The assumption that, “If Katy Perry and Taylor Swift can make peace with one another, so, too, can gays and homophobes” is the crux of Swift’s most standout visual from the video for her Pride-fueled “anthem,” “You Need to Calm Down.” Yet that doesn’t seem to stop any of the many colors of the LGBTQ rainbow from seizing the opportunity to appear in a Swift video, with corporate mainstays of gayness Ellen and RuPaul showing up to give Swift and her message their sanction. Elsewhere, other cameos included Ryan Reynolds (inexplicably), Laverne Cox, Karamo Brown, Dexter Mayfield, Ciara, Jonathan Van Ness, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Justin Mikita, Bobby Brek, Tan France, Billy Porter, Adam Lambert, Todrick Hall, Hayley Kiyoko, Chester Lockhart, Adam Rippon, Hannah Hart and Adam Lambert.
Stacking her army of celebrity friends up to help combat hate and intolerance, it doesn’t take long for Swift to make that narrative–this one that she very much wants to be a part of–about her. Specifically a long-standing feud with Katy Perry that spawned the 2014 hit, “Bad Blood” (in which Taylor then relied on many straight people cameos to serve her purpose for revenge).
“You need to just stop,” Taylor says. But she, too, needs to just stop. Inserting herself into a “cause” that she has never expressed any interest in before, and it certainly doesn’t make her sudden fervor bona fide now. No matter how many petitions she writes or how many celebrities of a non-straight persuasion she (gay pride) parades knowing. While some will ask: what does it matter if she wasn’t always there for the gay community in the past? She’s here now and her influence matters. Well maybe because it completely bulldozes all the work so many others have been doing since before our dear little waif was born. Again, this speaks to how her “strapping on” the needed persona of “freedom fighter” is less about others, and more about herself.
Swift, who co-directed the video with Drew Kirsch, saturates her cinematography in the vibrant colors of what it’s supposed to mean to be gay, starting with an overhead shot of her accoutrements for beauty featuring curlers, dice, a compact and some pink drink in a champagne glass (the entire aesthetic smacks of the poster boy for straightness, Wes Anderson). The details of the video are, indeed, deliberate, particularly a framed photo of the infamous Cher quote, “Mom, I am a rich man.” For Taylor wants you to know she can be considered among the same, erm, annals as other legendary gay icons. But alas, adopting the drag queen aesthetic in a single video does not a gay icon make. And as far as those who made their name with country, well, only Dolly and Patsy can make the cut.
Still, Swift tries her best to appear kitsch-worthy in the role of trailer park trash, taking to an aboveground pool as she sips from her drink while her trailer burns behind her. But it’s okay, she leads by example–she’s super calm about it. Because the very notion of “You Need to Calm Down” advocates not so much for gay people but the idea that if you express an opinion, you’re being “crazy” or “irrational.” Just let the good vibes roll on, man, why question it, Swift seems to be saying like a California cult leader.
To add to the literalness of the video (whatever happened to non-corporate camp?), there is a scene of Taylor and her “friends” sipping tea as a tribute to that great phrase about spilling it, before the one of Ellen getting a tattoo that reads: “CRUEL SUMMER.” But the residents of the trailer park don’t seem to think it’s that cruel as they let the unintelligent words of the homophobes buzzing at them with signs that say such things as, “GET A BRAIN MORANS” (hopefully you can pick up on that misspelling) roll off them like anything after applying lube.
A lyric about “comparing all the girls on the internet” transforms into a “Pop Queen Pageant” with a Swift drag queen front and center. RuPaul serves the crown that is supposed to, like the one given to Cady Heron, belong to everyone. Even fellow Swift nemesis, Perry. As the two seem to be the only ones dressed in food costumes (thanks to Swift conceding to Perry’s attempt to make camp happen via wearing a burger costume at the Met Gala), specifically Swift being the fries to her burger, they gravitate toward one another amid a cake fight. Alluding to some sort of homoerotic energy, the display adds to the overall annoyance of straight people trying to graft gay culture for their own image benefit.
The concluding title card, thus, tellingly reads: “Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally. Please sign my petition for Senate support of the Equality Act on change.org.” So it is that with one article–my–Swift proves that she really thinks she’s spearheading the “movement” that started well before she ripped off the backbeat to The Knife’s “Heartbeats.”
Yet the whole point is of course, if Taylor–the peak representation of heteronormativeness and appealing to that “sect”–can accept gays, then maybe God can too, ergo making it all right for that part of her fanbase that lives in the Bible Belt to embrace those they have spent so much time despising. What a time to be alive. When a pop star has more clout than one’s own sense of right and wrong.
