Listened to the Manuscript again and it makes me so sad how little Taylor is taken serious in general media because if you listen to her music, especially from Red on, it becomes clear that she is the poster child for how age gap relationships can fuck up a person long-term.
Like it's obvious that John fucked up her sense of youth and maturity when he got with her ("give me back my girlhood/it was mine first"), so she wanted so desperately to be an adult when with Jake because he kept talking about their age gap ("he said since she was so wise beyond her years/everything had been above board") and ended up making her feel too young ("You said if we had been closer in age, maybe it would have been fine"). And even when she started dating guys closer to her in age, they ended up being pretentious ("I don't have to pretend I like acid rock/Or that I'd like to be on a mega yacht/With important men who think important thoughts") or disregarding her accomplishments (just all of Calvin Harris being asshole to her on twitter). I think Tom Hiddleston was mostly drama free but just unfortunate timing.
And then there was Joe, someone who was there for her during the worst time of her life and made her feel like she had finally found someone to have a forever with, and this asshole makes her feel so small. Listening to some of it back, it sounds a lot like she describes herself in her songs about Jack or John. Like she is too immature for him, despite her being older and so much more successful than him (specifically "I never had the courage of my convictions" and "Your integrity makes me seem small/You paint dreamscapes on the wall/I talk shit with my friends/It's like I'm wasting your honor"). Then comes Matty and he is also a pretentious asshole who can't deal with her being a pop musician ("I just want to know/If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal" "Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke?").
It honestly makes me so much happier that Showgirl is so silly and borderline childish with Wood and the legitly line. This woman has been taken advantage of by older men who convinced her she was both old enough for their relationship to be okay but also too young to fully Get Them and then kept small by other men who enjoyed tearing her down when she tried to get her youth back. Let her be goofy and silly and write stupid lyrics! Especially now that she has a man who loves that part of her as well!
What really gets me is that while it seems obvious to us who are fans who have heard her music that being preyed upon for her youth and then having that weaponized against her in her relationships was extremely harmful to her, she isn't often cited as one of the "classic" cases of celebrity age gap relationships. I'd have to think it's because unlike a lot of child stars who also fell prey to them, she never had a public "crash out" over it. She always publicly had her shit together, and add to that the way some of said men then used it against her in public after the fact, she was never really seen as someone who experienced it. When, of course, not only did she experience it, but it was deeply traumatic and informed her entire world view for her entire adult life until she was in her mid-30s and it all came home to roost.
I'd never really considered the idea that she was yet again considered immature (at least emotionally) in her later relationships, and I'm not sure I'd personally frame it quite that way, but I do think that it's part of the pattern that kept repeating itself due to the partners she was drawn to, in part thanks to those formative (and traumatic) experiences. And "been taken advantage of by older men who convinced her she was both old enough for their relationship to be okay but also too young to fully Get Them" is oooooooof. And later on as an adult, that translates to partners who think she's too fame-hungry to have a fulfilling private life, but too acquiescent to build the life she wants.
This is also semantics, but I don't see Showgirl as "childish." Playful or cheeky, yes, but I don't think using slang or making dick jokes is inherently immature. Just like I don't think any of the lyrics are stupid. They may not be everyone's cup of tea and you may feel that way yourself and that's totally fine! But I just see them differently. But your point stands, it's so heartening to see her tap into that lighthearted, mischievous side and embrace it so fully after having those very qualities be a source of shame for nearly her entire public life.
I'm really glad that she has been able to heal and has thus been able to tap into those youthful dreams and whimsy she thought she'd lost forever when she was going through the events of WCS.
