On...Bringing Tiny Violins to Knife Fights

It's a crazy time to be a Taylor Swift fan + scholar (because, yes, that's a real thing).

One of the things that fascinates me the most about pop culture isn't the texts themselves. Don't get me wrong -- I love Taylor's music and Disney movies and the Percy Jackson books. But in addition to the texts, there's also all these conversations around them -- the narratives that get circulated, the perspectives that get amplified, and what those reveal about us, as a society, in any given moment.

Case In Point: The Blake-Lively-Justin-Baldoni-It-Ends-With-Us situation has leveled up.

Despite months of silence, rumors of irreparably broken friendships, and swirling speculation, Taylor Swift has officially entered the chat.

Why now?

⬅️ ⬅️ ⬅️ MJ has the reason: Lively's case against Baldoni has entered the summary judgment phase, so the evidence needs to be assessed (does it have merit), and it becomes "public" through discovery.

(I'm not a lawyer -- that's just my basic understanding of it all. Someone correct me if I'm woefully wrong.)

So a lot of stuff has come out.

And, unsurprisingly, people have a lot of thoughts about Taylor Swift's role.

Now, I'm not planning to write about this situation specifically. Like most high-profile celebrity feuds, we -- as the public -- won't ever really know what happened. Since this is going to trial, we will have evidence which we, like a jury, have to decide how we interpret. I have my stance on the issue, but ultimately, that's not the point.

What I am interested in is how all of this connects to a song off The Life of a Showgirl: "Cancelled." (Swiftie History: when the Showgirl tracklist was initially released, there was rampant speculation that the song "Ruin the Friendship" would be about Blake. Lolz. Ah, the benefit of hindsight.)

Full disclosure: back in October when the album was released, this was one of my favorite songs -- and it still is.

I am a Reputation girl through and through and this song (and "Father Figure") are just giving Rep vibes.

The darker sound, the lower registers, the imagery -- it's all very similar to the persona Taylor projected circa 2017.

So much so that I initially wondered if these 2 songs weren't maybe originally intended for Rep and then got tweaked for this album.

I still do think it's possible -- that somewhere in her Notes folder, fragments of these songs exist in very rough drafts. (Taylor admitted in the Showgirl release film that she just keeps lyrics and inspiration there, so it's possible...)

But, in the wake of some of the documents that have come to light, I firmly believe that "Cancelled" is not only about Blake Lively, but is written directly to her.

When the album dropped, people went crazy trying to figure out who each song was about. And Blake was a strong contender for this song (although people also speculated that it was about Brittany Mahomes (which I never bought, because THE BRIDGE). Other possible contenders were (apparently) Sabrina Carpenter (???) and Selena Gomez (?!?!), but again, I think the Blake Lively connection was always the strongest.

When things started hitting the fan last Fall, people were quick to note that Taylor and Blake hadn't been seen together lately, and also quick to note that Taylor wasn't overtly showing support for Blake. From that, the Internet decided that They Were No Longer Friends, and specifically, that Taylor had dropped Blake, not wanting to once again be drawn into a narrative she didn't ask to be a part of.

The information that's come out, however...complicates that.

There's the obvious reference, of course. In a text exchange, and accompanied by a screenshot of an Instagram post from People, Taylor (allegedly) texts: "I think this bitch knows something is coming because he's gotten out his tiny violin"

Given the line in "Cancelled"...well. It's the first, and clearest link, that this song is about that situation.

And then there are the (alleged) emails. Dated December 2024, Blake seems to be the one to reach out, saying she "still [has] a feeling something may not be right. I told Ryan [Reynolds]. He said to just ask you."

via popapologists on Instagram

Taylor (allegedly) responds and (seemingly) confirms Blake's suspicions. There is, I think, a lot to commend in this email exchange (re: emotional maturity and frankness -- point to Ryan Reynolds for advising Blake to just ask Taylor, and point to Blake for following through). But a few lines stick out to me:

"...I've been through things like this before and I know how all consuming it is... ...I just kinda miss my funny, dark, normal-speaking friend... ...And I know you feel attacked from all sides for ridiculous reasons so you're feeling like you have to overly explain things or be overly nice or whatever but. It's me! And you don't need to apologize. Just come back please."

Is there tension in the friendship? Clearly.

But what's equally clear is that both are missing the other. They're acknowledging the difficulty of the situation -- familiar ground for Taylor; somewhat new territory for Blake -- but also trying to let the other know where they're coming from.

Seeing Taylor, even allegedly, admit to Blake that she misses her friend and wants her to "come back please" shifts how we can read "Cancelled." In the context of these emails, the song can be read as a continuation of the plea in the last line of the released emails -- to come back to the friendship -- and as a reassurance that she [Taylor] understands what Blake is going through.

Certain lines have been linked to Blake since the song was released -- especially the chorus -- as fans debated who the song was about:

*"cloaked in Gucci" -- could reference Blake's modeling for the fashion house

*"whiskey sour" -- could reference Blake's "Betty Booze" line, of which the Bourbon offering includes "sour cherry"

*"poison thorny flowers" -- could reference Blake's character -- "Lily Bloom" -- in the It Ends With Us film

The lines that interest me the most, though, are the ones that utilize second-person pronouns -- the lines with "you." While most famously known for her first-person, confessional, diaristic writing, Taylor does use second-person sporadically throughout her discography.

But here, it reminds me most of the pronoun shifting in "All Too Well" -- that is, I don't think Taylor is adopting personas or shifting into other perspectives in this song. On first listens, I did think that maybe the "you" could have been self-referential -- like Taylor was talking to herself: "You thought that it would be okay, at first / The situation could be saved, of course / But they'd already picked out your grave and hearse..." That very much seems like it could be a song draft from the Reputation era: "the situation" referring to the Kimye drama and "they" being the public scrutiny Taylor faced.

And that's what makes this song interestingly complex to me. Because, on the one hand, I think my initial reading could stand -- and on one level, the song is about Taylor's cancellation -- because, as she tells, Blake (allegedly) in the email, "I've been through things like this before."

Taylor explicitly references her own cancellation in the Bridge: "They stood by me before my exoneration / They believed I was innocent / So I'm not here for judgment, no..." The shift to "they" is also interesting here, because it opens up the parameters of the song to include the plural "friends" of the chorus.

But, even so, I do think she shifts between first person and second person to directly address someone else -- specifically Blake -- and specifically in these lines:

"Come with me, when they see us, they'll run... Welcome to my underworld, where it gets quite dark... ...we'll take you by the hand... I salute you if you're much too much to handle Can't you see my infamy loves company Now they've broken you like they've broken me But a shattered glass is a lot more sharp And now you know exactly who your friends are (you know who we are) we're the ones with matching scars"

I feel like some of these lines get overshadowed by the more "obvious" connections Swifties make. But, to me, the imperative lines like "come with me" and "we'll take you by the hand" echo the lines in the email where Taylor (allegedly) says, "Just come back please."

There are also several lines in the email where Taylor (allegedly) seems to be trying to make Blake understand that she knows what she's going through -- she knows how "all-consuming" it is -- which parallel the lines in the song "now they've broken you like they've broken me."

But above all, Taylor (allegedly) tells Blake that she just wants her friend back: "my infamy loves company." Blake doesn't need to apologize -- after all, "I salute you if you're much too much to handle." She just misses her "funny, dark...friend": a point echoed (I think) at the end of the song. The final chorus changes slightly: there's an added "you know who we are" delivered in an almost whispered tone, as the music fades out. The silence underscores that line as the song ends on "we're the ones with matching scars," allowing those lines to resonate a little more powerfully. That "you know who we are" lands a little more personally -- as if it's meant to remind someone specifically that they still have friends, and one friend in particular.

Maybe that's reading too much into this song...but listeners have linked this song to Blake + Taylor from the album's release. And, if The Life of a Showgirl is supposed to represent everything going on in a showgirl's life when she's off the stage, well, then I think the media storm swirling around one of her closest friends, especially when it's likely to bring up reminders of one of the darkest times in her life*...I would hazard that a showgirl known for turning her feelings into song lyrics could conceivably process some of those emotions and send a not-so-subtle signal to her friend that, even if there's distance between them, she's still in her corner.

While the line "did you bring a tiny violin to a knife fight" can be linked to the (alleged) texts between Taylor and Blake, the second half of the line also echoes a line from Reputation's "Call It What You Want." The song opens: "My castles crumbled overnight / I brought a knife to a gun fight / They took the crown but it's alright." Directly alluding back to a song from the album that captures the same "all consuming" nature of Taylor's own cancellation can't be a coincidence -- it directly links Taylor's and Blake's experiences at the hands of "masked crusaders."