I do believe in Taylor Swift. I do! I do!
New episode: "Show & Tell: Peter Pan" available now!
This week we got to revisit a classic, Peter Pan! Taylor has a few favorite stories she loves to revisit (hello Gatsby!), and the story of Peter Pan is one we’ve been wanting to dive into for a while now. Join us as we dive into the Peter Pan references in “Innocent” from Speak Now, “cardigan” from folklore, and “Peter” from TTPD, The Anthology!
🎧 Listen above and ⬇️ scroll below to read Jenn’s extra credit about Taylor’s apparent fondness for the Peter Pan story!
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🎒This Week’s Extra Credit - Brought to You by Jenn
Taylor has made truly so many references to Peter Pan throughout her discography. Skimming through Taylor Swift by the Book (by our INCREDIBLE friends Tiffany Tatreau and Rachel Feder), they note over 20 specific Peter Pan references. She’s been talking about this song for literally years in her art, so the question I have is…. why? Why Peter Pan? I don’t have a clear answer, but I have some theories. Let’s explore!
Setting the Scene
Well, I would be remiss to call out Tiffany and Rachel and not share some of their brilliance. To set the stage, enjoy this excerpt from their book (then go buy it!!!)
“The “Lost Boys” Chapter
J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, the magical boy who wouldn’t grow up, is so closely connected with the idea of resisting adulthood that pathological arrested development is known as “Peter Pan syndrome.” There is a Peter Pan effect that comes with being a pop star, an eternal pressure to stay frozen young and beautiful. Perhaps that’s why J. M. Barrie’s works have weaved their way through Swift’s canon in different forms, growing with her as she expresses feelings about growing up.
“Never grow up,” Peter Pan and the Lost Boys’ rule and rallying cry, is made into a lullaby that turns mournful on Speak Now. Our narrator looks back on happy childhood memories from her empty big city apartment, urging her younger self to stay where things never change. Several years into that once-fresh adulthood, Peter Pan appears again in “The Archer,” but with a different perspective. “I never grew up. It’s getting so old,” Swift sings, a more cynical take on choosing surroundings and circumstances that never change. Eventually, the magic wears off and you get tired of it.
“cardigan” directly references the scene of “Peter losing Wendy” from Wendy Grows Up, An Afterthought (which was later added to the Peter and Wendy novel). When Peter returns for Wendy, he is hurt and confused to find she has grown up. In “cardigan,” our protagonist, Betty, likens her distance from James to that between Wendy and Peter—like Wendy, her maturity has created a barrier between them. And Swift circles back to the Pan figure in “Peter,” expressing her unfinished business with a love that never matured.”
Why Does Taylor Relate?
As Tiffany and Rachel pointed out, there are a few things that Taylor could connect to with this story. First, the fact that fame has a tendency to “freeze” stars into a form of arrested development. While “Peter Pan” syndrome is not a positive thing (i.e. full grown men refusing to mature), for someone like Taylor who is so famous, it’s not always optional. And as Tiffany and Rachel pointed out, Taylor wrestles with that reality.
The other element Taylor likes to reference is the relationship between Peter and Wendy. Again, Tiffany and Rachel discussed this above and we discuss it in this week’s episode, but in general there is a tension between feeling special but also the reality of needing to mature.
Finally, the element I don’t think we’ve discussed much until this point is the role of Tinkerbell. I remember seeing the play as a kid and watching the 2003 live action film, and the most memorable scene in both of those to me is when Tink is dying and needs people to believe in her in order for her to survive. Almost like having an audience that supports her is vital to her ability to survive…
Taylor Swift and Tinkerbell
While Taylor hasn’t directly referenced Tinkerbell (at least not that I can think of…leave a comment if I’m missing something though!), I think the comparison is definitely there. In Peter Pan, Tinkerbell almost dies because she drinks the poison meant for Peter Pan, but Peter refuses to give up. Eventually, Tink comes back because the crowd (in the play) or generally the world (in the film) expresses their belief in her again.
I’m reminded of lines like “I come back from the dead, I do it all the time” or “All her fucking lives flashed before her eyes.” Taylor has played with this resurrection theme many times in her music, and her playing with the concept of different eras adds to the death/rebirth mythology around her career. And yet many people somehow STILL refuse to believe that she has talent. In fact, a friend of mine works at a company that has a real dudebro CEO who said in an all-company meeting last year that Taylor Swift wasn’t even a real musician, she is just good at marketing (insert major eye roll).
While Taylor Swift the human wouldn’t die without fans, her career is what it is because of her fans. This is a fact that she herself has referenced many times.
Taylor even chose Lady Gaga’s “Applause” as one of her final songs before coming on stage at the Eras Tour. If “I live for the applause” isn’t a Tinkerbell lyric, I don’t know what is!
Tinkerbell’s resurrection is the turning point of the whole story. Without Tink, good cannot triumph over evil. It’s a moment of celebration and true magic, magic that is reliant on people simply believing. It’s the kind of magic that you typically grow out of, but I would argue that the world Swifties made at the Eras Tour, the Eras Tour movie screenings, and in many more communities captures that again. Tinkerbell surviving is great, but it’s the magic of the crowd that really captures you.
We All Believe in Taylor Swift
Despite the dudebros of the world, the last two years showed us that millions of people still believe in Taylor. Taylor Swift singing alone on a stage with no crowd would still be cool, but the feeling of being in that crowd was intoxicating. The true magic, I would argue, is in the relationship between the fans and Taylor, and the fans and each other. We keep her career alive, and she gives us a little bit of magic to believe in. I think it’s a fair trade.
I’ll leave you with one last thing. The Tinkerbell scene in the live-action film made me full on cry when I first saw it in 2003. I thought they did a great job of showing the power of the magic of belief in a setting where you weren’t getting a whole audience to clap and cheer together. I’ll drop the clip below, and I recommend watching it just imagining that the pirates are just the most negative, worst men you know, and the kids are Swifties. Now tell me that wasn’t exactly what the Eras Tour (or honestly the lead up to the reputation era) felt like????