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“I Prefer Hiding in Plain Sight”: The Overlooked Queerness of Taylor Swift’s Midnights

På svenska

Author

  • Lisa Ohlsson

Summary, in English

Taylor Swift is one of today’s most beloved songwriters, however, all aspects of her work are not recognised. Swift frequently references queerness, yet this is often overlooked. Previous scholarship focused on Swift and queerness has either centred around Swift’s support for LGBTQ+ causes or the subgroup of Swift’s fans who acknowledges and embraces her expressed queerness, but textual analysis of her work in relation to queerness has been insufficient. This paper examines the traces of queerness on Swift’s Midnights (2022) album and questions why these go overlooked. It is argued that Swift writes about queerness in multiple ways; she references queer history, she implies sapphism and she employs queer themes. However, Swift does so ambiguously, which in combination with heteronormative and autobiographical perspectives often being applied to readings of her work, result in her expressed queerness to be overlooked and overshadowed by heteronormative ideas.

Publishing year

2025

Language

English

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Keywords

  • Taylor Swift
  • Midnights album
  • queer reading
  • queer history
  • LGBTQ+
  • heteronormativity
  • Gaylor

Supervisor

  • Barbara Barrow