Masterpost: Taylor Swift & The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Since I think the book The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (TSHOEH) helps in understanding bearding, lavender marriages and PR stunts, I thought Iâd combine all the parallels I have found to Taylorâs life. Before I start, I want to point out that I could not have done this without various anons and other tumblr users (listed at the end of this post). Iâm sure there are still some parallels missing, but I will try and update this post whenever I come across something new. If you have any questions or want to add something, just message me or add in the comments of this post. Now⌠sit back, grab a glass of wine and enjoy this deep dive. [Obviously this contains spoilers.]
What is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo?
Itâs a novel written by Taylor Jenkins Reid, published in 2017. Here is an excerpt of the Wikipedia page: The novel tells the story of the fictional Old Hollywood star Evelyn Hugo, who at the age of 79 decides to give a final interview to an unknown journalist, Monique Grant. According to Reid, Evelyn Hugo was loosely based in part on actresses Elizabeth Taylor, who was married eight times to seven different men, and Ava Gardner, who revealed the secrets of her life to a journalist which was eventually published as Ava Garner: The Secret Conversations.
Itâs basically a secret love story between two women - Evelyn Hugo and Celia St. James.
Fun Fact: Taylor Jenkins Reid responded to a tweet about Taylor in October 2017
So now that weâve got the basics covered, letâs dive in.
Taylorâs Life vs. Evelynâs Life / Public Persona
TSHOEH: âIt strikes me as a unique form of power to say your own name when you know that everyone in the room, everyone in the world, already knows it.â Taylor: âHi, Iâm Taylorâ basically everywhere she shows up.
TSHOEH: The book jokes about how women in relationships have historically been known as âgal palsâ. And use of the word âloverâ to describe the relationship between two women.
Taylor: This screams Kaylor. And Lover, obviously.
TSHOEH: âBut of course, they got it wrong. They never did care about getting it right. The media are going to tell whatever story they want to tell. They always have. They always will.â
Taylor: reputation letter - âWhen this album comes out, gossip blogs will scour the lyrics for the men they can attribute to each song as if the inspiration for music is as simple and basic as a paternity test. There will be slideshows of photos backing up each incorrect theory, because itâs 2017 and if you didnât see a picture of it, it couldnât have happened right? Let me say it again, louder for those in the back⌠We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them that they have chosen to show us.âÂ
TSHOEH: âAll I had to do was make sure that my romantic scandals felt like a story that would keep making headlines.â
Taylor: Taylorâs entire public life until Toe. Plus all of Blank Space.
TSHOEH: ââIâve spent a very long time learning how toâŚspin the truth,â she says. âItâs hard to undo that wiring. Iâve gotten too good at it, I think. Just now, I wasnât exactly sure how to tell the truth. I donât have very much practice in it. It feels antithetical to my very survival. But Iâll get there.ââ
Taylor: Taylor has spent years spinning and controlling stories as well as the mediaâs image of her. I think sheâs in the process of unlearning this (to a degree). Sheâs been testing the waters since releasing 1989 and sheâs getting bolder as time goes on.
TSHOEH: âDon and I had been seen around town, our photos taken at every hot spot in Hollywood. ⌠And we knew what we were doing, parading around in public. I needed Donâs name mentioned in the same sentence as mine, and Don needed us to look like he was part of the New Hollywood. Photos of the two of us ⌠went a long way toward solidifying his image as a man-about-town.â
Taylor: I think this speaks for itself. It describes everything she ever did with her beards.
TSHOEH: Does this article about Evelyn and Celia remind you of anyone?
Taylor: The constant speculation articles about a possible feud between Taylor and Karlie⌠Are they still friends? Whatâs going on between them?!
TSHOEH: âShe and I had been taking great pains not to be seen together. It was one thing when we really were just friends, but now that we had something to hide, we had to start hiding it.â
Taylor: I think one of the reasons Kaylor went dark, was because of the election. But another reason was probably that their relationship reached another level (maybe an engagement) and it became more sacred, more intimate.
TSHOEH: âFortunately, painting me as some woman who couldnât keep a husband sold more papers than outing me. Iâm not saying the gossip columnists printed what they knew to be a lie. Iâm simply saying they were all too happy to believe the lie I was selling them. And of course, thatâs the easiest lie to tell, one you know the other person desperately wants to be true. All I had to do was make sure that my romantic scandals felt like a story that would keep making headlines. And as long as I did that, I knew the gossip rags would never look too closely at Celia.â
Taylor: This is exactly what Taylor has been doing for more than a decade. And then she was savage enough to write a song about it!
TSHOEH: There is a part in the book where Evelyn watches Celia win an Oscar on TV. And another part where Evelyn subliminally references Celia when accepting her own Oscar: â âŚand thereâs one other person out there whom I think of every day. I know sheâs watching right now and I just hope she knows how important she is to me.â
Taylor: This reminds me of this speech Taylor gave before singing Lover at Capital Official Jingle Bell Ball.
TSHOEH: There are people who see a beautiful flower and rush over to pick it. They want to hold it in their hands, they want to own it. They want the flowerâs beauty to be theirs, to be within their possession, their control. Don wasnât like that. At least, not at first. Don was happy to be near the flower, to look at the flower, to appreciate the flower simply being.
Taylor: Diary entry from August 14, 2013 - â⌠Whereas I think our ancestors might come upon a beautiful flower and stop and think âWow, that is really beautiful.â ⌠They (this generation) need to possess things⌠That level of possession worries me.â
Taylorâs Lyrics vs. excerpts of TSHOEH
TSHOEH: âItâs not wrong, sweetheart. Itâs not,â I said. âTheyâre wrong.â
Taylor: âAnd itâs not theirs to speculate if itâs wrongâ [Ours, Speak Now]
TSHOEH: âShe finished her drink. âPeople have been saying all sorts of things about the two of you, and I didnât believe it. But now⌠I donât know.ââ
Taylor: âThe rumors are terrible and cruel, but honey, most of them are true.â [New Romantics, 1989]
TSHOEH: âIt was easy to think of that one kiss in a dark laundry room as a fluke.â
Taylor: âSomething happened for the first time in the darkest little paradiseâ [Donât Blame Me, reputation]
TSHOEH: âShe was as much of a fix to me as any drug.â
Taylor: âLord, save me, my drug is my babyâ [Donât Blame Me, repuation]
TSHOEH: âI would often remind him that my name was Elizabeth and he would tell me that my name was whatever I wanted it to be.â
Taylor: âMy name is whatever you decideâ [Donât Blame Me, reputation]
TSHOEH: âWhile I was sitting in a golden prison of my own making.â
Taylor: âGold cage, hostage to my feelingsâ [So It Goes, reputation]
TSHOEH: âWithin those four walls, we were unashamed.â
Taylor: âBut when you get me alone, itâs so simpleâ [So It Goes, reputation]
TSHOEH: âYouâre gorgeous,â she said.
Taylor: âYouâre so gorgeousâ [Gorgeous, reputation]
TSHOEH: âYou should probably get a better handle on your husband, by the way. Heâs in Ariâs room getting a blow job from some harpy from MGM.â
Taylor: âAnd I got a boyfriend, heâs older than us. Heâs in the club doing, I donât know whatâ [Gorgeous, reputation]
TSHOEH: ââWell, let me tell you something that has changed,â I told her. âI no longer care. Iâm ready to give it all up.ââ
Taylor: âSay you fancy me, not fancy stuff. Baby all at once, this is enough.â [King Of My Heart, reputation]
TSHOEH:
âYouâre being paranoid.â
âIâm not, Celia. And thatâs whatâs scary. But Iâm telling you they know.â
âOne article in one tiny paper thinks they know. Thatâs not the same thing.â
Taylor: âPeople started talking, putting us through our paces. I knew there was no one in the world who could take it. I had a bad feeling.â [Dancing with Our Hands Tied, reputation]
TSHOEH: âWe were hiding in plain sight.â
Taylor: âEveryone thinks that they know us, but they know nothingâ [Dress, reputation]
TSHOEH: âEvelyn?â You donât spend years pining away for one voice not to notice it when it finally appears.
Taylor: âPlease donât ever become a stranger, whose laugh I could recognize anywhere.â [New Yearâs Day, reputation]
TSHOEH: âI smiled in the dark and squeezed her hand. âThe world hasnât made that easy.ââ
Taylor: âYou squeeze my hand three times in the back of the taxi. I can tell that itâs gonna be a long road.â [New Yearâs Day, reputation]
TSHOEH: âSo if we are going by the metric that allâs well that ends well, then I guess itâs safe to say that Iâm not sorry.â
Taylor: âAllâs well that ends well to end up with youâ [Lover, Lover]
TSHOEH: âAnd do I, Evelyn, take you, Celia, to be my wedded wife? In sickness and in health and all the other stuff? I do.â I realized there was a slight hiccup. âWait, we donât have rings.â Celia looked around for something that might suffice. Without taking my hands from her, I checked the nightstand. âHere,â Celia said, taking the hair tie from her head. I laughed and took mine out of my ponytail. âOK,â I said. âCelia, repeat after me. Evelyn, take this ring as a symbol of my never-ending love.â
Taylor: âI like shiny things, but Iâd marry you with paper rings.â [Paper Rings, Lover]
TSHOEH: âCelia may have left me in a huff, but it was a death by a thousand cuts. I hurt her with these tiny scratches, day after day.â
Taylor: âItâs death by a thousand cutsâ [Death By A Thousand Cuts, Lover]
TSHOEH: âWe did not kiss. We occasionally lingered a little too long when our arms brushed, when our hands touched, never locking eyes. But in the middle of the night, after we both had appeared to fall asleep, I would feel her body against my back and I would push myself into her, feeling the warmth of her stomach against me, her chin in the crook of my neck.â
Taylor: âIn the middle of the night, in my dreams, you should see the things we do, baby.â [âŚReady For It?, reputation] âSomething gave you the nerve to touch my hand.â [Itâs Nice To Have A Friend, Lover]
And because I know the rumors lately have been kind of a downer, I thought Iâd add this as a nice finish to this masterpost:
Throughout the book, Evelyn and Celia break up and donât see each other for years - one time even for decades. But in the end they find their way back to each other. I feel like this lyric describes that best:
âAnd I woke up just in time, now I wake up by your side. My one and only, my lifeline.â
[Disclaimer: I DONâT think they broke up, I still very much believe Taylor and Karlie are together. But if you think they broke up, this might give you hope.]
@kaylorandbooksâ @inlovewithtoomanypeople @leave-no-marks-behindâ @inkandtype @loiefullerâ @taytaysbeardâ @kaylorâ and all the people, who submitted their thoughts anonymously.
