#women like hunting witches too / i leap from the gallows and i levitate down your street

[youcrashedmyparty]

obsessed with how taylor often uses witches to portray female rage and devastation

[mastermindmp3]

I continue my agenda that TTPD is secretly a western album, I swear—

God. This song. This song.

At this point, I should put a boiler plate disclaimer that I understand these songs are very much about Taylor's life, and this one especially so. It's all about scrutiny, about the press and the media circus of being a child in the spotlight, about not being able to grow up (you stay the same age you get famous at in the public's eye, to paraphrase Swift.) It's about the mental side effects of that, of the suffering she admits to hiding: I want to snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me.

I think there is an expectation that people (any people, not just celebrities) should only show signs of distress when they are at rock bottom. If you're functioning, if you're getting out of bed most days and still brushing your teeth, etc, you aren't depressed enough to complain. Who's Afraid of Little Old Me is Swift striking back at that mindset, that actually, she shouldn't have to perform rock bottom ( because she seems done with performing peak happiness ) 24/7.

However, I really want to dive into the imagery of the song, and then maybe elaborate on it too much.

I'd be remiss to say that I'm writing this the day after she performed it live for the first time, and I am so utterly obsessed with the live performance. The lights, the mirrored platform giving the appearance of levitation, and say they didn't do it to hurt me—

BUT WHAT IF THEY DID?

In general, that section of the bridge is my favorite. I've already referenced it twice! To give context, the full line is: So tell me everything is not about me, but what if it is? And say they didn't do it to hurt me, but what if they did? I want to snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me.

( That is followed by the line that has become a meme, and I wrote a whole post being annoyed at that. It will forever rot in my drafts. )

The speaker's description feels like hypervigilence, the kind caused by a life time of whispers and daggers behind your back. If you've ever been the center of a workplace drama, or the odd kid out, or the New Person in a club or activity, or just have anxiety, you know this feeling well. You know the feeling of asking - is this about me?

I love the phrasing of I want to snarl, because it shows that she is expected not to. She is expected to... Actually. Let me set this up.

There's a parallel to her country contemporary Miranda Lambert's Mama's Broken Heart. Lambert details allowing herself to be dramatic and heart broken after she feels like her life went up in flames. Where Swift's speaker enacts supernatural revenge, Lambert's is more mundane (cutting her bangs with scissors, hunting him down at the bar in their small town.) The bridge, here, describes the expectation that is put upon young women:

Powder your nose, paint your toes / Line your lips and keep 'em closed / Cross your legs, dot your eyes / And never let 'em see you cry

Swift's speaker, jilted and in pain not just from her lover (the who's who of who's that) but also from the scrutiny she's placed under (by her community, her friends, maybe even the press) has decided that she will no longer be the picture perfect woman. She will no longer bow to their whims, and is executed by public opinion for it.

So I leap from the gallows and I'll levitate down your street.

This very strong imagery.

Historically, women who have been hanged are expected to act a certain way. We often think of witch trials, but women have also been executed for crimes like murder and theft. They are to act penitent, to appeal for public approval with their final breaths. If they serve as anti-examples, begging for God's forgiveness and showing other women to behave, how to not make their mistakes, then they are granted posthumous grace.

But speaking of witch trials. Women and men who were accused of witchcraft were not witches, not in the modern sense of the word, or the historical one. Some were midwives, some were just poor women, old women who had things their neighbors wanted to take. Some were widows, and some were just disliked. It had nothing to do with their "crimes," and all to do with wanting to get rid of someone "unseemly."

The witch trials are often used as emblems of sexism - because they were. They were a tool of patriarchal oppression against women who fell outside the system, for one reason or another. ( I'd also like to note this oppression went doubly strong against women and men of color. It's a very loaded topic. )

The imagery also makes me think of Margaret Atwood's Half-Hanged Mary, a fictionalization of the real life Mary Webster. Webster was accused of witchcraft by Phillip Smith, and taken to be hanged in Hadley, Massachusetts. Mary, a woman in her approximate 60s, survived the whole night, was supposedly buried, and still emerged alive.

Atwood's fictionalization has the same spite, the same rage as Who's Afraid of Little Old Me, "Tough luck, folks, / I know the law: / you can't execute me twice / for the same thing. How nice." By the end of the poem, she has become the witch they accused of her being.

Here, the speaker of Who's Afraid of Little Old Me does the same. Almost implied to be a ghost, but the imagery also implies a witch, a woman too powerful for the rope to kill - she decides to return to haunt her accusers, her killers. She crashes their party (there were often parties or auctions of the women's belongings)—

Like a record scratch as I scream — who's afraid of little old me?

She, too, has become what they accused of her being. I am what I am because they trained me.

Phillip Smith, by the by, didn't do so well. He disappears from the account around 1683. In The History of... Massachusetts Bay... by one Mr. Hutchinson, "...it happened that she survived and the melancholy man died." Webster went on to live for 14 years after her hanging.

It felt a very apt comparison to make.

There are other metaphors at play here - a media circus going on in the background, references to the stage animals that have killed their handler for their mistreatment. The title is a reference to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a play about how lives are so complex behind closed doors.

But in the end, I think it all furthers that same metaphor.

The pain of being in the public eye for too long has hurt the speaker in ways that the audience can't understand, because they have not lived it. Very few people are at that level of fame and scrutiny, and while a non-famous audience can relate in some ways, the speaker feels the only way to get the severity across is to invoke death and false hangings.

She is asking for them to see her as powerful, but also as human, and flawed, and hurt.

[pvffinsdaisies]

The UK & Ireland as Taylor Swift songs

ENGLAND: The Archer

“Combat, I’m ready for combat. I say I don’t want that, but what if I do? ‘Cause cruelty wins in the movies, I’ve got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you.

(…)

I’ve been the archer, I’ve been the prey. Who could ever leave me, darling, but who could stay?

Dark side, I search for your dark side, but what if I’m alright, right, right here? And I cut off my nose just to spite my face, and then I hate my reflection for years and years.

I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost. The room is on fire, invisible smoke. And all of my heroes die all alone, help me hold onto you.

(…)

All the king’s horses, all the king’s men, couldn’t put me together again ‘cause all of my enemies started out friends. Help me hold onto you.”

IRELAND: Mad Woman

“What did you think I’d say to that? Does a scorpion sting when fighting back? They strike to kill, and you know I will. (…)

Every time you call me crazy, I get more crazy. What about that? And when you say I seem angry, I get more angry.

And there’s nothing like a mad woman; what a shame she went mad. No one likes a mad woman; you made her like that. And you poke that bear til the claws come out, and you find something to wrap your noose around. And there’s nothing like a mad woman.

Now I breathe flames each time I talk, my canons all firing at your yacht. They say “move on”, but you know I won’t. And women like hunting witches too, doing your dirtiest work for you. It’s obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together.

(…)

I’m taking my time, taking my time, cause you took everything from me. Watching you climb, watching you climb, over people like me. The master of spin has a couple side flings, good wives always know. And she should be mad, should be scathing like me but

No one likes a mad woman.”

NORTHERN IRELAND: Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?

“The who’s who of ‘who’s that?’ Is poised for the attack, but my bare hands paved their path. You don’t get to tell me about ‘sad’

(…)

The scandal was contained, the bullet had just grazed. At all costs, keep your good name. You don’t get to tell me you feel bad.

Is it a wonder I broke? Let’s hear one more joke, then we could all just laugh until I cry.

(…)

So tell me everything is not about me, but what if it is? Then say they didn’t do it to hurt me, but what if they did? I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me. You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me. So all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs- I’m always drunk on my own tears, isn’t that what they all said- then I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn. That is fearsome and I’m wretched and I’m wrong. Put narcotics into all of my songs, and that’s why you’re still singing along.

So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street. Crash the wedding like a record scratch as I scream, “Who’s afraid of little old me?” I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean, “don’t you worry, folks, we took out all her teeth!” Who’s afraid of little old me? Well, you should be.

SCOTLAND: Peace

“But I’m a fire and I’ll keep your brittle heart warm if your cascade ocean-wave blues come. All these people think love’s for show, but i would die for you in secret. The devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in me. Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?

Your integrity makes me seem small; you paint dreamscapes on the wall, I talk shit with my friends. It’s like I’m wasting your honour.

And you know that I’d swing with you for the fences, sit with you in the trenches. Give you my wild, give you a child. Give you the silence that only comes when two people understand each other, family that I chose now that I see your brother as my brother. Is it enough?

But there’s robbers to the east, clowns to the west. I’d give you my sunshine, give you my best, but the rain is always gonna come if you’re standing with me.”

WALES: Seven

“Please, picture me in the trees, I hit my peak at seven feet in the swing, over the creek. I was too scared to jump in, but I, I was high in the sky, with Pennsylvania under me, are there still beautiful things?

Sweet tea in the summer. Cross your heart, won’t tell no other. And though I can’t recall your face, I still got love for you. Your braid’s like a pattern, love you to the moon and to Saturn. Passed down like folk songs, the love lasts so long.

And I’ve been meaning to tell you, I think your house is haunted. Your dad is always mad, and that must be why. And I think you should come live with me and we can be pirates, then you won’t have to cry or hide in the closet. And just like a folk song, our love will be passed on.

Please, picture me in the weeds, before I learnt civility. I used to scream ferociously anytime I wanted.”

[folkmorepoet]

Day 27: Cassandra 

Actually I could have posted this on any meeting day, but I think it also fits with Cassandra. 

Since I love Taylor and "Wicked" the musical, I'd like to point out just how obviously Taylor (or let's rather say her puplic persona) is a reallife Elphaba to me. 💚🖤 It shows throughout her whole discocraphy since Reputation and has manifested in the TTPD and also in Cassandra, I think. 

Both the protagonist in "Cassandra" and Elphaba are brave to speak up and try to open up peoples' eyes to warn them and make them see the truth. They are however met with hate and very soon tried to be silenced. Soon a crucible (as in witch hunt)  against them starts: 

"So they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst. And tried to tell the town." (TS: Cassandra) //  Go and hunt her. And find her. And kill her. Kill the Witch!  (W: March of the witchhunters) // in the streets, there's a raging riot. When it's "Burn the bitch," they're shrieking (TS: Cassandra) // They got their pitchforks and proof" (TS: I did something bad) 

I think the parallels to 2016, when Taylor tried to tell the truth and people on twitter celebrated her funeral are quite obvious. The people from Oz also have a national holiday to celebrate Elphaba's death, as she is the evil witch. "Good news!. She's dead! The Witch of the West is dead!

The wickedest witch there ever was." (W: No one mourns the wicked) 

But let's see how Taylor and Elphaba both started out. At the beginning of their journey,  both girls are outsiders at school. We know from Taylor's debut album, several diary entries and interviews that she had a hard time at school. And  Elphaba is bullied for being green at Shiz. However both Taylor and Elphaba have a special talent that sets them apart. Taylor's songwriting and Elphaba's ability to perform magic. They see their talent as a possibility to get out and to become popular and successful. 

"Unlimited. My future is unlimited" (W:The wizard and I)  // "the future is bright. Dazzling." (TS: Clara Bow) And their ambition is encouraged. "You're the real thing.  Breath of fresh air through smoke rings.Take the glory, give everything. Promise to be dazzling" (TS: Clara Bow) // "With a talent like yours, dear, there is a definish chance. If you work as you should.You'll be making good" (W: The wizard and I) 

Both women are tempted by fame and being popular.  Taylor has called herself a "people pleaser" (TS: You're losing me) before and how she always tried to make everyone around her happy and live up to her good girl image. Also Elphaba is made to believe  that  the ultimate goal for her is to be loved and admired. "It's not about attitude. It's the way you're viewed. So it's very shreewed to be very very popular like me."  (W: Popular)  

But in the end both of them  have to learn the hard way, that you can not be loved by everyone, no matter how hard you try.  

"Too long I've been afraid of losing love, I guess I've loved." (W:Defying gravity //  "At all costs, keep your good name" (TS: who's afraid of little old me?) 

Taylor learned how hard it is to survive in the business of being a celebrity and so did Elphaba.

Even if you have the best of intentions, people will always find a way to use it against you one way or another. 

"Sure, I meant well. Well, look at what well-meant did.All right, enough. So be it, so be it then. Let all Oz be agreed. I'm wicked through and through" (W: No good deed) // They're burning all the witches even if you aren't one. So go ahead and light me up." (TS: I did something bad) "I was tame. I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean." (TS: Who's afraid of little old me?)

Finally they seem to accept, that being true to yourself and your own values and ideas is more important than being popular.

"It's time to trust my instincts. Close my eyes and leap" ( defying gravity) //  "So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street" (TS: Who's afraid of little old me") 

"And if I'm flying solo at least I'm flying free. To those who ground me take a message back from me: Tell them how I'm defying gravity  // "I'm through  with playing by the rules of someone else's game."  (W: Defying gravity)  // "I'll tell you something about my good name. It's mine alone to disgrace."(TS: But daddy I love him) // "I'm through exepting limits, cause someone says they're so." (W: Defying gravity) //" I just learned these people only raise you to cage you (TS: But daddy I love him) 

"Well If that's love it comes at much  too high a cost. I would sooner buy defying gravity." (W: defying gravity)  // I'll tell you something right now I'd rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching  and moaning." (TS: But daddy I love him) 

What I love about TTPD is, that Taylor is really honest and really not trying to be a mirrorball girl on this album. Much more could be added, but I think you get the idea. Listen to TTPD and listen to Wicked :)  The movie will come out soon.