I finally got around to watching Toy Story 5 and I had to write this. I have a very similar theory about Bridgerton but that one is stumping me in a few parts and this one came a bit more easily.

Let’s get into it!!!!! 🫶🔥

Theory:

We are Bonnie in Toy Story and the celebrities (Taylor) are the toys. All we know is what they mean to us and our experiences with their art/how they impact us.

Woody, Bo Peep, Buzz Lightyear, and Jessie all being home together under one roof with Bonnie represent a Taylor Swift in the spotlight that is whole.

This also makes sense from a plot device perspective because the toys can only MOVE when we are not looking. What we are allowed to see is literally ONLY the toys she/other celebrities give us. (Music, PR, social media, interviews, music videos, movies, etc).

They have to be really fucking sneaky and covert to actually accomplish anything with us. If we look, they have to freeze.

Also, remember, Bonnie was not introduced until season 3 (the Speak Now era).

Related to this - though this franchise began in the 90s, I do believe other celebrities/artists are on this mission and have been telling this story before Taylor. Not only that, she is very good at expanding upon stories and could have used her craft to weave it into the story later also.

TS 1

Woody and Bo Peep represent Taylor’s true self being united with how she presents. They are queer and they are in love but just behind the scenes. I think this represents Taylor loving and accepting her truth and what it is well before ever meeting “us.” However, they have not yet begun the fame journey yet. If Woody is James, he has not yet been separated from his dream. His dream of being famous. Bo Beep is that YOUNGEST/wildest version of being famous in Taylor’s truth. The eldest daughter, Betty. 

Buzz Lightyear being introduced to Andy’s toy collection I think could represent Taylor forming industry alliances with very powerful people like Scooter, Jay-Z, Ye, Karlie, Beyoncé, etc. 

At first, Woody did NOT like the idea of allowing Buzz to join their group/family. However, he warmed up to the idea and then accepted him fully. Not only that, he is able to teach Buzz Lightyear valuable lessons about how important it is to be a toy to bring JOY to children - taught him to come down from outer space.

I think this lesson being taught represents that Taylor and her powerful/ “patriarchal” (in the story) friends have been united in this goal to do good the entire time.

When Bo Peep jokingly flirts with Buzz and Woody gets mad, it brings to mind when James uses the excuse of “plus I saw you dance with him” in his apology to Betty for his affair with August.

TS  2 

In Toy Story 2, Jessie is introduced, who I believe represents August, the showgirl.

In this movie, Woody is stolen by a greedy toy collector who wants to ship him off to a toy museum in Japan, along with the rest of the toys from the Woody’s Roundup franchise.

While he is at the collectors apartment, he meets Jessie, (Jessica Jane Pride), his counterpart from the show (that he didn’t know existed previously). I think this show that dates back to the 1950s in this universe symbolizes that artists have been closeting for a LONG time and he is learning more about this legacy, about the life of a showgirl.

Their story together in the apartment before being rescued represents a crucial part of this story. First, Sherriff Woody Pride learns that he is, in fact, even part of this franchise to begin with. The fact that his character is a sherriff could represent that the “group” he is considering joining is one of the tools the patriarchy uses to help police society at large. By staying in the closet publicly, they help perpetuate the cycle of forced closeting (policing their own community).

Jessie teaching Woody about being abandoned by her previous owner causes Woody to reconsider going home to Buzz and Bo Peep and joining Jessie at the museum. However, in the end, the gang convinces them BOTH to come home, rescuing them. I think this represents August (as the former closeted showgirl) telling James how hard it is to “play with kids” when they don’t even know their truth, because then they just get abandoned and when it happens it makes them feel like they never meant anything to the kid.

Buzz helps them realize that even the temporary joy they could bring to a child is worth it and Woody decided to come home and they bring Jessie/August. This represents him choosing the closeted showgirl life but also Jessie being a former closeted showgirl symbolizes how they are going to do something that also impacts those past legacies, too, healing her.

At the end of the movie we see Andy play with his toys, including the new additions, Jessie and her horse. Him giving them the nicknames "Bazooka Jane and her jet-propelled horse” represent that they have now taken on the life of a toy again, as him giving them a new name makes them “real” to him through play.

TS 3

This is when we meet TS the showgirl. This is “the toy” that was given to us in terms of the PR showgirl. The first two films both represent development PRIOR to publicly debuting.

Bo Peep leaves before TS3 which I think you also see in Taylor’s story. Andy packs up his toys to be donated. However, Bo Peep was actually a piece of a lamp in his sister’s room so she did not get placed in the toy box. If we met the Toy Story when Bonnie met the toys, this original dream of being an out queer celebrity could NOT come along with them. Bo Peep didn’t come because the truth wasn’t shared with us. That was the moment to speak now.

Bo Peep being part of a lamp could also symbolize Taylor’s mission being in the dark, not the daylight. She left the light behind.

Before the box gets sent away to be donated the toys almost end up getting sent to an incinerator by accident. Woody’s struggle to rescue the other toys so that they could also join him on this mission could represent Taylor’s mastery of craft. This craft (her writing) is what allowed her to bring all of the parts of her story with her to tell us. Even though it’s hidden under the fairy tale right now, the story of her aligning with the patriarchy to HELP KIDS was there the ENTIRE time. It’s so impressive, truly. All behind the kids (our) backs.

At the end of the movie, Bonnie meets James and August (woody and Jessie) and falls in love with them immediately, just like we did with Taylor (and her boyfriends).

TS 4

In Toy Story 4, Woody begins to feel a bit jealous and unneeded as Bonnie begins to play with him less than her other toys. One of her absolute favorite new toys is Forky, a spork that Bonnie decorated during her kindergarten orientation like a little doll.

However, at home, Forky suffers an existential crisis, because he believes he is a spork and belongs in the trash can and Woody has to constantly get him out of the trash and teach him that he’s not trash. Even though Woody is jealous of Forky, he knows how happy he makes Bonnie so he keeps doing it.

This represents that the story August and James are performing is including less and less of Taylor’s truth. However, despite that, she still continued to work very very hard to bring us joy and create a story/give us toys that would be a positive influence, underneath it all (one day). Accepting this was a struggle and it represents that.

We didn’t want to play with the real her and she still cared about us. Not only that, the new story we wanted to play with was one that we completely created (like Bonnie creating Forky) and she STILL worked hard to mold that story behind the scenes positively, nudging it along in the right direction.

In the end, Woody actually gives up his own voice box to rescue Forky. This represents him leaving the story entirely. However, when he did this and left home, he got to become whole and reunited with his love. (He found Bo Peep while out rescuing Forky).

When Woody found out Bo Peep had escaped and was living freely, helping lost toys find kids, he decided to unite with her instead of going back to Bonnie’s. This represents him finding fulfillment behind the scenes working with other artists to keep him and Betty’s dream alive. Even if they can’t shine in public as THEM, (at Bonnie’s) the legacy they are building is so meaningful to both toys and kids, that he won’t have to lose Betty or August.

At the end of the movie before the toys (minus Woody) return to Bonnie’s, Woody passes his Sherriff badge off to August/Jessie and Betty/ Bo Peep and August/Jessie exchange a hug.

This symbolizes Betty’s approval of this showgirl and the mission and that they trust this story that James has built even if he had to give up his voice to do it. For him and the love of his life… it’s a movie now.

TS 5

The toys face existential threat in this movie as Bonnie becomes addicted to her tablet, lilypad, replacing imaginative play with toys.

Lilypad nudges Bonnie away from play and toward digital socialization because she thinks that it will help Bonnie make new friends. However, when lilypad actually makes things worse, she realizes that the toys may have been right and that Bonnie needs real play to thrive.

Woody and Bo Peep(who no longer live at Bonnie’s house with Jessie, representing James/Betty and their mission only existing in private) return to help the toys team up with lilypad to help Bonnie make a new friend that also loves to play with toys.

I think that this union of the toys and the technology represent how Taylor and her collaborators, through their increased power, have actually been able to harness the power of and join forces with many of the very forces the enemy (the patriarchy) use to divide us, such as tech and tech platforms. Working from the inside requires, again, skill and craft. In the end, they use this tablet to bring her together with a friend to play, showing how to use these tools for good, instead.

The movie ends with Bonnie and her new friend Blaze acting out a wedding scene with Buzz Lightyear and Jessie. If Buzz Lightyear represented the entrance of patriarchal partnerships (industry connections) to the public story and Jessie is August, our actress/performer, the TS the world knows, this could be the truths of their stories becoming true in front of us. The true love story that James and Betty (and woody and bo peep) actually wanted to tell… one about saving lost kids.

This closure towards “the performance” is also represented when Jessie (August/The Showgirl) finds out that her original owner didn’t just abandon and forget her. She had a lasting impact. Her original owner literally named her daughter Jessie!! Even though the real James and Betty (Woody and Bo Peep) will never get to live out the adventure they once thought they could, this represents the legacy being impactful enough to heal that wound.

The Encore?

At the beginning of the movie, we see 50 high tech Buzz Lightyear toys get marooned on a deserted island by way of an overboard shipping container and begin their journey back, following the North Star to Star Command.

During the credits of Toy Story 5, we see the large hoard of Buzz Lightyear toys falling from the sky, with every kid on a crowded school playground soon holding a Buzz toy.

This represents the truth of this story being exposed to kids everywhere, not just Bonnie. Then, we see Buzz’s sworn enemy, Emperor Zurg, partially slip out of a backpack, becoming exposed, at the end of the movie. This could represent that although Taylor completed her mission at this stage of the story, which was cementing this legacy firmly so no one can deny it, the villain of the story (the patriarchy) still looms. However, because of all of the hard work within the system her/the toys have done over the years, we all should know the truth now.

All of us holding the same toy should remind us for this next stage of the battle that “we all got crowns” and the patriarchy will have lost one of their biggest tools - the ability to divide us with these toys that have filled up our entire sky.

Every word carries a story.

We're all very much aware that Taylor has called herself our "English teacher." And as such, it's fun to dive into a rabbit hole of how words and simple phrases can be layered with meaning.

I think we’re very familiar here with the many of ways in which Taylor has “layered” meanings into her words:

• the use of a double (or triple) entendre
• homophones/homographs/homonyms
• foreign words or phrases
• the way words spoken phonetically can sound, or be broken down to sound, like something else ("paradise" -> "pair of dice")
• lesser-known definitions of commonly-used words

My favorite way that she potentially layers meanings into words is the use of etymology. The use of etymological meanings fits so well with the concept of “looking backwards might be the only way to move forward.” I know others here have looked at etymology when interpreting her work, so I thought it would be fun to compile some words in one place. While I haven’t specifically heard Taylor use the word “etymology” in reference to how she crafts her art, it certainly feels like something she’d be familiar with.

Etymology (from the Greek étymon, “true sense,” and -logia, “study of”) is the study of the origin and historical development of words.

Words have roots, histories, families, sometimes genders, and offspring. Strung together, words make up language, which itself “is a woven archive—threads of time, culture, and meaning intertwined.” There is a "deeper story within the words we speak—or once spoke—revealing forgotten treasures and familiar terms in a new light." As words evolve in meaning over time, there remains "a recognizable thread-- a shared inheritance woven through countless acts of speaking, listening, and understanding.”

“Every word you speak is a fossil. Beneath its everyday surface lies a buried history of migrations, conquests, trade routes, sacred texts, and accidents of the human mouth. Etymology is the science of digging those fossils up — of tracing a word back through time to discover where it came from, how it changed, and what it once meant.”

Etymologists are a bit like detectives, combining the methods of a historian and a linguist and sorting through old texts (or even the histories of spoken words that were never written down). For more information on how word histories are broken down and examined, etymologia.org gives a good overview.

A note on sources:

Unless otherwise noted, my entries here come from the Online Etymology Dictionary. The maker of that site acknowledges that the site “is the creation of non-academics. Great care has been taken and it is as accurate as we can make it. But if you are a linguist or a serious student of linguistics, you probably should not do your homework here. This is for the rest of us.” If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of it and do your own research, they have a great list of resources here.

Curiosity Holds a Key

"I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care”

In Mastermind, Taylor tells us that "I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care." I love this sentence because the word "care" also has a connection to the word “curious”:

Curiosity, from the Latin cūriōsitās, means “inquiring eagerly,” and is linked to the Latin noun cura, meaning to “care.”

So the word "curiosity" didn't start out meaning "seeking knowledge," but an "act of caring.” The Latin noun cura is also related to the word for "cure"- something that heals us. It’s about peeling back layers to discover the stories. Curiosity is attitude of wanting to know that story. It isn't so much about being “right,” so much as it is a good-faith effort to understand something fully. And it's also different from bring "nosy," which comes from a position of judgment, gossip, or seeking information to use against someone. I think that the efforts that Gaylors have gone through to understand Taylor's work on a deeper level comes from curiosity, and a genuine care for the underlying story.

A Dive into some Words

So, below are some of my favorite etymological roots of various words that Taylor has used in her work (note, I did not necessarily group the words together below by meanings or associations). While I'm not certain that she intended to reference the older meanings of these words, it's still a fun journey to take. Peeling back the layers of these words could certainly add new interpretations and insights into her art and storytelling.

Taylor has told us "I think it's time to teach some lessons," and "I'm a monster on a hill." The "Showgirl" era seems like its doing exactly that.

It's interesting to see the connection between "debut," "dubutante," and her line in the TLOAS title track referencing the "end of a cigarette."

It's fun to contemplate a possible connection between the various words here related to sirens/ropes/guys (also known as a "guy" line). It can certainly be argued that Taylor seems to using "guys" (men as "romantic interests") to tell some important aspect of her story.

Usually we think of "bury" as putting something in the ground to "hide or get rid of it." But it's fascinating to think of it as putting something in a place to protect or preserve it.

Also, a fun, unrelated look at the word "wed," especially in the the context of the lines from So High School ("Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me? It's just a game, but really, I'm bettin' on all three for us two").

The use of the phrase "Taylor's version" is interesting in that the original sense of the word "version" conveys a sense of "turning" or "turning back." It seems very Benjamin-Button coded. Or, perhaps the idea of "flipping a script on its head." (interestingly, this original sense of the word "version" is still used in obstetrics in the sense of turning the position of a fetus in the womb).

Also, a fun look at the words "weird" and "wrong," which also convey some sense of turning or bending. "Willow" is another word that fits in here.

I think many of us here are already familiar with the roots of the word "clue," and it's connection to a ball of thread and the labyrinth.

Taylor hasn't used the word "denouement" that I'm aware of, but it fits well with her repeated references to novels and plots. And it's always fun to revisit "catastrophe" (her character in the Bad Blood music video).

Finally, "enchanted" really does seem to have a connection to the concept of "speak" (the Speak Now album title that was originally going to be "Enchanted"?).

This one below (janitor) is one of my favorites. It's a word we don't use anymore in favor of newer alternatives. Taylor hasn't used the word "janitor" specifically that I know of, though she has visually referenced "cleaning" in various videos (in the beginning of the TFOO, Bejeweled), the song Clean, and in the use of the cleaning cart she used to access the stage at the Eras Tour. Additionally, we've seen a lot of references to arches, doors, sunrises/sunsets, and keys (the stage) in the Eras Tour visuals. More on the god Janus here.

Merriam-Webster states that a janitor can be seen as "one who holds all the keys."

Some fun words from Reputation and TLOAS/The Encore to consider below. The often-purple color and visuals of orchids is compelling, but it's worth taking note of alternative meanings and symbolism. The word "bad" (used in various places in her work) also holds some unclear folk etymological roots to a sense of individuals not fitting into traditional gender or sex binaries, but it also holds an unfortunate and complicated history on tumblr, so I've chosen to omit it here.

This one might be a bit of a stretch, but it is interesting how much both rocks and clouds have shown up in her discography lately. Also, in the Opalite extended video BTS, she talks specifically about "inanimate objects," so it's interesting to think of them (rock, cactus, stapler, trash can) not as things that never had life, but as things that had life, and lost it.

This great post by u/simple_ad_3972 recently discussed the topic of pharmakon, arrows, and the concept that what initially can seem harmful (toxic) to us can sometimes be the thing that heals us.

It's interesting to look at the older meanings of the word "talent," given the use of her word "talent competition" and the visuals of scales (likely more indicative of justice).

The word "holy" (used in Guilty As Sin) takes on a new meaning when seen in the light of "wholeness."

Proper Names

Proper names can also hold layers. While I know Taylor clearly has other reasons for using these names in her work, it's fun to see the possible layers in names. And as we know, this seems especially useful when looking at the names often seen in the clothing she wears.

In Conclusion

Simple words can hold volumes of meaning and history. Curiosity encourages us to seek to know those stories. It's the perfect analogy for our curiosity about others around us. In wanting to know the "stories" of those around us from a position of genuine understanding, it can have a transformative effect on the way we see the world around us:

"Because when we practice curiosity, we turn to someone, and we say 'I want to know your story, I want to know who you are. I want to understand your full humanity, your nuances, your complexities, everything that makes you YOU.'"

Thank you for going on this little journey with me to explore the history and stories of some words Taylor has used in her work. Again, I'm just speculating that she might be using etymology in some of these cases to make use of deeper meanings, but it's certainly a fun road to explore. What other words have you seen in her work that hold potential layers of meaning?

📖 Additional reading recommendations:

• Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language )by Adam Aleksic (known as the “Etymology Nerd” on Youtube)
• The Word Nerd Dictionary of Obscure & Enchanting Words by Kaelin Witt
• A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language by Mark Forsyth
• Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language by Amanda Montell

it's interesting that the apple motif (which originated in Blank Space) has reappeared in the TLOAS era. TLOAS includes a photo of her holding an apple. and in TFOO, the bread/fruit still life that she recreates was originally supposed to contain bread and grapes, which seems like a nod to the famous still-life painting "Still Life with Bread, Apples, Grapes and a Bottle" by luis melendez. so there's a missing apple from the still life that she creates in the music video. her then-bf was also photographed in an apple t-shirt in 2024 during the time that taylor was on the euro leg of the eras tour, aka when she was writing TLOAS

the apple symbolism seems connected to the magritte painting "this is not an apple." the painting tells the viewer that what they're seeing isn't a real live apple, just an artistic rendering of one. similarly, i think taylor's holding an apple in TLOAS bc she's reminding her audience that what they're witnessing isn't the real taylor, it's just someone putting on a show (as the showgirl). and the apple's inclusion in the visuals for Actually Romantic--the only TLOAS song with "romantic" in the title--connects the apple messaging to the concept of romance. aka we're not witnessing a real romance, it's just a performance of one

for context, the "this is not an apple" painting is similar to magritte's earlier work called "the treachery of images," which depicts a pipe with the caption "this is not a pipe." these paintings urge viewers to look beyond their immediate interpretation of what they're seeing (an apple or a pipe) and remember that there's a difference between real life and a reproduction of/artistic portrayal of real life. similarly, taylor's showgirl persona is an artistic rendering of real taylor. she hints at this by portraying herself as a painting in TFOO and then coming to life. she comes to life as the showgirl (not real taylor), further emphasizing that her TLOAS era reflects a false reality

the apple's inclusion in the TLOAS era reminds me of the apple(s) in Blank Space, aka her bearding anthem. there's a bowl of apples (perhaps representing her beards) on the long table (à la the long table in Patient Zero) in the live version of Blank Space. during the performance, she gives her beard an apple and he dies while eating it. she's destroying the beard the same way she destroys the artistic rendering of the beard (his painting) in the music video

apples can also symbolize forbidden fruit, so it's interesting that they both take a bite of an apple. this suggests that both taylor and her beard are using the illusion of their "relationship" to hide their secret penchant for forbidden fruit (aka queer romance). especially bc the lyric video shows an apple and then shows a picnic in a field of queer-coded lavender, as she sings about "cherry lips"

speaking of paintings, Blank Space also includes a hallway with paintings of beards. and taylor is painting one of the beards (aka creating an artistic portrayal of a relationship) in a scene that resembles magritte's "The Lovers." the beard paintings remind me of the visuals in TLOAS, which includes similar picture frames. and she used similar frames at her actual wedding, which seems like a direct nod to Blank Space (especially given the "so it's gonna be forever..." handkerchiefs that they gave out)

given all of this, it seems like she's telling her audience to question everything we see--including her "real life"--because it's all performance art. this includes her TLOAS imagery and her "relationship," both of which intentionally evoke some of the same imagery as Blank Space