The ‘Gaylor’ Situation: A Note On Last Issue

I’m not going to apologise for anything I wrote about the idea of speculating about the sexualities of celebrities in the last issue of this magazine, but I do feel an additional statement is in order in light of recent events. The prologue of Taylor Swift’s new album 1989 (Taylor’s Version) includes this revealing line: “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.” Oof.

This line has been read by many as being directed at the ‘Gaylors’, a subset of the fandom determined to read Swift’s work in a queer context, taking the fact that she regularly hangs out with women as evidence that she is bisexual. Predictably, this caused that particular corner of the fandom to implode, but also jump on the defensive, trying to justify their actions by suggesting that Swift was only angry at a particular portion of the ‘Gaylor’ community that takes things too far: the majority of them are innocent.

I don’t buy that for a second. For me, this reads like another chapter in the book of women telling people what they want (let’s not forget that Swift has said to the media that she is straight), and a bunch of dumb people rushing to her going “no, no, no, this is what you want.” Only this time these people can claim they are trying to challenge heteronormativity to justify their actions, hiding behind excuses like “it’s not that deep” or “it’s just harmless fun” to feign ignorance of the consequences. What’s really going on is a gross projection of their own desires onto someone who hasn’t asked for it.

And, as I pointed out in the last article I wrote about this topic, I empathise with the feeling of being so invested in an artist’s work that you’re willing to overlook a lot in order to enjoy it in your own way, but that emotional investment can be channeled in a more productive way. For however much the ‘Gaylors’ might insist their speculation is “does no harm,” the deeper truth is that it does no visible harm, and now the harm that they have done is on display for all to see in the prologue of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), they now have to deal with the consequences of their actions.