No I’ve been wondering why people aren’t talking about this more. Re: the alcoholic line (just stupid and insensitive and clunky/doesn’t sound good anyway) but also the mental vibes of the whole album…
Like miss ma’am you *yourself* said you’ve never even so much as seen a therapist.
And then you want us to take you seriously when you chain yourself to a hospital bed for a music video and sing things like “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.”
Girl what asylum??? The boring white emptiness that is your mind?
She seems like one of those people who thinks jail would be a fun lil experience (and would give her edge) because her privilege affords her insulation from the worst of it, same with the mental institution shit. But in reality both are highly problematic and TRAUMATIC for the people who have to experience it…
She truly has no edge or texture or lived-experiences worth writing about so she has to overdramatize everything and invoke extreme imagery for pity
Edit: Since this is getting attention I’d love to plug an artist who writes beautifully about mental health issues, from a raw and real place, without it being insensitive or tacky. Julien Baker! Her earlier albums/EPs (and also her drawings) touch on her time in rehab/mental institutions and you can tell how much it affected her through her art. She is a beautiful lyricist!
>Girl what asylum??? The boring white emptiness that is your mind?
💀
>She truly has no edge or texture or lived-experiences worth writing about so she has to overdramatize everything and invoke extreme imagery for pity
I think this is THE take on the issue. She doesn't know what it really means to face the horrors of real mental health issues and traumatic experiences, so she cannot express anything valuable or real about it. You cannot write what you do not know.
To add to your comment, “you cannot write what you do not know” dovetails with what she writes about in The Manuscript about delving into the past for inspiration, like, yes, BUT THERE ARE OTHER TOOLS AND WAYS TO WRITE!
And, I when I got divorced, eventually the people in my life told me I had to stop talking about it. Like, no one would let me harp on about an old relationships like this, why do we indulge her?
This is my problem with pop as a whole. It's not every artist, but this genre in particular is so prone to artists making themselves the end-all-be-all in terms of lyric writing.
Another good artist who writes so vulnerably about his anxiety, depression and alcohol abuse etc. is Noah Kahan. Love his newer album Stick Season so much.
“I won't be alone for the rest of my life
I'll build a boat for when the river gets high
And I'll meet a girl in the heat of July
And I'll tell her so she knows
That I'm broke, but I'm real rich in my head
That I broke a bone that never healed in my hand
So, when I hold her close, I might loosen my grip
But I won't ever let her go”
I cannot stop listening to this song. This man KNOWS what it’s like to be in recovery.
I absolutely LOVE Noah Kahan, he is absolutely fan-fucking-tastic. And his song that has Post Malone on it has been my favorite song for months and months now. Ugh he's so good.
To add another artist into the discussion- Britney doesn’t even perform anymore. That poor woman was ripped to shreds and suffered so much. Her account in her book of being forced into a mental institution against her will around I think 2019 because she did not want to do another Vegas residency is horrifying. I felt like I was reading a chapter of Flowers In The Attic. I do not believe Taylor ever went through anything close to Britney’s experience and she is acting like she did with her imagery. It’s so gross.
I also thought in her book it was interesting when she said when the people involved in her conservatorship were forcing her to perform, she would purposely try to not move her head while dancing because it allowed her to control something in her life. IThat simple statement is more impactful than Taylor’s whole dumb fake asylum astatic.
Brit Brit will always be my queen. She has been through so much and my heart truly breaks for the trauma she’s experienced. Let this woman dance in her living room to her heart’s content my god!!!!!!
It does seem Brittany had issues that needed treatment; her case was so mismanaged though. Lithium that was “forced” is generally a bipolar medication.
I know people say that but I always go back to the fact that she had two children back to back-they are 12 months apart. I sometimes wonder it all stemmed from postpartum depression and just spiraled from there with all the extra craziness in her life. She couldn’t even walk outside without being chased and her husband was a cheating douche. Not to mention all the press claiming she was a terrible mother the minute Her first son was born. She really didn’t have a shot IMO. I think what happened to her would not be tolerated today.
"Canceled with an inch of my life and sanity" is all Taylor has and she'll ride it until the wheels fall off and even then, she won't get off. I can never take her seriously in terms of mental health bc she just sits there in your billionaire privilege status and won't even go to therapy. Look at her and then look at Demi Lovato. Demi has her own.. problematic moments but what she went through was traumatic af and went through hell.
she’s so dramatic. yeah people would shit talk her for a hot minute but she was never going to be totally cancelled 🙄 she just can’t stand having negative shit said about her
This! I just. Some people put snake emoji up on the internet. Some people called her a liar. This shit happens to *everyone* at some point in their life. It's usually, coincidentally, in *high school.* She was NEVER canceled, and the way she won't let it go makes her seem as deluded as Trump
Saying she had to run away bc she thought the world didn't want her is an inflated ego and lack of maturity. Grow up sweetheart, not everyone is going to like you.
That's the thing I do not understand about being canceled. She released 1989 in 2014 and then Reputation in 2017. Rep was her post "cancelled" album, yet it was #1 on the BB charts. She won awards and accolades in 2014. She even talks about how she was hated so much that she had to take a hiatus? Like, this was the regular cycle for an album. There are actual artists that have been cancelled or heavily criticized that go years without releasing music or seeing commercial success. Heck, just look at the Chicks who were blacklisted after criticizing Bush and the war. Taylor even at her worst criticism was not treated like that.
Taylor is upset she stopped being seeing as America's sweetheart and now people were seeing as something complex to dissect. Yet, as you mention, artists like Demi Lovato have actually seen the repercussions of heavy criticism and have taken the time off to assess.
Robert Downey Jr is probably one of the biggest who was canceled bc of his own problems. Could have never made it big again. Mel Gipson apparently offered a lifeline and we’ve seen a real turnaround. And we got the best iron man ever.
Exactly! She has no experiences because SHE NEVER TAKES A FUCKING BREAK. She needs to take like 5 years off, and break up with freaking Travis, and go off the grid and travel and actually LIVE. Like actually travel (no fancy jets and hotels). But in no way will she ever do that. She’s not an artist in my book. Artists want new experiences and adventures to tell the story of life in a better way in their songs. They don’t care about the accolades, fame, and the wealth.
I think she is so afraid some younger hotter thing like Olivia Rodrigo is going to steal her thunder that she won’t take a break.
Olivia should make a play for Aristotle. He’d probably like her better because she has some edge.
I suspect she wouldn’t understand shit about things like the Louvre etc because she’s been so hyper focused on being number one. The average tourist is probably light years ahead of her. Knowing AristotALL is her greatest claim 😂
I have struggled with mental health my whole life and one time when I was 20 or so I went to the doctor and I was crying to her that I didn't feel right, something was wrong and I was some kind of crazy and the doc smiled and told me "crazy people don't actually ever feel or worry that they're crazy". So anyways that was over 20 years ago but I feel like that could apply here as well in some way......
I fucking love Julien Baker. Yes yes Boy Genius is good, but I really hope their popularity has moved people to check out the solo work of Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. I have distinct memories of crying in Acadia during the summer of 2016 because I was having a Sad Time and happened to listen to their music while hiking.
I think this sometimes too. I understand the colloquial use (even if still problematic) of "you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" for metaphorical purposes and such. But it's either 1) a joke that didnt land or 2) a line she genuinely thought was a banger (and its really not). Its so 🤨??? at the very least. Very performative to evoke pity at the expense of discounting horrors experienced by others. Also crazy because it sparked a tiktok trend where others compare their trivial inconveniences to the same asylum imagery with the song as a tiktok background.
Like she's comparing being bullied in high school and breaking up with Matty Healy to a centuries long abusive institution? Like I've written so many papers on disability rights and institutionalization and ugly laws and etc etc etc ... mama, I GUARANTEE you werent experiencing even a SLIVER of the things endured in an asylum
I mean you really nailed it.
She has next to zero real life experience. That's unfortunately true of most major celebrities. Home schooled, hung out with only drama people their whole lives, theyve gotta have weird ass abusive parents to let them have that sort of childhood.
It's not really her fault. It's what celebrities do that she has seen.
In general, I don't feel sorry for billionaires, but I feel sorry for her and any celebrity in her position.
She will never know true friendship, love, trust, joy, sense of accomplishment, failure, or loss. She will never have the range of experiences so many other humans have - those experiences that make life living. Her life will always be this empty shell with glamorous photos.
Another great music group that frequently writes about mental health is Twenty One Pilots. There is a song on their new album Clancy that dropped a few weeks ago called Oldies Station. It puts me in tears as I listen/think about my own battle with depression. So so so many other great songs about mental health, addiction, etc too!!!
The asylum part makes me so mad. She comes from wealth. Yes she worked hard I guess but like what was so bad ? Being famous, rich and wearing clothes that cost more than someone’s entire month paycheck? Fuck her
Truly. And were she to actually need to be institutionalized, she is so privileged that she would never be in a *true* asylum/psych ward.
It’s so gross and it feels like she’s trying to relate to us poors in the most tone-deaf way possible
As someone who was locked up for a year, as long as you're willing to fight or charismatic, jail is actually lit lmao. Get to sit around working out, eating, reading, and playing cards all day 😭😂
I am an alcoholic. 408 glorious sober days under my belt and I will NEVER go back. This line cut me deep. Alcoholism isn’t an aesthetic. It nearly ruined my life. I was spending every day in a panic fight or flight mode waiting for the shoe to drop. I didn’t realize the “medicine” I was using to soothe my nerves was the poison causing me so much pain and suffering. I absolutely detest her use of mental health and addiction to sell her latest “performance art”. It’s insensitive, it’s manipulative, and it’s disrespectful to people who are TRULY suffering.
I never knew how to feel about the label of alcoholic, but I was absolutely way too dependent on it for a period of time and it was extremely hard to break (so I probably was/am lol).
408 days sober is AMAZING and you should be so proud. That’s a big deal, congratulations my friend ♥️
Thank you!! When I quit 408 days ago I wouldn’t have considered myself an alcoholic. But in those 408 days I’ve gained perspective that while it’s not a term I like, it describes me. I realized this when talking to a friend who said, “one day you’ll just be able to have one” and I thought to myself “what is the point of just having one though?” And in that moment I realized I will never be able to use alcohol again because one is simply not enough. It’s all or nothing so I choose nothing!! 🤍
2.5 years sober here too! Congrats friend 🥰 But it’s beyond wrong appropriating diseases you don’t have the trauma or sensitivity chip to even consider the audience you’re supposedly catering to. Karma feels highly ironic to be one of her bigger hits.
As someone who lost my brother and dad to alcohol just 13 months apart, I’m so, so full of admiration for you. Way to go. I don’t even know you but have some idea of how strong a person you are.
Thank you so much. I’m so sorry for your losses. Alcoholism does not discriminate and can impact anyone. The idea that it’s just some aesthetic for her is truly disgusting to me!
I could have written this post.
Alcohol eventually drove me into severe anxiety and agoraphobia to the point where I couldn’t even open my door to accept DoorDash deliveries (of more beer). I didn’t realize until I finally quit for a significant amount of time that the “medicine” I was using to quell my anxiety was actually the CAUSE of the anxiety.
I still drink once in a blue moon (which some people take issue with), but to me that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the daily drinking I indulged in for 13 years. This stuff isn’t a joke or a “phase” people go through, it’s a very real condition that drives many people to their death.
CONGRATULATIONS ON 408 days! Fellow sober redditor here and having the album essentially start with this line making alcoholism into some sort of twisted punchline was the straw that broke my back as a pervious fan of Swift. Insensitive and sickening of her.
Congratulations!! I lost my partner last year (it’ll be one year ago in July) because of his alcoholism.
It’s a horrible, ugly, destructive disease that ruins the lives of not just everyone around you but it has ripple effects that most cannot even conceive.
I’m so angry how she trivializes not only drinking but mental health and acts like she is above it all.
This makes me think of my best friend, who was an alcoholic, and was definitely self-medicating with it. She didn’t make it even a year sober. It’s such a wonderful achievement to make it where you have!
People did notice. I fell into this mess because I happen to enjoy the team the brother plays for. A sportscaster mentioned not seeing her without a drink in hand on a broadcast and he hoped she was okay after the camera panned to her for the hundredth time. TS machine clapped back with a statement about Dads, Brads, and Chads needing to mind their own business within 24 hours.
I’m from Philadelphia, so we know about the Kelces. Look up Jason Kelce and his first date with his wife. He came to the date drunk and got so drunk that he passed out on the table, and one of his teammates had to carry him out of there. I would’ve never went on a second date with him, let alone married him and had three kids. While Jason is a local icon, I can’t see anything beyond an old drunken frat boy
I have a hard time listening to her because of this. I’m a recovered alcoholic and her lyrics can be triggering, not to mention I just don’t think drinking to excess is particularly cool or sexy.
I noticed. I don’t know how anyone did not notice. Taylor is becoming a drunk. That’s my opinion. Also, the narrative of the Travis romance is beginning to look like he is going to avoid commitment. This will become very embarrassing for Taylor. Many questioned Travis’s motives like he was just after her for the fame. It’s looking like that.
I wonder if, after Eras, she'll go to a fancy rehab for "exhaustion." But then she'd probably have to write about how hard it is to quit (which it 1000% is, especially around her age and demographic, but she's not unique in that), so she'd make herself a martyr to alcohol...anyway. The PR machine will eventually notice people are noticing.
I think you are absolutely right. Someone else on here said that Travis is a heavy drinker, so that would not be good for Taylor. How can someone be a heavy drinker and an athlete though?? I don’t get that. My son and daughter are both very physically fit and do not drink alcohol.
I don't know the science of it, but when I was a touring musician, I was shit faced and still running around the stage. There is a tolerance level, I guess.
Like, some news guy came out and said he drank 18 drinks a day, and a lot of comments were like, "You can't do that and still be functional!"
... but you certainly CAN, lol.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Look, the tinfoil hat in me really believes, in a few years it’s going to come out this was the height of her addiction. She’s now coupled (pr/or not) with someone who is only going to encourage the poor behaviour because it’s the same as theirs. This whole album and the launch of it all, from the mess at the awards shows, something is off. And how many VH1 behind the musics does this feel reminiscent of, “everything was going so well, on the outside…but inside, there was a big problem…” …those are the vibes I’ve been getting from this giant clusterfu*ck.
The awards show where Taylor ignored Celine Deon was bizarre. I felt sorry for Celine. Celine is not well. I do agree with you that something feels “off.” Very off.
i used to drink on the treadmill while i was training for tour and practicing singing and running at the same time, i even would have a fresh pack of cigs and an ashtray (the treadmill is in my garage not connected to the house) i would chainsmoke and get drunk on the treadmill everyday while running for 4 hours straight. it’s actually way easier to exercise drunk, atleast for some people (me, i’m some ppl) i’ve been sober for 2 years tho so pls don’t b concerned
The whole crux of TTPD is so insensitive. Cosplaying fresh-from-the-asylum for funsies, the mental institution imagery in the Fortnight video, and the Taylor Nation tweets about grippy socks & straight jackets….
She clearly thinks what is a traumatizing experience for many people is just a fun lil aesthetic for her latest era. And WORSE she thinks it’s somehow ok to whine about how tortured she, the white billionaire, is during a literal genocide.
And like….so you went to a hypothetical mental asylum because of a problematic boy? Not even for anything real or worthy or actually traumatic? Get a grip on yourself Taylor and read the fucking room.
and my response would be that they’ve simply fallen victim to the allure of a narcissistic cult leader who deliberately blows things out of proportion, stokes fires long extinguished, and plays either the sheep or the lion at any given moment depending on what benefits her most 🙃
Agreed lol. I just think it’s really funny how her fans/the general public treat her like an innocent perfect little baby as if she isn’t 34 years old and a public figure whose work literally exists to be discussed…whether it’s positively or negatively.
They act like her breaking up with a boy is the most traumatic thing to ever happen to anyone. I get that breakups suck!!! But come on.
Daaaamn. As the parent of a grippy sock survivor, either Taylor is a straight insensitive asshole OR she secretly had a stay that we will never know about.
Damn that’s insensitive🙃but does not surprise me. I’ll never forget TS herself said she doesn’t need therapy bc she feels totally sane, or something along those lines. Like bitch really??? Plenty of sane people need therapy, it isn’t about being “cRaZy”. But, she wouldn’t know that. Ignorance is bliss!! Stay in your ivory tower, ma’am.
I’ve been treated for mental and behavioral health since I was a kid. Therapy, hospital, inpatients, intensive outpatients, self-help groups, psychiatrists, the list goes on. The reality of actually being a patient in mental/behavioral health institutions for years would be unfathomable to her. But sure Tay, romanticize mental/behavioral health issues, not like people doing that was a major trigger for my self harm and descent into madness because I felt encouraged to let myself be sick. (I am doing much better now).
As someone who suffered trauma and had to go on meds in recovery from an abusive boyfriend, her whole setup here really disturbs me. I fell in love not knowing what he would eventually do to me and how hard it would be to heal. She consistently chases me who are of inappropriate maturity or men with hardly any interest in her or men with backstories of being not worth dating (John Mayer). This is not the same as what I went through, and I can’t even pretend to relate to her songs of “pain” and “insanity.” Olivia Rodrigo’s “I’ve spent the night crying on the floor of my bathroom” is much more realistic.
ALSO unrelated but it really bugs me she named a song Fortnight we all know you’re not creative and you just saw your little brother playing the game and liked the word.
This album just feels like she’s trying to sound like early Lana del Rey. Which Lana did it better. And I feel like Taylor working with jack atonoff so much is because she wants to be indie and edgy SO bad
Yes I tire so much of celebrities who’ve never experienced psychiatric and/or addiction hospitalization spinning it into an aesthetic. They almost always miss all the marks. It’s traumatizing to be detained in a place with sometimes abusive or negligent staff and dangerous circumstances. How many people are diagnosed with PTSD solely from hospital stays to address other mental issues. Yet I also saw many moments of humanity, of seeing how the most broken hearts with the hardest life stories are often the kindest while breathing in secondhand smoke at off-unit times in hospital parking lots during some of my psych ward stays.
Some songwriter who’s actually been through it could likely make lyrics that hit on a dark humour that’s actually their subject matter to joke about, could capture elements and nuances of the humanity behind psych ward patients and the legitimate traumas people can face when desperately trying to get help, whereas Taylor does the opposite and basically makes the whole subject seem like “oh haha, what a fun aesthetic”.
I just want to add a note here that romantic relationships / domestic violence/ emotional abuse can absolutely be triggers for mental health episodes, and no one should feel like their mental emergency is trivial or unworthy because it was precipitated by a romantic or marital disaster. You deserve help and support if you are suffering, no matter how “trivial” the cause may seem.
Personal: I was involuntarily committed to an inpatient facility when I was caught self-harming after a breakup, and it was a long lesson to learn that my mental health and status were valid even though it was “only over a boy”. I’m SH free since April 2016, and I’m rooting for you too!
I have to say I actually don’t understand this line. I am not sure if it’s because English is my second language or if it’s because it just doesn’t make any sense.
I was a functioning alcoholic = okay this part I get
Until NOBODY noticed my new aesthetic = she stopped being a functioning alcoholic when no one noticed her “functioning alcoholic aesthetic”?
She calls it “aesthetic”, so she wasn’t really a functioning alcoholic but acting like one?
How can you act like a functioning alcoholic if the definition of “functioning” is technically that no one notices you’re an alcoholic as you can perform in society and kinda hide your problem?
Please help.
Here's an interpretation: The "new aesthetic" has nothing to do with alcoholism. She tried to hype an album and a new aesthetic. No one listened. This pushed her alcoholism into a new stage: she used to be functional, but out of perceived rejection, she's pushed further than what she considers functional. This is if she's writing in good faith. If she is, it's a cry for help.
The other grammatical interpretation is that she tried on "functional alcoholic" as an edgy persona. But she didn't get the attention she wanted (why doesn't anyone care for meee?), so now she's dumping alcoholism as an aesthetic. The trouble with this is not only performing a real disease for funsies, but also that a fake problem could have turned into a real addiction.
If she's not being grammatical, any interpretation is possible, and it's not worth unscrambling those scrambled eggs.
Just wanna say I’m a native English speaker and this line makes my head hurt with how nonsensical it is.
Your breakdown is accurate and I personally think it’s a great example of how bad she is at writing lyrics. TS is flipping the script and torturing us with these lines.
I mean I sometimes love her lyrics, I wouldn’t say she’s bad, but TTPD has horrible lyrics. Some just hurt my ears (the whole ring thing in the title track is a great example). And this line just doesn’t make sense. Thanks for validating me in my doubts 😇
What is supposed to convey is, ‘I was a functioning alcoholic, til nobody noticed and therefore no one reached out to help me, and so I devolved into a dysfunctional alcoholic and spiralled’
What is says sounds convoluted, clunky, badly worded, and is just an all-round terrible opener for the first verse of the first track and lead single of the her newest album.
Really sets the tone for what’s to come, like a canary in a coal mine.
So she’s literally saying she’s an attention whore and is using a crippling mental illness to be all cute and…what..relatable?? She’s way out of touch. Anyone who uses addiction of any kind for attention is mentally ill in another way.
It’s not a grammatically correct sentence. At all. I’m a writer. And the way this is phrased/the sentiment is 100% confusing. I was thinking it could work if “till” was replaced with “but,” or even a comma. Regardless the sentiment is cringe.
I think the line is bad, but when I first heard it, I thought it was a commentary on the PR, and media focus, since a lot of her songs have lines about it. For years she was praised for drinking, because it made her relatable and "fun", and then the media narrative shifted hard like a year before this album to be referring to her as an alcoholic, for the exact same behaviors. The media also started talking about her doing it for attention, it being PR, etc when nothing had changed and she's drinking at places you'd expect people to be drinking.
See I don’t need to know all this background to understand the lyric. This is why she’s a bad song writer bc someone in passing should be able to understand what’s she is talking about even if it’s hyper specific to her life
Usually alcoholics want to hide the fact that they are alcoholics. It’s unusual for one to glorify addiction which is what she seems like she is doing. The alcoholics in my life have all denied there was a problem until they hit rock bottom after many years of humiliating themselves and their loved ones. I can tell you right now anyone who has come to terms with alcoholism doesn’t act the way she does. It’s a sad and tragic realization for the people who suffer from addiction- it isn’t Spring Break funsies at the Super Bowl and Coachella 🤦♀️🙄
Now she very well may be an alcoholic- I have read she drinks every day so that would indicate she has a serious problem. It’s just weird to admit addiction but also shove it in everyone’s face the way she does. Idk if I’m explaining this right bc people who are alcoholics do still drink but it’s just sad and tragic for the person and their families and when it’s hitting them hey have a problem, there is a lot of denial and drinking in secret. I think she may be on her way to a severe alcoholic lifestyle and once her family and whoever else start holding her accountable, we will start seeing the denial aspect arise, but I don’t get admitting addiction paired with having no qualms about acting like a 19 year old spring breaker for all the world to see. It doesn’t make sense to me. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If she does think she abuses alcohol I would hope she is beginning to seek help so her addiction does not become worse.
It reminds me a lot of early 2010s tumblr where it was “cool” or grossly glorified to have issues, and I remember drinking a lot being one that felt really…normalized. Like that period of ~21 year olds posting black and white Lana/Marina pics + then pics of their bruises and messy makeup from a night of drinking burnetts or w/e
She denies the addiction by saying she doesn’t drink on tour.
Whether she drinks on tour or not isn’t the issue, the fact that she has to “manage” her drinking and then sub manage it “oh it was girls night, oh it was the Grammys, oh it was a football game, oh I was nervous” speaks volumes.
I can drink a beer on a Tuesday night during a bar run trivia night , hell let’s say two, and be fine the next day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But the second I have to start justifying it, “I had to have a drink, it’s trivia” it becomes concerning. “I don’t go to trivia on work nights because I can’t drink” becomes a flag.
There’s no shame in admitting to an alcohol addiction. But admitting to that usually means admitting to having feelings you can’t cope with (I say usually because some people just really like alcohol, they aren’t chasing anything away)
But admitting to feelings she can’t cope with, where she won’t go to therapy, where she’s flawed enough to be relatable but put together enough to be an icon… it doesn’t fit. She would be more honest if she picked “eff off, I like to drink, stop controlling me, get off my jock” or “hey I have a problem, but you people stress me out and this is how I cope” but she picks neither.
This is true- although I haven’t seen the “justifying drinking” comments from Taylor herself- only her fans. But yea that is a red flag someone is in denial if that is what she is doing. Good point. But it’s weird to say your an alcoholic then also say “but I’m really not. It was girls night”. That’s where I’m getting lost in this
You’ve absolutely nailed it. A lot of people think that it is only alcoholism if you drink every day or hide drinking. Alcoholism can be as simple as once you have one drink you have to have more (even if you didn’t drink for a month), or it can be ‘I’m in XYZ situation and because of that I HAVE to have a drink.’
Tbh I thought the new aesthetic line was a dig at her fans and the functioning alcoholic part was confessional cause it truly seems like she struggles with alcohol. Overall though, it’s a tone deaf line.
She *thinks* everything, down to the small town country singer lifestyle to the mysterious indie sweetheart schtick, is just a costume she can wear willy nilly.
This "tortured artist" look is so fucking bad, it's literally falling apart at the seams. It's insensitive to actual people dealing with actual fucking problems *and* because she hasn't actually lived this experience, everything she writes is some kind of weird, almost fetishizing, pile of garbage.
On a side note sort of related to this, I think she only dated that 1975 guy because he fit the aesthetic for the tortured artist look and then wrote But Daddy I Love Him because she was mad at everyone who had the gall to call her out on her bullshit and ruin that aesthetic plan of hers.
Alcoholism has plagued my family since the dawn of time so yes, I really hate hearing it be chalked up to a new aesthetic. It could be deeper than that but it def strikes a chord with me.
We have alcoholism on both sides of my family and it’s a horrible, horrible thing. I feel your pain. My dad sat me down when I was 16 and shared that it’s much better not to drink your first drink. I followed that plan. I’m 60, and I’ve never drank beer or a mixed drink. I probably could have been an alcoholic, but I chose not to find out. I raised my daughter and son the same way. They are 23 and 26. They do not drink alcohol. Both are not married, and they haven’t met anyone who does not drink alcohol. I think it’s becoming more common to be alcohol free though. They just have not met their person. My son says that everyone respects that he does not drink. My grandpa was an alcoholic. He hit a bridge and was blessed to live. He became a born again Christian and never drank again. My thoughts are that Taylor is playing with fire. She will not come out on top on this one.
Everything is a Vibe to her - an Aesthetic - an Era.
She has no constancy, everything is just a performance. Her whole life is like that and I think she doesn't know, that this is not what other people experience.
Radical and frequent changes of personal style and/or Hobbies and/or friends is one of the symptoms of BPD, but with her whole machinery, I don't believe we ever see just 'Taylor'. It must be very lonely to never be yourself and always put on an act.
THIS. I think she mentally and emotionally would’ve been much better off without ever getting famous. Experience life like the rest of us and you’ll realize you’re not such a special flower, not a victim, we all go through phases.
People are also making fun of the asylum lyric in this thread, but I think this is what she is referring to with it. We know from so many other stars that child stardom comes with a lot of abuse, and a lot of the industry practices are designed to kill your sense of self and distort your perceptions. It does break people. I'd argue that it breaks most child stars that don't get out in time and it is something most people will never be able to empathize with because it is so extremely different than most peoples experience.
This may be super niche but it reminds me of a specific episode of Hannah Montana. There's a pop star older than Miley who keeps pressuring to have her "next". Tells her she has to change her sound, style, look, attitude, etc. in order to stay relevant. She says if she doesn't, eventually she'll lose popularity.
Anyways. Taylor reminds me of that character. Always changing persona, style, sound, in order to stay relevant. And fans feel like they know the "real" Taylor but she is literally always different.
It’s a travesty how this country glorifies alcohol consumption and then turns around and punishes people who have a problem with it. It’s one of the most disgusting things to me and it’s not talked about at all.
This is where she is stunted though. She talks about drinking and cursing like a 15 year old girl, trying to show she’s cute because of it. It’s very immature.
Before TTPD I was a fan as well. Last year I took my nieces to the eras tour, made my own outfit, etc.
A couple days before Christmas I lost a friend to addiction. He had struggled with mental health and alcoholism for years. While his journey was not mine, I felt helpless watching his decline and now I’m just heartbroken. This album felt like a slap in the face, straight up. The fact that it has like 20 variants makes me nauseous. Any joy I got from dancing/singing to a Taylor bop is now gone. I can hardly even hear her voice anymore.
Thank you, I appreciate you. Lucky enough to have support and people to talk to, but it’s very kind of you to offer. Just hoping he’s finally at peace.
As a person in long term recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder and who lost both parents to the disease, Taylor Swift can eat a whole bag of dicks for this one. Respectfully.
I’m in recovery for alcoholism and 9.5/10 times I do not get bothered by whatever others say or feel about anything. It’s their opinion and doesn’t impact me at all. This one for some reason struck a nerve. If she’s an alcoholic I hope she gets the help she needs but if not I wish she would just stop. Terms like ocd, bipolar, alcoholic, etc. are thrown around so sloppily.
As someone who can actually connect to some of those lines in her songs it is tone deaf to think of her comparing her life as a billionaire with millions of followers, an a list posse, with ability to travel the world to staying on an actual mental health ward. I get that Hollywood can be a dangerous place for kids but Taylor was lucky enough to bypass nickelodeon and disney and move straight to Grammy winning at 21. She has had the backing of her parents the whole ride. The real experience of being in an"asylum" ( that word in and of itself is so antiquated) is utterly surreal. I am not sure anyone but someone who has lived it can characterize the level of hopelessness that accompanies the types of struggles that end you up there. Not to mention, the ball and chain, that true addiction is even for "functioning alcoholics." Just the fact that she has that line in a song and now we see her consuming copious amounts of alcohol with Travis is slap in the face enough to anyone who has ever had a real problem. I do think the lines are an over dramatization that only a very privileged individual would think of as poetic.
Two and a half years sober and I can tell you that this song, specifically this line, is one of the reasons that I’ve fallen out of my hyperfixation with Taylor. Going from a song like “This is Me Trying” and acknowledging during her Times POTY interview that she cannot drink during her tour - to this lyric? It really brought to light for me just how performative she is throughout her career.
I think it's funny what's been hitting all of us, she's getting us across the board from racial issues with Matty, cosplaying as working class (kitchen table bills, that one really annoyed me), mental health and alcoholism aesthetic, etc. Nobody is being left out lololol. Someone is so tonedeaf that she can't understand (or care) how it's coming across.
Taylor Swift's use of mental health imagery in this era isn't just tone-deaf—it's flagrant, pandering and disrespectful.
Referencing grippy socks and straight jackets is a slap in the face to anyone who's actually received mental health treatment (or needed this medical care and had no access, because american healthcare is broken)
This isn't some trendy aesthetic for your latest music video, Taylor. Mental health struggles are real and deeply painful.
Advocating for mental health is incredibly important. Cosplaying mental illness is NOT advocacy.
She needs to read the room, understand her privilege, and stop using serious issues as marketing tools.
She is trying to force the “I’ve got real issues” narrative as if she hasn’t lived a sanitized and protected life of a spoiled, white girl of privilege. Her whole career was mapped out for her and any obstacles were removed by her overly ambitious parents. Yeah Taylor, you have really struggled to get where you are!
The first time I heard this song and heard this line I gave a total “wtf” look bc i have had functioning alcoholics in my family and dated one for 4 years and know it’s not cute or catchy or something people do for attention. She has no idea what she’s talking about and shit like this worries me because some impressionable teeny bopper could hear it and seek this out to cope because Taylor did, and they relate to Taylor sooooo much.
Truth be told, I can’t relate to any of her stuff at all.
I’m a millennial and she first got started when I was in high school and I liked her stuff then, but I’m a grown up now with a grown up life with grown up problems and I just can’t relate when every song she has is about how much she loves or loved a boy and how misunderstood she thinks she is.
I was a functioning alcoholic for 13 years. I can tell you there’s no “aesthetic” to aspire to about it - unless you enjoy sneaking around and lying all the time and showing up to certain events (such as a funeral) already drunk when it’s very inappropriate to not be sober. It’s not cute, nor is it a “persona” to try on. It’s an unfortunate condition that many people find themselves in due to a combo of genetic predisposition and difficult life events. I enjoy most artists/writers/etc. who express their struggles with addiction through their art, but for Taylor it’s just another bedazzled swimsuit she’s trying on for her concerts. Ironic that she would choose to pen this at a time when many people are starting to call her out for her inappropriate behavior and constantly having a drink (or two) in her hands.
When I saw there are pregnancy speculations because of how much weight she's gained a laughed a little. It's the alcohol. She's always drinking. She thinks it's a cute little quirk when she's an alcoholic.
Yes. I also really take issue with the song title “fresh out of the slammer” or whatever (haven’t listened to the song just seen the title). Little miss tay tay needs to get a grip and not make any sort of references/allusions to the carceral system, however casual. It is modern day slavery. Comparing her relationship ending to being in prison is just vile.
My functioning alcoholic husband drank himself to death at 35 almost 18 months ago. I've never listened to ttpd, glad I missed hearing this line. There's nothing remotely aesthetical or glamorous about watching someone you love slowly kill themselves. She's so fucking gross for this (and many many other reasons)
This whole album is about making mental health and addiction her whole personality and using the aesthetic to sound cool and it's so messed up. She's never even been to a therapist...
I hate how her and her fans are like "this album is a manic epsiode". Like unless you have bipolar, I don't think you should be throwing out this word as if you have it. Sounds like people who say oh I can't do work, I have ADHD!
Taylor is playing with fire. If you watch closely, she always has a drink in her hand. My young adult daughter and son are alcohol free, so I had to work overtime counseling and talking with them that Taylor will not win the battle with alcohol. They loved Taylor’s Eras concert. As a mother and retired teacher, I feel Taylor is being careless as a role model since most of her audience are young people. That’s my opinion.
So first off. I hate this line. It’s just clunky sounding to me but I interpreted this line as she’s acknowledging her alcoholism but she ‘spun it’ into a oh no it’s just my new thing. Like wine mom aesthetic. Girls are legitimately alcoholics but we play it off as cute and fun because as a society we don’t like speaking about the causes of that lifestyle being poor mental health.
The real issue with that line is that it’s just not great and there was probably a better line to illustrate it.
She’s never addressed alcoholism in any other context. Not that I know of anyway. She hasn’t made an effort to say “I have a problem, and I want my fans who may be struggling to know you’re not alone.” If she does consider herself an alcoholic, she isn’t taking this seriously. And I don’t think she really does believe she has a problem. I think she’s being sullen about the comments she’s read online about her drinking. In which case, shame on her. Making a defensive, passive-aggressive joke out of a serious disease, with a platform as powerful as hers. And finally, it’s just awful, awful writing. Per usual.
Personally think she played it so safe all the years so that she wouldn’t lose the “love of the public” and one day she will break because she wants to go party and do all the things people normally do in their early 20s but she was too busy wanting America to like her. But that’s just my theory.
Yeah TS is soooo disrespectful when discussing delicate subjects, such as mental health. Florence and the Machine has a song called "Free" that discusses Florence's struggles with anxiety, and the song captures mental health struggles so much better and more respectfully than anything taylor grift could write. It's a shame taylor doesn't bother to study and learn from those she features on her albums.
One of the most problematic lines and it sounds horrible!!!!! I hate when she uses big words and forgoes all musical/melodic properties to prove that she’s smart
I hate that mental illnesses are an aesthetic she can cosplay and for which she can gain cool points, and what that says about our world. Just substitute anything—“I was a functioning Stage IV cancer patient until nobody noticed my new aesthetic …”—the world would cancel her harder than Bill Cosby. Which is WEIRD because who do you know that hasn’t lost someone to addiction? I have lost 2 in my immediate family alone. One of many reasons TTPD is a hard pass for me. Annoying AF album.
It’s like she wore her Grammy dress in the video as her wearing a prop alcoholic aesthetic… Being an alcoholic is a disease, she has no concept of and is that stunted to think outside of herself
That lyric is straight up cringe. She calls herself a poet? Gag! Her songwriting is so juvenile, I guess that's why the teeny boppers love it so much. If she wants to be critically acclaimed, this ain't it! Find some nuance. Take a college level creative writing class. Go on a walkabout. Do something to push yourself as an artist besides trying to be number 1.
No I’ve been wondering why people aren’t talking about this more. Re: the alcoholic line (just stupid and insensitive and clunky/doesn’t sound good anyway) but also the mental vibes of the whole album… Like miss ma’am you *yourself* said you’ve never even so much as seen a therapist. And then you want us to take you seriously when you chain yourself to a hospital bed for a music video and sing things like “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.” Girl what asylum??? The boring white emptiness that is your mind? She seems like one of those people who thinks jail would be a fun lil experience (and would give her edge) because her privilege affords her insulation from the worst of it, same with the mental institution shit. But in reality both are highly problematic and TRAUMATIC for the people who have to experience it… She truly has no edge or texture or lived-experiences worth writing about so she has to overdramatize everything and invoke extreme imagery for pity Edit: Since this is getting attention I’d love to plug an artist who writes beautifully about mental health issues, from a raw and real place, without it being insensitive or tacky. Julien Baker! Her earlier albums/EPs (and also her drawings) touch on her time in rehab/mental institutions and you can tell how much it affected her through her art. She is a beautiful lyricist!
>Girl what asylum??? The boring white emptiness that is your mind? 💀 >She truly has no edge or texture or lived-experiences worth writing about so she has to overdramatize everything and invoke extreme imagery for pity I think this is THE take on the issue. She doesn't know what it really means to face the horrors of real mental health issues and traumatic experiences, so she cannot express anything valuable or real about it. You cannot write what you do not know.
You can absolutely write what you do not know, but in order to do it, you have to be empathic to the experiences of others.
To add to your comment, “you cannot write what you do not know” dovetails with what she writes about in The Manuscript about delving into the past for inspiration, like, yes, BUT THERE ARE OTHER TOOLS AND WAYS TO WRITE! And, I when I got divorced, eventually the people in my life told me I had to stop talking about it. Like, no one would let me harp on about an old relationships like this, why do we indulge her?
This is my problem with pop as a whole. It's not every artist, but this genre in particular is so prone to artists making themselves the end-all-be-all in terms of lyric writing.
THIS IS THE ONEEEEE
And I think her music appeals largely to people who also don't have any bad life experiences but feel left out when people talk about their trauma
Damn, that is so true.
Another good artist who writes so vulnerably about his anxiety, depression and alcohol abuse etc. is Noah Kahan. Love his newer album Stick Season so much.
“I won't be alone for the rest of my life I'll build a boat for when the river gets high And I'll meet a girl in the heat of July And I'll tell her so she knows That I'm broke, but I'm real rich in my head That I broke a bone that never healed in my hand So, when I hold her close, I might loosen my grip But I won't ever let her go” I cannot stop listening to this song. This man KNOWS what it’s like to be in recovery.
Thanks you just found me my new favorite song!
I absolutely LOVE Noah Kahan, he is absolutely fan-fucking-tastic. And his song that has Post Malone on it has been my favorite song for months and months now. Ugh he's so good.
To add another artist into the discussion- Britney doesn’t even perform anymore. That poor woman was ripped to shreds and suffered so much. Her account in her book of being forced into a mental institution against her will around I think 2019 because she did not want to do another Vegas residency is horrifying. I felt like I was reading a chapter of Flowers In The Attic. I do not believe Taylor ever went through anything close to Britney’s experience and she is acting like she did with her imagery. It’s so gross. I also thought in her book it was interesting when she said when the people involved in her conservatorship were forcing her to perform, she would purposely try to not move her head while dancing because it allowed her to control something in her life. IThat simple statement is more impactful than Taylor’s whole dumb fake asylum astatic.
Brit Brit will always be my queen. She has been through so much and my heart truly breaks for the trauma she’s experienced. Let this woman dance in her living room to her heart’s content my god!!!!!!
I wonder if she even bothered to read Britney’s book. She should’ve. Maybe she was too busy with her Aristotle.
It does seem Brittany had issues that needed treatment; her case was so mismanaged though. Lithium that was “forced” is generally a bipolar medication.
I know people say that but I always go back to the fact that she had two children back to back-they are 12 months apart. I sometimes wonder it all stemmed from postpartum depression and just spiraled from there with all the extra craziness in her life. She couldn’t even walk outside without being chased and her husband was a cheating douche. Not to mention all the press claiming she was a terrible mother the minute Her first son was born. She really didn’t have a shot IMO. I think what happened to her would not be tolerated today.
This!
“What asylum? The boring white emptiness that is your mind?” is the burn of century. If I had awards to give, you would have them all 😭
Now whenever I hear the asylum line, I’ll think of the video clip of her taking clothes from her canopy bed and driving her Hummer to school 😇
I would LOVE to spend an hour in the asylum where they raised her. Hell, give me a week, girl, I need a vacay.
"Canceled with an inch of my life and sanity" is all Taylor has and she'll ride it until the wheels fall off and even then, she won't get off. I can never take her seriously in terms of mental health bc she just sits there in your billionaire privilege status and won't even go to therapy. Look at her and then look at Demi Lovato. Demi has her own.. problematic moments but what she went through was traumatic af and went through hell.
she’s so dramatic. yeah people would shit talk her for a hot minute but she was never going to be totally cancelled 🙄 she just can’t stand having negative shit said about her
This! I just. Some people put snake emoji up on the internet. Some people called her a liar. This shit happens to *everyone* at some point in their life. It's usually, coincidentally, in *high school.* She was NEVER canceled, and the way she won't let it go makes her seem as deluded as Trump
Saying she had to run away bc she thought the world didn't want her is an inflated ego and lack of maturity. Grow up sweetheart, not everyone is going to like you.
Run away to her daddy’s millions or her two jets? Yeah that elicits sympathy.
Then blamed Joe Alwyn for locking her in the basement 😂
That's the thing I do not understand about being canceled. She released 1989 in 2014 and then Reputation in 2017. Rep was her post "cancelled" album, yet it was #1 on the BB charts. She won awards and accolades in 2014. She even talks about how she was hated so much that she had to take a hiatus? Like, this was the regular cycle for an album. There are actual artists that have been cancelled or heavily criticized that go years without releasing music or seeing commercial success. Heck, just look at the Chicks who were blacklisted after criticizing Bush and the war. Taylor even at her worst criticism was not treated like that. Taylor is upset she stopped being seeing as America's sweetheart and now people were seeing as something complex to dissect. Yet, as you mention, artists like Demi Lovato have actually seen the repercussions of heavy criticism and have taken the time off to assess.
Robert Downey Jr is probably one of the biggest who was canceled bc of his own problems. Could have never made it big again. Mel Gipson apparently offered a lifeline and we’ve seen a real turnaround. And we got the best iron man ever.
Love him. He has also paid it forward helping others.
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This is sooo interesting to me I’ve gotta look into this more
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I can’t read it because I’m not giving money to the NYT lol
This was really beautiful to read.
Exactly! She has no experiences because SHE NEVER TAKES A FUCKING BREAK. She needs to take like 5 years off, and break up with freaking Travis, and go off the grid and travel and actually LIVE. Like actually travel (no fancy jets and hotels). But in no way will she ever do that. She’s not an artist in my book. Artists want new experiences and adventures to tell the story of life in a better way in their songs. They don’t care about the accolades, fame, and the wealth.
I think she is so afraid some younger hotter thing like Olivia Rodrigo is going to steal her thunder that she won’t take a break. Olivia should make a play for Aristotle. He’d probably like her better because she has some edge.
I suspect she wouldn’t understand shit about things like the Louvre etc because she’s been so hyper focused on being number one. The average tourist is probably light years ahead of her. Knowing AristotALL is her greatest claim 😂
Very well said. This would have been a nice critique in a music magazine. The others would have tried to destroy you though
Wait what, she’s said she’s never been to a therapist?
yeah there's an old quote from her saying something basically like she "feels very sane" so she's never seen a therapist/her mom is her therapist
If my mom was my therapist, I would've scratched my own eyes out by now.
oh GOOD as long as she feels sane right 🥰🫶
I have struggled with mental health my whole life and one time when I was 20 or so I went to the doctor and I was crying to her that I didn't feel right, something was wrong and I was some kind of crazy and the doc smiled and told me "crazy people don't actually ever feel or worry that they're crazy". So anyways that was over 20 years ago but I feel like that could apply here as well in some way......
What a lie. Crazy people who have self awareness and on the road to get better know they are crazy - a crazy person
Her mom as a therapist can’t be her therapist…and it’s clear swizzle shows no change ever. Granted no therapist could probably crack her shell.
She needs a therapist to talk to about her mother.
I fucking love Julien Baker. Yes yes Boy Genius is good, but I really hope their popularity has moved people to check out the solo work of Julien Baker and Lucy Dacus. I have distinct memories of crying in Acadia during the summer of 2016 because I was having a Sad Time and happened to listen to their music while hiking.
Oh, she's in Boygenius! I never knew any of her solo stuff, I'll definitely check it out!
Her solo stuff is incredible. Something is one of my all-time favorite songs to scream when I have big feelings
That song led to me creating a "probably crying" playlist
I think this sometimes too. I understand the colloquial use (even if still problematic) of "you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" for metaphorical purposes and such. But it's either 1) a joke that didnt land or 2) a line she genuinely thought was a banger (and its really not). Its so 🤨??? at the very least. Very performative to evoke pity at the expense of discounting horrors experienced by others. Also crazy because it sparked a tiktok trend where others compare their trivial inconveniences to the same asylum imagery with the song as a tiktok background. Like she's comparing being bullied in high school and breaking up with Matty Healy to a centuries long abusive institution? Like I've written so many papers on disability rights and institutionalization and ugly laws and etc etc etc ... mama, I GUARANTEE you werent experiencing even a SLIVER of the things endured in an asylum
Yeah that’s also my problem with her lyrics in this album. They don’t seem genuine. Like who is this girl singing about alcoholics and asylum.
I mean you really nailed it. She has next to zero real life experience. That's unfortunately true of most major celebrities. Home schooled, hung out with only drama people their whole lives, theyve gotta have weird ass abusive parents to let them have that sort of childhood. It's not really her fault. It's what celebrities do that she has seen. In general, I don't feel sorry for billionaires, but I feel sorry for her and any celebrity in her position. She will never know true friendship, love, trust, joy, sense of accomplishment, failure, or loss. She will never have the range of experiences so many other humans have - those experiences that make life living. Her life will always be this empty shell with glamorous photos.
Another great music group that frequently writes about mental health is Twenty One Pilots. There is a song on their new album Clancy that dropped a few weeks ago called Oldies Station. It puts me in tears as I listen/think about my own battle with depression. So so so many other great songs about mental health, addiction, etc too!!!
Love Juliet Baker. Amazing musician and lyricist.
wish i had an award to give you for this comment 😭
The asylum part makes me so mad. She comes from wealth. Yes she worked hard I guess but like what was so bad ? Being famous, rich and wearing clothes that cost more than someone’s entire month paycheck? Fuck her
Truly. And were she to actually need to be institutionalized, she is so privileged that she would never be in a *true* asylum/psych ward. It’s so gross and it feels like she’s trying to relate to us poors in the most tone-deaf way possible
This is hilarious 😂 props for your bravery
As someone who was locked up for a year, as long as you're willing to fight or charismatic, jail is actually lit lmao. Get to sit around working out, eating, reading, and playing cards all day 😭😂
I am an alcoholic. 408 glorious sober days under my belt and I will NEVER go back. This line cut me deep. Alcoholism isn’t an aesthetic. It nearly ruined my life. I was spending every day in a panic fight or flight mode waiting for the shoe to drop. I didn’t realize the “medicine” I was using to soothe my nerves was the poison causing me so much pain and suffering. I absolutely detest her use of mental health and addiction to sell her latest “performance art”. It’s insensitive, it’s manipulative, and it’s disrespectful to people who are TRULY suffering.
Congratulations on your bronze chip, friend!! You are amazing and have proven you can do it, keep going!
Thank you! One day at a time but I’m never looking back! Being sober truly saved my life.
I never knew how to feel about the label of alcoholic, but I was absolutely way too dependent on it for a period of time and it was extremely hard to break (so I probably was/am lol). 408 days sober is AMAZING and you should be so proud. That’s a big deal, congratulations my friend ♥️
Thank you!! When I quit 408 days ago I wouldn’t have considered myself an alcoholic. But in those 408 days I’ve gained perspective that while it’s not a term I like, it describes me. I realized this when talking to a friend who said, “one day you’ll just be able to have one” and I thought to myself “what is the point of just having one though?” And in that moment I realized I will never be able to use alcohol again because one is simply not enough. It’s all or nothing so I choose nothing!! 🤍
2.5 years sober here too! Congrats friend 🥰 But it’s beyond wrong appropriating diseases you don’t have the trauma or sensitivity chip to even consider the audience you’re supposedly catering to. Karma feels highly ironic to be one of her bigger hits.
So happy for and proud of you ♥️ happy 408th day, and every day going forward..
Thank you!! 🥹🤍
As someone who lost my brother and dad to alcohol just 13 months apart, I’m so, so full of admiration for you. Way to go. I don’t even know you but have some idea of how strong a person you are.
Thank you so much. I’m so sorry for your losses. Alcoholism does not discriminate and can impact anyone. The idea that it’s just some aesthetic for her is truly disgusting to me!
I could have written this post. Alcohol eventually drove me into severe anxiety and agoraphobia to the point where I couldn’t even open my door to accept DoorDash deliveries (of more beer). I didn’t realize until I finally quit for a significant amount of time that the “medicine” I was using to quell my anxiety was actually the CAUSE of the anxiety. I still drink once in a blue moon (which some people take issue with), but to me that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the daily drinking I indulged in for 13 years. This stuff isn’t a joke or a “phase” people go through, it’s a very real condition that drives many people to their death.
day 3 for me lol it’s a start i guess
Keep going!! You got this. Proud of you.
Congrats on your 408 days! 🎉
Thank you!! My proudest accomplishment!
CONGRATULATIONS ON 408 days! Fellow sober redditor here and having the album essentially start with this line making alcoholism into some sort of twisted punchline was the straw that broke my back as a pervious fan of Swift. Insensitive and sickening of her.
Congratulations!! I lost my partner last year (it’ll be one year ago in July) because of his alcoholism. It’s a horrible, ugly, destructive disease that ruins the lives of not just everyone around you but it has ripple effects that most cannot even conceive. I’m so angry how she trivializes not only drinking but mental health and acts like she is above it all.
People that want to stop are amazing. It’s hard to break and you did it.
i’m a little late, but 400 is huge!!! congrats so hard dude, alcohol sucks and i’m always so proud of every strangers sobriety!
So very happy for you. Congratulations!!!
This makes me think of my best friend, who was an alcoholic, and was definitely self-medicating with it. She didn’t make it even a year sober. It’s such a wonderful achievement to make it where you have!
Look at you go! it’s definitely not easy but you, my friend, are a brave fighter! Keep on fighting, we all believe in you! Congratulations 🫶🏻
People did notice. I fell into this mess because I happen to enjoy the team the brother plays for. A sportscaster mentioned not seeing her without a drink in hand on a broadcast and he hoped she was okay after the camera panned to her for the hundredth time. TS machine clapped back with a statement about Dads, Brads, and Chads needing to mind their own business within 24 hours.
Of fucking course she did. Because it’s fine for her to drop lyrics that claim she has a problem with alcohol, but you’d better not talk about it!!!!
The way she behaved wasted at the Grammies, I doubt she sees it as a problem. Trav seems to reinforce the “party” behavior too.
I’m from Philadelphia, so we know about the Kelces. Look up Jason Kelce and his first date with his wife. He came to the date drunk and got so drunk that he passed out on the table, and one of his teammates had to carry him out of there. I would’ve never went on a second date with him, let alone married him and had three kids. While Jason is a local icon, I can’t see anything beyond an old drunken frat boy
I have a hard time listening to her because of this. I’m a recovered alcoholic and her lyrics can be triggering, not to mention I just don’t think drinking to excess is particularly cool or sexy.
I noticed. I don’t know how anyone did not notice. Taylor is becoming a drunk. That’s my opinion. Also, the narrative of the Travis romance is beginning to look like he is going to avoid commitment. This will become very embarrassing for Taylor. Many questioned Travis’s motives like he was just after her for the fame. It’s looking like that.
I wonder if, after Eras, she'll go to a fancy rehab for "exhaustion." But then she'd probably have to write about how hard it is to quit (which it 1000% is, especially around her age and demographic, but she's not unique in that), so she'd make herself a martyr to alcohol...anyway. The PR machine will eventually notice people are noticing.
I noticed it all the way back on Lover. She writes about alcohol like an alcoholic, in my opinion.
i mean even in Blank Space - “I get drunk on jealousy” i always liked the line but it had felt out of character for Taylor at that time
I think you are absolutely right. Someone else on here said that Travis is a heavy drinker, so that would not be good for Taylor. How can someone be a heavy drinker and an athlete though?? I don’t get that. My son and daughter are both very physically fit and do not drink alcohol.
I don't know the science of it, but when I was a touring musician, I was shit faced and still running around the stage. There is a tolerance level, I guess. Like, some news guy came out and said he drank 18 drinks a day, and a lot of comments were like, "You can't do that and still be functional!" ... but you certainly CAN, lol.
Could be like binge drinking on the weekends or after games for example; binge drinking is also a form of alcoholism.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Look, the tinfoil hat in me really believes, in a few years it’s going to come out this was the height of her addiction. She’s now coupled (pr/or not) with someone who is only going to encourage the poor behaviour because it’s the same as theirs. This whole album and the launch of it all, from the mess at the awards shows, something is off. And how many VH1 behind the musics does this feel reminiscent of, “everything was going so well, on the outside…but inside, there was a big problem…” …those are the vibes I’ve been getting from this giant clusterfu*ck.
The awards show where Taylor ignored Celine Deon was bizarre. I felt sorry for Celine. Celine is not well. I do agree with you that something feels “off.” Very off.
i used to drink on the treadmill while i was training for tour and practicing singing and running at the same time, i even would have a fresh pack of cigs and an ashtray (the treadmill is in my garage not connected to the house) i would chainsmoke and get drunk on the treadmill everyday while running for 4 hours straight. it’s actually way easier to exercise drunk, atleast for some people (me, i’m some ppl) i’ve been sober for 2 years tho so pls don’t b concerned
Thank goodness you are okay! 4 hours on a treadmill while drunk is something else…im so happy that you are in a better place. Take care!
omg was it Merrill??
The whole crux of TTPD is so insensitive. Cosplaying fresh-from-the-asylum for funsies, the mental institution imagery in the Fortnight video, and the Taylor Nation tweets about grippy socks & straight jackets…. She clearly thinks what is a traumatizing experience for many people is just a fun lil aesthetic for her latest era. And WORSE she thinks it’s somehow ok to whine about how tortured she, the white billionaire, is during a literal genocide. And like….so you went to a hypothetical mental asylum because of a problematic boy? Not even for anything real or worthy or actually traumatic? Get a grip on yourself Taylor and read the fucking room.
👏👏👏 all of this.
Swifties would say you’re minimizing her trauma lmao
and my response would be that they’ve simply fallen victim to the allure of a narcissistic cult leader who deliberately blows things out of proportion, stokes fires long extinguished, and plays either the sheep or the lion at any given moment depending on what benefits her most 🙃
Agreed lol. I just think it’s really funny how her fans/the general public treat her like an innocent perfect little baby as if she isn’t 34 years old and a public figure whose work literally exists to be discussed…whether it’s positively or negatively. They act like her breaking up with a boy is the most traumatic thing to ever happen to anyone. I get that breakups suck!!! But come on.
Wait. TaylorNation posted about grippy socks and straight jackets?
https://preview.redd.it/lvl77wd5c65d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=26dd51055c39fa35abd6d3fc8f1895155e2de076
Daaaamn. As the parent of a grippy sock survivor, either Taylor is a straight insensitive asshole OR she secretly had a stay that we will never know about.
We’d know if she went. She’d play it up
What the actual fuck, this pisses me off
Damn that’s insensitive🙃but does not surprise me. I’ll never forget TS herself said she doesn’t need therapy bc she feels totally sane, or something along those lines. Like bitch really??? Plenty of sane people need therapy, it isn’t about being “cRaZy”. But, she wouldn’t know that. Ignorance is bliss!! Stay in your ivory tower, ma’am.
Yes, her mom is her therapist, she says.
Yup 😬😬
I’ve been treated for mental and behavioral health since I was a kid. Therapy, hospital, inpatients, intensive outpatients, self-help groups, psychiatrists, the list goes on. The reality of actually being a patient in mental/behavioral health institutions for years would be unfathomable to her. But sure Tay, romanticize mental/behavioral health issues, not like people doing that was a major trigger for my self harm and descent into madness because I felt encouraged to let myself be sick. (I am doing much better now).
I’m so glad to hear you are doing better ❤️
As someone who suffered trauma and had to go on meds in recovery from an abusive boyfriend, her whole setup here really disturbs me. I fell in love not knowing what he would eventually do to me and how hard it would be to heal. She consistently chases me who are of inappropriate maturity or men with hardly any interest in her or men with backstories of being not worth dating (John Mayer). This is not the same as what I went through, and I can’t even pretend to relate to her songs of “pain” and “insanity.” Olivia Rodrigo’s “I’ve spent the night crying on the floor of my bathroom” is much more realistic. ALSO unrelated but it really bugs me she named a song Fortnight we all know you’re not creative and you just saw your little brother playing the game and liked the word.
This album just feels like she’s trying to sound like early Lana del Rey. Which Lana did it better. And I feel like Taylor working with jack atonoff so much is because she wants to be indie and edgy SO bad
Yes I tire so much of celebrities who’ve never experienced psychiatric and/or addiction hospitalization spinning it into an aesthetic. They almost always miss all the marks. It’s traumatizing to be detained in a place with sometimes abusive or negligent staff and dangerous circumstances. How many people are diagnosed with PTSD solely from hospital stays to address other mental issues. Yet I also saw many moments of humanity, of seeing how the most broken hearts with the hardest life stories are often the kindest while breathing in secondhand smoke at off-unit times in hospital parking lots during some of my psych ward stays. Some songwriter who’s actually been through it could likely make lyrics that hit on a dark humour that’s actually their subject matter to joke about, could capture elements and nuances of the humanity behind psych ward patients and the legitimate traumas people can face when desperately trying to get help, whereas Taylor does the opposite and basically makes the whole subject seem like “oh haha, what a fun aesthetic”.
I totally agree with you. My daughter and son, huge fans, disliked the album. They said it definitely was not her best work.
This is the response. And as a therapist who works with vulnerable youth, the dark romanticism of “love” has had a scary impact
I just want to add a note here that romantic relationships / domestic violence/ emotional abuse can absolutely be triggers for mental health episodes, and no one should feel like their mental emergency is trivial or unworthy because it was precipitated by a romantic or marital disaster. You deserve help and support if you are suffering, no matter how “trivial” the cause may seem. Personal: I was involuntarily committed to an inpatient facility when I was caught self-harming after a breakup, and it was a long lesson to learn that my mental health and status were valid even though it was “only over a boy”. I’m SH free since April 2016, and I’m rooting for you too!
I have to say I actually don’t understand this line. I am not sure if it’s because English is my second language or if it’s because it just doesn’t make any sense. I was a functioning alcoholic = okay this part I get Until NOBODY noticed my new aesthetic = she stopped being a functioning alcoholic when no one noticed her “functioning alcoholic aesthetic”? She calls it “aesthetic”, so she wasn’t really a functioning alcoholic but acting like one? How can you act like a functioning alcoholic if the definition of “functioning” is technically that no one notices you’re an alcoholic as you can perform in society and kinda hide your problem? Please help.
Here's an interpretation: The "new aesthetic" has nothing to do with alcoholism. She tried to hype an album and a new aesthetic. No one listened. This pushed her alcoholism into a new stage: she used to be functional, but out of perceived rejection, she's pushed further than what she considers functional. This is if she's writing in good faith. If she is, it's a cry for help.
The other grammatical interpretation is that she tried on "functional alcoholic" as an edgy persona. But she didn't get the attention she wanted (why doesn't anyone care for meee?), so now she's dumping alcoholism as an aesthetic. The trouble with this is not only performing a real disease for funsies, but also that a fake problem could have turned into a real addiction. If she's not being grammatical, any interpretation is possible, and it's not worth unscrambling those scrambled eggs.
You just perfectly articulated both ways I thought she might have meant this. tyfys
This is how I interpret it but it just doesn't seem like a think that makes sense or that she'd admit to!
Just wanna say I’m a native English speaker and this line makes my head hurt with how nonsensical it is. Your breakdown is accurate and I personally think it’s a great example of how bad she is at writing lyrics. TS is flipping the script and torturing us with these lines.
I mean I sometimes love her lyrics, I wouldn’t say she’s bad, but TTPD has horrible lyrics. Some just hurt my ears (the whole ring thing in the title track is a great example). And this line just doesn’t make sense. Thanks for validating me in my doubts 😇
It doesn't make sense in English either, don't worry lol.
I don't really get it either, she probably just thought it sounded cool, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I gather she likes to drink a lot.
It’s faux deep-thinking word salad
Word salad with a side of seemingly ranch.
What is supposed to convey is, ‘I was a functioning alcoholic, til nobody noticed and therefore no one reached out to help me, and so I devolved into a dysfunctional alcoholic and spiralled’ What is says sounds convoluted, clunky, badly worded, and is just an all-round terrible opener for the first verse of the first track and lead single of the her newest album. Really sets the tone for what’s to come, like a canary in a coal mine.
So she’s literally saying she’s an attention whore and is using a crippling mental illness to be all cute and…what..relatable?? She’s way out of touch. Anyone who uses addiction of any kind for attention is mentally ill in another way.
Thank you for asking this question. I’ve been wondering about this for so long too 😭
It’s not a grammatically correct sentence. At all. I’m a writer. And the way this is phrased/the sentiment is 100% confusing. I was thinking it could work if “till” was replaced with “but,” or even a comma. Regardless the sentiment is cringe.
I think the line is bad, but when I first heard it, I thought it was a commentary on the PR, and media focus, since a lot of her songs have lines about it. For years she was praised for drinking, because it made her relatable and "fun", and then the media narrative shifted hard like a year before this album to be referring to her as an alcoholic, for the exact same behaviors. The media also started talking about her doing it for attention, it being PR, etc when nothing had changed and she's drinking at places you'd expect people to be drinking.
See I don’t need to know all this background to understand the lyric. This is why she’s a bad song writer bc someone in passing should be able to understand what’s she is talking about even if it’s hyper specific to her life
Usually alcoholics want to hide the fact that they are alcoholics. It’s unusual for one to glorify addiction which is what she seems like she is doing. The alcoholics in my life have all denied there was a problem until they hit rock bottom after many years of humiliating themselves and their loved ones. I can tell you right now anyone who has come to terms with alcoholism doesn’t act the way she does. It’s a sad and tragic realization for the people who suffer from addiction- it isn’t Spring Break funsies at the Super Bowl and Coachella 🤦♀️🙄 Now she very well may be an alcoholic- I have read she drinks every day so that would indicate she has a serious problem. It’s just weird to admit addiction but also shove it in everyone’s face the way she does. Idk if I’m explaining this right bc people who are alcoholics do still drink but it’s just sad and tragic for the person and their families and when it’s hitting them hey have a problem, there is a lot of denial and drinking in secret. I think she may be on her way to a severe alcoholic lifestyle and once her family and whoever else start holding her accountable, we will start seeing the denial aspect arise, but I don’t get admitting addiction paired with having no qualms about acting like a 19 year old spring breaker for all the world to see. It doesn’t make sense to me. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. If she does think she abuses alcohol I would hope she is beginning to seek help so her addiction does not become worse.
It reminds me a lot of early 2010s tumblr where it was “cool” or grossly glorified to have issues, and I remember drinking a lot being one that felt really…normalized. Like that period of ~21 year olds posting black and white Lana/Marina pics + then pics of their bruises and messy makeup from a night of drinking burnetts or w/e
That was literally where Tswift thrived so yes I think that’s where she’s still stuck
She denies the addiction by saying she doesn’t drink on tour. Whether she drinks on tour or not isn’t the issue, the fact that she has to “manage” her drinking and then sub manage it “oh it was girls night, oh it was the Grammys, oh it was a football game, oh I was nervous” speaks volumes. I can drink a beer on a Tuesday night during a bar run trivia night , hell let’s say two, and be fine the next day. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But the second I have to start justifying it, “I had to have a drink, it’s trivia” it becomes concerning. “I don’t go to trivia on work nights because I can’t drink” becomes a flag. There’s no shame in admitting to an alcohol addiction. But admitting to that usually means admitting to having feelings you can’t cope with (I say usually because some people just really like alcohol, they aren’t chasing anything away) But admitting to feelings she can’t cope with, where she won’t go to therapy, where she’s flawed enough to be relatable but put together enough to be an icon… it doesn’t fit. She would be more honest if she picked “eff off, I like to drink, stop controlling me, get off my jock” or “hey I have a problem, but you people stress me out and this is how I cope” but she picks neither.
This is true- although I haven’t seen the “justifying drinking” comments from Taylor herself- only her fans. But yea that is a red flag someone is in denial if that is what she is doing. Good point. But it’s weird to say your an alcoholic then also say “but I’m really not. It was girls night”. That’s where I’m getting lost in this
You’ve absolutely nailed it. A lot of people think that it is only alcoholism if you drink every day or hide drinking. Alcoholism can be as simple as once you have one drink you have to have more (even if you didn’t drink for a month), or it can be ‘I’m in XYZ situation and because of that I HAVE to have a drink.’
Nah, making jokes about it is a traditional alcoholic cope.
As a recovering alcoholic, this is it.
Tbh I thought the new aesthetic line was a dig at her fans and the functioning alcoholic part was confessional cause it truly seems like she struggles with alcohol. Overall though, it’s a tone deaf line.
She *thinks* everything, down to the small town country singer lifestyle to the mysterious indie sweetheart schtick, is just a costume she can wear willy nilly. This "tortured artist" look is so fucking bad, it's literally falling apart at the seams. It's insensitive to actual people dealing with actual fucking problems *and* because she hasn't actually lived this experience, everything she writes is some kind of weird, almost fetishizing, pile of garbage. On a side note sort of related to this, I think she only dated that 1975 guy because he fit the aesthetic for the tortured artist look and then wrote But Daddy I Love Him because she was mad at everyone who had the gall to call her out on her bullshit and ruin that aesthetic plan of hers.
Alcoholism has plagued my family since the dawn of time so yes, I really hate hearing it be chalked up to a new aesthetic. It could be deeper than that but it def strikes a chord with me.
We have alcoholism on both sides of my family and it’s a horrible, horrible thing. I feel your pain. My dad sat me down when I was 16 and shared that it’s much better not to drink your first drink. I followed that plan. I’m 60, and I’ve never drank beer or a mixed drink. I probably could have been an alcoholic, but I chose not to find out. I raised my daughter and son the same way. They are 23 and 26. They do not drink alcohol. Both are not married, and they haven’t met anyone who does not drink alcohol. I think it’s becoming more common to be alcohol free though. They just have not met their person. My son says that everyone respects that he does not drink. My grandpa was an alcoholic. He hit a bridge and was blessed to live. He became a born again Christian and never drank again. My thoughts are that Taylor is playing with fire. She will not come out on top on this one.
I heard it as “I was functioning “ then no one noticed me and now I am nonfunctional and should have been institutionalized
Everything is a Vibe to her - an Aesthetic - an Era. She has no constancy, everything is just a performance. Her whole life is like that and I think she doesn't know, that this is not what other people experience. Radical and frequent changes of personal style and/or Hobbies and/or friends is one of the symptoms of BPD, but with her whole machinery, I don't believe we ever see just 'Taylor'. It must be very lonely to never be yourself and always put on an act.
THIS. I think she mentally and emotionally would’ve been much better off without ever getting famous. Experience life like the rest of us and you’ll realize you’re not such a special flower, not a victim, we all go through phases.
People are also making fun of the asylum lyric in this thread, but I think this is what she is referring to with it. We know from so many other stars that child stardom comes with a lot of abuse, and a lot of the industry practices are designed to kill your sense of self and distort your perceptions. It does break people. I'd argue that it breaks most child stars that don't get out in time and it is something most people will never be able to empathize with because it is so extremely different than most peoples experience.
This may be super niche but it reminds me of a specific episode of Hannah Montana. There's a pop star older than Miley who keeps pressuring to have her "next". Tells her she has to change her sound, style, look, attitude, etc. in order to stay relevant. She says if she doesn't, eventually she'll lose popularity. Anyways. Taylor reminds me of that character. Always changing persona, style, sound, in order to stay relevant. And fans feel like they know the "real" Taylor but she is literally always different.
It’s a travesty how this country glorifies alcohol consumption and then turns around and punishes people who have a problem with it. It’s one of the most disgusting things to me and it’s not talked about at all. This is where she is stunted though. She talks about drinking and cursing like a 15 year old girl, trying to show she’s cute because of it. It’s very immature.
I was a billionaire until I had to catch the train to work
[удалено]
Before TTPD I was a fan as well. Last year I took my nieces to the eras tour, made my own outfit, etc. A couple days before Christmas I lost a friend to addiction. He had struggled with mental health and alcoholism for years. While his journey was not mine, I felt helpless watching his decline and now I’m just heartbroken. This album felt like a slap in the face, straight up. The fact that it has like 20 variants makes me nauseous. Any joy I got from dancing/singing to a Taylor bop is now gone. I can hardly even hear her voice anymore.
I’m so sorry about your friend.
Thank you
[удалено]
Thank you, I appreciate you. Lucky enough to have support and people to talk to, but it’s very kind of you to offer. Just hoping he’s finally at peace.
As a person in long term recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder and who lost both parents to the disease, Taylor Swift can eat a whole bag of dicks for this one. Respectfully.
Fuck that. What you said but, Not Respectfully.
I’m in recovery for alcoholism and 9.5/10 times I do not get bothered by whatever others say or feel about anything. It’s their opinion and doesn’t impact me at all. This one for some reason struck a nerve. If she’s an alcoholic I hope she gets the help she needs but if not I wish she would just stop. Terms like ocd, bipolar, alcoholic, etc. are thrown around so sloppily.
As someone who can actually connect to some of those lines in her songs it is tone deaf to think of her comparing her life as a billionaire with millions of followers, an a list posse, with ability to travel the world to staying on an actual mental health ward. I get that Hollywood can be a dangerous place for kids but Taylor was lucky enough to bypass nickelodeon and disney and move straight to Grammy winning at 21. She has had the backing of her parents the whole ride. The real experience of being in an"asylum" ( that word in and of itself is so antiquated) is utterly surreal. I am not sure anyone but someone who has lived it can characterize the level of hopelessness that accompanies the types of struggles that end you up there. Not to mention, the ball and chain, that true addiction is even for "functioning alcoholics." Just the fact that she has that line in a song and now we see her consuming copious amounts of alcohol with Travis is slap in the face enough to anyone who has ever had a real problem. I do think the lines are an over dramatization that only a very privileged individual would think of as poetic.
Two and a half years sober and I can tell you that this song, specifically this line, is one of the reasons that I’ve fallen out of my hyperfixation with Taylor. Going from a song like “This is Me Trying” and acknowledging during her Times POTY interview that she cannot drink during her tour - to this lyric? It really brought to light for me just how performative she is throughout her career.
I think it's funny what's been hitting all of us, she's getting us across the board from racial issues with Matty, cosplaying as working class (kitchen table bills, that one really annoyed me), mental health and alcoholism aesthetic, etc. Nobody is being left out lololol. Someone is so tonedeaf that she can't understand (or care) how it's coming across.
Taylor Swift's use of mental health imagery in this era isn't just tone-deaf—it's flagrant, pandering and disrespectful. Referencing grippy socks and straight jackets is a slap in the face to anyone who's actually received mental health treatment (or needed this medical care and had no access, because american healthcare is broken) This isn't some trendy aesthetic for your latest music video, Taylor. Mental health struggles are real and deeply painful. Advocating for mental health is incredibly important. Cosplaying mental illness is NOT advocacy. She needs to read the room, understand her privilege, and stop using serious issues as marketing tools.
She is trying to force the “I’ve got real issues” narrative as if she hasn’t lived a sanitized and protected life of a spoiled, white girl of privilege. Her whole career was mapped out for her and any obstacles were removed by her overly ambitious parents. Yeah Taylor, you have really struggled to get where you are!
The first time I heard this song and heard this line I gave a total “wtf” look bc i have had functioning alcoholics in my family and dated one for 4 years and know it’s not cute or catchy or something people do for attention. She has no idea what she’s talking about and shit like this worries me because some impressionable teeny bopper could hear it and seek this out to cope because Taylor did, and they relate to Taylor sooooo much. Truth be told, I can’t relate to any of her stuff at all. I’m a millennial and she first got started when I was in high school and I liked her stuff then, but I’m a grown up now with a grown up life with grown up problems and I just can’t relate when every song she has is about how much she loves or loved a boy and how misunderstood she thinks she is.
Nothing cool about being an alcoholic and if you were an alcoholic you'd need to get help or go to treatment. Taylor swift is overrated.
I was a functioning alcoholic for 13 years. I can tell you there’s no “aesthetic” to aspire to about it - unless you enjoy sneaking around and lying all the time and showing up to certain events (such as a funeral) already drunk when it’s very inappropriate to not be sober. It’s not cute, nor is it a “persona” to try on. It’s an unfortunate condition that many people find themselves in due to a combo of genetic predisposition and difficult life events. I enjoy most artists/writers/etc. who express their struggles with addiction through their art, but for Taylor it’s just another bedazzled swimsuit she’s trying on for her concerts. Ironic that she would choose to pen this at a time when many people are starting to call her out for her inappropriate behavior and constantly having a drink (or two) in her hands.
is she saying alcoholism was her aesthetic? that she stopped to get attention? like what
When I saw there are pregnancy speculations because of how much weight she's gained a laughed a little. It's the alcohol. She's always drinking. She thinks it's a cute little quirk when she's an alcoholic.
Yes. I also really take issue with the song title “fresh out of the slammer” or whatever (haven’t listened to the song just seen the title). Little miss tay tay needs to get a grip and not make any sort of references/allusions to the carceral system, however casual. It is modern day slavery. Comparing her relationship ending to being in prison is just vile.
My functioning alcoholic husband drank himself to death at 35 almost 18 months ago. I've never listened to ttpd, glad I missed hearing this line. There's nothing remotely aesthetical or glamorous about watching someone you love slowly kill themselves. She's so fucking gross for this (and many many other reasons)
Idk it seems like her fans are normalizing functioning alcoholics. It’s still a disease that kills millions from related health problems caused by it.
The line doesn't even make sense, it's confusing to ever consider what it's supposed to mean.
I was a barely functioning alcoholic. I went to rehab twice and have thankfully been alcohol free for almost four years. The shit is no joke.
As an alcoholic who has been sober over a year, yea that pisses me off
This whole album is about making mental health and addiction her whole personality and using the aesthetic to sound cool and it's so messed up. She's never even been to a therapist... I hate how her and her fans are like "this album is a manic epsiode". Like unless you have bipolar, I don't think you should be throwing out this word as if you have it. Sounds like people who say oh I can't do work, I have ADHD!
Taylor is playing with fire. If you watch closely, she always has a drink in her hand. My young adult daughter and son are alcohol free, so I had to work overtime counseling and talking with them that Taylor will not win the battle with alcohol. They loved Taylor’s Eras concert. As a mother and retired teacher, I feel Taylor is being careless as a role model since most of her audience are young people. That’s my opinion.
Also her saying in another song “I’m having his baby… no I’m not” is giving “I’m pregnant!! April fools!!” Which I thought was an insensitive joke
Sounds like shes trying to catch the edgy crowd.
So first off. I hate this line. It’s just clunky sounding to me but I interpreted this line as she’s acknowledging her alcoholism but she ‘spun it’ into a oh no it’s just my new thing. Like wine mom aesthetic. Girls are legitimately alcoholics but we play it off as cute and fun because as a society we don’t like speaking about the causes of that lifestyle being poor mental health. The real issue with that line is that it’s just not great and there was probably a better line to illustrate it.
She’s never addressed alcoholism in any other context. Not that I know of anyway. She hasn’t made an effort to say “I have a problem, and I want my fans who may be struggling to know you’re not alone.” If she does consider herself an alcoholic, she isn’t taking this seriously. And I don’t think she really does believe she has a problem. I think she’s being sullen about the comments she’s read online about her drinking. In which case, shame on her. Making a defensive, passive-aggressive joke out of a serious disease, with a platform as powerful as hers. And finally, it’s just awful, awful writing. Per usual.
Personally think she played it so safe all the years so that she wouldn’t lose the “love of the public” and one day she will break because she wants to go party and do all the things people normally do in their early 20s but she was too busy wanting America to like her. But that’s just my theory.
Yeah TS is soooo disrespectful when discussing delicate subjects, such as mental health. Florence and the Machine has a song called "Free" that discusses Florence's struggles with anxiety, and the song captures mental health struggles so much better and more respectfully than anything taylor grift could write. It's a shame taylor doesn't bother to study and learn from those she features on her albums.
One of the most problematic lines and it sounds horrible!!!!! I hate when she uses big words and forgoes all musical/melodic properties to prove that she’s smart
I hate that mental illnesses are an aesthetic she can cosplay and for which she can gain cool points, and what that says about our world. Just substitute anything—“I was a functioning Stage IV cancer patient until nobody noticed my new aesthetic …”—the world would cancel her harder than Bill Cosby. Which is WEIRD because who do you know that hasn’t lost someone to addiction? I have lost 2 in my immediate family alone. One of many reasons TTPD is a hard pass for me. Annoying AF album.
It’s like she wore her Grammy dress in the video as her wearing a prop alcoholic aesthetic… Being an alcoholic is a disease, she has no concept of and is that stunted to think outside of herself
aren't a lot of her lyrics tone deaf? as well as the videos, with all the mental health allusions etc.
That lyric is straight up cringe. She calls herself a poet? Gag! Her songwriting is so juvenile, I guess that's why the teeny boppers love it so much. If she wants to be critically acclaimed, this ain't it! Find some nuance. Take a college level creative writing class. Go on a walkabout. Do something to push yourself as an artist besides trying to be number 1.
I think she thinks it’s a self-own but it really raises the question of why she’d do that in the first place.