Why ‘Lavender Haze’ Caused Controversy Among Some Taylor Swift Fans
On Oct. 21, Taylor Swift will release her 10th studio album Midnights. While Swift did not drop a pre-release single for the album, the roll-out for Midnights has been filled with TikToks, Easter eggs, and other song hints. After Swift released the description for “Lavender Haze,” one of the songs on Midnights, there was controversy among some of Swift’s fans.
Taylor Swift will release a song called ‘Lavender Haze’
On Oct. 7, Swift announced the first track of Midnights, “Lavender Haze.” The singer-songwriter also released a video description of the song’s meaning.
“‘Lavender Haze’ is track one on Midnights. And I happened upon the phrase ‘lavender haze’ when I was watching Mad Men. And I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool, and it turns out that it’s a common phrase used in the ’50s where they would just describe being in love. Like, if you were in the lavender haze, then that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow, and I thought that was really beautiful,” Swift described on Instagram.
Swift then attributed the meaning of “Lavender Haze” to her longtime partner, actor Joe Alwyn.
“Like my relationship for six years, we’ve had to dodge weird rumors, tabloid stuff, and we just ignore it,” said Swift. “And so, this song is sort of about the act of ignoring that stuff to protect the real stuff.”
This description caused strife among some of Taylor Swift’s fans
In recent years, the term Gaylor has become more prominent in mainstream pop culture. Primarily, Gaylors are fans of Swift who choose to interpret Swift’s songs through the lens of the LGBTQ community.
As with any fandom, there is a range of fans among this faction of Swifties. Some choose only to analyze Swift’s songs and lyrical content in relation to LGBTQ history and literature, while some Gaylors attribute the lyrics to Swift’s own personal life and wonder if she is possibly part of the LGBTQ community herself.
According to CNN, the color lavender is an important part of LGBTQ history, ranging from the discrimination of the “Lavender Scare” to when “the color came to symbolize empowerment.”
Because of this history, some fans of Swift assumed the track “Lavender Haze” could be a queer-coded track. However, Swift’s explanation of the song in relation to Mad Men instead of the LGBTQ significance of the color lavender dashed those assumptions and left some fans arguing on social media.
“… I hope that we can expect that good of an ally to know this queer history as well. I don’t think people are angry because they expect everyone to know the meaning of lavender, but if you’re someone who profits off of the queer community and claims to be an amazing ally you would absolutely be aware of the meaning tour queer fans have tied to lavender,” one Reddit user wrote.
“It shouldn’t even matter if she was only using lavender, rather than the full phrase. According to a quick google, lavender has been used as a symbol of love and devotion since biblical times (or even before). No one gets to own that,” another fan wrote on Reddit.
The ‘Lavender Haze’ controversy among Taylor Swift fans is nuanced
As with most situations in pop culture and fandom, the controversy surrounding “Lavender Haze” is nuanced and walks a fine line.
Lavender is an important color in LGBTQ history, and Swift’s “Mean” music video even includes a queer-coded high school-aged student wearing the color. On top of subtext fans and journalists have found in past Swift songs and her allyship with the LGBTQ community, it makes sense some fans might interpret the title of “Lavender Haze” a certain way before Swift clarified its meaning.
On the flip side, the phrase “lavender haze” is found in the show Mad Men, and it makes perfect sense that Swift, a songwriter, would take inspiration from a form of media and apply it to her own life.
The problem with the situation is the interpretation of ‘weird rumors’
So wherein lies the problem of the “Lavender Haze” controversy? The assumption that fans know exactly what Swift means by “weird rumors” in her description of the song.
After Swift released the song’s description, some Gaylors took the phrase “weird rumors” as a personal attack to stop speculating. Some other Swifties also interpreted “weird rumors” to be attributed to the growing Gaylor discourse, and used that as an excuse from Swift to call out Gaylors on the singer’s behalf.
This led to days of TikToks, tweets, and Reddit threads of fans claiming to know exactly what Swift meant by her description, despite the fact the song has not yet been released.
Rumors about Swift have circulated since she rose to fame. Given how private Swift and Alwyn are, rumors and theories about the couple are spread throughout the fandom based on Swift’s lyrics and assumptions that fans know Swift due to her transparent nature with fans.
There are rumors of their relationship being fake, rumors they are secretly married with kids, and everything in between. Given that Swift did not clarify what rumors she was referring to, the vitriol launched at Gaylors, Swifties, and Swift herself from the fandom seems uncalled for.
Perhaps Swift will address what rumors she was referring to in the actual song. If she leaves it intentionally vague, the roll-out of Midnights will be more enjoyable if fans stop assuming they know what a famous singer-songwriter meant in a promotional video.
