#Gaylor and the Dynamics of Online Identity Exploration
From a Taylor Swift conspiracy to an Oprah WeightWatchers special to unpacking identity in politics- we have lots to cover this week!
At the intersection of conspiracy and fandom lies TSwift.
(Research summary by Katherine Furl)
The “Gaylor” online subculture has long speculated about Taylor Swift’s sexuality, speculations bolstered on the highly participatory TikTok platform. In “‘You Could Hear a Hair Pin Drop’: Queer Utopianism and Informal Knowledge Production in the Gaylor Closeting Conspiracy Theory,” recently published in Social Media + Society, Yvonne Eadon analyzes TikTok videos to understand how Gaylor community members parse evidence and collectively develop community lore. The TikTok Gaylor community exhibits phenomena prominent in both conspiracy and fandom online communities with a distinctly feminized character, ultimately pushing back against heterosexist consensus.
Gaylor as a theory can be considered a “Closeting Conspiracy Theory” or CCT, theories focused on speculation toward a public figure’s sexuality in online spaces. CCT believers gather evidence and produce knowledges across several online platforms, though the capabilities of video-sharing platform TikTok are especially suited to the sorts of multi-layered discussions, challenges, and boundary-setting work conducted by CCT believers. Eadon notes that in past research, conspiracy theories have often been homogenized, and are frequently masculinized such that conspiracy theories more popular among women are considered inconsequential. Taking a queer feminist approach to her research, Eadon urges researchers to consider the specific contexts in which different conspiracy theories and communities engaging with them form and develop.
Analyzing 200 TikTok videos with hashtags related to the Gaylor conspiracy, Eadon finds TikTokers participating in the Gaylor community frequently engage in boundary work: self-identified Gaylors frequently work to distinguish themselves from “Hetlors,” who avow Swift’s heterosexuality, while self-identified Hetlers work to distinguish themselves from Gaylor in turn. Further, Gaylor TikTokers collectively analyze various media produced by Swift—from Instagram reels to song lyrics and liner notes—to parse supposed clues related to Swift’s sexuality in ways mirroring other conspiratorial communities. Gaylor TikTokers, for example, repeatedly predict precise dates at which Swift will reveal her sexuality, with multiple album release dates put forward as dates when this will occur. Eadon refers to the as the “doomsday coming-out,” capturing how Gaylor TikTokers merge tropes from both conspiratorial and queer online communities.
Working together to interpret fandom media, set themselves apart, and develop valued knowledges, the Gaylor TikTok community inspires members to think toward queer futures, and to value their own social positions and subjectivities. Eadon notes Swift’s own thin, white womanhood potentially confines how fans imagine queerness. Conversely, Eadon asserts that considering the Gaylor TikTok community as a space in which only fans whose racialized and other social identities align with Swift’s as capable of developing meaningful, impactful community lore is not just limiting—it misrepresents the Gaylor community. A diverse group of Gaylor TikTokers find meaning and legitimacy through imagining queer possibilities on TikTok.
Oprah is “dismantling diet culture”, one TV special at a time.
On March 18, Oprah Winfrey hosted an ABC special, “Shame, Blame and the Weight Loss Revolution”. In the special, guests discussed their experiences with GLP-1 medicines, “food noise”, and both the benefits and side effects of the aforementioned medicine. They discussed both the shame around weight and the (newer) shame around taking GLP-1 medications.
As Tressie McMillan Cottom wrote in her NYT column following the special:
“Obesity is not merely about calories or self-control. It is about physiology and culture. This country has managed obesity as a moral failing because it will not solve the culture of inequality that makes it so easy for Americans to gain weight they would rather not have…
After decades of convincing people that they could lose weight if they incorporated willpower and accountability, WeightWatchers is rebranding. It ended some in-person meetings, its mainstay, and purchased a GLP-1 provider. The new WeightWatchers also offers a GLP-1 program, a concession that it takes more than behavioral choices to lose weight.”
This Thursday, WeightWatchers is hosting a virtual event, “Making the Shift: A new way to think about weight.” Oprah is hosting guests—including Rebel Wilson, Busy Phillips, and our very own Tressie McMillan Cottom!—for a conversation where they will discuss shedding the “weight of shame”, the science of weight health, and how to create a new health culture together.
For extra pre-reading, check out Tressie’s NYT piece on Ozempic from October, “Ozempic Can’t Fix What Our Culture Has Broken”.
Publications and appearances
The field of political communication has historically underemphasized the role of race and identity in understanding political dynamics. Daniel Kreiss, Regina Lawrence and Shannon McGregor discuss this and advocate for a new racial analytic in “Trump Goes to Tulsa on Juneteenth: Placing the Study of Identity, Social Groups, and Power at the Center of Political Communication Research”. The authors highlight the essential role of racial identity in understanding U.S. political dynamics, particularly post-2016, recognizing that white racial resentment and identity politics are central to analyzing Donald Trump’s campaigns and the Republican Party. They criticize the field of political communication for its slow acknowledgment of race, despite clear evidence of its significance in shaping political outcomes. Ultimately, they call for a deeper integration of race as a social and political construct in the study of political communication, emphasizing that communication about identity is intertwined with power dynamics and is crucial for understanding and shaping political processes.
“Moving forward as a field means developing a clear “racial analytic” (Chakravartty et al., 2018) for our research, and bringing identity and inequality, as well as information, to the fore in our attempts to understand political communication and democracy. To do so, at the very least scholars must treat identities and power structures as central empirical dynamics in political communication – not as a specialized side topic reserved for certain sub-fields.”
Shannon McGregor was featured on 97.9 The Hill WCHL’s morning show with Aaron Keck where they discussed social media and the 2024 election. Aaron asked what methods and/or actions work to promote democracy and good discourse, and Shannon responded, saying,
“I think we have to have these really difficult conversations at the one on one level—and at the political leadership level as well—about what kind of country do we want to be in. If we want to truly be in a pluralistic, multiethnic, multiracial democracy, then we have to have these difficult conversations so that we can all come to some broad agreement about that [democracy], and that that is even the goal.”
Tressie McMillan Cottom was featured in a Diverse: Issues in Higher Education piece where she outlines her journey as a sociologist and educator, focusing on the impact of culture and storytelling in her research.
Affiliate Highlights
Daniel Johnson, affiliate and Park Doctoral fellow at Hussman, contributed to the NYT piece written by Dave Philipps, “A Secret War, Strange New Wounds and Silence From the Pentagon.” The piece was named as a finalist for a Pulitzer in National Reporting yesterday, May 6th “for groundbreaking reporting that uncovered a pattern of traumatic brain injuries among U.S. troops from blast exposures caused by the weapons they were firing.” Following this piece, a bill was introduced that would “force the military for the first time to track and limit troops’ exposure to damaging shock waves from firing their own weapons.”
Congrats to Daniel and Dave Philipps on both the Pulitzer nomination and seeing the impact of their research in legislation! 👏👏👏
Affiliate Yiping Xia is running as a candidate for Council Member for the Communication, Information Technology, and Media Sociology section in this year's ASA elections. Voting is open through May 20, 2024.
Coming soon
May 9th at 6pm [Virtual]: “Making the Shift: A new way to think about weight” with Oprah Winfrey, Rebel Wilson, Busy Phillips, Tressie McMillan Cottom, and more.
May 15th at 12pm [Virtual]: Francesca Tripodi, alongside Zoe Darmé, Mia Sato, and Zeve Sanderson, is a panelist for a virtual event hosted by the Center for Social Media and Politics titled “The Future of Search Engines in the Age of AI”
May 21st @ 6:30pm: Tressie McMillan Cottom is participating in a Center for Brooklyn History talk with Natalie Foster on Foster’s “The Guarantee: The Fight for America’s Next Economy.” It will be in-person in Brooklyn- more info here.