An anonymous person reportedly from Taylor Swift‘s camp has completely obliterated any speculation surrounding the pop star’s sexuality, after a 5000-word New York Times opinion piece was published, theorising about the topic.
In a candid interview with CNN, a Taylor Swift associate has slammed an opinion piece from the New York Times, titled Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do, which analyzed the rumours surrounding the pop star’s sexual identity and motifs — such as outfits, lyrics and stage designs — that allude to her rumoured sexuality.
“Because of her massive success, in this moment there is a Taylor-shaped hole in people’s ethics,” the associate told CNN.
“This article wouldn’t have been allowed to be written about Shawn Mendes or any male artist whose sexuality has been questioned by fans.
“There seems to be no boundary some journalists won’t cross when writing about Taylor, regardless of how invasive, untrue, and inappropriate it is — all under the protective veil of an ‘opinion piece.’”
Within the New York Times piece, author Anna Marks acknowledged that the topic being discussed “before a formal declaration” could be communicated as “too salacious and gossip-fueled to be worthy of discussion”.
“I share many of these reservations,” Marks wrote towards the end of her 5,000-word essay.
“But the stories that dominate our collective imagination shape what our culture permits artists and their audiences to say and be. Every time an artist signals queerness and that transmission falls on deaf ears, that signal dies. Recognizing the possibility of queerness — while being conscious of the difference between possibility and certainty — keeps that signal alive.”
Before CNN’s interview, Gaylors — fans of Swift who believe she is a part of the LGBTIQA+ community — praised Marks for her article on the r/GaylorSwift subreddit. Some have even expressed their concern for Marks, knowing that she would face backlash for the topic of her opinion piece.
Comment
byu/pokeydonuts from discussion
inGaylorSwift
Although Swift’s sexuality continues to be a topic of conversation amongst the Gaylors, the pop star herself reportedly shut down the rumours in 2023 following the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version).
At the time, screenshots of the written prologue for the album were leaked on X. Although the screenshots were shared and quickly deleted via popular entertainment news accounts — such as Pop Base and Pop Crave — Page Six managed to cop the reported transcript.
“So I swore off hanging out with guys. Dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponised against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era,” Swift wrote, per the publication.
“I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships.
“If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that, right? I would learn later on that people could and people would.”
Swift dismissed speculation that the lyrics of “Me!” or “You Need To Calm Down” were her special ways of coming out during an interview with Vogue in 2019.
The singer told the publication that the songs demonstrated her political perspectives after her friend Todrick Hall asked her “What would you do if your son was gay?”.
“The fact that he had to ask me … shocked me and made me realize that I had not made my position clear enough or loud enough,” she said.
“If he was thinking that, I can’t imagine what my fans in the LGBTQ community might be thinking.
“It was kind of devastating to realize that I hadn’t been publicly clear about that.”
Marks nor the New York Times have responded to the criticism following the opinion piece, as per CNN. However, fans on the r/GaylorSwift forum slammed the criticisms, with some labelling the rebuttal as “homophobia”.
Image source: Getty Images / Kevin Mazur/TAS18 and New York Times / Illustration by Angie Wang
