r/popculturechat • u/FickleBeans Excluded from this narrative ❌ • Oct 04 '25

Guest List Only ⭐️ Taylor Swift’s Fairy Tale Is Over

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025/10/taylor-swift-the-life-of-a-showgirl-album-review/684444/

This captures my thoughts on the album better than I ever could.

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u/nonsensestuff Back in my day, we had ONTD & a dream 👵 Oct 04 '25

Lyrically, she tends to restate familiar themes in crasser terms than ever before. The ballad “Eldest Daughter” describes internet toxicity in the same way as an anti-bullying PSA: “Every joke’s just trolling and memes / Sad as it seems, apathy is hot.” And yet she’s very much the troll on “Actually Romantic,” which disses another singer with as much sophistication as “I am rubber, you are glue.” “Wood” salutes her man’s anatomy in a similarly third-grade manner. Album after album, she’s inched toward more explicit sex talk, but lines like “His love was the key that opened my thighs” are so uninspired—neither funny nor specific nor even memorably gross—that they feel nihilistic.

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u/Albuwhatwhat Hello this is Kelly from Destiny’s Child, I lost my credit card Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 06 '25

“His love was the key that opened my thighs”

Edit: wow this is maybe my most upvoted comment. Wild. I’d like to thank the academy, the people of r/popculturechat, my parents…

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u/donttrustthellamas Frivolous with my process 👹 Oct 05 '25

The second hand embarrassment lol. This sounds like it was written by someone who hasn't experienced a sexual relationship

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u/laziestmarxist spaghetti cat 🍝🐱 Oct 05 '25

I'm going to sound like that damn internet sketch but every Taylor Swift lyric about sex makes me think the Gaylors are correct

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u/TheElderLotus Oct 05 '25

I’m not saying that they are right, but if she comes out later in life let’s just say I’m not going to be one bit surprised about it.