Queerness and Reputation

Reputation (2017) is, undoubtedly, Taylor Swift's most controversial record. Many consider it to be her weakest, with the reception at the time being, as I recall, mostly negative. Yes, there were some people who really listened to the album and gave it a try with an open mind, but the general opinion was that she was trying too hard to be a "pop girl". With 1989, Swift still maintained some of her nice girl persona, dancing awkwardly on the Shake it Off video and being as desexualized as a female artist in the 10s could be. But when she appeared in the Look What You Made Me Do video dancing with gay men, on a top, being "shady" and selling a bad girl image, the audience was not satisfied. Damn, I wasn't satisfied. 

I have been a queer fan of Taylor since I saw a live performance of Should've Said No, probably in 2009. The first era I remember going with her was Speak Now (which is very queer as well, and I may talk about that later), so Taylor was, for me, the imaginative princess of fairytales, keeping fantasy and dreams alive in pop music. LWYMMD was soo not that. It offended me at first because Taylor had committed the terrible crime of acting like any other singer from that era (although, of course, I was also fascinated by the music video, which was A MOMENT). But the more the Reputation era went on, the album just seemed to live in a very short span, with the subsequent singles not living up to the hype of the first video, and the lack of promotion didn't help. Enter the queerness of this album and why it's so important for Taylor's queer fans. 

Reputation is about the realisation you're going to be a disappointment to other people and what you're going to do about that. It's about being victimized and blamed for it, and having your moral values questioned after constant vilification, to the point you're going to question it yourself. And how is that not relatable to a section of the population that suffers from bullying, psychological abuse and physical violence, but is still perceived as the devil? The feelings of betrayal and flirting with your "bad" side is very relatable to me, because when you go through that, you start to be in contempt towards society and people in general. I've seen this behavior in many gay people, and some of them may not even notice. We grow up cold because we think that's the only way for us not to get hurt. No, seriously, gay people need therapy.But there is salvation in Reputation. 

It is also about finding something real behind all that. And that thing is only coming forward when we stop submitting ourselves to society's expectations. That's what Taylor learned and that's what we, queer people, need to understand. It's too easy to "do something bad and feel good", basically because you've been told you're bad unless you stop being yourself. But also, there's nothing wrong with being delicate and wearing your heart on your sleeve. Reputation wasn't a failure, selling 2 million copies in the first week, but it definitely wasn't a success based on Swift's standards (although it should be noted that it was a huge hit, considering the state of the music industry in 2017) and I still see it being referred to as "Taylor's dark age". 

But what saved Swift's album was something as uncommon for artists in this century as hit music videos: a really big world tour. It shows how you can overcome what people expect to succeed and create your own meaning of success that's not based on heteronormative ideals.