The New York Times Discovered Gaylor, and We’re All Worse Off for It

I write about this under duress, honestly.

Taylor Swift began the liner notes of (the original) 1989 this way: “These songs were once about my life. They are now about yours.” She has long since asked, encouraged, and begged fans to relate her music and stories to their own lives, rather than dissect and speculate on her own experiences and inspiration behind them. At the same time, the existence of little clues about muses or situations that are largely already in public view - “blue dress on a boat” or “your buzzcut and my hair bleached” - undoubtably play a role in the intrigue, and success, of her music. But when your personal life is fodder for creative output, there is always a question of boundaries. Does a crumb entitle the audience to the whole damn cake? Are celebrities entitled to privacy? Is anybody, anymore? Now, we’re faced with another question to add to the pile: How often will you be believed when you tell your own story?

This week, The New York Times, arguably the nation’s most reputable paper of record, published an opinion piece that regurgitated Gaylor fanfic*. Imagine reading that sentence in 2014 for a moment, go find a void to scream into for a minute, and then come back to this. Gaylor - shorthand for long-standing fan conspiracy theories that Taylor Swift is secretly closeted - is nothing new for those who have been paying attention to the fandom. Honestly, I thought it had died out as the Tumblr fandom era petered out, but it found new life, and broader audiences, through TikTok fan accounts regurgitating theories over the last couple of years. 

I’ll start with saying that the article is absolutely batshit, and the idea that The New York Times would publish a piece so long and obviously incendiary with seemingly no heads up to Taylor or her team is truly a sign that click bait has won out in a media economy that profits off of your attention, not your thoughtfulness or access to relevant and accurate information. To write and publish a piece that carefully just stops short of calling one of the world’s most powerful and influential people a liar about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity is buckwild no matter what, but for such a piece to make it out of the bowels of social media fandom and into extremely public view seems to have absolutely shocked people - honestly, including me. 

I want to start with what should be obviously, but apparently is far from it: there is an enormous difference between projecting a queer identity onto Taylor (the person) and being able to read and interpret her lyrics through a queer lens, relating her music to experiences of people in the LGBT+ community. Taylor has said in no uncertain terms that while she is an ally and advocate for this community, she does not consider herself a part of it. Many of the conspiracies hinge on music video appearances by a range of LGBT+ celebrities and the sparkly rainbow color palette Taylor embraced during the Lover era. This convenient rewriting of history leaves out the numerous contemporaneous interviews where Taylor was pressed on why she suddenly had found a political voice on the issue, and she said in no uncertain terms to Vogue that “I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of.”

Taylor’s own identity is not up for debate - she has spoken. If she ever tells us something new, we should believe her then too. The endless spread of conspiracy theories claiming that Taylor is leaving the flimsiest of clues to tell the real ones about her true, secret queer identity is ludicrous. Except - we exist within a media environment where even the most objective truths are treated as topics for debate.

The New York Times has long had a history of being unfriendly at best and openly hostile at worst in their coverage of the LGBT+ community. The newspaper has been laundering right-wing fear mongering about trans people into the mainstream political conversation for years now. In February 2023, a letter of protest signed by many of the newspaper’s contributors stated that “over 15,000 words of front⁠-⁠page Times coverage debating the propriety of medical care for trans children published in the last eight months alone.”  

That the rights of the LGBT+ community are again being questioned and debated by major political figures, and in allegedly reputable news outlets, is not unrelated to this particular piece. Plenty of people pretend that musicians should just stick to the music, but art is and always has been political. Culture and politics intersect. The piece demonstrates how allyship can and will be weaponized against people who seek to support the community. It attempts to establish that allyship does not exist unless you are a member of the community. If you claim to be an ally, you by nature are not to be trusted since you are lying about your own identity. All while repeatedly attacking LGBT+ rights and dehumanizing members of that community who are out. There is no way to win. This article seeks to delegitimize Taylor’s voice on LGBT+ rights, and by extension other allies as well. Their support is now meaningless or manufactured, unless they identify as part of the community. In which case, their advocacy is also illegitimate.

The New York Times, and other (ugh) mainstream media outlets, launder far-right ideas into everyday discourse. We have seen this happen with conversations about trans people over the last few years. It is not the first, nor will it be the last, time that The New York Times is used to this effect. This article uses pop culture as a guise to reinforce absolutely harmful ideas about the LGBT+ community, and about norms when it comes to privacy in general. Combining Taylor’s celebrity, rampant online conspiracy theories, and the worsening politics of LGBT+ rights, articles like this have the potential to be incredibly harmful to people beyond Taylor.

*I’m not linking to the article because I don’t want to give it more views, but you have Google so do what you like.

When your music licensing is absolutely worth it

I’ve been painfully slow at watching season 2 of The Bear, despite my absolute love for it. Every episode leaves me overstimulated, so I’ve been dipping in and out, making my way through it for months. A friend told me ages ago that the Taylor Swift drop in it was iconic, but I hadn’t actually made it to Forks until this past week and can confirm it wasn’t oversold. Let’s wish a happy Eras Tour to Cousin and his daughter!!! Every second counts, bbs!