Taylor wins the pronoun game. I’m not even going to try to untangle the speaker/recipient/changing characters in this song. Ok maybe just a little in this section. It was written so convoluted that I haven’t even seen a satisfactory answer to this yet. Instead, I took lyric snippets from other songs featuring the same word, to get a feeling about Taylor’s sentiment and even subject. Don’t get overwhelmed with the length of this post. The word I’m trying to point-out from Question… lyrics is highlighted.
In Question… the next verse has a change in Taylor’s tone of voice. It sounds almost sarcastic when she sings:
And what’s that, that I heard, that you’re still with her?
You’re still with her. Who is Taylor talking to? And who is HER? This is a main reason why I wasn’t going to play the pronoun game with this particular song. I think Taylor wrote it in a way that couldn’t be decoded. She didn’t call and tell me.
Is the “you’re” Taylor is talking to, Karlie? If so, it implies Karlie is with (dating?) HER. And I don’t know who that could be. It doesn’t seem plausible that Karlie would “marry” Jo$h, have a baby with him, leaving Taylor in the process. All to just get a different secret girlfriend? I mean, IF Karlie wanted a WLW affair, Taylor has made it more than clear that her door is still open to Kaylor.
Is the “you’re” Taylor speaking to Jo$h? I don’t think it can be, because immediately preceding this line the lyric is, “Does it feel like everything is just like second best after that meteor strike?” In the last entry we showed through other celestial lyrics that the meteor strike is this otherworldly, untouchable love. And Jo$h was not involved other than as an antagonist, threatening to burn the house down. What would be second best to him? Taylor is referring to Klo$$ner(?!) AS the thing that’s second best to Kaylor.
The YOU’RE must be Karlie because the meteor is definitely Kaylor. But I really don’t think Karlie is with another woman (HER). So even though it seems random and out of context, I do think Taylor is using Hillary Clinton’s unofficial slogan to make fun or mock Karlie’s feeble “I tried” tweet, hence the sarcastic singing voice in this verse.
That’s nice, I’m sure that’s what’s suitable
And Taylor does mention “fuckin’ politics and gender roles” in the verse right before this one, so it could make sense for the song to allude to Karlie’s political hypocrisy. [Sidenote: “counterfeit” and “faithless” are both synonyms of “hypocritical” and Taylor uses those in other songs, which could be talking about this very matter.]
And right, but tonight
There aren’t common lyrics in the song I’m about to reference, but I do think there is a connection. The political talk and the word “tonight” reminds me of Daylight.
Daylight
Is it Karlie that “ran with the wolves” (the Ku$hners, her neighbor and sister in-law Ivanka, by extension the Trumps) adjacent and complicit to republican evil? It’s also interesting that Question… could be addressing the subject matter of Daylight because it goes with our overall thesis that Taylor’s central problem is closeting.
Daylight came out [ha! Accidental pun] in 2019, the year Taylor turned 30 years old. Twenty years prior to that it was 1999 and Taylor was around 9. In Seven Taylor says, “picture me….before I learned civility, I used to scream ferociously any time I wanted.” At 7 years old Taylor acted viscerally, shouting her truth and paying no attention to anybody else’s expectations, or to social rules. But as she aged she learned manners/tact/compliance… She was molded to be socially acceptable, and in this patriarchal, heteronormative world, that means being a (straight) young lady (with feminine qualities). It corresponds to the next year of age entering into a dark night, sleeping on her queerness for the sake of etiquette. The stuffing down her innate sexuality, denying her attraction to women, and closeting when she couldn’t repress herself.
In 2016 Taylor “became the butt of the joke” when her reputation was ruined. She met Karlie and fell deeply in love, which helped Taylor see past the drama-induced pain. The enthrallment also reminded Taylor of her innate queerness. During the lover era, Taylor may have planned to come out. Precisely because Kaylor prompted Taylor to wake up from the dark sleep of hiding her sexuality (maybe even from herself). Taylor was so happy about being in love and seeing daylight that she wanted to share her feelings with the world. But the master’s situation foiled that plan at the last minute.
Afterglow might be alluded to in the next line of Daylight, “I wounded the good [Karlie?] and trusted the wicked.” Afterglow explains that Taylor thought she had reason to attack. She pinned Karlie’s hands behind her back, and made her feel helpless, hopeless, ambuscaded. But it turns out Taylor blew things out of proportion, and it was Taylor who burned them down.
I don’t know what happened. Did Taylor think Karlie’s first wedding was legitimate and an ambush to desert her? Or is this lyric indicating Taylor felt Karlie betrayed secrets to Jo$h and or $cooter which enabled them to buy her masters at exactly the wrong time for an official coming out? I don’t know, because I’m not sure any song is specific enough to untangle it. What we do know is that whatever Karlie may have done, Taylor says she overreacted.
Daylight continues, “clearing the air I breathed in the smoke”
Let’s talk about the connotation of smoke. Again, I’ll right-align the songs that contain the word since “smoke” is not in Question…
Cardigan and The Archer talk about the smoke left behind from the fiery Kaylor break-up:
Cardigan
The song speaks to things pertinent to our discussion:
1. Taylor knew she was Sapphic back at Seven even though adults assume you are just in a phase or confused as a young queer. Especially fathers, according to Mary’s Song, where the daddies were notably absent from the fantasy wedding, which might explain the “leavin’ like a father” in Cardigan. She compares herself to Peter Pan, who never grows up. Taylor wants to be like that 7 year old freely getting close to the girl with the braids.
2. Karlie impacting Taylor forever (like a tattoo) is mentioned again. Kaylor will haunt Taylor, and she will curse Karlie. I will put the part about how Taylor regards her gayness like a curse, and says she’s haunted to mean she’s sapphic as a reminder of what we previously decided:
3. The 3rd pertinent thing in Cardigan that ties back to Question…, Daylight, Afterglow, is the smoke remaining after the fire. In Ivy it was Taylor who pushed Karlie away and told her to run.
These lines are from Karlie’s point of view:
Ivy
This perspective shows Karlie suggests Kaylor take a risk and stay together. Even with the “husband” in the picture (“drink my husband’s wine” = Jo$h’s wine). But Taylor doesn’t wanna share, she says in Delicate. And so Cardigan talks about how Karlie finally “ran like water” “steppin’ on the last train” because of Taylor’s stipulations (me or him).
Smoke is mentioned in The Archer, where Taylor is talking about her struggle with the closet. She wants to keep her fans and fame, but it hurts her relationship with the girl. The song The Archer also mirrors the 3 items we talked about in Cardigan:
The Archer
1. Taylor never grew up and is still playing Peter Pan. She wants to be regarded as the ‘good girl’. Taylor can’t let herself go rogue, and come out of the closet for fear of losing everything.
2. Taylor views her queerness as a curse and haunting. She paces like a ghost, unable to sleep because of the anxiety. But Karlie got under her skin and will impact her forever. Taylor knows it’s unfair to ask Karlie to closet with her (“who could stay?”) but desperately wants to hold onto her (“help me hold onto you”). YOU is Karlie and the fans.
3. It’s Taylor who pushes Karlie to run, and take the last train. It’s Taylor who jumps off the train and rides off alone. She can’t stand the heat, is constantly afraid of the impending fire, and the invisible smoke hangs over her.
The heat is gay rumors and Karlie’s decision to remain with Jo$h.
The fire is getting burned by coming out or worse, being outed. The fire is the terror of Ku$hner-power hurting her to quell Kaylor. The fire is Karlie’s “family” situation conflicting with Taylor’s own ideas of a fairytale life.
The smoke is unrealized events that Taylor dreads. The smoke is every time Taylor is gay on main and too many people notice. The smoke is damage control by Taylor’s PR team and Taylor’s own overcorrections when things look too queer.
Taylor suffers because she loves the gal, but also knows how “out(ed)” celebrities lose their fame and die all alone.
Daylight
Which brings us back to Daylight. The smoke Taylor breathes in when trying to clear the air is Taylor holding onto imagined negative outcomes. Running damage control and overcorrecting any gay situation.
The pain of picking closeting over the love of her life time and time again makes Taylor feel asphyxiated.
Catty Remarks