Dancing with our Hands Tied- Taylor Swift would change everything… And everything would end the same [Part T]

We are nearly back to Question…!

We addressed the central part of the song: Kiss in a crowded room by exploring Dancing with our Hands Tied strongly believed to be tied [too on the nose?] to Kissgate.

We proved Question… and Dancing with our Hands Tied are nearly the same song. DWOHT is looking back with regret and wishing for a re-do. Question… is also looking back at the same or similar event(s).

So we’re segwaying from DWOHT back to the end of Question…

This part of the song really turns into Question…

If I could dance with you again

This is a lament.  Taylor’s behavior in that pivotal moment caused the pair to stop dancing.  The dancing is the actual act of holding each other and the feeling of liberation at associating as a romantic couple in public.

I’d kiss you as the lights went out

If Taylor could rewrite history she would have kissed her partner in that clamorous moment.  Instead of worrying about the people looking up at her and her lover (grinnin’ like the devil), Taylor would have leaned into her love.

Swaying as the room burned down

The fire Taylor (and her team) have been terrorized by flared up that night.  Taylor let her guard slip and was too obviously gay out in the open.  Viewers were quick to gather physical evidence and Taylor would have been outed.  If she could revise what happened in that significant moment, Taylor says she would have continued dancing instead of getting flustered.

I’d hold you as the water rushes in

The following week, Taylor succumbed to the pressure of her team’s damage control.  Once mollified, she even felt safe within the enclave of the closet.  Taylor tells her sapphic lover that if she could do it all again, she would choose her.  Instead of acquiescing to the closet, Taylor wishes she would have remained firm and stood proudly with her lover.

If I could dance with you again

Taylor is regretful that salvaging her straight image caused her girlfriend to be enshrouded too.  By covering up their love, Taylor buried it.

BUT the very last line of the song:

Dancing with our hands tied, hands tied

Taylor amended the whole event to appease her ex-girlfriend and show her how she’s evolved as a person.  This whole verse was tinged with regret, and Taylor is telling how she would make different choices.  The way that Taylor dealt with the original moment ended up causing her (and her girlfriend) pain and suffering.  She is lonely and unhappy because of those choices.  

Yet, at the very end (the last line of the song) Taylor doesn’t allude to dancing, uninhibited in the open, freely out with her partner. 

Her idea of comfort is dancing within the constraints of her brand.  Taylor wants to be with the woman, but she needs her career.  Taylor has not progressed at all.  She changed everything in the Kissgate scenario, but ends up back in the same precarious position–dancing, but within the chains of her heteronormative image.