I split the songs up on the Lover album as well so we can delve into each one a bit more.
False God
We were crazy to think/Crazy to think that this could work/Remember how I said I’d die for you?/We were stupid to jump/In the ocean separating us/Remember how I’d fly to you?/…They all warned us about times like this/They say the road gets hard and you get lost when you’re led by blind faith…/…But we might just get away with it/Religion’s in your lips/Even if it’s a false god/We’d still worship/We might just get away with it/The altar is my hips/Even if it’s a false god/We’d still worship this love…/…I know heaven’s a thing/I go there when you touch me/Honey hell is when I fight with you/But we can patch it up good/Make confessions and we’re begging for forgiveness/Got the wine for you/And you can’t talk to me when I’m like this/Daring you to leave me just so I can try and scare you
There were some even cooler designs but WordPress is a Bit(H and nothing would fit the banner without cutting out practically everything.
930 x 198 Pixels is a @$%$# Nightmare!
While we’re talking about logistics I also changed up the topics above the header. In keeping with the animal theme, I tried to do some wordplay, but they translate to:
Animals
Places
(Anti) Valentines
School/College/Education
Work/Career
Sexuality/LGBTQQAA
Music
Exercise/Diet
Current Events/News
Analysis of Media/Vocabulary
Just click any of those to filter posts by category.
Also, don’t forget about the “search” function in the top right for specific posts or key words. In combination with CTRL F you can find anything you want.
The current popular posts are listed on the right.
Under that is a word cloud to look at posts with a specific tag.
Then there is a list of my few last posts under that.
And finally, there’s a calendar of what I posted by date.
Here’s another Lover track that is more easily understood by separating the perspectives/subjects in the song. I’ll show you the parts I mean, then do multi posts on the gay content inside each of those parts.
I Think He Knows
He got that boyish look that I like in a man I am an architect, I’m drawing up the plans
It’s like I’m seventeen, nobody understands No one understands
He got my heartbeat
Skipping down 16th Avenue
About Joe/Beard:
He got that boyish look that I like in a man/I am an architect, I’m drawing up the plans…/…Skipping down 16th Avenue [Nashville’s music row]
Commentary to herself (Taylor):
It’s like I’m seventeen, nobody understands/No one understands…
Who knew I would need a Trigger Warning for tying Taylor Swift lyrics to ancient Greek & Roman history? But here we are.
***TW: Childhood Sexual Abuse, Rape, grooming, pedophilia***
Note: I am NOT in anyway condoning the behavior and actions described below. Nor, am I accusing Taylor of practicing or endorsing the attitudes and actions described below.
I think Taylor’s use of “boy” to describe Joe (her beard) is a cheeky comparison to a powerful, wealthy man “owning” a teen who benefits from the relationship. The teen was educated in the ways of the upper-class, and introduced to high society enclaves that would be otherwise inaccessible to him. It’s a lot like a bearding relationship: Taylor benefits by paying for a “boyfriend” in order to be normalized in society and Joe/the beard benefits by his connections to Taylor. Both have more successful careers and higher status in the community due to the arrangement. Taylor using “boy” and “baby boy” and “baby love” could be a humorous reference to the earliest forms of homosexuality, “boy-love”
Not a defense of the practice, just a history lesson:
Kit10phish is a 39yo lesbian. As a child she seldom attended church, but went 2-3 times with her parents to unknown (to her) denominations as well as the only local church, a Baptist institution. She went 2-3 times to the LDS church with a friend as a condition of Saturday sleepovers, and was amazed that none of the origin stories were similar to what she had been taught previously. In formal church Kit10phish was never present for any sermons regarding homosexuality. Despite lack of physical attendance at church, partially due to the rural setting, Kit10phish’s parents conveyed the family was Christian and passed along Bible stories, songs, and lessons of religion. Her parents, believed homosexuality was unnatural and believed in the “hate the sin, love the sinner” rhetoric. When Ellen Degeneres came out Kit10phish was no longer able to watch that sitcom, because her parents found it too “in your face” and were disgusted. Kit10phish knew at that point being gay was frowned upon and something to stay far away from.
Kit10phish did not have very much representation of LGBT people, real or in media in the 90s and early 2000s, so she never knew it was an option. She wasn’t very interested in the boys at school, believing they were the wrong type of boy, and that she was just a late bloomer. Through her job, Kit10phish met lesbians and started questioning her own feelings. Kit10phish came out to herself one month before her 19th birthday, but it was upsetting, not freeing. She was depressed and angry about being gay, sad that life would be more difficult and she would have to forgo the milestones that she/everyone expected. There was a lot of fear and anxiety and Kit10phish knew she had to hide it from her parents, school friends, and her small community.
Kit10phish moved, in part, to go somewhere more accepting. She was out to dorm-mates and coworkers, but not her (conservative) classmates in college. After 5 years Kit10phish came out to her parents. They immediately asked if she had AIDS (they believed AIDS was a punishment for homosexuality) and if her sexuality was their fault. Her dad’s memories of being (same sex) sexually abused in the Navy came up and he was diagnosed with PTSD. Kit10phish wasn’t ready to discuss, let alone educate her parents about homosexuality, but it just so happened her dad’s childhood best friend from the same small town, was gay and happily married to a man. Kit10phish’s parents could ask all their questions to this gay couple, and glean some empathy and understanding of queer life. They found acceptance after a decade or so.
The split between innate sexuality and institutionalized religious homophobia was difficult for Kit10phish to navigate. The words of the Bible seemed insurmountably damning, yet Kit10phish knew her lesbianism was from God as it was a fixed, and unchangeable aspect of her. Feminist teachings actually helped her the most in rectifying the conflict between sexuality and religion. History and the artifacts saved and passed down are from the most powerful voices (wealthy, white, cis, males) and words of minorities are not esteemed, saved, passed down in the same way. Thus, the portions of the Bible that survived and were translated (from white men’s perspectives) are the words that made the cut. Kit10phish came to see the power and capitalistic business structures of the institution as separate from the loving teachings of religion. Kit10phish sees “faith” as a sales tactic and does not condone violence for religious supremecy. She considers herself agnostic, and thinks humans aren’t meant to know, but is open to concrete evidence of all religions and spiritualities.
An aside:
Kit10phish is still cagey about who she comes out to, and even now sometimes struggles with internalized homophobia. Though she stopped actively closeting and hiding who she was at 23 years old, she never felt any pride in lesbianism–it was an impediment to overcome. It wasn’t until literally 20 years after coming out to herself that she was actually happy about not being trapped in a heteronormative box. Before she was sad a wedding would be “weird” and “untraditional” with two women so she couldn’t have a “real” wedding. Now she regards marriage as an antiquated tradition rooted in power and ownership and rejects the sentiment behind nearly all the traditions. Not to mention the predatorily capitalistic “wedding industry” with it’s focus on spending instead of love. Instead of lamenting the lost straight milestones, Kit10phish was eventually glad about not being pressured to marry a man before 25, have children before 30, and live such a prescribed life. She is free to make her own choices on her own timeline.
kit10phish.wordpress.com 
Catty Remarks