#*religion

[taylortruther]

so i've been thinking a lot about the vault tracks and I really like most of them. i like emma falls in love but there's a line that's really been bothering me, the "and all the bad boys would be good boys if they only had a chance to love her." It just hits weird for me, as a woman in her late-20s. like it reads to me like it's girls' and women's responsibility to change men for the better, but I think I might be misunderstanding it in the broader context of the song. I was curious to know what our resident song & taylor analyst thinks, so what do you make of that line?

i LOOOVE this question so naturally my response got really long.

so first, some context: taylor has often spoken/sung about this fantasy of turning a bad guy good. she said it explicitly in this 2012 parade interview:

I think every girl’s dream is to find a bad boy at the right time, when he wants to not be bad anymore.

📌 to answer your first point: taylor knows her friend emma is a wonderful, beautiful person, anyone would be lucky to be with her. so taylor is saying if all these bad boys (players, guys who won't commit, charmers who play games, etc.) knew how good they'd have it with emma, they'd change themselves asap for a chance to be with her.

but you are picking up on some troubling gender roles, which are kinda the basis of the bad boy/good girl trope.

let's dive in!!

📌 the sexism in the trope: the good girl/bad boy trope is vividly present throughout taylor's discography, but it's not unique to her, or her original creation. it's common throughout all kinds of media and stories. the trope goes like this: there's a hot edgy guy who's confident and charismatic and dangerous (could be literal or figurative.) he has a list of people he's left haunted and wanting him, because he's sooo broken inside. he's misunderstood and he probably cheats. he's masculine and sexy. enter good girl. she's safe, relatable, average, except for her big heart. that desire for love, and loving, is where she stands out. she can be the one who fixes him! she can change him! he recognizes that she's special, and as a result, she gets him to settle down! she tames him! and now he loves her and they get the best of both worlds: he's still sexy and charismatic but he's committed to her (supposedly), and she gets to love him and be loved by him. what a fairytale!

it's a seductive fantasy because it makes girls feel special... and conveniently makes it romantic for men to be emotionally immature, self-centered, unfaithful, even manipulative or abusive, until they meet the right woman. he's sooo bad but the love of a good girl is all he needs to change! never mind the fact that his change will require her ongoing emotional labor/energy, and he will introduce pain and chaos into her life.

so that's some of the sexism you're seeing in this trope!

let's move on to the taylor universe:

📌 the trope in taylor's life/music: from a young age, taylor chose and had thrust upon her the role of a "good girl." bad boys naturally complement that. consider that early on, her idea of love was a fairytale - romeo choosing juliet - and some of her most significant brushes with love at that time were with older men who treated her badly. they charmed her but manipulated her or played games and never prioritized her. she couldn't change them--she was hurt and confused by them, deeply. and that informs so much of her later discography: "i am no one's exception," "i can make the guys good for a weekend," style, "we need love but all we want is danger," ready for it, end game, the story she told about joe "running with wolves" before he settled down with her...

she used to believe the fighting, chaos, drama, pain, etc. was essential for love to feel real (the way i loved you, red, the archer, daylight) because if you're a good girl trying to be with a bad boy, that's just a given. how could love be anything but painful and dramatic when you are with someone who is committed to being selfish? and how could you trust anyone if you believe they're always on the verge of hurting you?

that's why songs like the archer, daylight, cowboy like me, and long story short are so touching. she learned that she deserved more than pain, confusion, and heartbreak.

📌 the reformed bad boy: it's important to note here that for all of the "i want this man to choose me," taylor has always kinda known that she didn't want a bad boy. she wanted the reformed bad boy, who wouldn't hurt her, and would love her safely (with just enough chaos to be exciting.) also, taylor delights in telling men that she knows her worth, she won't stick around forever, he better treat her well (ayhtdws, ithk)... and if he doesn't, he better apologize for it (hygtg, betty.) she even describes herself as taking advantage of the playboys and narcissist who love her, and switching out these interchangeable kens.

this is why we got a song like foolish one in the sntv vault. taylor has long known she's clever, imaginative, and she's always had her blazing self-respect. but she also held on to her hopeless romanticism: sure, she's not the exception. but she could be. she hoped to be.

📌 the reformed good girl: so, maybe in 2010-2012, taylor thought every girl would find it romantic to change a bad boy, or at least be with a reformed one. i think she loved the story of it for herself. and maybe she still might like the idea of a man choosing to shed his selfishness for her. but taylor is 33 now, not 22 (as she was in the parade interview.) i think she knows that the good girl/bad boy ideal isn't realistic, or fair. being a good girl is limiting, and bad boys aren't romantic - they don't change just because someone offers them love. fixing them isn't her responsibility, either. but a decent partner will want to protect her and do right by her. real love is complex and golden like daylight, not extreme or simple (black and white) or chaotic (burning red.) "no more tug of war, now i just know there's more." no more games, just love. that's what she's always known she deserves.

[vndooms]

hey ao3 stans who want to pretend that banning cp is just one step from banning lgbt content: it's actually not! the two things aren't related at all and have no correlation!

[unofficialadamtaurus]

I need to stop reading any posts about the WF in the main RWBY subreddit I’m taking psychological damage

[yuutakin]

it’s interesting how deeply christian our society is, even in self-proclaimed atheists. i jokingly called atheism “christianity lite” once but haven’t stopped thinking about it since and i’ve only gotten more convinced that i’m right. modern american atheism has a distinctly christian tint because unless you have experience with a different religion, you probably don’t know any alternative, regardless of whether or not you grew up christian.

this manifests constantly in increasingly minute ways, like that one post that said “it’s interesting that the most common blueprint for a redemption arc emphasizes atonement for previous sins, bc it REALLY reminds me of christianity”, which forced me to really ask myself some questions about how i thought about forgiveness and what you inherently deserve by way of being human. 

that being said, the instant a fandom blog says smth snarky about “the dangers of purity culture” it’s an insta-block

[fluff-oh-suggestions]

What all any god might have to offer me, to bring me salvation or to bring me power, I do not want it.

I will not ask of malevolent beings who parade in the masks of purity.

I have been cast away from heaven.

I will find divinity in myself.

[ygconfessions]

I hate hearing people make Taeyang seem like your typical goody goody Christian. He went to school at Daejin University. It's a part of the Daesun Jinrihoe cult. They murdered someone who tried to leave last year. Even he has baggage.

IMPORTANT Admin Note:  As long there is no proof linking him to any illegal activities done by his church, we can’t make dangerous assumptions like this. As those are not ridiculous, harmless rumors or personal opinions but straight defamation and cannot only unfairly harm his image seriously but also can be sued.

Please bear in mind that except for the few leaders of an organization, most cult members  have little to no knowledge at all, they go there to pray and meet their community where they feel safe and understood, and they pay and pay and pay. Most cults search their future members when they are in middleschool age as its easier to manipulate a stressed teen then a grown ass succesfull adult. And that’s the dangerous part about cults, they make you emotionally, socially, and financially depending on them, and they are skilled brainwashers, so you don’t see the warning signs until it’s too late. A cult doesn’t make things obvious; it’s always payable, the pressure isn’t drastic enough to feel it, the dependency not visible. Else they would soon run out of willingly ATM aka members. Especially if this member is a known public figure like Taeyang (with lot’s of cash), they would never mistreat him as he is a free advertisement to them. So its very unlikely they would take the risk of Taeyang knowing anything but their priests probably quiete addictive preaches.

Also, no religion is free of blood stains, and yes everyone has luggage to carry - we are all human after all.  Never ever judge a person on behalf of his faith but his character and action.

[taylortruther]

I'm a different anon, but as someone who was raised religious but always rebelled against it and abandoned it as soon as I could, and have lived my entire adult life being non-religious, a lot of that stuff still seeps into your subconscious as an impressionable child, and it can come up and express itself in your life in unexpected ways. There have been many, many times when I've been having issues, usually involving guilt, and can trace it back to stuff I never even really believed but still got to me somehow, and I'm like "oh, goddammit" (pun intended). So yeah, for anyone who didn't have the same experience, Taylor not being super religious herself anymore (or ever) definitely doesn't rule out her experiencing religious guilt.

i don't think it rules it out at all, i just wanted some specific examples because i didn't pick up on it! i know what religious trauma means in concept just didn't see it myself in her work necessarily. i have seen her make love her religion, and rejig it or dismantle it over time, though, as other anons have explained!

also, i know taylor's good girl syndrome is part of her preoccupation with shame, guilt, purity, etc (themes we see all over her work!) and those are associated with, idk, puritanism? christianity? idk. so one could argue that's a form of trauma too. but that's different than my understanding of Religious Trauma.