Out of the Woods:
A very anxious song about fear of being discovered.
It’s a braided song with Dianna Agron (secret girlfriend) and Harry Styles (public boyfriend/beard).
A statement that Taylor and Harry (and Taylor and Dianna) stick out of the group. Queers are different and loud and flamboyant. Hiding a queer personality is difficult.
Taylor and Harry have to straight-date (beard) to hide their queerness.
Taylor and Dianna have to hide their relationship to protect their reputations and careers.
“The rest of the world was black and white but we were in screaming color” from Out of the Woods describes Taylor overtly recognizing that sapphic love (vs. comp-het) and rouses her from the twenty year dark night.
Afterward, Taylor sees the world with new eyes. The blue is brighter and more unique in Delicate (Question… [Part 3]). Taylor had an awakening because of this novel love she felt for this new type of person (a woman).
But anxiety:
Hiding queerness by heteronormative dating is a delicate process where Taylor and Harry are actively trying to project a certain image to hide the truth.
Hiding queerness in a closeted relationship is also scary, because people could find out the truth.
For Taylor and Harry, “we were built” is showing their relationship could be contrived. They built a certain narrative. That, and the bearding relationship was specifically built to have an expiration date. The contract wrote a relationship and break-up.
For Taylor and Dianna, “fall” is involuntary, not a deliberate decision. Taylor and this person fall apart (which could mean break up, or it could be individually or as a duo they freak out) then fall back together. Both the apart and together are greater than their will. This happens to them, they do not make it happen.
We’ll get to the obvious Harry reference in a sec.
First, the night that pops up in more lyrics and imagery is Dianna Agron’s circus-themed birthday party:
Taylor dressed as a cat again for the party scene in her 22 music video (which had other Dianna/Glee references)-
Taylor dressed as a flapper (Dianna’s birthday costume) in her Delicate music video-
Taylor dressed as conductor/ring leader (matching Dianna’s birthday theme and an outfit from Glee) for the 1989 tour-
Here’s some social media posts about the birthday and the scissor jewelry-
Swiftionary:
Dance- In other songs, Taylor uses the word, “dance” to show intimacy between two people.
-It is also being unbothered and happy-go-lucky in her queerness. It’s a state Taylor enters only with this specific person.
-Going back to Harry, “dance” could mean something more akin to a choreographed routine. Their bearding relationship has been planned/masterminded ahead of time and will play out with specific steps along the way, according to a contractual agreement.
It’s a callback to the similar airplane necklace that Taylor and Harry both had.
Paper airplanes are carefully constructed out of, well, a sheet of paper. Just like Haylor was a carefully constructed narrative from a paper contract. Paper airplanes are also not a strong, sturdy, reliable vessel. Paper, unlike metal, would be much more destructible, and more likely to crash.
The ruse causes both anxiety:
The next part works as a direct Harry Styles reference and a metaphor for a stressful secret relationship strained by closeting:
But also-
Hit the breaks too soon = Harry stopped pretending within the beardship. He didn’t like the artifice, and didn’t want to hide who he was. Plus, under immense pressure to remain secret Dianna and Taylor broke up or stopped investing in the relationship.
Injury = The premature stop of the activity (depending on which person we’re talking about, Harry or Dianna) brought pain for the person, and Taylor.
But when the sun came up = It’s a new day. They see each other with a clear head. They are in the daylight, out in the open.
I was looking at you = Taylor was beside injured Harry, and could see his humanity and motivations. Also, Taylor only had eyes for Dianna despite the painful consequences of hiding their relationship.
We couldn’t take the heat = The pressure of hiding, the stress of pretending was too much for both Haylor and Swiftgron.
Setting you free = Taylor ended the contract with Harry early? And regarding Swiftgron, Taylor is leaving despite loving this person so her situation (closeting, bearding, being open to public scrutiny because of major fame) no longer causes them pain.
The monsters turned out to be just trees = What looked scary in the night, in the dark of the closet, when hiding, was just a mirage. The trees only turned to monsters in their minds. Nothing is as scary in the daylight, or out in the open. The fear that prompted them to hide was unwarranted.
When the sun came up you were looking at me = same as above when Taylor was looking at you. These two have mutual understanding. This person only had eyes for Taylor once it was a new day, and they were in the daylight. These two are on the same page. They came together again, despite any consequences.
But that doesn’t stop the anxiety:
In the clear yet, GOOD.
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