#performanceartlor

[butdaddyiloveh3r]

this reddit post is so insane and articulate, all and any gaylors should read!!

(click on images to read)

I actually am obsessed with this!! it totally makes sense!!

[kylieswift31]

The photo for May in the Midnights calendar featured Taylor laying on the floor with a bunch of records... 💎🌹✨

[goodbyeyellowbrickcloset]

From Swiftie to Gaylor: Why I’m Writing This Blog

For as long as I can remember, Taylor Swift’s music has been my constant. Since 2008, she has been my favorite female artist, a defining voice in my life as I grew up. Through every era, every genre shift, every reinvention, and every controversy, my admiration never wavered. Taylor Swift and her art have, dare I say, been the most consistent thing in my life since I was 12 years old.

But as time passed, something changed. Not my love for her music—if anything, that deepened—but the way I understood her storytelling. The media painted Taylor in countless ways: America’s sweetheart, the perpetual victim, the cunning businesswoman, the girl who dated too much, the girl who couldn’t sing, the girl who annoyed people just by existing. I sat through the ridicule, the scrutiny of her body, her voice, her words, and her relationships—always knowing that there was more to her than what the world wanted to see.

Her music, no matter how the press tried to twist her image, remained a deeply personal, poetic, and revealing archive of her life. But was it telling the full story?

The Turning Point: When Gaylor Clicked

For most of my time in the fandom, I took Taylor’s narratives at face value. Boys, relationships, heartbreak, self-discovery. I could always feel something deeper—something more layered—but I never had the language to fully process it. That all changed in 2019.

It was the day ME! was released. I was in architecture grad school, caught up in the excitement of a new era, when something clicked. Wait a minute… is she trying to tell us something?

Unlike most people who found ME! silly or confusing, I was immediately intrigued. The vibrant color palette, the overt queerness of the imagery, the suspiciously timed release on Lesbian Visibility Day—it was too obvious to ignore. At the time, I didn’t know what the "Gaylor" theory even was, but the notion that Taylor could be queer just made sense.

I started asking my friends, "Do you think Taylor Swift is coming out?" The responses were either deeply disturbed by the idea or completely uninterested. I didn’t push it, but I knew something was there. As the Lover rollout continued, everything screamed ‘she’s coming out’—but she never did. Instead, I watched as that potential narrative was brushed aside, ignored, or aggressively dismissed.

Finding the Gaylor Community

2020 changed everything. In lockdown, I had more time than ever to explore the corners of the internet that I had never fully gone down before. Some were terrifying, but one stood out as something different—the Gaylor community.

I stumbled upon the Whatiwillsay podcast and suddenly felt like I wasn’t alone. Here was a group of insanely intelligent, detail-oriented, and open-minded people who saw what I saw—who had been seeing it for years. Through their work, I started piecing together a narrative that had always been there, hidden in plain sight.

The deeper I went, the clearer it became:

Taylor Swift’s storytelling is deeply queer-coded.

The public narrative of her relationships has always felt… curated.

Hollywood and the music industry create impossible constraints for queer artists.

I realized that, like many queer people throughout history, Taylor may have been telling her story in code. Suddenly, the Easter eggs, the secret messages, the obsession with colors and symbols—it all made sense.

And it wasn’t just a theory. It was a lens through which everything became richer, more layered, and more meaningful.

Why This Blog?

Over the past few years, I’ve been obsessively researching, analyzing, and recording my thoughts on Taylor’s music and career through the Gaylor perspective. I’ve watched as creators on TikTok—people like planntika, Jordyn, Mia, and Lexa—have taken this discourse to new levels, making the connections clearer and more accessible than ever. I’ve studied Taylor’s work through this lens for more hours than I can count—probably second only to my actual career in architecture.

And now, I want to finally put my thoughts into words.

This blog is not about proving anything. Taylor Swift’s personal life is her own. But what I am here to do is explore:

The art she creates and the narratives she weaves.

The deeper meanings hidden in her lyrics, performances, and aesthetics.

The ways queer people have always had to ‘read between the lines’ in mainstream culture.

Why I believe her relationship with Karlie Kloss was more than just friendship—and why Karlie is her true muse.

Why I think she remains closeted today and how she ended up in this position in the first place.

The Journey Ahead

I’ve been a diehard Swiftie since 2008. I’ve loved her music unconditionally, celebrated her highs, defended her lows, and analyzed every Easter egg she’s ever planted. And now, after years of recording ideas and observations, I’m finally ready to share them.

The Gaylor perspective isn’t just a theory. It’s a way of seeing Taylor’s work as something deeper, something more complex, something that, for so many fans—including myself—has made us feel seen in ways mainstream culture rarely allows.

So, welcome to my blog. Whether you’re a longtime Gaylor, a curious skeptic, or someone just beginning to explore this world, I hope you find something here that makes you think.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned from Taylor Swift, it’s that there’s always more to the story.

[popstrologypod]

this whole grammys outfit think is such a good part of #performanceartlor bc the way people JUMPED to say it’s T for Travis and Chiefs red when Taylor literally released her album red 13 (✨) years ago, won AOTY last year for an album that included the song maroon, and both her own name and the name of the album she was nominated for start with a T is just… why can’t women do anything without people crediting a man??!!?!!

[the-cards-she-wont-show]

Like… deadass!

🎬 Take #2 we’re ready to see you 💕💗 @taylorswift

We’ve all kept the secret a little longer, now it’s finally time to step into the daylight… and let it go 💛⛈️🌈☀️🦋🕊️💜

[perpetuallyangrycactus]

[fendergal]

Is there such a thing as an OSCAR for performance art? Asking for a friend of Dorothea.

[that-lavender-gayze]

"Carnations you had thought were roses, that's us"

[villaneve1988]

I'm seeing things...

[trossforever]

This photo makes my heart ache.

I hope someday they get to step into the daylight, and let it go. 🥀☀️

[butdaddyiloveh3r]

taylor swift pattern theme?

So for evermore its clear taylor took a lot of inspo from emily dickinson famous lesbian poet for her evemore album. this inlcudes visuals and lyrics associated with the album. specifically the outfits, photoshoots and very specifically the song ivy and also evermore was released on emily dickinsons birthday.

And for the tortured poets department its a similar becuase its clear she has taken inspiration from mainly virginia woolf who had rumored lesbian relationships and also some inspiration from mary shelley who was rumored to be bisexual. its clear for certain songs they lyrically carry the vibe of virginia wolf. and for the fortnight mv its clear mary shelley was the inspiration.

now for a future album maybe ts12 as it has a more vibrant and lilac/ violet/ pinks, blush and gold toned aesthetic based on recent outfits and easter eggs. I would love for her to continue this theme of dedicating albums to famous queer female writers and poets!! for ts12 I would love to see it based around sappho. I would love for it to have a ethereal garden poet vibe with lots of floral imagrey and silkly flowy elements.

I just think this would be a nice way to continue this theme of using queer writers as inspiration for albums!! and would love to see a sappho inspired album.

( I couldn't pinpoint any clear queer writer inspirations for folklore or midnights so if you know of a queer writer or poet who is tied to those albums please let me know)!!

links to other sources and analysis!!!

@taylorswift

[kylieswift31]

Karma is (not) real

"But not for me, not for me, all I think about is karma"

"What do you think is the most important life lesson for someone to learn?"

"That Karma is real."

Karma the lost album is synonymous with the bleachella era, a brief time in 2016 before Taylor pivoted and eventually released reputation as her last album with BMR instead. This anomaly in what was Taylor's two year album release cycle has lead many of us to associate the colour orange with the concept of karma and to anticipate that the final destination of the re-recording process will end with whatever the short lived karma era was originally going to be. But what if that was all just a big distraction to prevent us from seeing what Taylor's really had planned?

"We've become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We're tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is, in some respects, counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts. No cue cards. It isn't always Shakespeare, but it is genuine. It's a life."

The Truman show begins with the director and cast gushing about how real and true Truman's life is, insisting that the controlled environment he lives in equates to entertainment void of inauthenticity. We're then presented with a story that begins with a juxtaposition between Truman's desire to travel to Fiji and the reality of how his ambitions were squandered following the loss of his father during a boating incident that left him with a debilitating fear of water that prevented him from ever leaving the island. Truman's motivation to leave Seahaven begins with discovering that his father is still alive, a realisation that sparks multiple attempts to overcome his fears after growing suspicious of everyone around him.

"Why would we watch the sea?"

"Cats don't even like the beach!"

We're lead to believe that Truman's 'spontaneous' escape over the bridge was unsuccessful, that it caused his relationship with Meryl to fall apart and what ultimately left him alone and more miserable than ever before. It was then when everyone else had let their guards down thinking Truman had finally given up on his dream that he was able to escape when they least expected it. Looking back it may seem like Truman managed to overcome his fear of water after discovering that his father was still alive, but the truth is that Truman was never scared of the water to begin with.

"In case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!"

Truman's final bow at the end of the movie paired with his catchphrase that he greets his neighbours with each morning revealed that he had been performing (just like everyone else around him) from the very beginning. What the director, cast and audience had all viewed as Truman's genuine behaviour was really just all built on Truman's lies disguised as authenticity. During the flashbacks of Truman's younger years we get a glimpse into his desire to explore beyond the island. He was born into a world where everyone around him was so focused on putting on a show and playing their part for the audience watching the Truman show that no one stopped to consider how repetitive their behaviour was for Truman to encounter day after day after day. "They look just like regular people." Everything we witnessed unfold throughout the Truman show stemmed from Truman's role in slowly exposing the reality of what he had experienced as the star in the spotlight, which in the end left almost everyone except for the director rooting for him to finally be able to walk through the door for the very first time.

"It's a clock, it'll help you tell time."

Taylor has purposefully used the concept of karma to create a tangible point in time to demonstrate an intangible example of 'what could've been'. There's the rumoured lost album, karma written on the man wall, the karma coffee cup, the karma song itself and even an entire music video full of Easter eggs hinting at what's still yet to come. In the process we've all been so focused on anticipating the reclamation of her past albums and unreleased vault tracks being the final destination that nobody realised that Taylor's ultimate plan was so much bigger than just retelling her own story.

"But if the story's over, why am I still writing pages?"

Taylor has been such an outspoken advocate for artists to write and own their own music over the years, but even more so after her masters were sold. It gives artists ownership over the memories and experiences they've woven throughout their songs, albums and performances, but it also allows them to create a legacy that the music industry "can't undo". To reclaim her past Taylor hasn't just been retelling her story, she's also been rewriting it too.

"It's death by a thousand paper cuts."

Karma might not be a lost era, but it certainly is a cat. Olivia represents the original version, Meredith represents Taylor's version and Benjamin represents the version Taylor owns for the very first time. One cat for each time Taylor has told her story and many more that represent having others within the New Romantics retelling chapters of her story as well as her role in mentoring the next generation of upcoming artists so that they never have to go through what she did. And the reason why we didn't notice that Taylor was rewriting her story? She was telling it backwards! Just like Benjamin Button ages in reverse to everyone else around him, Taylor started her first self owned album by writing the ending to her story first before going back to the beginning.

"You never had a camera inside my head!"

The type of plot device used in the Truman show hinges on having an unreliable narrator who misdirects the audience by creating a foundation built upon an admission of truth in the very beginning. For Taylor that was admitting that she lies with the very first line of Tim McGraw. The second time around it was admitting that "I'd be the man!" because she's been playing the role of the man in the story she's telling from the very beginning. This story that she's been telling repeatedly will finally end when she's able to sing from her own perspective. So in the end Taylor's version of karma is the fact that the story is hers to tell and that she can retell the story over and over again if she wants to. More on that to come soon, but for now...

"I wanna be defined by the things that I love.

Not the things I hate.

Not the things I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of.

The things that haunt me in the middle of the night,

I, I just think that you are what you love."

It's nice to have a friend,

Kylie x

[lolo99324]

I’ve always been curious about the prince being forced to propose to Taylor in the Bejeweled MV

Maybe this PR document leaking will be the catalyst to that? Maybe Travis will “propose” to bring an end to the PR rumors, then Taylor to ghost

[valyrfia]

realising my incredibly straight (dyed blonde hair, daily spin class, corporate girlboss) sister is KNEE DEEP in the 'taylor swift's relationship with travis kelce is performance art' trenches on reddit is certainly something

[areyoujennyray]

[perpetuallyangrycactus]

and so I conduct this post mortem.....

(i'm low key obsession with this coat)