‘Gaylors’ ntra ‘Hetlors’: guerra civil entre fans Taylor Swift | EL PAÍS Semanal | EL PAÍS

Contents:

• THE ENDURG FERVOR OF GAYLOR FAN THEORY
• WHY SOME TAYLOR SWIFT STANS ARE GANGG UP ON ‘GAYLORS’: REPORT
• THE GAYLORS ARE TURNG ON TAYLOR SWIFT
• TAYLOR SWIFT'S 'GAYLOR' FANS THK SHE'S ABOUT TO MAKE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT POST-BREAKUP & THEY'VE BEEN STACKG EVINCE
• WHY ‘GAYLOR’ BELIEVERS LIKE ME THK TAYLOR SWIFT IS BISEXUAL
• HOW GAYLOR SWIFT NSPIRACISTS THK LIKE QANONERS
• GAYLOR
• WHAT IS GAYLORS AND HOW IS LKED TO TAYLOR SWIFT? EXPLAED
• TREVOR GAYLOR
• ‘GAYLORS’ NTRA ‘HETLORS’: GUERRA CIVIL ENTRE FANS TAYLOR SWIFT
• TAYLOR SWIFT “GAYLOR” FAN THEORY: SHOULD WE SPECULATE?

THE ENDURG FERVOR OF GAYLOR FAN THEORY

” A person who is very certa that Swift is straight and that her longterm partnership wh Joe Alwyn is for real, but also feels “Betty” is a eply queer song, might intify as a Gaylor. “Lavenr Haze” is the tle of the first track on Midnights, and sce lavenr is equently ed as a symbol of the queer muny, Gaylors me to the ncln that “Lavenr Haze” would probably be a pretty gay song.

WHY SOME TAYLOR SWIFT STANS ARE GANGG UP ON ‘GAYLORS’: REPORT

The Gaylor rponse to “Lavenr Haze” might feel hyperbolic or needlsly aggrsive, pecially sce Swift has never ma any public statements about beg queer and has been multiple extremely public relatnships wh men.

But the mors didn’t lim themselv to jt one of Swift’s female iendships; Lawrence was alludg to somethg more accurately scribed as a cematic universe of fan, or the theory that Taylor Swift is gay, is a clter of distct yet overlappg supposns about Swift’s sexualy (bi, pan, queer, fluid?

THE GAYLORS ARE TURNG ON TAYLOR SWIFT

It has followed Swift sce her but album was certified Platum seven tim as an unrcurrent beneath mastream celebry media that spent over a fascated by her real—and sometim PR-appearg—relatnships wh a long but diligent search through any social media se, you n learn all the tails of Gaylor. The Swifti who subscribe to are of urse lled Gaylors (even if a Gaylor’s belief skews lbian or pansexual), while those who cha themselv to the altar of Swift’s heterosexualy are lled Hetlors. Now, at the height of her power as an artist and bsperson full ownership of her art, the woman who blurred fans to iends n’t ntrol the gay universe they’ve created her —and Gaylor—Fd Mastream SuccsRebec, a 29-year-old Texas who prefers to e a psdonym bee Swifti n be btal onle, was 17 and drivg home when “Tim McGraw” me on one of the four rad signals that reached her isolated hometown.

The Gaylor theory do have legs when you nsir that when Swift secured her first mic al, g out would have certaly meant a reer not supported by mastream labels. From there Gaylors, fans too, formed their own foced discsn spac on Tumblr, Redd, and regularly studi Ameri’s great divas, and when she stumbled across #gaylor on Tumblr, turned to a “robt and plited” rabb hole of Swift rearch.

TAYLOR SWIFT'S 'GAYLOR' FANS THK SHE'S ABOUT TO MAKE A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT POST-BREAKUP & THEY'VE BEEN STACKG EVINCE

She then anized SwiftCon, a multi-day amic nference about all thgs Taylor Swift 2021, and joed a panel discsn about Gaylor theory wh fellow amics lled “I don’t want you like a bt iend”—a reference to “Drs” om reputatn. ” But when she went to Redd to talk about them wh the rt of the Swiftie muny after the release of folklore, she saw that ers “would down-vote posts that were more Gaylor-que.

The media (cludg Jezebel) had a lot to work wh when me to figurg out who each song uld be about, as did Gaylors, who had nothg but love for their snake queen.

For Gaylors, the album troduced a new Swift world full of secrecy to analyze—no matter that Swift didn’t want the lyrics to be hyper-analyzed for relatnship subtext, she still weled her fans’ close readgs of the lyrics as posn.

WHY ‘GAYLOR’ BELIEVERS LIKE ME THK TAYLOR SWIFT IS BISEXUAL

” She se this as her ntributn to the lyril analysis that permeat nearly every discsn of Rebec joed one of the largt Gaylor subredds, the sense of mararie ma her realize this was what she need. ’”The Gaylor Communy Com Unr AttackWhile Swift might have wanted the media to give up dg, Swifti were still hard at work huntg for new hidn msag and them the surprise album folklore.

HOW GAYLOR SWIFT NSPIRACISTS THK LIKE QANONERS

Later, Swift would say the song was about a love triangle between a boy and two girls, but Gaylors ntued to hold onto the them of yearng and secrecy as evince of s gay anthem potential. Brendon Urie and Taylor Swift perform onstage at the 2019 iHeartRad Wango Tango Kev Wter (Getty Imag)“It’s this kd of famo moment for our muny that’s bee this pot of llective trma for a lot of people, ” Sarah, a 27-year-old who morat one of the most popular subredds for Gaylor fans, told me. The worry remas so palpable that when I posted on one Gaylor fom askg for terviews earlier this year, took ls than ne hours for my post to be locked before eventually was removed, bee people were nvced I would be outg members if I quoted them about clear the air: As a bisexual who has dated enough people of all genrs to last a lifetime, I no longer personally re if Taylor Swift is gay.

While she did produce lyril motifs that have been persuasively argued on TikTok as hella gay, Lover was yet another album full of more goddamn Easter eggs to sort through. But even if Lover had given all the markgs of a g out era, plete wh a gut verse by pansexual in Brendon Urie, a LGBTQIA+ anthem packed wh queer celebri (’s fe), and enough rabows for a rporate Pri float, 2020’s homophobic rponse to a fictnal song, “Betty, ” showed Swifti still weren’t ready for the stcty, and Swift herself might never never spoke out about the fan-on-fan doxxg and outg.

They also want to give her the space to e out, as queer fans unrstand the difficulty of g out before you’re Approach the SpotlightAlison, the data-lovg Gaylor, said Gaylors are generally happy to stay out of the spotlight. But as their reactn to my post the fom shows, many Gaylors are hant about discsg how their theori are beg creasgly visible, bee while they love Swift, they also fear harassment.

GAYLOR

If Swift and Alwyn break up, ’s a w for the Gaylors, who believe this will give her the space to e out and market the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Versn) as the sgle lady album is. Even ntrollg mors that Swift uld be gay is impossible—no matter how talented Swift’s longtime publicist may we, the llective we, dive eper back to Swift’s disgraphy wh every Taylor’s Versn, there will be even more clu to theorize about and njectur to nsir. Acrdg to a new report om social media trackg firm Graphika, the largt harassment Swift fandom spac is happeng between radil Gaylor and Anti-Gaylor acunts onle — and changg fandom teractns for the worse.

WHAT IS GAYLORS AND HOW IS LKED TO TAYLOR SWIFT? EXPLAED

) Anti-Gaylor fans, also known by the risive term Hetlors, are a subculture of Swift followers who believe the harmls Gaylor fan theory is disrpectful to the pop star. Released Wednday morng, the Graphika report tails that factns the onle Swift fandom n be spl to six distct but nnected groups: Multi-Stan, Spanish-Language, Gaylor, Anti-Gaylor, Larri, and Ntral Swifti.

TREVOR GAYLOR

Yet both Gaylor and Anti-Gaylor acunts e mon harassment tactics like doxxg, mass reportg through ordated attacks, and g d language and sock puppet acunts to expand their reach and eva bans. Acrdg to the report, while both Gaylor and Anti-Gaylor acunts are antagonistic toward the other groups, Anti-Gaylor acunts outnumber Gaylor fans and “play a key role” how the theory is prented to mastream dienc.

‘GAYLORS’ NTRA ‘HETLORS’: GUERRA CIVIL ENTRE FANS TAYLOR SWIFT

The rearch also adds that the outsized number of Anti-Gaylor supporters — the group reprents 28 percent of acunts the sample parison to Gaylors’ 9 percent — means that Gaylor fans n often fd themselv “exiled” om ntral fan spac. The fom is the top one percent of muni on Redd and has 460, 000 subscribers, but postg about Swift’s sexualy or pro-Gaylor topics is a bannable offense — which Lopez G. Largely different to the Gaylor bate, the sular group tweets predomately Spanish and maly shar ntent to nnect Swift fans who speak their mon language, rather than ment on ongog issu between groups.

Pots to the Spanish-language Swifti, and other shared data pots between groups, as evince that harassment don’t have to be the primary way Gaylors and Anti-Gaylors teract wh each other.

TAYLOR SWIFT “GAYLOR” FAN THEORY: SHOULD WE SPECULATE?

Taylor "hetsplag" her new song "Lavenr Haze" fally broke themKev Mazur/Getty Imag Entertament/Getty ImagBad Blood (Gaylor's Versn)Last night, Taylor Swift announced that the first track on her upg album Midnights would be lled “Lavenr Haze. ” For a brief moment Gaylors — the muny of people who believe Swift is queer — were celebratg, as they assumed Swift’s e of a historilly queer lor the song’s tle meant that they were wng. To give you the general tenor of the Gaylor muny at the moment, here’s a vio posted by Kaelee Overfield, who the New York Tim recently dubbed “The Lbian Perez Hilton of TikTok”:“You’re g at right now, are you kiddg me, ” Overfield asked.