Even the super great media outlets don’t understand the depth that is Taylor Swift on their own. Most superfans (despite what they would be willing to admit) don’t either. The truth is, someone sees something and helps people connect the dots. Someone else shares something different and even more is connected. It’s not a competition about who can be the best, or understand the most, but coming together collectively and allowing everyone to understand the meaning, should be a goal.
There is so much in Swift’s videos that will probably go unnoticed by everyone, that is how in-depth she is. We all need each other and instead of tearing people down, or trying to be competitive, it’s best to just be honest.
Look, as a big Taylor Swift fan, we all know the media gets information from her fans by following them on social media. The bad theories the media comes up with on their own, or they get it from people tweeting about Swift, who aren’t actually fans of her.
The “…Ready For It” Music Video does not attack the media, so let’s all cool our jets, and look at the imagery and metaphors we’ve been able to piece together. When the song came out, I wrote a piece about the lyrics and Swift herself even liked it on Tumblr! It was pretty cool and if you didn’t see it, check it out below and then let’s discuss the video!
No One Was Ready For Taylor Swift’s New Song “…Ready For It?”
If you haven’t seen the video yet, watch here!
The video is pretty amazing and I saw one piece on the internet that was attacking the video for not being more about her amazing relationship with her boyfriend, and instead attacking the media. Well, the video is all about her amazing boyfriend and living carefree, and that my friends is why instead of judging something at surface level, you look below the surface to see what is really going on.
There are so many hints about her amazing angel of a boyfriend, Joe Alwyn as she is walking down the hallway filled with cyborgs (which could represent the media). Just run with me on this idea for a second. Ok, so let’s say the hooded version of Taylor is the version that people perceive her to be (the ones who don’t really know her and yes who the media helps to create with their angry think pieces of how they think her life should be lived).
So here she is walking down this creepy hallway with spiders coming down and everything, but along the walls, covered in graffiti are words. Some in English and others in Chinese. Here’s what the Chinese symbols reveal:
Fame, Eddie (Possibly Ed Sheeran maybe a nickname for Joe), Saint Joseph (Joseph Kahn – Director), Taylor, Forever, love, The Year of the Snake, Future (possibly like the Rapper, or maybe just whatever the future holds and hoping it’s a lasting one with Joe) and Reputation.
There has been a rumored collaboration on the album, but since I have zero percent confirmation on that, we won’t weigh into it that much. But an Ed Sheeran/Future collab could be amazing.
Here’s what’s written in English:
All eyes on us, UR Gourgous, This is enough, I love you in secret, 13. They’re burning all the witches. There are also 89 + 91, written which most likely represents Taylor and Joe’s birth years. 13, of course, is her favorite/lucky number. I love you in secret, could take us to the song Gorgeous where she hated Joe so much because she couldn’t have him and wanting him, which follows along with UR Gourgous. All eyes on us is relevant because the media always is! This is enough is Taylor finally standing up and just showing that she’s not going to let others control her life. She is going to live and be happy no matter what. (More on “They’re burning all the witches” later).
Taylor isn’t trying to attack the media and she is not playing a victim. She is simply standing up for who she is as a person and not allowing the media to dictate her narrative. Standing up for yourself, being brave, is not attacking.
Apart from what the video physically says, let’s get into the metaphors and what they could mean. Since I don’t know the true back story of the song or the concept of the video, all I can offer is some personal insight.
So we first see this hooded version of Taylor who seems pretty bad ass, walking past all these cyborgs and everything with no cares. That can be interpreted a lot of different ways. It could be the version of her that people have seemed to create, and that this version of her has become hardened to the media and what others say about her. This version of her turns out to be a robot so it could be just this role she was playing. This person she thought she needed to be. That she wasn’t able to really be herself because of the backlash. She has to present herself in a certain way, dress a certain way, talk a certain way, not do certain things so she wouldn’t get an even worse reputation. But this version of her was wearing a hood because it’s not her true self.
Her true self was contained, vulnerable and see through. She got knocked down a few times by the other version of her, telling her she wasn’t ready to truly be free. But the real her had to get stronger, she built up her own protection and rose up to fight back.
She became her own savior showing up on a white freaking horse. She had to fight back against this bad reputation she had gotten and destroy it, completely erasing that narrative and now she is working her way back up to tell her story and be her true self.
She discovers the wonders of the world for the first time as she discovers what it’s like to live more carefree, not be trapped behind everyone’s ideas about her and just live.
But the version of her that’s been out living in front of everyone wants to know, if she’s ready for it. She knocks her down and then her true self has to fight back and prove she is in fact, ready for it. Ready to start living.
Once she breaks free, she is able to start climbing her way back to freedom. Where the other version of her stands atop a staircase that says “They’re Burning All the Witches.” Taylor is one of the kindest, most genuine and purest of hearts. When you asked someone why they don’t like her, they can’t really give you a good reason. Mostly, because there isn’t one. Yet still, she has been attacked over the course of her career no matter what she does (in secret even) to give back, help more, be generous. She gets crucified for headlines, everything is twisted and taken out of context. There’s no rhyme or reason for it and there doesn’t have to be any sort of real proof to destroy a person. There is no justice system and for many witches in the earlier centuries, it was enough to just be believed to be a witch to be burned at the stake.
Women don’t have a voice and ones who do get silenced and destroyed. I’ve never seen a true story about Taylor that has proven her to be a horrible person or someone who deserves any kind of bad treatment shown to her. Miscommunication happens, but ask yourself, what has she ever done, to make her hated?
Does the amount of people she has dated affect your love life? Has she personally hurt you? Why is she attacked for relationships not working out and why are the males who have dated so many or had one-time hookups not put on display? Why are women so easy to get attacked, yet men glorified for looking so good with their shirt off? Taylor wears a nude colored body suit and the whole world loses their mind.
But she is free now, she doesn’t care what anyone else says and instead of doing interviews to promote her new album, she’s out there inviting fans who have never had the chance to meet her before, to her house. So far, there’s been at least 500 of them in the last couple of weeks. This woman is human, she’s a person. Think about that the next time you go to write an article about how you think she should be.
Too much undeserved negativity about Swift. Success and making millions each year bring out every kind of possible false accusation. So much easier for some to amuse themselves with spewing trash talk. Taylor Swift has a formula for success that most in the music industry would like.