solo era some people feel like every accomplishment remains solely with individual members, I feel everything serves only one purpose: to further establish the group. Because by BTS's own words, they all have their individual ambitions, they've always had that and each member is aggressively competitive on that note, but they've each all said that their priority remains the group. Not everybody likes that, not everybody believes them when they say it, but the good thing with BTS is that they plan in multi-year stints and time always reveals what the facts of the matter are. We're only one year into Chapter 2, and while certain parts of the fandom are treating their solo debut albums as the be all and end all, I don't think there's anything to suggest this perspective lines up with the reality of how BTS has behaved for the last 10 years. I could be wrong, but either way we're just going to have to wait and see. In the meantime, I believe there's significant artistic merit in what the guys are putting out in Chapter 2, that I hope isn't lost in the noise. The fandom should do a better job of bringing the attention back to this, rather than a tunnel-vision on performance metrics that only tell half of the story.

[house-in-the-cerulean-sea]

17 headcannons for march 17. that are so widely spread in this fandom that I'm not even completely sure what is cannon anymore

1. Neither Linus nor Arthur are coffee drinkers, usually Arthur prefers cocoa and Linus tea but you won't catch these two drinking coffee, even tho it might seem like they'd need it!

2. Arthur Parnassus, a Swifty or lover of 80s tunes? Actually both can be true.

3. Zoe's hair flowers bloom affected by her emotions. When with Helen, they are usually pink. Literally, no idea whether or not that's canon.

4. Helen's a redhead.

5. Linus becomes a true fashionista on the island. It's starts with the egg adventure outfit and once he gets comfortable in his skin, he and Zoe go on elaborate shopping trips and his wardrobe becomes even more colourful than mine.

6. Arthur had an extravagant sock collection with the most colourful and patterned socks possible. Of course this is supported by textual evidence, but if we are honest to ourselves, there's only three pairs of socks mentioned red, purple and the one with the clouds. It's completely possible that he just has colourful but one-coloured socks and just this one pair with a pattern. No, i know that's unrealistic.

7. Mr. Graves. Y'all are gonna tell me that that's Not the canon name of the orphanage Arthur went to? Like i thought this was a fact and I haven't even finished @davidbowielovesyou s amazing fanwork "stay" which you can find on ao3 and should be smarter about then me and read it

8. This might be a personal one but Helen is a skater. It's her and her rollerblades against the sand on the concrete.

9. Everyone is autistic. I was gonna say: "only Linus is confirmed autistic" but that's not actually true is it? Tho i think we can use our critical reading skills here and come to the obvious conclusion that he is. But so are phee and Chauncey and Lucy and...

10. Except for Arthur who has ADHD.

11. The term island dads. I'm not actually sure if the TJ knows that name, it certainly originated on Tumblr. But if he knows it👀 Hiii! Love yr work, obviously. Just think about it, the name could have been Anus and i do not like that

12. Linus and Arthur are constantly dancing. Especially in the kitchen!

13. Young Arthur was a punk and an activist and he probably wore multicoloured doc martens

14. Also Linus is obsessed with Princess Diana. I know I personally made that up but i still forgot whether or not it was true

15. There's an underground rebellion going on, that we don't know anything about but these definitely actions and protests for magical rights going on under the radar

16. Doreen aka Ms. bubblegum is either part of said rebellion or secretly also an unregistered magical being. I think she's very neat and it would fit her character to do something this pretty right one dicomys nose.

17. While Arthur of course is cold resistent due to his phoenix abilities, Linus is not which means that when they put David to bed at night Linus insists to wear winter clothes every time so he can say good night, no matter how often Arthur and David tell him that's really not necessary @islanddads is the mind behind this one

@dontuwishuwerehere

[preraphaeliteknight]

I've spent a few days thinking about what to do moving forward. It's not the breakup of a celebrity couple that's affected me the most, it's the feeling of losing my safe space in the Tumblr Swiftie fandom. Every time I've logged onto this app in the last few days I've flinched and quickly exited the dash to get away from yet another take mocking and ridiculing Joe. Or minimizing his very valid fears. "Unbothered 3.0". Rewriting history to make the last 6 years seem insignificant. Comparing him to CH as if petty jealousy is the issue here and not years of harassment. Celebrating the return of Taylor Swift, The Brand, no matter what that means for her future happiness. And circulating pressers that make it sound like Joe was a therapy dog who's no longer needed. All of which is making me feel physically ill. For both of them. And even when this stuff isn't coming from the people I follow (who for the most part have nuanced and fair takes), it's coming from their anons. And no matter what I do I can't get away from the outright cruelty and shocking lack of empathy for the person Taylor has credited with saving her life. Even though swifties know better than anyone what Joe has had to put up with for over half a decade. Given that treatment, I suppose it shouldn't surprise me that this is how he's being discarded. But fuck it hurts. So where does this leave me? This blog was never supposed to be an update account or an ask blog. I just wanted a space to fangirl over my favorite actor. But in the last few months this has become a space for Joe fans to be excited for his upcoming projects and clown over castings (remember a few weeks ago when we were giddily figuring out his next movie because of insta follows? yeah, take me back to that please). And I know some of you rely on this blog as a space to both appreciate Joe and vent your frustrations with his unfair treatment. I have 70+ asks in my inbox right now, the vast majority of which are well written, thoughtful takes on what's been happening. And I agree with pretty much all of it. Thank you for taking the time to send me your thoughts. But the truth is, I simply don't have the emotional capacity to reply to them right now. I can't do it. I can't talk and think and dwell on this. To quote a song that's too painful to listen to right now: "I'm just too soft for all of it." So I feel like I have two options if I ever want to be able to be active on Tumblr again: 1. Unfollow all swifties. Because just seeing pictures of Taylor (especially from the pap walk) makes me feel ill. And it's affecting my opinion of her even though I'm mad at her fans, and not her. And I don't want that to happen or the music to be tarnished. But I also don't want to break mutuals and hurt someone's feelings. And I want to know what's going on with Taylor. I'm a huge fan of her too, and I want to be excited for tour and the re-recordings. So that's why I'm going with option 2: Take a proper break. A real one, this time. Hopefully this all won't feel so hard with some time and distance. I don't know if it will solve anything, because swifties will get back to talking about Joe in the future (whenever she makes art about this) and then I'll probably have to flinch every time I open this app again. Because he will have been reduced to yet another ex swifties can make fun of. So maybe I have to go with both options in the end. If I do, I hope any mutuals out there know not to take it personally. I wish more than anything that I could return to the days of being a casual fan who wouldn't have thought twice about any of this. And maybe that's what I need to try to get back to. For my own sanity's sake. I'm sorry to any Joe fans out there who need a place to vent. I feel like I'm letting you down, but I just can't do this right now. Maybe I'll be able to in the future. Maybe I'll leave this blog and go back to my main instead where the subjects will be more varied. I don't know. I'll always be a Joe fan though, and no shitty presser or swiftie narrative is going to change that.

Please just be kind to each other, and to Taylor and Joe. Let's hope the best for both of them, and please please please don't tarnish all the good that this relationship gave them. And all the beautiful music it gave us.

All my love

[graciebaberams]

I love tumblr but the swiftie fandom is becoming absolutely insufferable. There is next to no emotional intelligence in any important conversation. It’s exhausting being engaged in the fandom. I have so many friends here but I literally hate that so many of y’all are experiencing excessive hate, which means some of y’all are the haters. Which rubs me the wrong fucking way.

[the-pink-album]

So 1989 TV is here and this is it. This is the re recording I was waiting for. It means a lot to me for so many reasons, and it felt like a good moment to talk about the why.

As much as I love Red and all too well and beging again are so dear to me, and therefore I was so excited about Red TV, truth is I wasn’t a fan when the original album came out, and less so for the other two albums we have Taylor’s version now. So I couldn’t quite go down the memory lane for those. I don’t have the connection of being in the fandom in that era.

But i do have that connection with 1989. Is when I first got to really know about Taylor. It was a funny road, getting there: see back at the end of 2014 two things were happening: i really loved blank space and shake it off. So much so I wanted to check the album. I liked it. I was also becoming a Harrie. Bc somehow even if I didn’t follow 1D blogs he was all over my dash, and I tried to resist it, I didn’t want to stan the guy… I was in my mid 20’s way over boybands… it feel silly to be so taken by a 20 year old guy.

So… while I was in denial I was still watching interviews and following along Harrie content on tumblr and on a few they mentioned Taylor. And that’s how I was introduced to Haylor… and the Pandora Box was opened.

And then there was Style. An amazing pop song on it’s own. But also a song about Harry Styles and how it ain’t the easiest to let the guy go… and it sounds over the top but I never had quite the thrill as singing that song when you’re in the process of falling for a certain artist. It made me feel happy, silly and young. It was in ways like falling in love but without the risk of getting your heartbroken. And Taylor gave me the soundtrack for it, and I don’t think I would have become a Harrie in the way I did if it wasn’t for Style.

Style isn’t the only Harry song in 1989, and in the process of getting through those, of seeing Harry through Taylor’s eyes I got to know her too, and she was amazing. Her lyrics were something else (the amount of love i also have for You’re in love… is insane). And so along with a Harrie, a lowkey swiftie was born. (Nowadays while I still would say i’m more of a Harrie than a swiftie, I love Taylor, I feel for her and if I could I would love to tell her I’m going to be forever grateful for Folklore in particular those two songs that feel like she wrote them just for me)

I went from checking tumblr on my free time to endless scrolling between two fandoms, both of which where also touring which meant really fun times here, (and crazy ones too) and if it came with a lot of discourse, fandom fighting, (and getting to know Taylor in a very particular point of her life) also i the moment, those were really happy times. (Yes, even when Harry was clearly 💔 at the 2015 BBMA) I really loved being here for all of it.

2015 was the year that brought me to the two artists that would be a huge source of comfort for the years to come. I often refer to 2015 as my last happy year, in reality it’s just that it was the last time I felt young and carefree and the world didn’t seem as overwhelming. It also gave me friends here that while I don’t talk much to them nowadays they were there for me when life got my heart broken, and to this day I still remember the wise things they told me. I will always remember that year with a fondness and smile, bc nothing has ever been as so naively happy since.

So I’m really excited to revisit and album that was a huge part of that time in my life. It will also remind me of Haylor, I just can’t separe it from that album and in truth I love that. Since 1989 the glimpses we get of Haylor are like Harry said once the most amazing unspoken dialogue ever. Theirs is quite the tale.

So 1989 TV for me is a really special time, that will never be not haylor related, and i’ll be in that headspace for a while. Yes, i know the album is about her, and reclaiming it for her, not about a relationship. But as Taylor herself would say, these songs are also about us, and I want to remember the why and how I came to love her so.

[taylortruther]

I'm late to your discourse discussion, but I want to add...almost ALL discourse in the fandom now LOL. Although I've been a fan since debut, I didn't get on tumblr until mid Rep era. When I think of the fun I had on here over the years! Since Midnights/Eras explosion of popularity, I've noticed almost all my swiftie spaces have become... way less fun. I completely got off Reddit. I only have about three tumblr blogs I visit anymore. Many of the people I loved following on here have stopped posting around the same time. It seems there is a lack of light heartedness here, and so many more people are policing things. Even that anon you just got about Joe! Like...it's so unnecessarily rude, especially since we barely talk about stuff like that here. idk. It makes me sad because I have a feeling many of the people I loved to follow most will also lessen talking about Taylor soon, and I don't blame them tbh. Too many policiers now over dumb stuff.

yeah, the amount of policing, vagueing, and weird-ass parasocial anons people get (if you can get beyond the policing and vagueing) makes it deeply unpleasant to be here sometimes. and the other places to be a fan are just horrific in their own ways. it's like every post you make has to be perfect, you can't ever misspeak or be too general, you have to overexplain your politics, you can't be super casual all the time because someone will demand you explain every human emotion you or taylor has with a psychological text, everyone seems to hold everyone else to really ill-conceived standards (ie, "you're not a real fan if you don't gossip about travis" or "if you aren't speaking up on your blog about X issue it means you don't care and thus we can drag you through the mud for it and ruin your reputation") that make no fucking difference in the real world. it's just frustrating!

[heda-heather]

I don't live in America so I hadn't heard of Taylor Swift until lockdown because that was the first time I was chronically online. Fell down a rabbit hole of english songs (by english I mean the language english not the brits) and came out a swiftie. So anyways, I didn't know about Kaylor back then and Joe was the first person I saw her in a "relationship" with. I was completely unaware of the Gaylor and Kaylor community. Last year I came on tumblr, that was also the time when Taylor and Joe supposedly broke up and a lot of things didn't make sense to me, like the songs, the timings, their whole dynamic and how everybody just believed it, like what? And then I discovered the Kaylor swifties and the way it all fell into place like dominoes, my god it felt good. I just wonder sometimes how swifties can't see past it. Like dude I didn't even know about Kaylor and still figured that something's not right, how do these people manage to be so inherently oblivious?

Well you know, people see what they want to see, and they’ll say the same of us.

It’s actually pretty sad because Taylor is so much more than what they make of her. She’s really deep and thoughtful and she clearly researches the hell out of historical occurrences and influences that she incorporates into her work.

And yet these people obsess over this false idea of her. And I sometimes think that’s why she goes so over the top on the other end. “Oh you think I’m just some dumb girl who fawns over a boy? Well here, I’ll give you the most dramatic version of that ever. See you at the Super Bowl.”

But the problem is, they become obsessed with it and they go all in on it when she does.

And who catches onto that facade and thinks “hey wait a minute this seems weird?” Two sets of people: the ones who see her (us) and the ones who hate her (ex. far right psychos). And since the other side of the fandom will never want to hear from either group of us, they go to bat to defend this facade.

It’s actually insane. And they’re probably all gonna need therapy if she comes out one day 😂

But anyway, glad you see it too! Once I saw how deep the Gaylor/kaylor evidence was I was screwed lmao. There was no going back.

[rainbowdaisy13]

Hey Rainbow, do you think you're still a fan of Taylor's? I noticed you said your lavender-colored glasses were off, and that makes a lot of sense given what she's showing the public. I kind of wish at this point that I never entered the fandom last summer. :/ There was so much joy (for some there still is, I know), but I wish I never got my hopes up about what I thought she was doing or who I thought she might be. That is, I don't think I should be showing her any grace about something that may or may not one day come to fruition. Maybe I can decide to show her some grace when/if she ever does one of the grand somethings I might have hoped for, but yeah...I shouldn't be a fan based on stuff I THINK she's doing, and that's been the heart of my interest from the beginning.

It sucks...I liked listening to her music through a Karlie love story lens. I guess I could still do that, but can I care about this love story if I don't care about Taylor?

I think one of my straight Swiftie friends had it right, tbh. She's read the gaylor theories and she thinks they're very plausible, but she also thinks we will never know if we were right.

I just want to feel cozy in this space and it's not very cozy anymore. :(

First I wanna put out there—if you or anyone else wants Taylor to be a fun and light topic only please by all means unfollow me! I don’t pay attention to who follows me, who I’m mutuals with—unless you are messaging me not on Anon and then I only know bc tumblr tells me if we are mutuals. I take zero offense to people unfollowing—you have to do what’s best for you as an individual

Secondly, am I still a fan is such a hard question I don’t have an answer to yet. I’m definitely not morphing into a hate blog even if it feels that way right now

I’m using this space right now to vocalize how it feels to defend someone and their art for nearly a decade, to believe there was some grand purpose to all the bullshit they have created and participated in, and to one day realize it all may be a lie….the plan may have been to make as much money as possible for as long as possible and that’s it

You really nailed it on the head for me too “I should’nt be a fan for what I THINK she’s doing” or going to do—that’s also been my main interest as well, and maybe that’s on me? The caveat here is that Taylor has continued to encourage the idea and actually does hide secret codes and messages and Easter Eggs and throw backs and has been actively doing this for YEARS with her art—so if we follow the signs she lays down, how is it just us being parasocial idiots? I don’t believe it is—she absolutely shoulders some responsibility for what she’s taught us all to look for even if she never acknowledges that or even cares how it’s impacted other people

Thanks for being honest & do whatever you need to do 🩶

[ikosburneraccount]

I’m the anon from earlier, thanks for correcting your mistake. I understand you didn’t realize what happened but the fact that you owned up to it means a lot because most blogs would’ve blocked me out of cowardice. It’s nice to see someone else standing up against the racism in this fandom especially from big blogs like IS (who really butchers asian culture in her writing, btw, idk why we’re letting yt people write fanfic in this fandom.) i’ve been in fandom spaces for 10 years now and as far as racism goes TLC is by far the worst considering most people still don’t even accept that the MC is asian. I’ve hated TS for years for her casual racism and the white supremacy themes/narrative implicit in her music and the fact that this fandom idolizes her is disappointing, but not surprising. No, Cinder would not listen to a deeply bigoted woman who openly and unapologetically condones violence against black women and hates jewish people. TS is more like Levana than any other tlc character. Anyways thank you again for taking me srsly and correcting your mistake.

OFC ANON!!!! Your ask was so informative and held me accountable (and let me know that some Swiftie blogs could still engage with my posts without my knowledge/consent). I will definitely be moving forward differently because of your ask, thank you so so so much <3

I don't block anons but I do delete anon hate from Swifties. And I KNOW the Tumblr culture that you're talking about, I've also been here for a while (10 years now). But I want to subvert that culture with my blog and with how I respond to my asks. I would rather take the time to respond and explain than be reactive, because 1) being reactive doesn't reflect well on me and the point I'm trying to make and 2) Engaging with anons with a thoughtful response makes them feel respected and validated regardless if we agree or not. I never want people to feel stupid, ignorant, or dumb by my responses, and that is never my intention as well.

Thank you for acknowledging and feeling the same way about the fandom racism. I do feel a bit isolated and lonely sometimes knowing a majority of the fandom are TS fans, but I remember that I would rather get 0 interactions on a post then engage with racists. And anons like you only validate my point that I'm not the only person who feels this way, I'm just the most vocal. I'm genuinely happy you feel seen and heard and feel this blog is a safe space to talk about fandom racism, because I do want people to ultimately feel safe as TLC fans of color to come and talk to me about how they feel. Despite being a small fandom, we still need safe spaces like this as we, tlc fans of color, can feel/have felt alienated by the overwhelming white presence of this fandom.

(And I think it speaks for itself when, after I blocked all swifties following my page, a majority of people who still follow me are other people of color.)

Talking about TS means talking about racism and people seem to elide the fact that I am hurt by their continued support for TS. Like that's the main point of racism, you're engaging in a power dynamic that reinforces the marginalize and violence towards marginalized and exploited communities. People don't understand that being born as and existing as a person of color is a political statement that we cannot evade but actively informs and filters our lives. And when people engage with open racists like TS, it reinforces the marginalization of people of color.

TLC racism is on a different level, but then again, this is the same fandom that where cresswell, a relationship between a 16 and 20 y/o is its second biggest ship :/ Like clearly people don't care about anyone they hurt as long as they can ship their faves. And yes, the race wars when it comes to Cinder racial/ethnic background are INSANE. It really has to do with the fact that a majority of white women see Y/A heroines as their self insert so Cinder not being white disrupts this assumptions and it's the same reason Cress is so popular. I was active in the TLC fandom back in 2014-16 and there was so much discourse about Cresswell (p*d* ship discourse) and about Cinder's race/ethnicity. I 100% agree with you that TLC fandom is one of the WORST fandoms in YA because of their extreme racism towards the Cinder and other main characters (the way I tear up when I see Black!Annabeth fan art being celebrated...why can't people here act correctly sometimes 😭).

I thought IS is Asian(Chinese)-Australian? Please correct me if I'm wrong though, I was just under this impression from how they responded to asks on their blog. If they're actually not Asian/Chinese-Australian I'm actually even more disgusted with their fanfiction now. But it also explains a lot.

"I’ve hated TS for years for her casual racism and the white supremacy themes/narrative implicit in her music and the fact that this fandom idolizes her is disappointing, but not surprising."

Anon you have NO idea how much I want to be your friend right now. YOU PUT HOW I FEEL PERFECTLY INTO WORDS. This is the EXACT issue I have with TS and why she attracts such racist, bigoted fans while still appealing to her liberal fanbase. She encodes her music with white supremacist messaging and simultaneously posits herself as liberal by perverting feminist ideology to deflect accountability for the harm she's caused. She is the PERFECT white woman because she straddles the apolitical white line to maximize her (white) fanbase. She's an evil person but a commercial and marketing genius, and because white supremacy reinforces the paradigm that wealth equates to good moral character, TS is consistently defended as a good person when she literally isn't. At all.

So that's why my original response to your ask was really weird because I couldn't tell if you were pro/anti-TS but still answered anyways just in case, you know? I'm glad to know that you aren't pro-TS and there are other people recognize the racist and white supremacist undertones of her music.

"No, Cinder would not listen to a deeply bigoted woman who openly and unapologetically condones violence against black women and hates jewish people."

If TS existed in the third era she would be bigoted towards cyborgs and lunars, point blank period. People thinking the TLC main characters would be swifties or love TS is 100% a projection of their whiteness (or delusional, or both) and basic misunderstanding of how PoC face and deal with overwhelmingly popular racist white artists. Also, I have so many thoughts on calling the Lunar people "the Lunar race" in both canon and fandom. That's definitely MM's whiteness not fully understanding how race is constructed and her white vision of a post-racial futuristic society. I could speak about that for hours (but that isn't the purpose of this post).

Also you aren't being dramatic with the TS Levana comparison. That's spot on: she literally manipulates people with her victim narrative despite being 33 years old and is able to make people forget the harm she causes with the amount of content she produces. TS since her debut has never taken direct accountability for her racist actions (like the antisemitic 2009 MTV photo where she poses with a guy wearing a swatstika t-shirt and her PR team justified the photo as her "not knowing." She was FIFTEEN).

I can literally write a completely separate post linking every single article by topic of all the racist and suspicious actions she's done and taken both as an artist and person, but this is a TLC blog and I want to focus on TLC content first. This isn't a dig towards you, nanny; this is just me saying I cannot be 100% responsible for educating people on TS racism, because it is a lot of emotional and time-intensive labor.

I hope this post makes sense. This was super heavy and took me a couple hours to write because you brought up so many brilliant points and I wanted to breakdown a proper response. Seriously, this has been my favorite ask so far. Anon, you are now my friend!

[spade-riddles]

Some of the things said by some of you on this blog via anonymous asks are unnecessarily, extremely vile and harsh.

All of us on this side of the street felt disappointed, yes, but calling Taylor those names? Criticizing her for enjoying herself at the football game? "Like a teenage girl" even though we were all celebrating her enjoying herself at the VMAS a while back?

Also, comparing her to younger artists like Billie Eilish or Olivia Rodrigo seems disingenuous. Same-sex marriage was still illegal when 1989 first came out. During the good lot of her life, a part of Taylor was illegal. Even then, don't compare queer people like that, we express queerness differently.

It's natural to be disappointed, angry, upset, betrayed. But why would you stoop to those levels? Same as misogynists and haters who call Taylor those very things?

Being a Gaylor, much less a Kaylor, was NEVER going to be easy. There's a strong possibility she'll never come out 'publicly' at all which we should consider as we go into this. We're going to face backlash from Swifties continually. Even being a Swiftie isn't fun with all these cliques in the fandom. Swifties get criticized a lot for being toxic as a fanbase; not all Swifties, but a vocal part of them. They will go against anybody who dares to deviate from the norm. The ones on Tumblr are unnecessarily hostile against newer or Tiktok Swifties. My point here is that we aren't the problem, entitled Swifties who beg for Taylor's favoritism are (... and including a lot of factors).

Taylor herself is also criticized for her performative activism continually. It's safe to assume that she's not going to be the beacon of women empowerment any time soon — don't discredit her success, she is contributing to feminism and other societal causes which is admirable; praise her along with more brilliant people, activists and allies.

Still I don't mean to invalidate anybody's feelings nor do I want to rebuke you and preach kindness. No. You don't have to be kind to Taylor, a literal stranger we have no personal relationship with. I feel for a lot of you, it's natural to have reactionary anger when her sighting at the game came out of nowhere like whiplash. I also don't think those derogatory words used against Taylor were really necessary.

Who is calling Taylor names on this blog? We are not 'stooping' to levels. We are discussing what she is showing us. She was not just "enjoying herself at the football game". She probably did not enjoy a minute of it. She sold her dignitiy for money.

Are you really denying that this appearance was for anything other than marketing/money?

[lillefromsiberia]

Leaving The Gaylor Community

When I started to listen to Taylor Swift, I was so excited. Her voice and her lyrics were a comfort to me. I would fall asleep to her music, I would do my chores to it, it was my obsession and for a person who usually just simply enjoys things it was new and exciting to be so bewitched by something.

I soon realised that some of her songs didn't make sense to me, and while I was researching on what could she mean by some of her lyrics I stumbled upon gaylor theory, and everything made sense. So much sense that I was speechless. All I could do was read countless posts and watch presentations over and over again, because the analysis of her lyrics was SO GOOD and it made SO MUCH SENSE.

I began to feel this spiritual bond with Taylor, as a closeted queer person. I felt like I knew her, and she knew me, even though we have never met and will never meet, but we understood each other. I didn't feel alone.

And, honestly, I also was invested in the drama and the secrets of it all. We all love to gossip, very human (and sometimes very useful) thing to do, so I wanted to talk about it with someone, I wanted to be up to date with gaylor lore, I wanted to read what people think, so I joined Tumblr. And I was not dissapointed.

The humor, the analysis, the theories - all of it was amazing.

And then the drama with the NYT article happened.

At first I was FUMING. I was so annoyed that I even deleted some of what I wrote because I posted some not so chill takes. It was intense. I was intense.

I calmed down in a day, of course, but the conversation was still going, and going... and I started to become curious about what people were saying. I mean, I knew what I agreed with, but what kind of points are they making against that article? Are they all slightly to moderate homophobic, or are there actual valid takes that I haven't seen yet? I wanted to know.

So, yesterday I watched a video by a queer person who was angry about the article. I've read some comments under that video.

I don't remember any arguments/points, but I saw how triggered people were, it stuck with me and I honestly felt bad. They were hurt, scared, angry, frustrated, they lashed out - I mean, everything I did. I know how that feels.

I fell asleep thinking about it all. Their perspective, my perspective, and the questionable importance of me holding on to something that at the end of the day doesn't change anything in my life.

And the truth is that I don't feel okay being a part of this community anymore when I saw how much pain it was causing to queer people. I can't ignore the truth of their emotional experience. Maybe it causes the same pain to Taylor. I don't know and will never know, but the thought of it haunts me and I feel bad.

Also, I realised that I lost control a little bit and started to become delusional at some point. I actually forgot that I don't know her. I grew too confident about my opinions and I began to view them as facts.

So, I choose to leave. This was a wonderful experience that I'll never forget, I've never been a part of a fandom like that. It was awesome.

I feel awkward right now. A lot of you followed me because I was active in the gaylor community. I don't know what I am going to do with this account.

But I know that I will not be a part of the swiftie fandom at all, starting now. If there's a chance that she's straight (and there is, because at the end of the day we don't know for sure) her behaviour during Lover era was not okay and I don't feel comfortable supporting her in this way.

Anyway, feel free to unfollow me, and I am sorry. I know that this post will upset some people who I like on here, and I hope they'll understand that it's just a decision that makes me feel comfortable and at peace. I don't want you to think that I am trying to make a point, I am just updating and explaining my decision because it felt weird and rude to just disappear.

I strongly believe that we all should always decide for ourselves and do what feels right. Keep doing what you think is right for you, babes, I fully support you.

Thank you for being so amazing, kind and smart. I wish you all the best, my darlings.

I loved being a part of this little world with you.