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lizzie: alright, here we have hope's gift from-

josie: *cough* don't tell her *cough*

lizzie: ...santa.

hope: babe, i already know it was you.

josie: what.

hope: we literally went shopping together.

josie:

hope: I EVEN WRAPPED IT FOR YOU.

josie: ...

josie: do you like it?

hope: *sigh* yes.

We’re mad at the double standards and we’re mad at the baiting.

Before the finale aired, Julie Plec said that Hosie wouldn’t kiss but that a kiss had been actually discussed but that they didn’t go through with it for a very specific reason.

I was elated with that answer, I personally, didn’t want Hosie to kiss in the fairytale episode and I know most Hosies have the “a non-consensual kiss is never the answer” moment as one of their favorite Hosie scenes because it showed Hope’s respect towards Josie and because it was Josie who suggested Hope kiss her in the first place.

So we aren’t mad because Hosie didn’t kiss and we aren’t mad because Handon did kiss (they have already kissed a bunch of times). We are mad because they used the non-consensual kiss excuse for a f/f ship but, in the very next episode, that was no longer a problem for a f/m ship.

Josie:

Lizzie:

Landon:

Rafael:

Like most seventeen year old boys, James is extremely thoughtful and tender. “Are you sure,” he asks the girl with whom he wants to cheat on his girlfriend, Betty. “Neither of us have done something like this before, and even though all I can think about is having sex with you, all the time, I think it’s really important that we first consider the gravity of our actions before we do anything impulsive.”

August slipped away, like the exquisite boxes of zinfandel they’d buy for each other at the corner store with their fake IDs. And now, as the school year begins, our unnamed female love interest looks back on that summer month with the kind of profound understanding that teenagers often acquire after a month or so of self reflection. “You were never mine,” she understands. They weren’t Facebook official, and they were never going to be. Ruefully she wonders, “If only I’d paid more attention to your broad chest and strong biceps than your slim and beautiful back, which I liked to look at when we were, um, sunbathing…”

With the poignant elegance of a high school girl whose been dumped, our once loved girl holds on to her bittersweet memories of that time and all the hours she spent pining in anticipation, hoping that once James was done checking out the new fall fashions at The Gap and J. Crew he’d call her up and say, “Hey…You! Wanna share a wheatgrass smoothie with me behind the mall?”

This lyric really stuck out to me as an important one. Kind of feels like it’s getting ignored so I wanted to get into the weeds on it.

I believe this lyric is in direct reference to Taylor being closeted. And CITIES themselves are a very important theme on Lover.

It seems that cities are meant to be symbolic of certain people in Taylor’s story (further evidence of this: “I’m New York City” // “You’re the West Village”).

So if we go by that logic, we’ve got:

Nashville = Emily, Taylor’s first love; a cruel love because they had to break up so Taylor could pursue greater fame. Taylor and Emily were together while Taylor was still very much a country artist based in Nashville. Emily was her fiddle player; a fact that is eerily symbolic on its own as pop Taylor no longer needs a fiddle player.

Los Angeles = Dianna, Taylor’s first experience with deep passion and infatuation; a cruel love because Dianna was commitment-phobic while Taylor wanted a real, lasting relationship and both were heavily closeted. It’s well established that Dianna and Taylor lived close by one another in LA, and this is why so many of Tay’s lyrics reference an ex driving by.

NYC: Karlie, Taylor’s true love

London: symbolizes the beards (who have as of late all been British)

Okay let’s keep going. What cities has Taylor lived in since she’s been in the spotlight?

Nashville, LA and New York.

Funny enough, she also spends a lot of time in London... WORKING. (Also important: it’s almost as though Taylor and her team go out of their way to remind us again and again that Taylor hasn’t bought a place in London; she rents.)

So what makes Nashville cruel? Homophobia.

It’s no secret (just ask Chely Wright) that young country artists are closeted to appeal to more conservative listeners. Taylor’s been laying hints that Scott Borchetta and BMR may have had a big hand in her closeting as a young artist. And her music has insinuated that this is what broke her and Emily up.

Further, Taylor actually pointed out Tennessee’s homophobia recently with her political post last November explaining why Marsha Blackburn shouldn’t be elected. Look at what she says:

Yes, Taylor wants us to vote. But she also wants us to know that she’s calling out Blackburn specifically for her homophobia. Taylor doesn’t want to accept living in a state that would treat her like a lesser human being, and whose politicians would legislate away her rights. Cruel, indeed.

Further evidence for this: I believe Taylor mentioning the 16th avenue reference in ITHK being about music row in Nashville was supposed to make us draw this connection. She flat out says the choice wasn’t random; AKA pay attention Swifties!

So where does Nashville fit into this world Taylor has created? What does she want us to know about Nashville? It’s where she got her start. It’s where she’s done the BUSINESS of songwriting. It’s her roots, but it’s a cruel place to have established herself, when it’s still not accepting of her true self.

Okay, so what makes LA cruel? A different, subtler form of homophobia.

LA may come across as an accepting town, but young stars are still very much expected to be closeted to appeal to a wider fan base.

“Everyone looked worse in the light” may be referencing the smoke and mirrors of living in LA. The same person might tell you they accept gay people but then advise you to remain closeted to advance your career.

It’s kind of a mindfuck of a place to be, where everything is based off of image and so many people are trying to use you for your fame and connections.

Meanwhile, we KNOW New York is different from these cruel cities because Taylor makes it clear throughout Lover—and all her music since 1989—that New York stands alone in contrast to the other places she’s lived as a city associated with LOVE and her lover.

Although Taylor’s relationship with Karlie may have been cruel initially (cruel summer) their love has blossomed into a cityscape as vast as the Big Apple itself.

Taylor loves NYC so much she can’t stop writing about it.

And what’s one major way she contrasts New York to the other cities??

And you can want who you want // boys and boys and girls and girls

New York is a town that doesn’t care about your identity. It’s a town where you can disappear into the crowd and be anyone. It’s a town of possibilities. And I can see how that would have been so beautiful to a young Taylor. The idea that she could just be herself (albeit with some self-protective measures in place).

New York represents so much to Taylor. Freedom, self-expression, connection, community and of course her true love with Karlie.

Another cool tidbit to go with this theory: Taylor has hinted that her current lover has also been part of these “cruel cities” for her as she’s grown up (“got my heartbeat // skipping down 16th Avenue” and “sunset and vine // you’ve ruined my life by not being mine”) so perhaps this speaks to her healing from the hurts of the past. Daylight the song seems to speak to this healing. Taylor’s been through it, but she’s come out the other side into the daylight with a love that’s really something; not just the idea of something.

One last note on this: Interestingly, although Taylor has used Paris—the city of love—for a lot of her promo and imagery in this era, she never once mentions it in her music. In contrast, she’s made direct references to Nash, NYC, LA and London in her songs. Part of me thinks Paris may be a red herring, or perhaps somewhere she meets up with her lover on the low. Maybe she is using “the city of love” to get us to pay attention to the cities that actually surface in her story and what they mean.

Remember: Taylor told us in Rolling Stone that her music is the truth about her life; the rest is marketing.

Ok. Sure Jan!

In this essay I will explain why I think it’s quite the opposite. For the record I don’t think there has ever been a more personal, emotionally transparent and intimate album.

The 1

- Lyrical reference to ME! “I never leave well enough alone”

- TIWWCHNT aesthetics (Roaring twenties, jumping in pool from the trampoline, feeling so Gatsby for that whole year).

- Curiously associated to “the 1”, Big Sur highway or the Subway Line in NYC

Cardigan

- Reference to High Line in the West Village. Because when it’s like 10 minutes from Franklin Street or Charles Street, MUST be about other people right?

- Once in 20 lifetimes, 20 is almost the new 13 lately.

- “Loves me like I’m brand new” CIWYW vibes/main concept

The last great American dynasty

- Explicit parallels between Rebekah’s life and Taylor’s and the way the neighbors judged both of them. The parties, loud women, pack bitch friends.

- Interesting St. Louis reference

- Interesting “wedding was charming if a little gauche” (gauche defintion by dictionary.com: lacking social grace, sensitivity, or acuteness; awkward; crude; tactless) ...........ring any bell?

Exile

- I’m just going to leave these here and not even gonna waist my time explaining

My tears recochet

- Obvious reference to BMR, SBX2

- Very suspicious at the diamond ring but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt

Mirrorball

- On the pressure that the desire to always be liked, appreciated, validated, approved by others please watch Miss Americana.

- On the pressure of double standards in the music industry for women, her words: “Be new to us, be young to us—but only in a new way and only the way we want. Reinvent yourself but only in a way that we find to be equally comforting and a challenge for you. Live out a narrative that we find interesting enough to entertain us, but not so crazy that it makes us uncomfortable. This is probably one of my last opportunities as an artist to grasp on to that kind of success, so I don't know. As I'm reaching 30, I want to work really hard, um, while society is still tolerating me being successful."

Seven

- Chilhood memories in Pennsylvania under her, are there still beautiful things?

- Won’t comment on braids like a pattern or the hide in the closet lines.

August

- Guest starring the recurring theme of hiding and keeping things secret, let’s make it a regular character because it’s here to stay.

- Will you call when you’re back at school. CAN name of someone who was attending school while having a relationship with Taylor. But won’t.

This is me trying

- Pulling car off the road to the lookout. Now there’s some suggestive photo reference for this line. Google it: Taylor Swift Big Sur

- “It's hard to be anywhere these days when all I want is you. You're a flashback in a film reel on the one screen in my town.” I’m sure everybody has to live with the face of their ex lover on screens all over your town, especially when the city screams their name. Very common.

Illicit affairs

- “You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else” AND “you taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else” sound very autobiographical but I will give this the benefit of the doubt as well.

- “And you know damn well for you I would ruin myself” is the big sister of “And baby, for you, I would fall from grace just to touch your face”, fight me on that.

Invisible string

- Centennial park in Nashville.

- Bad blood, Yogurt shop.

- Thread of gold.

- Blues and then purple-pink skies.

- Dive bar reference. Dive bar where you at.

Mad woman

- SBX2

- Cannons firing at a yatch. Sure it’s a fictional Betty here talking.

- Witch hunt makes yet another appearance.

Epiphany

- This actually is too personal for the whole world.

Betty

- Wondering if Betty’s garden has a gate you could sneak through.

- Inez and James, Blake and Ryan’s daughters. BOTH female. But sure take only what you need from Taylor’s personal life inspiration.

Peace

- So the person who’s writing is convinced that danger and troubles are always going to come to them and their lover because of their very identity, because of who they are and who they represent. Archer anyone? “Who could ever leave me baby but who could stay”.

- Robbers to the east. Clowns to the West (capitalized).

- Your brother as my brother.

- Love for show and dying for the same love in secret.

Hoax

- My best laid plan....“I am an architect I’m drawing up the plans”

- “You knew the hero died so what's the movie for?” Is “And all of my hero died all alone”‘s cousin. Study that family tree.

- “You know I left a part of me back in New York”

Lizzie starts to notice the looks Hosie keeps throwing at each other. She can SEE the pining in Hope’s eyes when she looks at her sister. She starts reflecting that Hope would actually be a really good partner for Josie. She decides to make a plan. And I’m talking a detailed plan- some miss mystic falls type plan- binder included. This plan is get Hope to make her feelings known to Josie (because our baby is clueless). She hands Hope a binder and Hope is confused. Before Lizzie said that they will never get together. Chaos ensues as Hope and Lizzie go with the plan. A lot of it doesn’t actually work and Hope makes a fool of herself MANY TIMES. But I’m the end Josie is just like yes silly I STILL HAVE A CRUSH ON YOU TOO. Some one make this a fic

they share one brain cell

+bonus