In Screaming Color: LGBTQ Activism and Visibility in “You Need to Calm Down”
Sometimes the people afraid to speak are actually shouting the loudest.
When Taylor Swift made a music video during Pride Month full of queer celebrities living in a rainbow trailer park, it became a political statement, and not only because of her Equality Act petition. The second single from Lover, “You Need to Calm Down,” was released five years ago on June 14th, 2019. This song stands out from Swift’s discography as an unmistakable anthem in support of LGBTQ rights, and was part of a career milestone of advocating for political change. Furthermore, a lyrical analysis of the song1 reveals the speaker’s personal stake in the issues addressed and sheds light on homophobia and queer representation.
Say It to My Face!
The first verse comments on homophobia and bigotry in the form of internet bullying: “You are somebody that I don’t know / But you’re takin’ shots at me like it’s Patrón / And I’m just like, damn, it’s 7 AM.”2 Swift uses a conversational tone amounting to the speaker’s direct response to discrimination and hate speech. She emphasizes, in the first line of the song, that the speaker does not know the listener and, by extension, they don’t know her either; while social media can be very honest and personal, it can also simply present a curation of one’s life for public consumption. Despite this, online attackers seem to think they know her and how to get under her skin. Using the double meaning of “shots” to liken gunshots to tequila, Swift calls attention to bullies finding joy in hurting other people. The speaker’s judgemental “damn, it’s 7 AM” comment plays on this double meaning again, suggesting that it’s too early in the morning to be drinking alcohol, but also pointing out the brutal reality of waking up to online harassment. The accessibility of the internet means that, for better or for worse, public profiles are exposed to scrutiny at all times.
The speaker contrasts offline and online abuse: “Say it in the street, that’s a knock-out / But you say it in a Tweet, that’s a cop-out / And I’m just like, hey, are you okay?” The word “knock-out” acknowledges the gravity of in-person hate crimes and the nerve that it takes to commit them, as opposed to the “cop-out” of platforms such as Twitter. Social media and the online world allow for a dangerous level of anonymity that can facilitate rampant hate speech. While cyberbullying can also be extremely harmful, the speaker points out that someone’s homophobia and hatred reflect much more on their own nature than whoever they are targeting.
Words May Hurt Me
In the pre-chorus, the speaker continues her crusade but also reveals a first glimpse of vulnerability: “And I ain’t trying to mess with your self expression / But I’ve learned the lesson that stressin’ and obsessing ‘bout somebody else is no fun / And snakes and stones never broke my bones.” People often use freedom of speech, or “self expression” as justification for voicing hateful opinions. Instead of trying to control what they can and can’t say, the speaker appeals to the bigots by relaying the “lesson” that tearing other people down does not bring happiness in the long run.
Swift contrasts the quick-paced close rhyme in these first two lyrics with the concise declaration in the third to highlight its importance. As a play on the saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” the lyric subverts the original’s meaning with a few key changes. She replaces “sticks” with “snakes,” a reference to the imagery that she embraced throughout the reputation era as well as to betrayal more generally. The switch from “may” to “never” is the most significant; the things that attack the speaker physically, or visibly, don’t hurt her—this is similar to a lyric in “‘Slut!’”: “The sticks and stones they throw froze mid-air.” The speaker demonstrates strength in the face of adversity by choosing the extreme example of stoning as a representation of being violently attacked or cast out by society.3 However, the inversion of the original saying and the omission of its second half, about “words,” suggests that they can cause the speaker harm, since the “snakes” and “stones” do not. If we analyze the speaker through the perspective of a closeted queer person, the fact that she does not acknowledge this vulnerability is a method of self-defense, despite putting on the brave face provided by allyship in the song. Direct attacks like “snakes and stones” won’t harm someone assumed to be straight, but homophobic rhetoric can still negatively affect them second hand.
The Gay Agenda
In the chorus, Swift uses lighthearted phrasing to put the bullies in their place: “You need to calm down, you’re being too loud.” The speaker repurposes these comments that have historically been used to keep queer people from expressing themselves and their opinions, and standing up for their rights, deeming the hateful comments “too loud.” In this ironic context, the phrases themselves patronize and belittle the bigots, while the song creates a platform for the LGBTQ community instead. The speaker then insists: “You need to just stop, like can you just not step on my gown?” She is once again leaning into her confidence, insinuating that all the hateful noise around her is only a minor inconvenience. Significantly, this is how the lyric appears in the first chorus, but in its second and third iterations the word “my” is replaced by “his” and “our,” respectively. The switch to “his gown” is a nod to the fluidity of gender expression through clothing;4 by only altering the pronoun, and then using the collective “our,” the speaker syntactically aligns herself with other queer people.
The second verse introduces even more explicit references to the queer community and specific societal backlash: “You are somebody that we don’t know / But you’re comin’ at my friends like a missile / Why are you mad when you could be GLAAD?” The speaker once again includes herself in her grouping of queer people, repeating the first lyric of the song but this time with “we” instead of “I.” Crucially, in the following line she distinguishes herself from her “friends,” those who are out in the queer community and are thus more exposed to homophobia and transphobia. Compared to “taking shots” in the first verse, the simile of the “missile” alludes to a much larger weapon with the potential for mass destruction. However, the severity of this danger is then negated by the speaker referring to the bigots as simply “mad,” offering a satirical commentary on how ridiculous and unfounded these views are. Swift’s direct reference to LGBTQ activist organization “GLAAD,” playing on “glad,” shows an investment in addressing these issues within and beyond the song. GLAAD’s work focuses on tracking queer media and representation, which would include this very song.
In Closets Like Cedar
Swift uses the contrast between light and darkness to further juxtapose love and hatred: “Sunshine on the street at the parade / But you would rather be in the dark ages / Makin’ that sign must’ve taken all night.” The connotation of the sunny weather at the Pride “parade” gives this accepting event an association with light, positivity, and joy. Meanwhile, the bigots choose to remain in the “dark ages,” a time representing the antithesis of social and cultural progression. Not only is darkness the opposite of light, it is also the absence of color.5 The speaker continues to mock the protestors by pointing out how much time and effort they have invested in their hatred of queer people—why do they care so much about something that doesn’t affect them?
She continues this line of thinking while condemning the bigotry: “You just need to take several seats and then try to restore the peace / And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate / ‘Cause shade never made anybody less gay.” Although “scream[ing]” hateful things is arguably harsher than just “throwing shade,” the reference to this phrase introduces an enlightening double meaning. On the surface, this lyric indicates that homophobic insults do not somehow undo people’s queerness—a bit of an odd notion to put forward, since this type of rhetoric stems from a place of hatred and exclusion. However, “shade” also means being sheltered from direct sunlight. According to the speaker, being out of the sun, which she just associated with Pride parades, doesn’t make someone “less gay.” This metaphor acts as an acknowledgement that people who are closeted are still wholly valid in their queer identities, even if they aren't visibly part of the community. With that in mind, the homophobia being addressed here is also what contributes to people being afraid to come out in the first place. If this sentiment resonates with the speaker, it’s no wonder that this lyric and message of advocacy hold such an important place in the song.
Two other instances of the word “shade” in Swift’s discography support this reading of the pre-chorus. In “Paris,” she sings: “Sit quiet by my side in the shade / And not the kind that’s thrown / I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown.”6 The deliberate provision of this literal definition of “shade” in contrast to “the kind that’s thrown” blatantly alerts listeners to the word’s alternative meanings. Additionally, this verse is about keeping love “just yours,” again demonstrating the figurative meaning of “shade” protecting one’s “privacy” from public scrutiny. Another Lover track, “I Forgot That You Existed,” combines the two meanings again: “Lived in the shade you were throwing / ‘Til all of my sunshine was gone.” In the context of “You Need to Calm Down,” the “sunshine” is once again out of the speaker’s reach while external forces and homophobic society keep her in the closet.
Even beyond these songs, the hardships of being closeted were clearly on Swift’s mind ahead of the Lover era, where her aesthetic transitioned from the darkness of reputation to light and color.7 She delivered a Pride month speech that specifically addressed closeted queer people during the reputation tour before singing “Delicate,” a song about the fragility of love in the public eye. When all of these connections are tied back to “You Need to Calm Down,” Swift’s lyrics broaden into a dual meaning: you never know who your words could be hurting, so “just stop!” The queer people in most dire need of a supportive community are those who feel that they can’t ask for one. On that note, I’ll leave you with her message:
My songwriting has, a lot of the time, been called confessional songwriting, which I think is really accurate… Even when my life has gotten bigger in a sense, more written about and more speculated upon, I’ve still kept writing songs about my actual life, and that’s because you guys seem to care about it, and I appreciate that so much… You guys, June is Pride Month, and I think a lot about how it’s very brave to be vulnerable about your feelings in any sense, in any situation, but it’s even more brave to be honest about your feelings and who you love when you know that that might be met with adversity from society. So, this month and every month, I want to send out my love and respect to everybody who has been brave enough to be honest about how they feel, to live their lives as they are, as they feel they should be, as they identify. This is a month where I think we need to celebrate how far we’ve come, but we also need to acknowledge how far we still have left to go. I want to send my love and respect out to everybody who, in their journey and their life, hasn’t yet felt comfortable enough to come out. May you do that in your own time and may we end up in a world where everyone can live and love equally and no one has to be afraid to be vulnerable and say how they feel. ‘Cause when it comes to feelings, and when it comes to love and searching for someone to spend your whole life with, it’s all just really, really delicate, you know?
Not the music video, since that would be at least double the length of this essay.
This is also a fun little reference to Lover being Swift’s 7th album.
Other similar references: “When the first stone’s thrown, they’re screaming” and “People throw rocks at things that shine.”
In the music video, this coincides with a shot of Billy Porter in a dress. Swift and Porter have both worked with designer Christian Siriano, marking another “gown” connection.
Rainbow flag, anyone?
Another link between trees, shade, and the closet arises in “Peter”: “In closets like cedar.” Here the closets are like “cedar” trees, which create shade from the sun.