What is going on???

This is a long post, please bear with me. I'll get to the most important part first, and then explore what it means. I may not get it all done in one!
For the Paris leg of the eras tour, Taylor has revealed new outfits for 1989 - for both nights so far, she has worn a big cat around her neck. Everyone has been wondering what kind of big cat necklace it is.
https://preview.redd.it/9u0awwlvsozc1.jpg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5796fb82f2ef755d240f1877ad36f1475273f3e7
https://preview.redd.it/kowfgvlvsozc1.jpg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e54910f5b5dee4b2b33b4bef21acf0e151fae102
@/taylorswiftstyled included the outfit on instagram, indicating the necklace is a Roberto Cavalli big cat emblem necklace. One quick look at the Roberto Cavalli website and you'll see there is a huge big cat theme at the moment, most specifically: cheetah. Some screenshots.
https://preview.redd.it/kb17ul75tozc1.png?width=1887&format=png&auto=webp&s=9107a394c6c320415d7d4ecbfe9528b335f2f81c
https://preview.redd.it/mh5gwl06tozc1.png?width=469&format=png&auto=webp&s=e84f95043c7a17f9ca8a11c3ee616ee2b9dac55b
https://preview.redd.it/xs6uwvu6tozc1.png?width=1889&format=png&auto=webp&s=8d6cd6ca68b9fdb6d528450f649a16a670f4f8d9
https://preview.redd.it/3xjatxmatozc1.png?width=827&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5a500aca1748ad95d5886df35bcf6f5d50a5ffc
There's also tiger jewellery (pictured) and snake jewellery (not pictured as from what I understand, snakes are a big part of roberto cavalli's iconography). However, Roberto Cavalli did create a couture capsule for Taylor and her iconic Eras snake reputation dress - more info here.
Now, Roberto Cavalli loves a big cat necklace - I've found leopard, panther and jaguar. However, cheetah is much harder to come by. This is the only example I have found, and notably it is men's. It's very similar to Taylor's. All the other big cat jewellery, including the tiger as above which I know many people wondered if the cat was a tiger, has black stones wheras the cheetah does not. Just black eyes, the same as Taylor's. So, Taylor's necklace isn't just any big cat: it's a cheetah.
https://preview.redd.it/icbyjpshtozc1.png?width=1290&format=png&auto=webp&s=66e6763a7c2040741fcd0ea8f48b153beb9f6d92
This is important because of a very well-known lesbian memoir called Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. Glennon Doyle is the wife of the famous lesbian American football (soccer) player, Abby Wambach. Untamed is an amazing book and I encourage everyone to read it, by the way.
Taylor has known Abby since 2015 when she invited Abby and her teammates up onto the 1989 tour stage following their world cup win, and she then invited Abby to an after party where she remarked to Abby and Ina (Garten, gay icon, rumoured bearded relationship with her gay husband"), "Ina and Abby Wambach playing beer bong after one of my concerts, this must be THE best thing I've ever experienced". In 2020, Abby and Taylor exchanged these tweets.
https://preview.redd.it/4mgjsi8ptozc1.png?width=742&format=png&auto=webp&s=1f79d646c0cdd4ae61370c5f7e403daffa5d5480
These words were pointed out by u/No_Act3578 when I originally posted the idea that the necklace is a cheetah on the Paris N2 thread (and thankyou so much mods for inviting me to make a post!). I also want to credit @/underthepink7 on twitter who also posted the theory on tiktok which I and my partner saw when researching if it is a cheetah - both of us have read Untamed and our Gaylor senses were tingling since last night. I also want to credit my partner too who’s not on the sub 🧡
Now, here for the very important part.
Untamed, Glennon's book that Taylor credits as being a "huge help" to her in 2020, calling Glennon a "luminary" (a person who inspires or influences others), is a book about compulsory heterosexuality and coming out of the closet when you're deep in it. Glennon was still married to her now-ex husband when she met Abby. Untamed is about this, and it uses the metaphor of a cheetah in a cage to describe her sexuality and comphet. Glennon talks about being 'put' into a cage, and that she must work to free herself from this cage. Sound familiar?
She describes seeing a cheetah at the zoo as offering an ephiphany of sorts; the cheetah is behaving as they have been conditioned, thrown into a cage, just like Glennon has been conditioned to live and accept being in the cage of a heterosexual life. Glennon is the cheetah: she is in a cage, performing as society has conditioned her to, but her true self is queer. The book themes include self-discovery, liberation, and authenticity, challenging societal norms and expectations, and encourages readers to break free from what holds them back from living authentically. For the theylors, it does explore gender a bit too. It is, in essence, about embracing your most 'wild' heart, your 'untamed' heart, your queerest self. It is explicitly and unquestionably queer and lesbian.
So, what does this mean? How does this relate to TTPD Well, for TTPD, it's in the lyrics. Everywhere. It means Taylor is purposefully using cheetah imagery while having openly admitted to not just having read a book, but it having helped her in a very significant way during a hard time in her life. It was only released in 2020: she has been carving themes from the book into all of her albums since. It means she has very publicly resonated with a very queer story of comphet and queer sexuality, and then she has weaved it through her music, and she is easter egging it with a cheetah necklance for the 1989 era outfit (more on what this means later).
For TTPD, which I'm only going to deep-dive as I'd be here for days otherwise, Taylor in TTPD openly sings about 'the circus made me mean' (waolom) in contrast to mad woman 'you'll poke that bear till her claws come out'.
She sings about a whole circus of animals(!), some included animals are: tiger, horses and wild horses, vipers, wolves, lion, beast, albatross, jackals, dinosaurs, dragonflies (and golden retriever but, maybe a red herring?) and she also sings 'ditch the clowns get the crown' (the alchemy) in contrast to peace, 'there's robbers to the east, clowns to the west'. The Albatross is Taylor as the albatross, literally an animal, who destroys / ruins. Cassandra, 'so they filled my cell with snakes'.
She sings about performance: ICDIWABH, Florida!!!, WAOLOM, Clara Bow. So high school (yes, i'm putting it here lmao!).
She sings about cages, a lot, or alludes to them in the sense of being 'sent away' or asylums: Fortnight, Peter, Guilty as Sin? 'I keep my longings locked, in lowercase inside a vault', imgonnagetyouback 'whether i'm gonna flip you off or, pull you into the closet', fresh out the slammer, the prophecy (which itself is the cage, comphet, cisheteronormativity), Cassandra, and also the escapism of i hate it here with 'secret gardens in my mind' feels like it fits into this theme.
There are also a lot of themes of inauthenticity; Peter, MBOBHFT: 'my plastic smile', even toys in itself being her(?), 'i felt more when we played pretend than with all the kens cause he took me out of my box', 'queen of sand castles', Florida!!!, ICDIWABH, TSMWEL 'hung me on your wall, stabbed me with push pins, in public showed me off', Clara Bow, thanK you aIMee, i look in people's windows, The Black Dog 'my longings stay unspoken, and i may never open up the way I did for you' (you could also read this as being about the closet when compared to Guilty as Sin?
There are also songs about defying and being wild: Fresh out the slammer, BDILH, The Bolter (but something stops her being truly free),
I haven't deep-dived many lyrics nor done albums before TTPD because it just gets so long - I may do a seperate post linking back to this one at some point. A whole post could be dedicated to reading her mentions of cats through this lense. I will point to Robin, specifically, though. It is very, very common for Taylor to easter egg her next album in the last one or two songs of her current album. With that in mind, let's think about Robin, because it imo covers nearly every theme:
"Long may you reign You're an animal, you are bloodthirsty Out window panes talking utter nonsense You have no idea"
An animal in a zoo: 'window panes' are the window panes of the zoo cage which the animal is kept in, the public is kept safe from how they are 'bloodthirsty'; but more metaphorically, Taylor is the animal, hanging out of her cage 'talking utter nonsense' (aka, performing), in her bloodthirst for fame and to 'reign'. Linking this to other Robin theories, this is young, naive Taylor, who is hungry to make it big and doesn't realise as she is being lured into her cage [of window panes] as she hangs outside it. She has no idea what is to come.
"Strings tied to levers Slowed-down clocks tethered All this showmanship To keep it for you in sweetness"
Zoo cages are released via a lever: strings are attached to this lever for Taylor that she has to meet, in order for her to temporarily be released from her cage. Perhaps that the trajectory of her life slowed down when she realised these strings. The showmanship is the performance of the zoo and/or circus; it allows her to 'keep' her fame, money, through being 'sweet': aka tame.
"Way to go, tiger Higher and higher Wilder and lighter For you"
Her closeted wild authentic self, climbing higher and higher out of the cage, becoming wilder and lighter as it becomes more and more difficult for Taylor to meet the strings, to be the showman, to hide her true self, to show her authentic self into a cage. Her wild authentic self is the tiger; but her closeted self is the animal, dehumanised but also dehumanising by forcing herself (and being forced) to perform as a specific version of herself and caging her younger, true self.
"Long may you roar At your dinosaurs You're a just ruler Covered in mud, you look ridiculous And you have no idea"
Roaring at her elders(?). Dinosaurs makes me think of those older. Dinosaur could be her parents, music execs, but also herself. You're just a ruler is her younger self talking to her older self; she is a spectacle 'covered in mud' who looks ridiculous. Younger queer Taylor feels sorry for older closeted Taylor.
"Buried down deep and out of your reach, The secret we all vowed To keep it from you in sweetness"
Burying her queer self; the secret she vowed to keep in pursuit of her fame and success. This one is difficult for me to analyse to be honest, it has some themes that I struggle with - but in my opinion this is a very heavy verse. It screams trauma, to be quite honest. But it has themes of inauthenticity, of closets and cages.
"You got the dragonflies above your bed You have a favorite spot on the swing set You have no room in your dreams for regrets (You have no idea) The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline But now we'll curtail your curiosity In sweetness"
This is very clear imagery of her younger, more innocent and queer self, who has no idea what her life has become in the pursuit of success. "But now we'll curtail your curiosity, in sweetness" to me, reads, as stifling out her queerness 'for the best'. It is made very clear here that what was 'in sweetness' was not. Dragonflies and swings and dreams gives the idea of freedom, of being wild and free, as opposed to Taylor now - closeted, caged, inauthentic, performing.
I think Robin probably highlights the most the idea Taylor could be drawing themes directly from Untamed by Glennon Doyle. The themes are incredibly prevalent, and following that up with The Manuscript is a deliberate choice: it has themes of lost youth, of knowing things too young and too soon, and again it's a song I can't personally deep dive too much atm unfortunately.
Finally, beyond her lyrics, there are some very overly obvious easter egg zoo themes going on. As u/courtingdisaster pointed out, Taylor randomly went to the zoo in Sydney in February multiple times. On this very sub, people pointed out how 'creepy' the photos were, as an example that stood out to me u/slowburn_23 said "Weird Tay being photographed inside a zoo when she uses so many gilded cage and birdcage images. Tay is basically a zoo animal in the mediasphere and she's in a literal zoo. Hm."
I think this was purposeful. Taylor went back again and took Travis. She went twice, once herself and once twice, two times in a row. This feels like easter egging for a two album drop at 2AM says my most clown self. It could also function as a countdown, 3, 2, 1, the 1 being Travis... and "meet me at midnight".
So in summary, Taylor's 1989 necklace is a cheetah. The fact that she is choosing to display this with her 1989 outfit specifically though, is very telling. If it's a brand new album, why not display it with TTPD outfits?
Because, call me a clown but, her next album is Karma, the lost album meant to come right after 1989. OR, there is another new album, which doesn't feature cheetahs, and Karma is the album we 'meet [her] at midnight' with, where she reveals her true self. The animal for Karma is a cheetah (karma is a cat, purring on my lap cause she loves me), which fits the era in which snakes became Reputation and in my opinion I think she has went back and looked at Karma, after reading Untamed, and started easter egging cheetahs along with other Karma easter eggs. Especially tonight's 1989 outfit with the orange top and purple to pink skirt, gold shoe and silver shoe.
I may lose you here, but please do read my previous post indicating the Karma easter egging that has been going on especially with the Paris leg of the tour. u/jossiesideways points out the "makeunder" going on with 1989 and prior in this post and isn't it interesting that tonight (N2) Paris's show, the t-shirt was "I Bet You Think About ME". Orange and pink, particularly orange, are the rumoured colours of Karma and Taylor has been going crazy with them in Paris.
I think TTPD is about her losing colour: but she is introducing orange "I was just getting colour back into my face" - which u/weirdrobotgirl points out is the colour of acceptance under colour theory in but i'm a cheerleader (posts here and here) - to allude to the idea she's beginning to come round to accepting herself. She is also still using yellow, which signifies closetness and sickness. Cheetahs vary from a light yellow to orange, which I feel signifies Karma very well - she is literally still keeping it closeted, and so it has a degree of sickness tainted by all the years of being 'locked inside a vault'.
I also want to point out that a cheetah, in dreams, signifies choosing to face the changes you want to make in your life which scare you. It also represents independence, persistence, adaptability, vulnerability and grace. Clown moment but cheetahs are thought to be the second most common gay animal, after lions.
So TLDR: Taylor's necklace is a cheetah, which links to the very well-known lesbian memoir called Untamed which Taylor herself said had been a "huge help" to her in 2020. There are themes all the way through TTPD and then back into Midnights and Folklore/Evermore (not explored) which highlight how she has been contending with ideas of circuses, animals, dehumanisation, vs autheniticity, wild and free, liberation, for a while now. The cheetah is an easter egg, as were her trips to Sydney zoo. Her next album could well be Karma, because of it being linked to the 1989 outfit - or it could be the midnight album.
That's it! Taylor's necklance is a cheetah and I think it means big things.
Thankyou for reading and thankyou again mods for inviting me to post!!

Does anyone else think she’s giving Ina Garten?

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Banana Afterlife from Doc Parks Recipe found from Make and Drink YouTube channel

• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz passionola (I used about 1/4 passionfruit syrup and 1/4 velvet falernum)
• 3/4 oz grapefruit juice
• 3/4 oz pineapple juice
• 1/4 oz banana liqueur
• 3/4 oz Denizen Vatted
• 3/4 oz Tanduay Gold
• 3/4 oz Rum Fire

Build in a drink mixer tin, flash blend for 5-8 seconds with pebble ice. Top with more pebble and have fun with the garnish!
Packs a hogo punch, delicious.

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Ina Garten and Martha Stewart LIVE in New York and Philly!