“Gorgeous” is about a feeling that doesn’t always survive
Hey Swifties ;). Started lawyering it up to @itspileofgoodthings in a chatbox, and she convinced me to put it in meta form. If speculation about “who is this about” doesn’t start your fire, please scroll past. I write with love and appreciation for Taylor as artist and storyteller. I obviously am not privy to her private life.
So, when I first Gorgeous, my biased self was sure it was about Tom Hiddleston. Not because I don’t believe Taylor wouldn’t feel such things about Joe--who is definitely looking like love-of-her-life material--but because there’s something so beautifully theatrical about the feelings I believe Thomas William Hiddleston would elicit in any living woman.
Now, many people I respect (including @itspileofgoodthings) have a one-song theory about reputation and Tom: and yes, it’s Getaway Car. Now, that song is obviously the tragic creme de la creme (or perhaps creme brulee? Pardon all lack of appropriate diacritical marks) of Swiddleston, but the more I listened to Gorgeous (and noted the parallel placement of these songs on the album) I kept feeling that Gorgeous had more of a story to tell.
So here’s my theory: Gorgeous began as a song about Tom, until it couldn’t be about Tom anymore. It then became a song about Joe, and about every girl who’s ever felt the luminescent arrow of a crush. (Hit you like a shotgun shot to the heart, but that’s for another time.)
We now know that Taylor wrote part of Gorgeous right around the time of the 2016 Met Gala, when sparks flew with Tom. We know, too, that she rewrote parts.
I believe that as things progressed, the song morphed--and that today, she would 10/10 claim it was always and only about Joe.
But I believe that the true story of Joe-meets-Taylor is Delicate. And I believe one story of how Tom met Taylor was the inspiration for Gorgeous. Because Taylor is many things, and one of them is a prismatic storyteller. She chooses different parts of the story to tell.
For example, we have Forever and Always about Joe Jonas and it’s this snarky, brilliant kiss-off but then....I also believe Last Kiss is about Joe Jonas. Last Kiss is a genius ballad of many threads but none of them are snarky. Written later, as it was--and with more time for reflection, considering how quickly she penned Forever and Always and put it on the Fearless album--I think that Last Kiss is the more complete story, even though it's kinder. To me it's the opposite way with the progression from Gorgeous to Getaway Car.
Let’s be real. Gorgeous is kind of how everyone would react to meeting Tom Hiddleston??? Like I would be OVERCOME to meet someone like that. Destroyed and world turned upside down and wanting nothing more than the smile and attention of someone who shone like that.
But the truth of that story wasn't the pop and fizz of Gorgeous (because one of the secrets of Gorgeous--and why I also believe it was wrongly called shallow or even catty--is that Gorgeous isn’t a whole story in itself). No, the truth of the story here is Getaway Car.
And once the glorious escapism of Tom-and-Taylor was in the rearview mirror, Gorgeous couldn’t be about Tom anymore. The luminescence of that feeling isn’t one that remains untarnished when the pages turn and the story changes. You can't keep the shimmering bubble of light aloft when you've distilled everything into "I wanted to leave him/ I needed a reason.”
We want to preserve memory, but sometimes we CAN'T.
And now, in harmony with the one-song theory--now, after all this, Gorgeous is about Joe. And it’s no less true for being only one piece of any story, in Taylor’s life or in our lives. Because sometimes life is about shutting out past and future and living in the moment when your heart is falling and soaring at the same time.
Yes, I know that Swiddleston is officially over. And yes, I know that how m'queen and the King Of Asgard broke up was quite messy. But seriously SO MANY PEOPLE ARE STILL SHOOTING THESE TWO PERFECT PEOPLE DOWN BECAUSE THEY DON'T APPROVE OF WHO THEY DATE Tell me that this is not a first-class fan
