“You’re like the cute harmless version of QAnon”: Taylor Swift “Gaylor” subreddits and microconspiracy archives,affects,and aesthetics

Abstract

This article takes the online subculture Gaylor (theories speculating that pop star Taylor Swift is queer and encodes queer themes in her music and persona) as a case study to argue that the style, tropes, and aesthetic vernaculars of conspiracy theorizing have dispersed into other social arenas without maintaining the wide-ranging scale of conspiracy theorizing proper, creating what I term “microconspiracies.” By engaging in non-participant observation of a Gaylor community on the social forum platform Reddit, I demonstrate how digital microconspiracy spaces engage with conspiracy aesthetics, yet deploy them on a minor scale and toward minor ends. Understanding microconspiracy opens up new ways of thinking about conspiracy thinking and cultures, while also charting the extension of conspiracy's style beyond the domains it is conventionally imagined to inhabit. By pointing to conspiracy theorizing's ability to work across axes of macro/micro and scale/scope, I offer a revised understanding of conspiracy theories and conspiracy-thinking, and their roles in contemporary culture.