why swifties cling to joe alwyn
alternate title: How Taylor Swift Convinced The World Of Toe
There are so few pictures of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn standing next to each other that Swifties have to photoshop them together. In the Miss Americana documentary, there is one shot that shows Joe Alwyn while Taylor talks about a precious relationship that got her through the Dark Age leading up to Reputation. In her speech, she doesnât use gendered pronouns or say âboyfriend,â let alone say âJoe.â There are videos the lover took of her, but those videos are careful to never show the lover's face, a hand at most. With Joe, their public appearances together are few and well-planned. There was a pap walk right before Midnights released, just to remind people that they are supposed to believe she is in a happy relationship and that this album is not her third breakup album in a row.
Since 1989, Taylor has consistently written about keeping her relationships secret. Think Wildest Dreams and I Know Places. 1989 also brings us âboys and boys & girls and girlâ in a song about how she feels living in New York City, a song where she says âusâ and âwe" (on the same album as New Romantics). She is including herself in the people who can want who they want.
Then, in Reputation, the lyrics are full of âsecret moments in a crowded room, theyâve got no idea about me and you.â âI loved you in secret/in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us,â âpicture of your face in an invisible locket,â âyou make everyone disappear,â âtouching my hand in a dark room.â Like, thatâs basically the theme of the entire album.
Weirdly, in Lover, she continues these themes. Not as strongly, but itâs still there (Cruel Summer as the prime example). At this point, Taylor and Joe are not a secret. But the framing of it as a secret relationship lets listeners fill in the gaps of songs. We didnât see Taylor and Joe in the kitchen in New York, but we can imagine them being there. We never saw Taylor and Joe being âbest friends,â but because of her absence from the public eye, one could imagine that being a phase of their relationship. On Cornelia Street, when Taylor says âI get mystified by how this city (New York) screams your name,â we could imagine that Taylor and Joe had memorable moments in NYC, despite the lack of evidence of this. Taylor and Joe having a limited amount of public appearances together means that we can just, imagine them doing whatever sheâs talking about in her songs.
Taylor leaves her relationship with Joe to the imagination. Joe has never publicly called Taylor a daisy, but Karlie has. Joe has never been known as Taylorâs âbest friend,â but Karlie was. Joe has no major association with New York City, but Karlie does. Joe has never been photographed baking with Taylor, but Karlie has. Despite the very public friendship of Karlie and Taylor, hetlors refuse to see that Taylor is referencing those moments. It's all about plausible deniability.
So on Midnights, when she sings âitâs like snow on the beachâ and Gaylors immediately think of VS 2013 and Big Sur, or when we hear QuestionâŠ? with she/her pronouns and references that line up with kissgate, or when she puts out a breakup song with parallels to Cornelia Street (Maroon) and we think âOh, sheâs not with the Cornelia Street muse. Obviously.â
In my opinion, Taylor wants the general public to believe sheâs in a committed heterosexual relationship, partly because of the way she was slut-shamed for the first ten years of her career, partly for the sake of keeping her secrets. So much of Taylorâs life has been grossly publicized, and she has every right to hold onto what she can keep private. She makes it clear for queer people who are listening to and reading her lyrics. But she gets to avoid the hell that was her public life ~1989 era. If someone who knew nothing about Taylor Swift's relationship with Joe Alwyn, they would listen to folklore, evermore, and Midnights and be like "wow she has had her heart broken so damn bad that she wrote three albums about it."
If Taylor is in a glass closet, Joe is the glass. He's the only thing keeping people from seeing Taylor as queer (note: I know Taylor might be bi or pan/not a lesbian, that's completely possible. I just don't think that Toe is real. Not believing in Toe =/= biphobia).
tl;dr: By having few public appearances together and little interview answers about each other, Taylor has created the illusion of Toe being both tumultuous and stable, passionate and calm, temporary and forever.
janainaart
discoholicmusic
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