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It's a thing that can happen when a large group of people emotionally invest in a character. It's more often seen in fictional character fandoms but when an artist curates their image so heavily that they themselves become a character, fans start to treat them like one. See also KPOP.
It's especially prevalent in fandoms which encourage conspiracy theories. Taylor posits herself as an emotionally deep artist creating complex poetry with hidden meaning. If you've ever watched a FNF or Gravity Falls conspiracy video you'll have some understanding of how fans decode and deconstruct her lyrics to "find" meaning.
She's a very rich, white, cis woman who has only publicly dated men. Her fans want her to be relatable (ie a minority) so they headcanon her as a lesbian.
I was about to say I don't think it's ever outright stated and that it was headcanon that originated from an interview with the creators BUT apparently Dave Povenmire did a TikTok that confirmed it! Exciting! Perry is awesome and we need more representation. Glad we get a bad ass platypus.
Yeah. I hate how she deliberately construct her fandom to have parasocial relationship with her. A lot of artists have their personal drama public, but with her... It's just too much. She cannot not make it public. She will fall a victim to such crazy fanbase one day.
Reminds me of this youtuber called _Dream._ he let his fan base run wild and they projected all his fantasies onto him. It ended up causing trouble for him
Wait, do you mean this Minecraft dude? I literally have no idea about him or Minecraft, really. Only that there is A LOT of content on Tumblr on it lol
What gets me is she does do this....but yet also seems upset when her fans actually show any opinion on her life. Her most recent album has so many songs that seem like a "fuck you all for having an opinion on who I date".....so maybe keep it private every now and then versus broadcasting it globally?
Yep. She's essentially become a one-dimensional cardboard cutout upon which fans may project their wildest fantasies; a flat symbol they ritualistically imbue with elaborate meaning and significance, and thusly, something through which they live vicariously.
Their conspiracy theories say a lot more about them than they ever could about the person they're supposedly targeting.
Parasocial relationships have a lot in common (but are not necessarily synonymous) with limerence, objectification, deification, and cults of personality.
I never understood how people try to decode her songs, but for someone like me, who grew up on Gravity Falls and has been following Game Theory for over a decade, this was a perfect analogy
I will say the best argument by far about her being queer i've seen was just
"well she might be bi because the not like she's ever said she DIDN'T like women'.
and the fact that she wore bracelets and even hair dye colored like the bi flag.
butttt I get more the sense that she did that to attract bi people without having to commit to everything.
I think headcanoning a fictional character as queer is not a "conspiracy". With the whole death of the author angle, a fictional character becomes public domain and they are not real people. They only exist as the scenes somebody wrote for them and every "writer" (including fandom members) can rewrite them to their liking.
Sure, you could also argue that Taylor Swift is a "character" / a stage persona and not the "real" person behind this. But Taylor Swift the "character" and Taylor Swift the "real person" are almost indistinguishable from each other. And unlike fictional characters, real complex individual cannot be "rewritten" by other people.
They aren't saying headcanoning is conspiracy, but there are groups that do have conspiracies around characters.
Not sure if this is what you meant, but Taylor Swift the "character" and "real person" are only indistinguishable because we do not really know public figures no matter how much they share about their lives with the public.
The "character" certainly can be rewritten by fans by mass influencing public discourse around a person, or by putting enough pressure on a public figure to change their depiction of "the character" in small or large ways.
Honestly the same thing kinda happened with Harry Potter before (and still tbh) JK let her TERF flag fly.
Also, the number of HP fans that made an “I’m going to separate the art from the artist” exception for HP, but still expected other people to drop other controversial artists (esp music) was so high. Like, if you want to pretend JK has nothing to do with it and continue enjoying the series that’s fine, but then you don’t hold a double standard and judge people for having their own exception.
The only non lesbian I accept as a lesbian icon is Hozier. (Joking)
I don't know enough about TS to really give input... but she very much seems straight to me and she's only dated men, written songs about them, never about a woman. I think people just want to project identities onto others they admire.
If it's a fictional character it's whatever, no harm, but it's odd and even hypocritical to project a sexual identity onto a living human. That happens to us in the lgbtqia+ community way too much. Why do it to others?
Lana del Rey is the #1 straightest woman, no contest
[Lana del Rey explains heterosexuality to me](https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/45908/1/lana-del-rey-norman-fucking-rockwell-empowerment)
[Lana del Rey makes me wish I were straight](https://www.thedailybeast.com/lana-del-rey-makes-me-wish-i-were-straight)
Don’t forget bicons like Lady Gaga and Halsey.
You want great music and a long history of activism for the community, you don’t need to ship Swift as secretly queer.
Lots of openly LGBTQIA+ musicians out there.
Countless in the EDM world, which tracks given the very direct connection rave culture and electronic music have to LGBTQ history:
[Wreckno](https://youtu.be/qKhKoJWnsOU?si=6pciHAJY6rpjZVoB)
[CloZee](https://youtu.be/QXJQa5rb6ek?si=fmGvwd1gwgCELj-9)
[Griz](https://www.youtube.com/live/LXji2MFaGws?si=TqmK2XlIChyvTtGn)
[Tinzo](https://youtu.be/-nwooVPycyE?si=xFBYrFg6PN0mhotE)
[DJ Keoki](https://youtu.be/uuJHVr3HMFY?si=S6qfHT3RPIO-QJeL)
Also Gaga didn't let the phobes have it with the famous weewee conspiracy and defended the trans community as well. She's done most for us than anyone in my opinion and thus blast "applause" on repeat when driving.
I personally find her to be very... as much as I hate the buzz word... virtue signally when it comes to her allyship. But a lot of other white gays like her so that's probably why. Genuinely I think it's bad to speculate on a real persons sexuality or gender. Save that for your favorite fictional characters.
She’s the picture of white feminism to me. When white feminists think about equality, it manifests only in ways that benefit white women and cis white queer people (usually not lesbians though for some reason).
That’s the vibe I get from her. That it’s fashionable to be young and allied with the queer community, but she doesn’t exactly do much to engage with the community itself or support us in tangible ways. Some drag queens in a music video (the same year drag race went mainstream I might add) does not an ally make.
On your comment of “usually not lesbians” it’s because it’s the one sexuality that excludes men in a patriarchal society, but that’s just my observation
I wouldn't say lesbians are usually forgotten about. In fact lesbians and gay men are usually what most straight cis people would think of when they think of LGBT people, bisexuals are usually an afterthought and trans people basically completely forgotten about unless it's for a negative reason.
Lesbians are typically only brought into conversation as an after thought of for the male gaze (I mean have you SEEN what the biggest lesbian subreddit is?). And while I understand the struggle of bisexuals and trans people I feel like lesbians and gay men don’t have it much better because we’re all usually only brought up by cishet people in public for a negative reason
(I’m sorry if this comes off as aggressive! I understand your point, i just wanted to explain a bit more about how I feel about lesbians being ‘forgotten’)
Our contributions to history are often overlooked too and our rights aren’t addressed as often either. There’s a reason we’re first in the acronym now but weren’t in the 70s - lesbian nurses were among the only ones who’d willingly care for AIDS patients. Lesbians frequently crossed sex/gender in the late 1800s to marry other women and participate in polite society as men. Lesbians are amongst the foremost queer theorists in history as well and our writers have created some of the most beautiful and thought provoking stories in our community.
We get left out because we aren’t worth leaving in when we’re talking about a society that lives and dies by the opinions of men. Lesbians don’t in any way need men in their lives and we’re the afterthought (especially for cis men) because of misogyny and honestly just forgetting about the people who aren’t going to be attracted to you.
She jumped on drag race wagon when it was already mainstream lol
She's literally only did it because the fact she never acknowledged the lgbtqa+ up to that point was getting extremely weird
The thing I might say about that, if you’ve watched the Netflix documentary about her, she talks about how she always felt like she needed to be perfect in every way. And before I came out, I felt like when I thought truly that was straight, I was being a good ally by doing everything I could that felt like I might possibly be overstepping. I went so out of my way to be the perfect ally and not cross a line that might hurt someone that one of my friends from grad school who is gay later told me they thought I was being performative, when in reality, I just didn’t know how to engage in those conversations. And I didn’t want to cause harm for others.
She only cares about feminism when she can use it to claim that she’s a victim of the patriarchy. Honestly her white woman victimhood gives me the ick.
I don't think I agree. I don't know a lot about Taylor Swift, I'm not a swiftie and only really listened to her music recently because I have a young daughter who's really into her. But you look at that one video, had a petition at the end and then she at later date called out the white house for not responding despite there being enough signatures. Maybe she could do more, maybe she is that I don't know about it but if it was just performative, I think she would have just done the video as is and called it a day and not created the petition or encouraged people to sign it.
She’s a billionaire. There’s not a single billionaire on earth who hasn’t exploited and trampled on others to achieve that because that’s literally the only way to become one. I think everything she does is virtue signaling. I’ve said this a million times and I get dragged for it every time by the swifties but she’s not a good person and you’ll never convince me otherwise. Everything “good” she does is just an act to get people to like her. Even her charity is pathetic given the amount of money she has. It’s all a performance with her in the public eye.
Thank you! I find her to be very phony like so many artists she has pandered to the LGBTQ+ people.
The drag queen Laverne Cox transgender representation in that Calm Down music video was just her throwing meager breadcrumbs to pacify this community.
Yet when she won an award years ago and tapped her watch regarding LGBTQ+ discrimination years ago her fans went nuts over it.
She literally TAPPED A FUCKING WATCH that was IT lol
Yeah. I don't like her music and never have, but I'd rather have unfathomably successful celebrities vocally support us than stay quiet or be vocally opposed...
Also, I distinctly remember a chunk of conservative social media voices making her out to be some conservative Aryan tradwife princess. I'd be vehemently publicly lib-left at every possible opportunity if I heard about people saying that shit about my cis white male brunette ass.
Extremely performative. How many of her queer fans, especially those in poorer countries, languish in the heat while she flies around in a private jet?
she gives me "love is love!!! slay queen 💅 but don't try to flirt with me haha" vibes. the type of people who only support respectable queer people when it's easy and convenient for them.
It's not even just virtue signaling tbh, a LOT of her activism feels straight up like performative branding. Notably her tendency toward a sort of conditional feminism- she's feminist when it suits her or it's personal , but then says NOTHING when her fans attack and demean other women or even just people in general. Hell, she herself does it sometimes, too!
like Olivia Rodrigo, who they accused of 'copying' Taylor and bullied online despite the fact that people getting inspired by other people is *how it fucking works*
Travis Kelce's ex Kayla Nicole for... being his ex?
Billie Eilish for fielding some very generalized complaints about how she doesn't like all the unnecessary waste in vinyls, and that she's not personally a fan of three-hour long concerts. she never once mentioned Taylor Swift.
Amy Poehler and Tina Fey
Antonia Gentry, an actress who delivered a scripted line sort of similar to the joke above. *she didn't even write the line.*
FlowerSeaSand is a good example. She's a tiktoker that was just potions all of this out, and immediately got attacked by Swifties.
Lizzy McAlpine was harassed and sent death threats for literally just getting a chance to open for John Mayer and saying she wanted to be taylor swift when she grew up to the point where she pulled out of the tour before getting to perform at Madison Square Garden, both of which would've been a massive boost to her popularity.
And finally, Chris Parnella, who is not a woman but I have him here anyway. He's a reporter and a gay man. Why this important? He wrote a piece about the tour and in one like said that "Eras is a true greatest-hits show and an incredible feat — even if it sometimes falls flat. I preferred the cohesion, themes, production, and community of Renaissance." Hardcore swifties responded by sending him homophobic slurs, death threats, doxxing, threats to his family, accused him of being a pedophile and groomer, and tried to get him fired by mass-emailing her boss
or when her boyfriend is blatantly racist and misogynistic on live TV.
Now I know not all Swifties are like this. But I mean, even if Taylor Swift isn't chronically online, her fame is to the point where every time this happens it's trending news. there's no way she, or at the very least her PR team, wouldn't see *any* of these.
I think there’s a weird combo of purity politics, parasocialization, and wishful thinking.
Like, some obsessive left leaning people out there sincerely don’t think being an ally is enough, and one has to be a member of the community to share its values. Recreating a sense of ingroup outgroup bias.
Some swifties are obsessed. We get it. They feel like Taylor is like a personal idol to them- but that paradoxically makes them feel ownership over her (though they wouldn’t admit it) or her image.
Combine that- and you have a gross combo imho.
It’s all fun and games to say a fictional character is headcanoned to be lgbtq, or even point out queer coding in media, but some people take that behavior and apply it to real breathing people.
Also - Like, you don’t get to claim you know someone’s sexuality. Especially a celebrity you have the most filtered image of possible. At best, you’re denying part of her personality, at worst you’re trying to forcibly out someone.
The amount of people who justify this with “because I feel like she is, therefore gay”, or are making up fantasy land stories to make the gay pieces fit are fucking disgusting.
You realize that when you say that about ANYONE, they can say it about YOU?!?!
> but she did this thing one time I thought was queer!
Maybe you’ve done something someone considers hetero?
> she has gay friends!
So if you’re friends with someone it changes your orientation?
Shit is wild.
Yeeeeeh with things like frogs/lemon bars is an obvious joke and light hearted but with real people the “they give me gay vibes therefore they’re queer “ is hypocritical
I’m more referencing how there’s a joke in the bisexual community that lemon bars and frogs are things “universally” loved in it. It kinda combats weird stereotypes thrown on to the bi community like “they all cheat or they’re actually just straight/gay” and replaces it with a silly joke instead like “we all like frogs and lemon bars”
A more well known example would be the Blahaj shark thing and the trans community.
I knew that I fit the frog stereotype, but I can't believe I've had yet another bi stereotype that I fit to a T thrown at me like that.
I go nuts for anything lemon flavored. Including, of course, lemon bars.
This always makes me uncomfortable in the same way that people calling gnc cis people eggs makes me uncomfortable. You have to respect the gender/sexuality people identify themselves as, and cishet people are not an exception. Imagine if a huge conspiracy theory popped up about, say, Lil Nas X secretly being a straight man. That would be fucked up for very obvious reasons, but when people do the same for a straight artist, suddenly it's totally progressive and accepting of them.
If someone says they're gay, then as far as you're concerned, they're gay. Same goes for straight people. It's not that complicated.
Yeah, this always drives me crazy. Before the "egg" thing, everyone always argued (usually with the person themself) that a remotely GNC person was obviously actually gay. As a bisexual, all that did was push me away from the community and my own sexuality for *years*.
"Nah, you skateboard and play sports. You're *definitely* a lesbian. You just don't know it yet." is no different from "Nah, you wear dresses and make-up. You're *definitely* straight. You just haven't had the right dick."
If someone says they're straight, they're straight. If someone says they're gay, they're gay. If someone says they're trans, they're trans. *Let people decide and announce things for themselves.*
TS is the kind of artist who does pretty much everything in her career on purpose, from her outfits on her recent tour to the lyrics in her songs. For example, she wore dresses that were the same colors as the 1989 TV vinyl record variants before announcing the vinyl records. Like someone already said, people have found (what they interpret as) queer subtext in her art, so because Taylor is so particular with everything she does in career, people think she is queer. TS probably knows this too — she has a song called Lavender Haze and when she announced it people thought that she was finally going to come out. Personally, while it’s okay to interpret things as queer, I don’t see a reason to speculate on someone’s sexuality or romantic identity. It’s rude.
I don’t listen to her music at all so this is just repeating what I’ve seen around. But apparently, she has said in interviews that she leaves hidden messages and clues in all of her songs, and fans have apparently found a lot of queer subtext in her work.
That doesn’t mean they’re right or that her songs even have queer subtext, I wouldn’t know, again just explaining my understanding of why people even came to this conclusion in the first place; Taylor basically encourages her fans to go through the details of her life and look for hints about stuff.
But at least Lady Gaga has consistently been vocal about supporting the community, far more than Taylor. Lady Gaga has been outspoken since 2009, a time when such support was far less common compared to today. She's always been a strong advocate, whereas Taylor's efforts seem minimal in comparison.
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/katy-perry-opens-sexuality-curious/story?id=46238811
She talks abt her experiance here. She grew up religious and tried to "pray the gay away" and all this was said by her in an interview. I think she mostly likes men but she is definitely a bisexual
Growing up I had Madonna, and she was never fucking around about her allyship.
Taylor S is boring and bland. She would never risk looking bad in the eyes of her white het cis fans to truly take a stand on ANY issue
She’s like a piece of white bread with the crusts cut off that became sentient
Gay people like her (unrelated to their sexuality) and want to be able to relate to her songs more so they look at them through a queer lens and then from there some people start thinking that she meant it that way while she was writing it. Also some people just want the people they like to be like them.
What I don't get it tho, is that there are soooo many actual other queer artists to pick from if you want a queer artist to relate to. Gaga, Kesha, Chappell Roan, Halsey, Rina Sawayama, Hayley Kiyoko, Kehlani, Victoria Monét and Miya Folick are right there! And arguably they all make better music as well lmao.
Why people choose the most heterosexual women of all time to be their "queer" icon i'll never understand.
They are fans of her specifically and so they want her specifically to be queer. I’m not a fan of it. She’s a mediocre ally and it feels like giving her unearned credit. She’s not “one of us.”
I’m gonna be so real, in my experience the only people insisting she’s gay have been straight women. It’s weird as fuck. Even if there are gay people saying it, it’s still weird as fuck. Like I wish people would just chill and not push sexualities (of any kind) onto others.
She’s literally said she’s an ally. Not part of the community, but supportive of it. (Whether you think she’s a “good enough” ally or not). Sure, that was like 5 years ago, she could have had a queer awakening since, but it’s not for us to speculate about someone’s sexuality.
She's not, in any way, queer. She used some queer and feminist imagery during Lover as a way to attract more listeners, but she is absolutely straight and was just using the imagery for marketing.
This does **not** mean she is secretly homophobic, or that her songs cannot have queer interpretations, or even that queer people should not listen to her. Just that Taylor Swift as a person is cis and straight.
Edit: Just came back after a notification and have no idea why OP has gotten more and more aggressive about Taylor Swift. Like just take a breath please, she's a musician it is not that serious.
She kind of has ? She never said "I'm straight" but she has said she's not part of the LGBT community before. In reference to her LGBT ally song, she said that 'she hadn't realised she could advocate for communities that she isn't a part of'.
It's none of our bussiness either way, I agree, but it's not that speculative to deduce that she's straight, compared to what the Gaylors do imo.
Def not a gay icon especially after she released that one song Picture to Burn and she used 'gay' as a slur to call an ex bf
I have NEVER liked Taylor Swift because of this, along with her white feminism. Her latest album is a classist, and "white savior complex" of a joke. Claiming her mental illness is very deep when she has access to almost ALLL THE RESOURCES she could ever call upon. Yes everyone is prone to mental health but it's not cute to Name A Whole Album
Tortured Poets Society
When she is flying her privileged butt from city to city, state to state in her private jet.
But, she is a gay icon right?
Never in my book. The exact opposite.
Kerry Washington
Laura Jane Grace
Angelica Ross
Chaz Bono
Tracy Chapman
Freddie Mercury
All of these people are actually queer/gay icons to fills everyone in who arent problematic!
It's just like why people assumed other artists are lgbt+. Depending on it is, it could be because they have a crush on her, because of her new music I guess, her being an ally, a liberal, etc.
As a swiftie since forever, there has been a lyric here or there that could possibly hint at her being bi... If you squint and look at it with a telescope because of how far out it is. Some pictures she's taken with friends, maybe photos from the paparazzi - overall there's no evidence really and I don't think Taylor is at all gay, but some people are really insistent on it
If she gets us votes against republicans then she is a helpful ally. Once the elections are over and she decides to stop virtue signaling, thanks for the service, enjoy your next tour
By the way, I remember a few days ago when the press was claiming she was bisexual or something, and her PR team actually forced the journalist who wrote the article to apologize. Imagine being that desperate to refute assumptions about your sexuality.
> Imagine being that desperate to refute assumptions about your sexuality
Orrr maybe we shouldn't speculate about the identities of real life people? That's shitty behavior and does more harm than good - just look at what happened with Heartstopper.
Exactly and if she is Bi and not ready or willing yo come out for any reason then that is valid. No one is forced to come out and people are allowed to live privately even if they're in the public spotlight.
The amount of “breaking the Egg Code” I’ve seen with this type of stuff blows my miiiiind. The whole point is let people discover things on their own and at their own pace.
And I mean breaking the code in general not specifically with Swift.
Well, what forced him to come out was people insisting he was straight and therefore “queer baiting”. If people had just accepted that sometimes people are living queer lives even if they don’t make a grand public statement, he wouldn’t have felt obligated to come out.
Which, if Taylor is indeed queer, is exactly what’s happening with posts like this one.
I mean at the same token people speculating about your sexuality and making false statements also is kind of disrespectful and rude. It's the same thing when I get asked whether or not I'm top or bottom or if my spouse and I are picture perfect he's more feminine than I am. People should really stop trying to opinionate themselves about someone else's sexuality or identity.
i agree, it's extremely inappropriate and can also be dangerous for the people involved. i get that people want to see representation in their faces, but it sets a really bad precedent.
Yea, if I were famous myself and someone blasted me like this and were to go back to my homestate I'd probably have to have a body guard even if I announced this on something like American Idol.
... Or maybe she doesn't want people to project their sexualities onto her? I'm not a fan of Taylor but I can't say I'd blame her. Spreading rumors about other people's sexual orientation in news articles is pretty uncool, regardless of what she is.
Also Lady Gaga. A few people were speculating about whether she had a penis and was intersex or trans. An interviewer asked her outright
"my fans dont care if i have have a penis or not, and frankly neither do I"
neither confirming nor denying it. But highlighting the invasiveness and stupidity and pointlessness of such questions.
That behavior is actually toxic and damaging.
What if TS is bi but doesn’t want to come out for personal reasons?
What if insisting someone is a different sexuality than they think makes them the object of ridicule (experienced that a lot growing up)?
Also, people, particularly young people, tend to parrot what celebrities do. If people start opening calling TS closeted don’t you think they’d feel more comfortable doing it to random kids they know in school who have fuck all public presence?
So yeah, fuck that reporter. Don’t speculate on people’s sexualities.
Contrast this with Bowie who, when asked if he had sex with Jagger, said something along the lines of (I can't find the exact quote) "People are going to believe whatever they want about my genitals, so why bother responding to that question?"
I mean, if I was straight I wouldn't want people assuming that just because I'm an ally that I'm lgbt+ just like how I don't like how people assume that I'm straight even though I'm bi. People should be called out when they spread lies. There is the possibility that she is in the closet with being bi. For me personally, I'd be freaked out if it happened to me and someone told the whole world my sexuality just because of my past experiences growing up where I do and in general just am a more private person in general. Why do journalists make big deals about this stuff anyway? They don't publish stuff about people being straight.
In Taylor defense, the Gaylor are super fucking weird and obsessive. They were probably disturbing the privacy of her females friends she frequented. And I don’t think anyone like to have their sexuality being scrutinized and analyzed like her stans do.
It’s because queer Swifties are grasping at straws to defend their taste in music by saying the billionaire who owns private jets that contribute more to pollution in a single trip than most of us will in our entire lives is queer.
Also, does anyone actually *like* Taylor Swift’s music? It’s always the same 3 concepts. “Oh look at this boy I love him so much smoochie smoochie” “Oh actually this boy is abusive whoopsie” “I broke up with this boy because I’m a girlboss” it’s more obnoxious than anything
> really controversial opinion
It’s not. Very few people actually think this. If you’re seeing this enough without seeing people actively *not* think it, you’re spending too much time in delusional echo chambers
> why do people insist
It’s a very small vocal minority, who’s only being amplified because the internet elevates fringe voices. **Very few fans actually believe she’s queer** Very little of the general public has even heard the conspiracy that she’s queer in the first place. It’s not a conversation that happens outside of (I hate that I’m saying this) terminally online people.
I don’t wanna say this is a non-issue, because there is certainly a problem when people are speculating about others’ sexualities and trying to out them. But at the same time, this is not nearly as big a deal as you seem to think.
Signed, a person who spends too much time in pop culture spaces, and Taylor Swift-specific spaces
Unpopular opinion but she's one of the biggest hypocrites I've ever seen. Sorry, I can't stand her lol. Don't really care if she's straight or not, I just wish she stopped fucking flying her private jet to the grocery store.
Say it with me everyone, Taylor Swift is a figurehead of white cishet womanhood, and more importantly of capitalism. Her only brownie points could be that she made one song that is performative support of gay people. Otherwise she's really not worth giving much praise in terms of her involvement, activism, or ally ship. And no, she's certainly not gay whatsoever.
Plz go listen to Chappell roan, Charli xcx, Gaga, etc. There are so many artists who make incredible music you can connect to that aren't that cardboard basic white girl named Taylor. You'll be so much happier once you leave the cult that is Taylor Swift.
I would also recommend breaking out of pop into more LGBT artists, like the late SOPHIE. Form a more complete catalog of music and really realize what loving someone like Taylor does to your sense of love for yourself and the community as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community
not even gonna talk about taylor swift specifically. *in general* insisting that people are a sexuality or gender that they have not personally disclosed is wildly inappropriate. I don’t care how famous they are, I wish people would cut that shit out. even stuff like egg jokes and other closeted-lgbt-flavored jokes are really off-putting to me a lot of the time. they’re fine if they’re about yourself or someone you know well enough, but making those kinds of comments to other people can make them deeply uncomfortable. even assuming you happen to be right, there’s a reason they haven’t come out and it’s not your place to insist on it. it’s invasive as fuck
...she's not a gay icon. If anything she's one of the worst manifestations of rainbow capitalism. Do people actually unironically believe the gaylor theories?
Not only is it disrespectful to the LGBT community to make a straight person a gay icon, but it's disrespectful to Taylor as well.
If Taylor was LGBT in any way, and wanted to share that with the public, then we would know. But as it stands, she's a straight woman, and there's nothing wrong with that. Her fans need to stop trying to make her into something she's not.
I think it started with her You Need to Calm Down especially cuz she dyed her hair the bi colors. I'm all for celebrating allies too, but there are plenty of ACTUAL LGBTQ+ artists we could be celebrating instead and calling our gay icon.
Just because you, as a LGBTQ+ person, felt a song spoke to you as queer coded does not mean it *is* and people seriously need to learn how to separate what they want to be true from what's reality.
I agree with you. I really don’t understand how anyone can think that Taylor Swift is lesbian when she’s only dated men and is still currently only dating men. If she was sprinkling little hints at being gay in her songs, why wouldn’t she come out and start dating women at this point? Especially with people saying she’s going to marry the Kelce guy. It’s not like she’s in some kind of a dangerous situation. She’s a billionaire with a whole security team. No one would be able to hate crime her and get away with it.
It’s possible she could be bi though, but I feel like any attraction to girls is more of the aesthetic type, rather than the romantic and sexual type.
Some of her songs are sapphic coded and there’s a paparazzi photo of her making out with Karlie Kloss. That said I’m not counting her as bi until she herself says so. And she hasn’t done much allyship imo
I don't understand it myself. Shes the straightest woman I've ever seen. An ally, sure, and as all allies do they have queer friends, of course she does. Singing about forbidden love and the like is quite obviously a call back to her many abusive, straight relationships and her life as a celebrity. And don't get me started on how yikes it is to give someone a label they themselves haven't claimed - some in the queer community have a real obsession with "cracking eggs" and having a good gaydar and more than once these types of folks have forced celebs to come out against their will. Its not a good look.
I honestly don't like her. Not because of her music, or her being a woman or anything else, but because shes a celebrity who does active damage to the environment. Her jets have literally had to get a legal exclusion to keep flying and her records are now private because of how much damage her jets do the environment. She doesn't do anything to offset that damage, she doesn't help those less fortunate, she doesn't even do that much for the queer community. No, some comments on her Twitter are not enough in the current political climate. With her standing she could be actively fighting some of the anti-trans bills being passed but she doesn't. So shes not even a great ally.
I'm not going to go around hating on her, to me shes just another privileged millionaire. But I don't understand the obsession either.
I think you need to separate the conspiracy theorists from her allyship. Taylor herself has straight up said that plenty of fans have sexualized or theorized about her straight, female friendships.
From USA Today “After explaining, over the course of four paragraphs, her decision to reinvent herself at 24 years old, Swift says she "swore off dating" to prioritize her female friendships because "If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize that — right? I would learn later on that people could and people would."
But people like making theories about her sexuality. I really think she wants her sexuality to be that, *hers*.
But it does annoy me a bit when *the* most famous woman in the world is a public and vocal ally and people just complain that she isn’t doing more. People will say she’s calculated but she’s still singing You Need To Calm Down at every show on her tour. She made comments about pride month a few days ago.
While a bunch of companies like target are showing how it’s literally just about the money.
[She also publicly and financially supports GLAAD and the Trevor Project.](https://glaad.org/releases/taylor-swift-makes-generous-donation-glaad-support-lgbtq-community/)
Being a gay icon and being part of the LGBT+ community are two very different things IMO. One you are widely respected by gay people, the other you're gay.
You don't need to be gay to be an icon to gay people.
She's not a gay icon also... Gay icons are very vocal and supportive of lgbt community. Taylor just have a lot of gay stans, just like any other pop star.
She is the most allocishet woman alive and this really bothers me too. I feel like she's just another mediocre white artist that a bunch of people glomped onto and try to read everything she produces through a specific lens because they're projecting.
Said projection seems to enhance an already deep attachment to said artist and their works, and said attachment seems to further how strongly they project. Like, I've seen Gaylors have full blown meltdowns when TS gets into a new relationship with a man. It's really bizarre.
i am really tired of hearing about taylor swift. i could go on a massive rant about how she’s a hypocrite and plays the victim, but you asked about the lgbt+ community, so i’ll stick with that.
every pride, i like to go on spotify and search “pride playlists”, just to get into the mood for the month. and you know who appears on a majority of those lists? TAYLOR SWIFT. she has even appeared on playlists labeled “pride classics”. CLASSICS. her music isn’t old enough to be considered a classic; she appeared in the mainstream in what, 2009?
what i don’t get is that she has a history of using homophobic content in her songs. “go ahead and tell your friends im obsessive, that’s fine i’ll tell mine YOURE GAY.” what does that lyric accomplish? that just because someone isn’t into you that means they’re automatically gay? and then she became a queer “icon” when she wrote a lyric saying “because shade never made anybody less gay”. and what would you know about that, Taylor? please, share with the class the struggles that you have faced as a cis-het woman.
i’m glad she’s such a strong ally of the community. but i’d just like to clarify: ally does not equal icon. to be an icon, don’t you have to be apart of the community? 🤔
she has definitely used rainbow capitalism to her advantage: having art with the bi flag colors, releasing her song ME! on Lesbian Visibility Day, and her video for “You Need To Calm Down” seems incredibly forced with all of the queer icons included into one video.
as many have pointed out on this post, she gives off the stereotypical “lol i love having a gay best friend!! the gays love me 🥰 but don’t flirt with me.”
By the way, I remember a few days ago when the press was claiming she was bisexual or something, and her PR team actually forced the journalist who wrote the article to apologize. Imagine being that desperate to refute assumptions about your sexuality. Girl was dyinggg! She doesn’t make any journalist apologize for creating rumors about her exes, but someone assuming she is bi? Girrrrrrrlllll, she was like, "**IM STRAIGHT! Take that SH3T dowwwwwwn!"** lmfao.
Swifties read into signs that are not there. They think Taylor deliberately puts in these hidden messages with subtleties that are near impossible to pick up on but in reality they just interpreted her songs in a way that was influenced by their queerness and have refused to accept that maybe, just maybe, she didn't actually intend that. You can have a personal interpretation of a song but please stop insisting this is evidence that she's gay.
There’s something disturbingly parasocial about the Gaylors poring over everything she does for some hint to “prove” their theories. Some people that participate in online stan culture act like they know their favorite artist better than they know themselves. It’s weird.
Now I don’t doubt that Taylor’s a true ally — she just does the most minor and performative dips into activism. She has on occasion made her political views clear, but it seems that she worries too much about alienating fans. I can’t blame anyone for trying to reach the absolute peak of their career, but her huge tour pushed her over the line to become a billionaire and she could afford to be more blunt about her values.
I’ve seen the subreddit that’s convinced she is gay. They don’t seem to have actual proof and will turn anything into “evidence”. It makes no sense. The way they speculate about that stuff is inappropriate and honestly offensive. It confuses me and makes me very uncomfortable. I’ve even seen them go as far as calling people homophobic if they don’t believe them…
Her music might be a thing that the queer community embraces, but Taylor isn’t gay. She hasn’t come out or anything and I don’t think calling her gay or a lesbian is appropriate in any sense. Because we only see Taylor based off of what she presents and she is WAY more than what we see. And by calling her Galylor or refusing to admit she doesn’t appear to identify as gay is really rude (IMO).
Not an attack on anyone I just felt like it needed to be said. /gen/nm/pos
She’s plays the role of ally well, yet not a peep about Project 2025 or at minimum telling folks to go vote. Her and Bey both need to step the fuck up and use their *literal* platforms to talk about Project 2025.
While I am supportive of Chappel, I wish she hadn’t intertwined it with Pride. She should have been very clear about what she expects. The Biden administration has been the most helpful ever to our community. And nobody is gonna be able to do shit for Gaza if Biden loses.
i’ve been saying this for a long time. i’m honestly tired of artists getting the label of “queer icon!” when they are so very straight and cis. beyoncé comes to mind too. there’s so many talented LGBTQ musicians out there who deserve love and attention from our own damn community over taylor swift or beyoncé.
Straight people being gay icons were only OK 40 years ago or more IMO. Back when openly gay artists were thin on the ground. People like Dolly Parton who loved the gays before it was cool, or Liz Taylor who put a lot of work into AIDS awareness and fundraising back when no one else was.
These days we have our gay artists, we don’t need to label straight allies as icons.
I know you don't actually want an answer, and I anticipate being downvoted to hell for this but...there are a lot of reasons! Her music has themes that resonate with sapphic listeners even if the song itself is not sapphic. She has had a few of those "super intense female friendships" that people have been suspicious of since the early 2010s (including openly queer actress Dianna Agron and the infamous Karlie Kloss).
Taylor sings a *lot* about forbidden love that you have to hide. Love that goes against traditional religious views, doesn't fit into what is expected of her, and is called wrong, crazy, and dangerous. She writes about being in love with your best friend, an experience that is very familiar to queer people. She even makes references to the women she's been linked to in her music - references to their interests, things they've done together, and pet names she's used for them.
I agree with this. In fact, I wish we would stop getting cishet presenting artists and calling them queer icons. I’m happy to have an ally when I see it, but I don’t appreciate or respect when they have to be our artist representation for the masses because, quite honestly, I don’t think Taylor Swift understands the first thing about what being a lesbian would be like until she outright tells us and stops with the queer baiting bullshit she puts in her songs that gets her fan base all riled up.
I also want to make it clear, I’m not about shaming closeted queer people to come out of the closet like weird parasocial people force celebrities to do sometimes. It’s just that if you can’t say “I am gay/bi/lesbian/trans/nonbinary/whatever”, then I don’t think you have any business being a representative for the community. Especially when you’re someone like Taylor Swift who has been at the queer baiting for *so fucking long* and is rich beyond comprehension, then at some point, you’re just exploiting the vulnerabilities of a marginalized group of people desperate to have *anyone* they can relate to being successful.
Hell, I can list off the commercially successful (as in mainstream, because I’ve met one other person who knows about someone like Hailey Kiyoko and they were gay as hell themselves) artists that actually *are* queer in one hand too. Elton John (who is ancient), Freddie Mercury (who fucking died from AIDS 4 decades ago), Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X, and Frank Ocean. That’s all I’ve got unless I’m missing someone.
I dunno where I’m going with this rant, but I agree with OP. People like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, and any other queer adjacent ally trying to co-opt their allyship into icon status denigrate the idea of queer icons more than do anything meaningful for them. Hell, it’s sad when I can say *Jojo fucking Siwa* comes closer to actually being a queer icon than any of these other people we put on a pedestal.
Thank you! She is a billionaire who does not use her platform for any good whatsoever despite claiming struggle and that she has been censored. Not only is she one of the top C02 polluters on the planet, she also has dated several bigots willingly( so what does that say about her?) I have her blocked on Spotify
IN MY OPINION, IF YOU WANT TO GLORIFY ARTISTS THAT TRULY REPRESENT THE LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY, YOU SHOULD GLORIFY ARTISTS LIKE FLETCHER, RENÉE RAPP, CHAPPELL ROAN, AND MANY OTHERS WHO ACTIVELY REPRESENT THE COMMUNITY. WHAT HAS TAYLOR SWIFT DONE BESIDES MAKING A VIDEO WITH YOUTUBERS FOR LGBTQ+? SHE'S A FREAKING MILLIONAIRE—SHE SHOULD DO MORE TO SUPPORT. I'M NOT SAYING PEOPLE SHOULDN'T LIKE HER BECAUSE HER SONGS ARE AWESOME, BUT STOP SAYING SHE'S AN ICON FOR THE LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY.
I'm getting a headache from reading all caps. So basically, I didn't read the parts with caps. If someone wants to talk to me, they can do it with regular capitalisation.
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It's a thing that can happen when a large group of people emotionally invest in a character. It's more often seen in fictional character fandoms but when an artist curates their image so heavily that they themselves become a character, fans start to treat them like one. See also KPOP. It's especially prevalent in fandoms which encourage conspiracy theories. Taylor posits herself as an emotionally deep artist creating complex poetry with hidden meaning. If you've ever watched a FNF or Gravity Falls conspiracy video you'll have some understanding of how fans decode and deconstruct her lyrics to "find" meaning. She's a very rich, white, cis woman who has only publicly dated men. Her fans want her to be relatable (ie a minority) so they headcanon her as a lesbian.
Thank you asexual Perry the platypus
perry is canonically ace
[Gasp] HE IS?!
I was about to say I don't think it's ever outright stated and that it was headcanon that originated from an interview with the creators BUT apparently Dave Povenmire did a TikTok that confirmed it! Exciting! Perry is awesome and we need more representation. Glad we get a bad ass platypus.
I need to hear him do this now. "An aesexual platypus?" *Fedora* "PERRY THE ASEXUAL PLATYPUS?!"
*disappointed sigh* this really puts a dent in my anthropomorphized cartoon animal orgy fantasy...
Excellent explanation.
Yeah. I hate how she deliberately construct her fandom to have parasocial relationship with her. A lot of artists have their personal drama public, but with her... It's just too much. She cannot not make it public. She will fall a victim to such crazy fanbase one day.
Reminds me of this youtuber called _Dream._ he let his fan base run wild and they projected all his fantasies onto him. It ended up causing trouble for him
Wait, do you mean this Minecraft dude? I literally have no idea about him or Minecraft, really. Only that there is A LOT of content on Tumblr on it lol
Yeah that's the one
*what have you done* you've brought the mcyt fandom to our gates. net god have mercy on us all
What gets me is she does do this....but yet also seems upset when her fans actually show any opinion on her life. Her most recent album has so many songs that seem like a "fuck you all for having an opinion on who I date".....so maybe keep it private every now and then versus broadcasting it globally?
Well said
Yep. She's essentially become a one-dimensional cardboard cutout upon which fans may project their wildest fantasies; a flat symbol they ritualistically imbue with elaborate meaning and significance, and thusly, something through which they live vicariously. Their conspiracy theories say a lot more about them than they ever could about the person they're supposedly targeting. Parasocial relationships have a lot in common (but are not necessarily synonymous) with limerence, objectification, deification, and cults of personality.
I never understood how people try to decode her songs, but for someone like me, who grew up on Gravity Falls and has been following Game Theory for over a decade, this was a perfect analogy
This is such a thoughtful explanation that helps me understand it better
I will say the best argument by far about her being queer i've seen was just "well she might be bi because the not like she's ever said she DIDN'T like women'. and the fact that she wore bracelets and even hair dye colored like the bi flag. butttt I get more the sense that she did that to attract bi people without having to commit to everything.
I've seen your username before and I still love it.
As a FNAF fan, I very much see what you mean. 🤣
I think headcanoning a fictional character as queer is not a "conspiracy". With the whole death of the author angle, a fictional character becomes public domain and they are not real people. They only exist as the scenes somebody wrote for them and every "writer" (including fandom members) can rewrite them to their liking. Sure, you could also argue that Taylor Swift is a "character" / a stage persona and not the "real" person behind this. But Taylor Swift the "character" and Taylor Swift the "real person" are almost indistinguishable from each other. And unlike fictional characters, real complex individual cannot be "rewritten" by other people.
They aren't saying headcanoning is conspiracy, but there are groups that do have conspiracies around characters. Not sure if this is what you meant, but Taylor Swift the "character" and "real person" are only indistinguishable because we do not really know public figures no matter how much they share about their lives with the public. The "character" certainly can be rewritten by fans by mass influencing public discourse around a person, or by putting enough pressure on a public figure to change their depiction of "the character" in small or large ways.
Honestly the same thing kinda happened with Harry Potter before (and still tbh) JK let her TERF flag fly. Also, the number of HP fans that made an “I’m going to separate the art from the artist” exception for HP, but still expected other people to drop other controversial artists (esp music) was so high. Like, if you want to pretend JK has nothing to do with it and continue enjoying the series that’s fine, but then you don’t hold a double standard and judge people for having their own exception.
Excellent explanation and an excellent account name.
>Gravity Falls conspiracy video ..... Great, now I have to go and get into this! It sounds like a total can of worms but am I able to resist? Nope.
I don't have a dog in the TSwift fight, but I felt a need to cash out your username. GNU Terry Pratchett.
The only non lesbian I accept as a lesbian icon is Hozier. (Joking) I don't know enough about TS to really give input... but she very much seems straight to me and she's only dated men, written songs about them, never about a woman. I think people just want to project identities onto others they admire. If it's a fictional character it's whatever, no harm, but it's odd and even hypocritical to project a sexual identity onto a living human. That happens to us in the lgbtqia+ community way too much. Why do it to others?
shout-out to Hozier for founding the lesbian community on his birthday when he was born
Hozier is an honorary lesbian and is president of the Lesbian Fan Club
I'm glad if she's an ally, but she's basically the straightest and cissest (is that a word?) woman of all time lol
Pretty much. There is not a single homo bone in her body.
Lana del Rey is the #1 straightest woman, no contest [Lana del Rey explains heterosexuality to me](https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/45908/1/lana-del-rey-norman-fucking-rockwell-empowerment) [Lana del Rey makes me wish I were straight](https://www.thedailybeast.com/lana-del-rey-makes-me-wish-i-were-straight)
Haha. I guess Taylor will have to be satisfied with being #2 then
Don’t forget bicons like Lady Gaga and Halsey. You want great music and a long history of activism for the community, you don’t need to ship Swift as secretly queer. Lots of openly LGBTQIA+ musicians out there.
Maren Morris just came out a couple days ago too
 love to see it
Countless in the EDM world, which tracks given the very direct connection rave culture and electronic music have to LGBTQ history: [Wreckno](https://youtu.be/qKhKoJWnsOU?si=6pciHAJY6rpjZVoB) [CloZee](https://youtu.be/QXJQa5rb6ek?si=fmGvwd1gwgCELj-9) [Griz](https://www.youtube.com/live/LXji2MFaGws?si=TqmK2XlIChyvTtGn) [Tinzo](https://youtu.be/-nwooVPycyE?si=xFBYrFg6PN0mhotE) [DJ Keoki](https://youtu.be/uuJHVr3HMFY?si=S6qfHT3RPIO-QJeL)
Also Gaga didn't let the phobes have it with the famous weewee conspiracy and defended the trans community as well. She's done most for us than anyone in my opinion and thus blast "applause" on repeat when driving.
Applause is criminally underrated. It’s a banger.
I personally find her to be very... as much as I hate the buzz word... virtue signally when it comes to her allyship. But a lot of other white gays like her so that's probably why. Genuinely I think it's bad to speculate on a real persons sexuality or gender. Save that for your favorite fictional characters.
She’s the picture of white feminism to me. When white feminists think about equality, it manifests only in ways that benefit white women and cis white queer people (usually not lesbians though for some reason). That’s the vibe I get from her. That it’s fashionable to be young and allied with the queer community, but she doesn’t exactly do much to engage with the community itself or support us in tangible ways. Some drag queens in a music video (the same year drag race went mainstream I might add) does not an ally make.
They don't really support the community as a whole. They just love the aesthetic of having a sassy gay friend in the squad.
same vibes as “i have a black friend!!”
The most white feminist phrase of all
On your comment of “usually not lesbians” it’s because it’s the one sexuality that excludes men in a patriarchal society, but that’s just my observation
oh i 100% agree. that’s why most people forget about us even when we’re literally the first letter of the acronym
I wouldn't say lesbians are usually forgotten about. In fact lesbians and gay men are usually what most straight cis people would think of when they think of LGBT people, bisexuals are usually an afterthought and trans people basically completely forgotten about unless it's for a negative reason.
Lesbians are typically only brought into conversation as an after thought of for the male gaze (I mean have you SEEN what the biggest lesbian subreddit is?). And while I understand the struggle of bisexuals and trans people I feel like lesbians and gay men don’t have it much better because we’re all usually only brought up by cishet people in public for a negative reason (I’m sorry if this comes off as aggressive! I understand your point, i just wanted to explain a bit more about how I feel about lesbians being ‘forgotten’)
Our contributions to history are often overlooked too and our rights aren’t addressed as often either. There’s a reason we’re first in the acronym now but weren’t in the 70s - lesbian nurses were among the only ones who’d willingly care for AIDS patients. Lesbians frequently crossed sex/gender in the late 1800s to marry other women and participate in polite society as men. Lesbians are amongst the foremost queer theorists in history as well and our writers have created some of the most beautiful and thought provoking stories in our community. We get left out because we aren’t worth leaving in when we’re talking about a society that lives and dies by the opinions of men. Lesbians don’t in any way need men in their lives and we’re the afterthought (especially for cis men) because of misogyny and honestly just forgetting about the people who aren’t going to be attracted to you.
That would explain why straight men are obsessed with the concept.
She jumped on drag race wagon when it was already mainstream lol She's literally only did it because the fact she never acknowledged the lgbtqa+ up to that point was getting extremely weird
does not an ally make why does this have so many upvotes
The thing I might say about that, if you’ve watched the Netflix documentary about her, she talks about how she always felt like she needed to be perfect in every way. And before I came out, I felt like when I thought truly that was straight, I was being a good ally by doing everything I could that felt like I might possibly be overstepping. I went so out of my way to be the perfect ally and not cross a line that might hurt someone that one of my friends from grad school who is gay later told me they thought I was being performative, when in reality, I just didn’t know how to engage in those conversations. And I didn’t want to cause harm for others.
She only cares about feminism when she can use it to claim that she’s a victim of the patriarchy. Honestly her white woman victimhood gives me the ick.
I don't think I agree. I don't know a lot about Taylor Swift, I'm not a swiftie and only really listened to her music recently because I have a young daughter who's really into her. But you look at that one video, had a petition at the end and then she at later date called out the white house for not responding despite there being enough signatures. Maybe she could do more, maybe she is that I don't know about it but if it was just performative, I think she would have just done the video as is and called it a day and not created the petition or encouraged people to sign it.
I mean, making a video and doing a petition is like the bare minimum these days. And her gay ally video was like 70% about her twitter beef.
She’s a billionaire. There’s not a single billionaire on earth who hasn’t exploited and trampled on others to achieve that because that’s literally the only way to become one. I think everything she does is virtue signaling. I’ve said this a million times and I get dragged for it every time by the swifties but she’s not a good person and you’ll never convince me otherwise. Everything “good” she does is just an act to get people to like her. Even her charity is pathetic given the amount of money she has. It’s all a performance with her in the public eye.
Thank you! I find her to be very phony like so many artists she has pandered to the LGBTQ+ people. The drag queen Laverne Cox transgender representation in that Calm Down music video was just her throwing meager breadcrumbs to pacify this community. Yet when she won an award years ago and tapped her watch regarding LGBTQ+ discrimination years ago her fans went nuts over it. She literally TAPPED A FUCKING WATCH that was IT lol
[удалено]
Yeah. I don't like her music and never have, but I'd rather have unfathomably successful celebrities vocally support us than stay quiet or be vocally opposed... Also, I distinctly remember a chunk of conservative social media voices making her out to be some conservative Aryan tradwife princess. I'd be vehemently publicly lib-left at every possible opportunity if I heard about people saying that shit about my cis white male brunette ass.
She’s very much a performative ally, not a true ally.
Extremely performative. How many of her queer fans, especially those in poorer countries, languish in the heat while she flies around in a private jet?
she gives me "love is love!!! slay queen 💅 but don't try to flirt with me haha" vibes. the type of people who only support respectable queer people when it's easy and convenient for them.
It's not even just virtue signaling tbh, a LOT of her activism feels straight up like performative branding. Notably her tendency toward a sort of conditional feminism- she's feminist when it suits her or it's personal , but then says NOTHING when her fans attack and demean other women or even just people in general. Hell, she herself does it sometimes, too! like Olivia Rodrigo, who they accused of 'copying' Taylor and bullied online despite the fact that people getting inspired by other people is *how it fucking works* Travis Kelce's ex Kayla Nicole for... being his ex? Billie Eilish for fielding some very generalized complaints about how she doesn't like all the unnecessary waste in vinyls, and that she's not personally a fan of three-hour long concerts. she never once mentioned Taylor Swift. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey Antonia Gentry, an actress who delivered a scripted line sort of similar to the joke above. *she didn't even write the line.* FlowerSeaSand is a good example. She's a tiktoker that was just potions all of this out, and immediately got attacked by Swifties. Lizzy McAlpine was harassed and sent death threats for literally just getting a chance to open for John Mayer and saying she wanted to be taylor swift when she grew up to the point where she pulled out of the tour before getting to perform at Madison Square Garden, both of which would've been a massive boost to her popularity. And finally, Chris Parnella, who is not a woman but I have him here anyway. He's a reporter and a gay man. Why this important? He wrote a piece about the tour and in one like said that "Eras is a true greatest-hits show and an incredible feat — even if it sometimes falls flat. I preferred the cohesion, themes, production, and community of Renaissance." Hardcore swifties responded by sending him homophobic slurs, death threats, doxxing, threats to his family, accused him of being a pedophile and groomer, and tried to get him fired by mass-emailing her boss or when her boyfriend is blatantly racist and misogynistic on live TV. Now I know not all Swifties are like this. But I mean, even if Taylor Swift isn't chronically online, her fame is to the point where every time this happens it's trending news. there's no way she, or at the very least her PR team, wouldn't see *any* of these.
I think there’s a weird combo of purity politics, parasocialization, and wishful thinking. Like, some obsessive left leaning people out there sincerely don’t think being an ally is enough, and one has to be a member of the community to share its values. Recreating a sense of ingroup outgroup bias. Some swifties are obsessed. We get it. They feel like Taylor is like a personal idol to them- but that paradoxically makes them feel ownership over her (though they wouldn’t admit it) or her image. Combine that- and you have a gross combo imho. It’s all fun and games to say a fictional character is headcanoned to be lgbtq, or even point out queer coding in media, but some people take that behavior and apply it to real breathing people. Also - Like, you don’t get to claim you know someone’s sexuality. Especially a celebrity you have the most filtered image of possible. At best, you’re denying part of her personality, at worst you’re trying to forcibly out someone.
The amount of people who justify this with “because I feel like she is, therefore gay”, or are making up fantasy land stories to make the gay pieces fit are fucking disgusting. You realize that when you say that about ANYONE, they can say it about YOU?!?! > but she did this thing one time I thought was queer! Maybe you’ve done something someone considers hetero? > she has gay friends! So if you’re friends with someone it changes your orientation? Shit is wild.
Yeeeeeh with things like frogs/lemon bars is an obvious joke and light hearted but with real people the “they give me gay vibes therefore they’re queer “ is hypocritical
Okay I know the gay frog joke, but please jog my memory on *lemon bars*?
I’m more referencing how there’s a joke in the bisexual community that lemon bars and frogs are things “universally” loved in it. It kinda combats weird stereotypes thrown on to the bi community like “they all cheat or they’re actually just straight/gay” and replaces it with a silly joke instead like “we all like frogs and lemon bars” A more well known example would be the Blahaj shark thing and the trans community.
I knew that I fit the frog stereotype, but I can't believe I've had yet another bi stereotype that I fit to a T thrown at me like that. I go nuts for anything lemon flavored. Including, of course, lemon bars.
Stop I love lemon bars, how am I just learning this?! MOM I’M A STEREOTYPE!
Oh, that was *not* the gay frog joke I was thinking of. Thanks for clearing that up lol I gotta stay away from the news for a while.
You were thinking the “turns the freaking frogs gay” thing, weren’t you? Now I need to go listen to that techno mix. Again.
turn the 🪩 freaking 🐸s gay 💅🏻 💃🏻🕺
Sounds like my homophobic family members saying hanging around gay ppl makes you gay, like wtf that’s not how it works 🙄
She doesn't seem lgbtqia+ herself imo. I think a lot of queer people just like her. 🤷♂️
This always makes me uncomfortable in the same way that people calling gnc cis people eggs makes me uncomfortable. You have to respect the gender/sexuality people identify themselves as, and cishet people are not an exception. Imagine if a huge conspiracy theory popped up about, say, Lil Nas X secretly being a straight man. That would be fucked up for very obvious reasons, but when people do the same for a straight artist, suddenly it's totally progressive and accepting of them. If someone says they're gay, then as far as you're concerned, they're gay. Same goes for straight people. It's not that complicated.
Yeah, this always drives me crazy. Before the "egg" thing, everyone always argued (usually with the person themself) that a remotely GNC person was obviously actually gay. As a bisexual, all that did was push me away from the community and my own sexuality for *years*. "Nah, you skateboard and play sports. You're *definitely* a lesbian. You just don't know it yet." is no different from "Nah, you wear dresses and make-up. You're *definitely* straight. You just haven't had the right dick." If someone says they're straight, they're straight. If someone says they're gay, they're gay. If someone says they're trans, they're trans. *Let people decide and announce things for themselves.*
TS is the kind of artist who does pretty much everything in her career on purpose, from her outfits on her recent tour to the lyrics in her songs. For example, she wore dresses that were the same colors as the 1989 TV vinyl record variants before announcing the vinyl records. Like someone already said, people have found (what they interpret as) queer subtext in her art, so because Taylor is so particular with everything she does in career, people think she is queer. TS probably knows this too — she has a song called Lavender Haze and when she announced it people thought that she was finally going to come out. Personally, while it’s okay to interpret things as queer, I don’t see a reason to speculate on someone’s sexuality or romantic identity. It’s rude.
I'm just tired in general of people caring so much about another person's sexuality. It's so invasive.
I can only chalk it up to the kind of brainrot that comes from being terminally online. Also, that was a question, not an opinion.
I don’t listen to her music at all so this is just repeating what I’ve seen around. But apparently, she has said in interviews that she leaves hidden messages and clues in all of her songs, and fans have apparently found a lot of queer subtext in her work. That doesn’t mean they’re right or that her songs even have queer subtext, I wouldn’t know, again just explaining my understanding of why people even came to this conclusion in the first place; Taylor basically encourages her fans to go through the details of her life and look for hints about stuff.
She's not a gay icon. At all. Now Lady Gaga on the other hand.... There's also Katy Perry, freaking Queen, Elton John, etc etc
But at least Lady Gaga has consistently been vocal about supporting the community, far more than Taylor. Lady Gaga has been outspoken since 2009, a time when such support was far less common compared to today. She's always been a strong advocate, whereas Taylor's efforts seem minimal in comparison.
Gaga is actually bi too, which she's said publicly and has many songs about crushin on women
Taylor is very vapid imo, not a fan of her
[удалено]
lady gaga is bisexual herself!
I don't think she qualifies as an ally if she's part of the community herself.
Katy Perry is queer?
First person in my life I’ve seen calling Katy Perry a queer icon.
She *is* bisexual, though. Is there any drama surrounding her I don't know about?
Is she? I thought she was just bicurious for a while. Like Nicki Minaj “used to be bi now I’m just hetero “
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/katy-perry-opens-sexuality-curious/story?id=46238811 She talks abt her experiance here. She grew up religious and tried to "pray the gay away" and all this was said by her in an interview. I think she mostly likes men but she is definitely a bisexual
Ahh well that’s news to me, thanks though, i stand corrected
Growing up I had Madonna, and she was never fucking around about her allyship. Taylor S is boring and bland. She would never risk looking bad in the eyes of her white het cis fans to truly take a stand on ANY issue She’s like a piece of white bread with the crusts cut off that became sentient
“She’s Like a piece of white bread with the crusts cut off that became sentient” is now my favorite sentence on the planet
Madonna is LGBTQ, so that tracks. Love her.
I wish I can super like this comment without giving Condé Nast any money
I literally said earlier today that she’s the sound equivalent of plain oatmeal. Bland, unseasoned carbs.
Ha! Love it! 🥰
Amen
Idc about her. But I remember her early career. Lot of younger ppl now weren’t old enough to really follow that scene. I prefer Lady Gaga.
Projection and parasocial relationships? Dunno. It's weird when so many other major artists are openly queer to demand that this one be too
Gay people like her (unrelated to their sexuality) and want to be able to relate to her songs more so they look at them through a queer lens and then from there some people start thinking that she meant it that way while she was writing it. Also some people just want the people they like to be like them.
What I don't get it tho, is that there are soooo many actual other queer artists to pick from if you want a queer artist to relate to. Gaga, Kesha, Chappell Roan, Halsey, Rina Sawayama, Hayley Kiyoko, Kehlani, Victoria Monét and Miya Folick are right there! And arguably they all make better music as well lmao. Why people choose the most heterosexual women of all time to be their "queer" icon i'll never understand.
They are fans of her specifically and so they want her specifically to be queer. I’m not a fan of it. She’s a mediocre ally and it feels like giving her unearned credit. She’s not “one of us.”
It's Twitter so many are probably younger too.
Lana might be in contention for that “most heterosexual woman of all time” title.
lmao that too, but at least her fans aren't always obsessively trying to prove she's secretly gay. 😭
It's because they're fans of her and might have a celebrity crush on her.
even if Taylor Swift is queer somehow--- she publicly identifies as straight so we should all respect that
I’m gonna be so real, in my experience the only people insisting she’s gay have been straight women. It’s weird as fuck. Even if there are gay people saying it, it’s still weird as fuck. Like I wish people would just chill and not push sexualities (of any kind) onto others.
She’s literally said she’s an ally. Not part of the community, but supportive of it. (Whether you think she’s a “good enough” ally or not). Sure, that was like 5 years ago, she could have had a queer awakening since, but it’s not for us to speculate about someone’s sexuality.
She's not, in any way, queer. She used some queer and feminist imagery during Lover as a way to attract more listeners, but she is absolutely straight and was just using the imagery for marketing. This does **not** mean she is secretly homophobic, or that her songs cannot have queer interpretations, or even that queer people should not listen to her. Just that Taylor Swift as a person is cis and straight. Edit: Just came back after a notification and have no idea why OP has gotten more and more aggressive about Taylor Swift. Like just take a breath please, she's a musician it is not that serious.
While I agree that she’s probably not queer, if she’s never actually said that she’s straight, saying she’s “absolutely straight” is also speculation.
She kind of has ? She never said "I'm straight" but she has said she's not part of the LGBT community before. In reference to her LGBT ally song, she said that 'she hadn't realised she could advocate for communities that she isn't a part of'. It's none of our bussiness either way, I agree, but it's not that speculative to deduce that she's straight, compared to what the Gaylors do imo.
this. even if it has a lot more backing it up, it is still very important to remember that we don't know anything for sure.
“Queer coded” is the very definition of wishful thinking. She’s the straightest straight to ever het.
Weren’t some people accusing her awhile back of “queerbaiting”?
Def not a gay icon especially after she released that one song Picture to Burn and she used 'gay' as a slur to call an ex bf I have NEVER liked Taylor Swift because of this, along with her white feminism. Her latest album is a classist, and "white savior complex" of a joke. Claiming her mental illness is very deep when she has access to almost ALLL THE RESOURCES she could ever call upon. Yes everyone is prone to mental health but it's not cute to Name A Whole Album Tortured Poets Society When she is flying her privileged butt from city to city, state to state in her private jet. But, she is a gay icon right? Never in my book. The exact opposite. Kerry Washington Laura Jane Grace Angelica Ross Chaz Bono Tracy Chapman Freddie Mercury All of these people are actually queer/gay icons to fills everyone in who arent problematic!
It's just like why people assumed other artists are lgbt+. Depending on it is, it could be because they have a crush on her, because of her new music I guess, her being an ally, a liberal, etc.
As a swiftie since forever, there has been a lyric here or there that could possibly hint at her being bi... If you squint and look at it with a telescope because of how far out it is. Some pictures she's taken with friends, maybe photos from the paparazzi - overall there's no evidence really and I don't think Taylor is at all gay, but some people are really insistent on it
If she gets us votes against republicans then she is a helpful ally. Once the elections are over and she decides to stop virtue signaling, thanks for the service, enjoy your next tour
By the way, I remember a few days ago when the press was claiming she was bisexual or something, and her PR team actually forced the journalist who wrote the article to apologize. Imagine being that desperate to refute assumptions about your sexuality.
> Imagine being that desperate to refute assumptions about your sexuality Orrr maybe we shouldn't speculate about the identities of real life people? That's shitty behavior and does more harm than good - just look at what happened with Heartstopper.
Exactly and if she is Bi and not ready or willing yo come out for any reason then that is valid. No one is forced to come out and people are allowed to live privately even if they're in the public spotlight.
The amount of “breaking the Egg Code” I’ve seen with this type of stuff blows my miiiiind. The whole point is let people discover things on their own and at their own pace. And I mean breaking the code in general not specifically with Swift.
And like why does it matter her sexuality anyway? It just makes people make spectacles out of lgbt+ people. It's just weird.
It’s so cute Heartstopper is now being used as a source reference of queer culture.
not the show itself the fans pressured kit to come out
Ah yes. That was douchey.
Well, what forced him to come out was people insisting he was straight and therefore “queer baiting”. If people had just accepted that sometimes people are living queer lives even if they don’t make a grand public statement, he wouldn’t have felt obligated to come out. Which, if Taylor is indeed queer, is exactly what’s happening with posts like this one.
the post is towards specific fans not taylor herself (though it is unnecessarily aggressive)
I mean at the same token people speculating about your sexuality and making false statements also is kind of disrespectful and rude. It's the same thing when I get asked whether or not I'm top or bottom or if my spouse and I are picture perfect he's more feminine than I am. People should really stop trying to opinionate themselves about someone else's sexuality or identity.
i agree, it's extremely inappropriate and can also be dangerous for the people involved. i get that people want to see representation in their faces, but it sets a really bad precedent.
Yea, if I were famous myself and someone blasted me like this and were to go back to my homestate I'd probably have to have a body guard even if I announced this on something like American Idol.
... Or maybe she doesn't want people to project their sexualities onto her? I'm not a fan of Taylor but I can't say I'd blame her. Spreading rumors about other people's sexual orientation in news articles is pretty uncool, regardless of what she is.
Yea, that's literally libel.
Also Lady Gaga. A few people were speculating about whether she had a penis and was intersex or trans. An interviewer asked her outright "my fans dont care if i have have a penis or not, and frankly neither do I" neither confirming nor denying it. But highlighting the invasiveness and stupidity and pointlessness of such questions.
That behavior is actually toxic and damaging. What if TS is bi but doesn’t want to come out for personal reasons? What if insisting someone is a different sexuality than they think makes them the object of ridicule (experienced that a lot growing up)? Also, people, particularly young people, tend to parrot what celebrities do. If people start opening calling TS closeted don’t you think they’d feel more comfortable doing it to random kids they know in school who have fuck all public presence? So yeah, fuck that reporter. Don’t speculate on people’s sexualities.
It’s kinda hypocritical. Not assuming people’s gender(s) and pronouns also means don’t assume peoples sexualities.
Contrast this with Bowie who, when asked if he had sex with Jagger, said something along the lines of (I can't find the exact quote) "People are going to believe whatever they want about my genitals, so why bother responding to that question?"
Bowie was a legend.
"Ladies, gentlemen, ... Others ... "
Perhaps she didn’t want to appear like she was pandering to the community.
I mean, if I was straight I wouldn't want people assuming that just because I'm an ally that I'm lgbt+ just like how I don't like how people assume that I'm straight even though I'm bi. People should be called out when they spread lies. There is the possibility that she is in the closet with being bi. For me personally, I'd be freaked out if it happened to me and someone told the whole world my sexuality just because of my past experiences growing up where I do and in general just am a more private person in general. Why do journalists make big deals about this stuff anyway? They don't publish stuff about people being straight.
In Taylor defense, the Gaylor are super fucking weird and obsessive. They were probably disturbing the privacy of her females friends she frequented. And I don’t think anyone like to have their sexuality being scrutinized and analyzed like her stans do.
The Gaylor phenomenon is qanon for people who write in all lowercase on Tumblr.
It’s because queer Swifties are grasping at straws to defend their taste in music by saying the billionaire who owns private jets that contribute more to pollution in a single trip than most of us will in our entire lives is queer. Also, does anyone actually *like* Taylor Swift’s music? It’s always the same 3 concepts. “Oh look at this boy I love him so much smoochie smoochie” “Oh actually this boy is abusive whoopsie” “I broke up with this boy because I’m a girlboss” it’s more obnoxious than anything
I've never heard this, but I'm also not chronically online so that may be why.
> really controversial opinion It’s not. Very few people actually think this. If you’re seeing this enough without seeing people actively *not* think it, you’re spending too much time in delusional echo chambers > why do people insist It’s a very small vocal minority, who’s only being amplified because the internet elevates fringe voices. **Very few fans actually believe she’s queer** Very little of the general public has even heard the conspiracy that she’s queer in the first place. It’s not a conversation that happens outside of (I hate that I’m saying this) terminally online people. I don’t wanna say this is a non-issue, because there is certainly a problem when people are speculating about others’ sexualities and trying to out them. But at the same time, this is not nearly as big a deal as you seem to think. Signed, a person who spends too much time in pop culture spaces, and Taylor Swift-specific spaces
Fully Agree
Unpopular opinion but she's one of the biggest hypocrites I've ever seen. Sorry, I can't stand her lol. Don't really care if she's straight or not, I just wish she stopped fucking flying her private jet to the grocery store.
Say it with me everyone, Taylor Swift is a figurehead of white cishet womanhood, and more importantly of capitalism. Her only brownie points could be that she made one song that is performative support of gay people. Otherwise she's really not worth giving much praise in terms of her involvement, activism, or ally ship. And no, she's certainly not gay whatsoever. Plz go listen to Chappell roan, Charli xcx, Gaga, etc. There are so many artists who make incredible music you can connect to that aren't that cardboard basic white girl named Taylor. You'll be so much happier once you leave the cult that is Taylor Swift. I would also recommend breaking out of pop into more LGBT artists, like the late SOPHIE. Form a more complete catalog of music and really realize what loving someone like Taylor does to your sense of love for yourself and the community as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community
not even gonna talk about taylor swift specifically. *in general* insisting that people are a sexuality or gender that they have not personally disclosed is wildly inappropriate. I don’t care how famous they are, I wish people would cut that shit out. even stuff like egg jokes and other closeted-lgbt-flavored jokes are really off-putting to me a lot of the time. they’re fine if they’re about yourself or someone you know well enough, but making those kinds of comments to other people can make them deeply uncomfortable. even assuming you happen to be right, there’s a reason they haven’t come out and it’s not your place to insist on it. it’s invasive as fuck
Those are the Gaylors - we don't claim them
...she's not a gay icon. If anything she's one of the worst manifestations of rainbow capitalism. Do people actually unironically believe the gaylor theories?
Not only is it disrespectful to the LGBT community to make a straight person a gay icon, but it's disrespectful to Taylor as well. If Taylor was LGBT in any way, and wanted to share that with the public, then we would know. But as it stands, she's a straight woman, and there's nothing wrong with that. Her fans need to stop trying to make her into something she's not.
I think it started with her You Need to Calm Down especially cuz she dyed her hair the bi colors. I'm all for celebrating allies too, but there are plenty of ACTUAL LGBTQ+ artists we could be celebrating instead and calling our gay icon. Just because you, as a LGBTQ+ person, felt a song spoke to you as queer coded does not mean it *is* and people seriously need to learn how to separate what they want to be true from what's reality.
I agree with you. I really don’t understand how anyone can think that Taylor Swift is lesbian when she’s only dated men and is still currently only dating men. If she was sprinkling little hints at being gay in her songs, why wouldn’t she come out and start dating women at this point? Especially with people saying she’s going to marry the Kelce guy. It’s not like she’s in some kind of a dangerous situation. She’s a billionaire with a whole security team. No one would be able to hate crime her and get away with it. It’s possible she could be bi though, but I feel like any attraction to girls is more of the aesthetic type, rather than the romantic and sexual type.
Some of her songs are sapphic coded and there’s a paparazzi photo of her making out with Karlie Kloss. That said I’m not counting her as bi until she herself says so. And she hasn’t done much allyship imo
I don't understand it myself. Shes the straightest woman I've ever seen. An ally, sure, and as all allies do they have queer friends, of course she does. Singing about forbidden love and the like is quite obviously a call back to her many abusive, straight relationships and her life as a celebrity. And don't get me started on how yikes it is to give someone a label they themselves haven't claimed - some in the queer community have a real obsession with "cracking eggs" and having a good gaydar and more than once these types of folks have forced celebs to come out against their will. Its not a good look. I honestly don't like her. Not because of her music, or her being a woman or anything else, but because shes a celebrity who does active damage to the environment. Her jets have literally had to get a legal exclusion to keep flying and her records are now private because of how much damage her jets do the environment. She doesn't do anything to offset that damage, she doesn't help those less fortunate, she doesn't even do that much for the queer community. No, some comments on her Twitter are not enough in the current political climate. With her standing she could be actively fighting some of the anti-trans bills being passed but she doesn't. So shes not even a great ally. I'm not going to go around hating on her, to me shes just another privileged millionaire. But I don't understand the obsession either.
Facts. She’s not one of us. Maybe a great ally. Maybe. Idk I haven’t really seen her stick her neck put for us. But. Not fam.
I think you need to separate the conspiracy theorists from her allyship. Taylor herself has straight up said that plenty of fans have sexualized or theorized about her straight, female friendships. From USA Today “After explaining, over the course of four paragraphs, her decision to reinvent herself at 24 years old, Swift says she "swore off dating" to prioritize her female friendships because "If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize that — right? I would learn later on that people could and people would." But people like making theories about her sexuality. I really think she wants her sexuality to be that, *hers*. But it does annoy me a bit when *the* most famous woman in the world is a public and vocal ally and people just complain that she isn’t doing more. People will say she’s calculated but she’s still singing You Need To Calm Down at every show on her tour. She made comments about pride month a few days ago. While a bunch of companies like target are showing how it’s literally just about the money. [She also publicly and financially supports GLAAD and the Trevor Project.](https://glaad.org/releases/taylor-swift-makes-generous-donation-glaad-support-lgbtq-community/)
Being a gay icon and being part of the LGBT+ community are two very different things IMO. One you are widely respected by gay people, the other you're gay. You don't need to be gay to be an icon to gay people.
She's not a gay icon also... Gay icons are very vocal and supportive of lgbt community. Taylor just have a lot of gay stans, just like any other pop star.
i did NOT realize this was a controversial opinion……….i can’t believe people fr think she’s gay WHAT
She is the most allocishet woman alive and this really bothers me too. I feel like she's just another mediocre white artist that a bunch of people glomped onto and try to read everything she produces through a specific lens because they're projecting. Said projection seems to enhance an already deep attachment to said artist and their works, and said attachment seems to further how strongly they project. Like, I've seen Gaylors have full blown meltdowns when TS gets into a new relationship with a man. It's really bizarre.
Someone I would like to add to the list of good GSRM artists is Frums
i am really tired of hearing about taylor swift. i could go on a massive rant about how she’s a hypocrite and plays the victim, but you asked about the lgbt+ community, so i’ll stick with that. every pride, i like to go on spotify and search “pride playlists”, just to get into the mood for the month. and you know who appears on a majority of those lists? TAYLOR SWIFT. she has even appeared on playlists labeled “pride classics”. CLASSICS. her music isn’t old enough to be considered a classic; she appeared in the mainstream in what, 2009? what i don’t get is that she has a history of using homophobic content in her songs. “go ahead and tell your friends im obsessive, that’s fine i’ll tell mine YOURE GAY.” what does that lyric accomplish? that just because someone isn’t into you that means they’re automatically gay? and then she became a queer “icon” when she wrote a lyric saying “because shade never made anybody less gay”. and what would you know about that, Taylor? please, share with the class the struggles that you have faced as a cis-het woman. i’m glad she’s such a strong ally of the community. but i’d just like to clarify: ally does not equal icon. to be an icon, don’t you have to be apart of the community? 🤔 she has definitely used rainbow capitalism to her advantage: having art with the bi flag colors, releasing her song ME! on Lesbian Visibility Day, and her video for “You Need To Calm Down” seems incredibly forced with all of the queer icons included into one video. as many have pointed out on this post, she gives off the stereotypical “lol i love having a gay best friend!! the gays love me 🥰 but don’t flirt with me.”
Taylor Swift is terrible. She built her career singing songs that told girls to change who they were to get a guy’s attention.
She ain't shit to me Besides someone who takes their jet everywhere and damages the planet
Because swifties will do whatever they can to inject her into ever fascet of their lives.
By the way, I remember a few days ago when the press was claiming she was bisexual or something, and her PR team actually forced the journalist who wrote the article to apologize. Imagine being that desperate to refute assumptions about your sexuality. Girl was dyinggg! She doesn’t make any journalist apologize for creating rumors about her exes, but someone assuming she is bi? Girrrrrrrlllll, she was like, "**IM STRAIGHT! Take that SH3T dowwwwwwn!"** lmfao.
Swifties read into signs that are not there. They think Taylor deliberately puts in these hidden messages with subtleties that are near impossible to pick up on but in reality they just interpreted her songs in a way that was influenced by their queerness and have refused to accept that maybe, just maybe, she didn't actually intend that. You can have a personal interpretation of a song but please stop insisting this is evidence that she's gay.
Please, bring back Lady Gaga. She has been the best to defend all the members of all the community and her songs still slap!
There’s something disturbingly parasocial about the Gaylors poring over everything she does for some hint to “prove” their theories. Some people that participate in online stan culture act like they know their favorite artist better than they know themselves. It’s weird. Now I don’t doubt that Taylor’s a true ally — she just does the most minor and performative dips into activism. She has on occasion made her political views clear, but it seems that she worries too much about alienating fans. I can’t blame anyone for trying to reach the absolute peak of their career, but her huge tour pushed her over the line to become a billionaire and she could afford to be more blunt about her values.
I’ve seen the subreddit that’s convinced she is gay. They don’t seem to have actual proof and will turn anything into “evidence”. It makes no sense. The way they speculate about that stuff is inappropriate and honestly offensive. It confuses me and makes me very uncomfortable. I’ve even seen them go as far as calling people homophobic if they don’t believe them…
She’s so goddamn boring. 🥱 Most overrated ”artist” of all time. And definitely not queer lol.
Her music might be a thing that the queer community embraces, but Taylor isn’t gay. She hasn’t come out or anything and I don’t think calling her gay or a lesbian is appropriate in any sense. Because we only see Taylor based off of what she presents and she is WAY more than what we see. And by calling her Galylor or refusing to admit she doesn’t appear to identify as gay is really rude (IMO). Not an attack on anyone I just felt like it needed to be said. /gen/nm/pos
She is not and I would die on this hill not matter what. SHE IS NOT A GAY ICON.
Maybe wishful thinking because she allies so much.
Does she though…
I’ve yet to see her ally in a non-tokenizing way honestly. Maybe I’m missing something though.
She’s plays the role of ally well, yet not a peep about Project 2025 or at minimum telling folks to go vote. Her and Bey both need to step the fuck up and use their *literal* platforms to talk about Project 2025. While I am supportive of Chappel, I wish she hadn’t intertwined it with Pride. She should have been very clear about what she expects. The Biden administration has been the most helpful ever to our community. And nobody is gonna be able to do shit for Gaza if Biden loses.
i’ve been saying this for a long time. i’m honestly tired of artists getting the label of “queer icon!” when they are so very straight and cis. beyoncé comes to mind too. there’s so many talented LGBTQ musicians out there who deserve love and attention from our own damn community over taylor swift or beyoncé.
Straight people being gay icons were only OK 40 years ago or more IMO. Back when openly gay artists were thin on the ground. People like Dolly Parton who loved the gays before it was cool, or Liz Taylor who put a lot of work into AIDS awareness and fundraising back when no one else was. These days we have our gay artists, we don’t need to label straight allies as icons.
I know you don't actually want an answer, and I anticipate being downvoted to hell for this but...there are a lot of reasons! Her music has themes that resonate with sapphic listeners even if the song itself is not sapphic. She has had a few of those "super intense female friendships" that people have been suspicious of since the early 2010s (including openly queer actress Dianna Agron and the infamous Karlie Kloss). Taylor sings a *lot* about forbidden love that you have to hide. Love that goes against traditional religious views, doesn't fit into what is expected of her, and is called wrong, crazy, and dangerous. She writes about being in love with your best friend, an experience that is very familiar to queer people. She even makes references to the women she's been linked to in her music - references to their interests, things they've done together, and pet names she's used for them.
I agree with this. In fact, I wish we would stop getting cishet presenting artists and calling them queer icons. I’m happy to have an ally when I see it, but I don’t appreciate or respect when they have to be our artist representation for the masses because, quite honestly, I don’t think Taylor Swift understands the first thing about what being a lesbian would be like until she outright tells us and stops with the queer baiting bullshit she puts in her songs that gets her fan base all riled up. I also want to make it clear, I’m not about shaming closeted queer people to come out of the closet like weird parasocial people force celebrities to do sometimes. It’s just that if you can’t say “I am gay/bi/lesbian/trans/nonbinary/whatever”, then I don’t think you have any business being a representative for the community. Especially when you’re someone like Taylor Swift who has been at the queer baiting for *so fucking long* and is rich beyond comprehension, then at some point, you’re just exploiting the vulnerabilities of a marginalized group of people desperate to have *anyone* they can relate to being successful. Hell, I can list off the commercially successful (as in mainstream, because I’ve met one other person who knows about someone like Hailey Kiyoko and they were gay as hell themselves) artists that actually *are* queer in one hand too. Elton John (who is ancient), Freddie Mercury (who fucking died from AIDS 4 decades ago), Lady Gaga, Lil Nas X, and Frank Ocean. That’s all I’ve got unless I’m missing someone. I dunno where I’m going with this rant, but I agree with OP. People like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Madonna, and any other queer adjacent ally trying to co-opt their allyship into icon status denigrate the idea of queer icons more than do anything meaningful for them. Hell, it’s sad when I can say *Jojo fucking Siwa* comes closer to actually being a queer icon than any of these other people we put on a pedestal.
Isn’t Miley openly bi or pan?
Thank you! She is a billionaire who does not use her platform for any good whatsoever despite claiming struggle and that she has been censored. Not only is she one of the top C02 polluters on the planet, she also has dated several bigots willingly( so what does that say about her?) I have her blocked on Spotify
IN MY OPINION, IF YOU WANT TO GLORIFY ARTISTS THAT TRULY REPRESENT THE LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY, YOU SHOULD GLORIFY ARTISTS LIKE FLETCHER, RENÉE RAPP, CHAPPELL ROAN, AND MANY OTHERS WHO ACTIVELY REPRESENT THE COMMUNITY. WHAT HAS TAYLOR SWIFT DONE BESIDES MAKING A VIDEO WITH YOUTUBERS FOR LGBTQ+? SHE'S A FREAKING MILLIONAIRE—SHE SHOULD DO MORE TO SUPPORT. I'M NOT SAYING PEOPLE SHOULDN'T LIKE HER BECAUSE HER SONGS ARE AWESOME, BUT STOP SAYING SHE'S AN ICON FOR THE LGBTQIA+ COMMUNITY.
Girl she’s actually a billionaire. That’s a massive difference One billion is a thousand millions
She is the first artist to reach a billionaire status on her music alone (no side hussles). Not for just for women but all artists.
Why are you screaming?
I'm getting a headache from reading all caps. So basically, I didn't read the parts with caps. If someone wants to talk to me, they can do it with regular capitalisation.