Dancing with our Hands Tied- Sacred Oasis Threatened by Gossip [Part H]

Logistical Info:

Remember we’re looking at words in the lyrics of Question… to try to decipher who and what and when.

We’ve almost gone through the entire song, pulling lyrics containing the same words to get a sort of consensus or feeling about Taylor’s intention.

Now that we’re toward the end of Question… lyrics, we need to address the central part of the song: Kiss in a crowded room. And the kiss really brings to mind Dancing with our Hands Tied and maybe Kissgate.

We will analyze Dancing with our Hands Tied to see if it parallels Question….

Except this particular line within Dancing with our Hands Tied got a bit long because I really don’t know for sure and there was no solid direction to take the analysis. I will go into it in detail in this post so the guesses don’t overwhelm the analysis of the song as a whole.

And I’ll spell out my conclusions from this post in the full analysis of Dancing with our Hands Tied. But that post was getting very long and I was afraid nobody would read it. So to make things even more confusing each line in DWOHT is going to be its OWN post. But then I’ll do a main DWOHT post with just links to each different post. It’s a whole big thing.

Then we’ll get back to the end of Question…

Was that explanation as confusing as trying to guess who Taylor’s songs are about?

And darling, you had turned my bed into a sacred oasis

Taylor says they went from friends to this and she has dirty dreams about this former friend, turned lover in Paper Rings.  Taylor also reveals that her and Karlie have a private relationship inside her room, in King of my Heart, because the boys never took her where Karlie does [same, girl] (Question…  [Part 2]). 

By definition, an oasis is in the middle of an arid land. Taylor is describing her life as a desert. She’s alone in a harsh environment that lacks necessities, and is dangerous. This person revived Taylor and supplied the love she needed to survive.

End Game describes how the body is gold, the eyes make Taylor drunk on love, and this person has captured her very soul.  

But at the same time Taylor can’t forget all the drama and how her reputation suffered.   Because the couple represents a vilified form of love, Taylor feels she has to conceal the relationship.  Still, Taylor was unable to leave this illicit romance even though closeting is depressing. 

Time and time again Taylor chose her career and the closet over her lovers, and all she’s left with is memories and regrets [Question…  [Part 10]).

People started talking, putting us through our paces

Taylor’s career  is never far from her mind, and she worries how people will judge her.  She has to worry about media scrutiny as well. Taylor knows if she dated a woman (publicly) it would be a big conversation, and there would be a lot of negative reactions.  Even when she’s swept away by the strongest desires for women, Taylor is still worried about public disapproval [Question…  [Part 14]).  

A lot of external quagmires such as Snakegate have pulled Taylor down in addition to her hesitation over her sexuality (Question…  [Part 15]).  She has dealt with frenemies who betrayed her, so Taylor has a difficult time trusting people.  Sadly, Taylor is not really all that close to anyone, except for her mom, and (at times) her baby.  

Taylor’s super-fame is not relatable and it isolates her.  So many of Taylor’s friends (her publicist, Tree, for example) are people on her pay-role, or mutually beneficial superficial work friends.  The other people around Taylor are in the background just getting drunk, high, and laughing.  But these people cannot be counted on (“we’ll never say that word again”). There are queer friends who have the same trauma as Taylor, but because of closeting she can’t truly and openly be too close to them (Question…  [Part 5]).  Taylor’s support system is connected with her brand, so Taylor the person is overlooked.  As a result, Taylor’s romantic relationships suffer.  She is too focused on external opinions and validation, and her lovers are relegated to the back-burner a lot of times.  Taylor uses “universe” to show how far away she seems to her lover in Coney Island (Question…  [Part 15]). 

Since Taylor just can’t/won’t come out and live openly, and she’s left feeling alone and melancholy.

But career intact (Question… [Part 8]).