I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Folklore and Evermore hooked me, Gaylorism reeled me in. The lore around this possible double life was engrossing, but ever since Midnights I’ve sort of seen it for what it is—a show.\

You can see it even if you look at other artists—Boygenius, who were/are recently on tour and are massively popular right now—the show isn’t about them, it’s about the music, even if their fans are obsessed with them. I don’t see any posts about Lucy Dacus’ love life when I open Instagram (maybe I’m not following the right people but you get my point lol). Taylor’s built an entire discography, entire world, entire global tour to literally celebrate herself. That should’ve been the biggest flag.

Someone here said what will it take to step out of the cult. I’m not sure either, because it’s all working as expected: it’s a modern-day soap opera playing out in real-time, and we all started watching years ago so we might as well find out how it ends, right? I will always wonder if that was the intended outcome, some grand immersive art project. The thing is I don’t think her team is that clever.

Anyway, I’m rambling. But yeah, I do think it’s the Bad Place and we’re at the bottom, and all the walls are smooth and sloped.She revoked her membership to a club recently because an employee leaked her and Matty Healy hanging out and that’s what broke the story. That was a relationship/friendship/situationship she did not want public and made active steps to conceal and when it was exposed, people got fired. So soon after, she’s relentlessly public with Travis and we’re being asked to believe it isn’t PR.

There is a narrative of a fictional life she (or her team) is trying to tell. Even little things, like her spending time publicly with Sophie Turner the week she divorced Joe Jonas, fits into that brand, or when she and her friends all donned revenge dresses and collectively unfollowed Joe Alwyn at dinner.