A lot of Taylor's songs have had fans wondering if she was possibly singing to a woman, but this album in particular seems to raise some eyebrows. "Gorgeous," "So It Goes...", and "Dress" especially make people wonder.
Related to the above, if "Gorgeous" is indeed aimed at a woman, then that raises the question — is Taylor acting like a Tsundere because she feels bad about having a crush on someone else when she has a boyfriend, or is it Gayngst?
While most of the album's more vitriolic lyrics are generally agreed to be about Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and Katy Perry, quite a few have wondered if some refer to Taylor's ex, Calvin Harris. In particular, the lyric, "He says, 'Don't throw away a good thing,' but if he drops my name, then I owe him nothin', and if he spends my change, then he had it comin'."
Applicability: The album's themes of not talking things at face value suggest listeners should approach it with this mindset. In an interview in May 2019 to promote her new single, she said the reason she did next to no promo for this album was that she didn't want to change anyone's interpretation of it.
Award Snub: Despite being the second highest-grossing album of 2017 worldwide, it received only a single Grammy nomination that it didn't even win.
Broken Base: "King of My Heart." Half the fandom thinks it's a fun song that fits with the rest of the album, while the other half thinks it's Album Filler that doesn't meet the standard set by the other songs.
Continuity Lock-Out: Listeners who haven't followed her media coverage in recent years (from 2014 onward) or at the very least the drama with Kanye and Kim Kardashian might have a hard time understanding and appreciating the album.
Fandom Rivalry: Between Swifties and Katy-Cats, and between Swifties and fans of Kanye West and/or Kim Kardashian, only exacerbated by this album. Though the Katy-Cats rivalry died down a little when Katy sent Taylor a literal olive branch before the tour started, and the two publicly patched things up.
Franchise Original Sin: Writing based off of real life events had always been a feature of Swift's music, but some observers believe reputation is the point where its obtuse references to long-running public feuds reached the point of Continuity Lockout and inaccessibility.
The tentativeness and fear of offending the beloved ("Is it cool that I said all that? / Is it chill that you're in my head?") in "Delicate" is a familiar lesbian experience.
She describes her love interest as having "lipstick on [their] face." Could mean they're Covered in Kisses, or...
"Gorgeous" conveys a kind of adoration mixed with jealousy mixed with intimidation mixed with bashfulness that just makes more sense with the object as another woman.
"I'm so furious at you for making me feel this way. But what can I say? You're gorgeous."
"If you got a girlfriend, I'm jealous of her / But if you're single, that's honestly worse" because then she doesn't have confirmation that the love interest is gay.
"You make me so happy, it turns back to sad" is a very familiar sentiment to any woman who's ever been in love with another woman, but not wanted to admit it.
"King Of My Heart":
All the boys in their expensive cars ... Never took me quite where you do
"Dancing with Our Hands Tied":
"I loved you in spite of / Deep fears that the world would divide us"
"I could have spent forever with your hands in my pockets"
"Dress" is full of this.
"secret moments / In a crowded room" where the other occupants have "no idea" there's something going on is an experience many lesbians can relate to.
"I don't want you like a best friend" speaks for itself.
"Only bought this dress so you could take it off, / Take it off"note Did she buy it for herself, to be taken off her by the love interest, or for the love interest, whom she is now instructing to "take it off"?
"Getaway Car": "I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason" implies nothing's wrong with her boyfriend, per se, but for some reason, she just isn't feeling it.
The way she sings it, "Call it what you want to" sounds exactly like "Karlie, would you want to?"
Some of her props in the music videos, including her thumb ring and juice box in "End Game" happen to be lesbian code symbols.
The two Taylors in the "...Ready For It?" video get a bit of this, since they're essentially singing a sexually-charged love song to each other. Which is a bit... weird, but still there.
LGBT Fanbase: Taylor's always had one, but this album seems to really appeal to LGBT Swifties, due to her more ambiguous lyrics. Fittingly enough while she was on tour for this album, she came out of the political closet and said on an Instagram post she was voting for the Democratic senate nominee in Tennessee partially due to the Republican's record on LGBT issues.
Memetic Mutation: Among critics and reviewers, jokes about "Look What You Made Me Do," such as "Here's what Taylor Swift is making you do to get tickets to her concert" or "Taylor [...] But I don't know, maybe we made her do it."
Seasonal Rot: Many fans feel that the album was a misstep since its narrative was about her life as a celebrity, taking away from one of her songwriting's greatest strengths: her relatability. The Continuity Lock-Out didn't help either.
Vindicated by History: While the "media are against me" concept and Darker and Edgier sound and image remain divisive among Swifties, the music press has gone back and re-evaluated it since the full unedited video of that infamous phone call leaked and proved Swift was actually telling the truth when she said Kanye lied to her about his song "Famous". Some have said that it marked the beginning of the detailed, literary lyricism she developed on folklore, evermore, and Midnights, that the once-malinged hip-hop inspired production was actually a breakthrough for producer Jack Antonoff, and that a lot of the criticism at the time came from the negative press surrounding the Kanye feud. Not only that, the album became a political football: Taylor's silence regarding the 2016 Presidential election and political issues of the day caused people to assume that she wasn't speaking out due to fear of losing her sizable fandom in Republican-leaning states, and a lot of liberal and leftist critics projected their frustrations with Taylor onto the album's lyrics. note Many people thought that by not saying anything about the rise in far-right politics in the United States, it showed that she was either ignorant of white supremacy or even secretly endorsing it with dogwhistles on the album. The fact that she gained a Misaimed Fandom of far-right political figures who saw her silence as a tacit agreement of their views didn't help. With the political climate of the era gone and Swift now being more candid with her liberal political views, critics are beginning to appreciate the album on its own mertis. It seems that time has definitely given this album an entirely new...well, reputation.
So much that she gave them partial songwriting credit.