Who is this song about?
It is not really about a single person, but a different groups of people and ideas. These groups are really illustrated in the music video.
Click here to see the music video for "You Need To Calm Down".
Who are these people? The song is mainly about support for the LBGTQ community. The music video features many people from this community; Ellen DeGeneres, Adam Lambert, RuPaul, Todrick Hall, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Hayley Kiyoko, Laverne Cox, Antoni Porowski, Karamo, Johnathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk, Hannah Hart, Dexter Mayfield, Adam Rippon, Chester Lockhart, Jade Jolie, Drew Kirsch, and Billy Porter.
The lyrics also support this community. "Why are you made when you could be GLADD?" and " 'Cause shade never made anybody less gay." There are people that protest these groups of people people and try to make them feel small. To answer this Taylor says "You Need To Calm Down", especially because "you are somebody we don't know." Let people live their life how they want and not live "in the dark ages" by telling the LBGTQ community can not live how they want. She specifically calls out support for the Equality Act at the end of the video. She even made a petition which says,
https://taylorswift.lnk.to/petition
"HAPPY PRIDE MONTH! While we have so much to celebrate, we also have a great distance to go before everyone in this country is truly treated equally. In excellent recent news, the House has passed the Equality Act, which would protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in their places of work, homes, schools, and other public accommodations. The next step is that the bill will go before the Senate.
While there’s no information yet as to when the Equality Act will go before the Senate for a vote, we do know this: Politicians need votes to stay in office. Votes come from the people. Pressure from massive amounts of people is a major way to push politicians towards positive change. That’s why I’ve created this petition to urge the Senate to support the Equality Act.
Our country’s lack of protection for its own citizens ensures that LGBTQ people must live in fear that their lives could be turned upside down by an employer or landlord who is homophobic or transphobic. The fact that, legally, some people are completely at the mercy of the hatred and bigotry of others is disgusting and unacceptable.
Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally. "
The song also touches on other issues, Donald Trump being one of them. The first verse says "It's 7AM...But you say it in a Tweet, that's a cop-out." Donald Trump is known for tweeting at all hours of the day. Many of his tweets are angry hate filled tweets directed at others, calling them names and trying to make other people feel small. Taylor responds to him and the others saying "You Need To Calm Down" and "take several seats and then try to restore the people/And control your urges to scream about all the people you hate." Trump definitely needs to calm down, stop publicly airing his anger and get out of office.
The other group Taylor touches on is protesters. These protesters are not limited to the protesters against the LBGTQ community, but protesters that spread hate in general . She does not want to "mess with your self-expression", but wants them to realize that "stressing and obsession about somebody else is no fun". She pokes fun of them saying "makin' that sign must've taken all night". There is a good way to protest about ideas and such. But protesting to spread hate is not right and they "need to calm down".
The other issue the song touches on is how society treats women. To illustrate this she brings Katy Perry into the music video to illustrate their beef is gone. There was some "Bad Blood" there for a while. Taylor and Katy said and did some things I bet they are both not proud of. Taylor says her and Katy "figured you out." They know society is "over there on the internet/Comparing all the girls who are killing it." But that does not matter. Katy and Taylor realize that "We all know now we all got crowns." This is reference to her song "Look What You Made Me Do". In that song she says "I don't like your kingdom keys/They once belonged to me". This references how society tries to pit females against one another and how "another name goes up in lights" all the time in Hollywood/the celebrity world and "all the young things line up to take your place". (These lyrics from "The Lucky One") I am so glad that Taylor realized it does not have to be a competition, but everyone can be friends and support one another. Females can be so strong together and not against one another. Demi Levato, please pay attention to this.
What a great empowering song Taylor. Thanks for calling out hate and such in this world. We all need to love one another and not spread hate and "just calm down".
Click here for lyrics to the song, "You Need To Calm Down".
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