14: “Honey” — trust, tenderness, and the golden glow of truth

In “Honey,” the showgirl steps into a life she once feared was only a mirage: a relationship so secure she can finally let her armor drop.

After years of battling manipulation, half-truths, and outright deception, the showgirl delights in a partnership built on honesty, transparency, and mutual respect.

Performance gives way to play, and the golden glow of relational safety begins to feel like home.

Don’t miss the discussion questions and writing prompts at the end!

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Transcript

0:38

Welcome to Lit one 12, the Life of a Showgirl where we treat Taylor Swift's latest album like a novel I'm your host, Mara Eller, a literature and writing teacher with 16 years of experience at the high school and college level. I just retired to focus on editing and book coaching, but when I started getting requests for this series on social media, I couldn't resist. Whether you're a veteran swifty or just an AP lit nerd like me who happens to like her music, all are welcome here. I've even got something for you writers, creative prompts inspired by the subject of each lesson. You can find them at the end of the episodes or at mara eller.com/prompts. so grab your metaphorical notebook and let's unpack this record together, chapter by chapter, song by song. Today we're talking about honey, the penultimate chapter in the showgirls drama. She's finally realized she can't control the narrative about her, but she can control the narrative she tells herself. We saw that beginning in actually romantic wood and canceled, but in honey, the showgirl stops rewriting the narrative out of spite or survival and starts rewriting it out of safety. It's where she moves from armored performance to authentic intimacy, revealing that she's finally found someone she can trust with her full self. That's the quiet revolution at the heart of what might seem like a simple love song. She moves from self-protective reinvention to honest, open-hearted, healing in the safety of a relationship built on mutual respect. Quick heads up before we dive in, this episode does contain some explicit language. Okay, so it's really important that we put this song in context of the album as a whole. So I'm gonna give you a quick recap of the narrative so far as I see it. This life of a showgirl drama is primarily about her struggles with stardom and how to navigate the life of fame. But there is also a romantic subplot, which is the part we're more concerned about regarding this song that is so explicitly about romantic love. Okay, so the fate of Ophelia was about rescue and excitement. She was pulled into the twin fires of passion and stardom. In Elizabeth Taylor, she experienced burnout and disillusionment. She was rich and famous, but she is burnt out. And her relationships have burnt out as well, flaming out under the bright lights, leaving her with no one she can trust. Opalite showed her trying to make the most of fleeting happiness, where she finds it but she is not expecting it to last. Eldest daughter revealed her fear of failing someone, of breaking her vows. She seemed to be asking, am I becoming as fickle as fame, and as all my lovers? In ruin the friendship she decided to choose risk over safety, but not really true safety, perfection, Which gives the illusion of safety. Like if I never make a mistake, everyone will always like me. So she's choosing risk over perfection, imperfection, perhaps, which is an important step on her journey, but then she seems to really suffer the consequences in actually romantic, where perhaps she took a risk and she's getting blasted for it. That song cleverly provides a dual low point. In terms of her public life, she's trying really hard to pretend she doesn't care when clearly she does, or she wouldn't have written a whole song about it. And in terms of the romantic subplot, she twists the idea of romance beyond recognition in this song and then admits that no man has ever really loved her. She might have thought this was a victory, but in wishlist, she has definitely realized how low she has sunk, both in terms of her character and in terms of her love life. To the point where she considers leaving her career behind so she can finally be left alone, hopefully with the husband and kids. She sings about thinking she's found that right guy, a best friend she thinks is hot and then in wood, she proclaims her confidence in their future together, but we don't know for sure if he felt the same way or if this was one more lover who would wither under the bright lights and force her to admit she'd been wrong yet again. All of that leads us here to honey, Honey is the moment of confirmation. He really loves her back, but it's also more than that. It's the beginning of her true emotional healing and an important step on her path to wholeness. She doesn't make us wait to find that out either. It is revealed basically in the first line of the song. It's one more way the song emphasizes straightforward communication as you'll see. She's not playing games here, or at least not the kind of games that involve deception, smoke and mirrors, or veiled imprecations. Here, things are exactly what they seem, which is perhaps in this story, the most unexpected thing of all. The song opens with a simple piano line and a light beat track followed by the line. You can call me honey if you want, because I'm the one you want. It's simple, uncomplicated, easy, light. After the dark energy of canceled, it's maybe a little jarring, but that juxtaposition serves to emphasize the difference between the tough, aggressive exterior she has to maintain in order to navigate the vicious patriarchal world of showbiz and the soft, simple, fun self she can relax into when it's just the two of them. You can call me honey if you want implies that she doesn't let or doesn't like other people to call her that. Why? Because I'm the one you want. This speaks to the confidence she feels in him, the trust they share, and it tells us This is probably the first time she's ever really felt that way. The song then goes straight into the chorus where she reflects on how terms of endearment have been used for most of her life as weapons, which is why she didn't want people to call her those things before now. When anyone called me sweetheart, it was passive aggressive at the bar and the chick was telling me to back off 'cause her man had looked at me wrong. So before this relationship, the only time she ever heard the word sweetheart, it was sarcastic, belittling, and passive aggressive. But then she adds this wonderful specificity that it was a chick telling her to back off at a bar because her man had looked at me wrong. There's an irony there that the chick isn't addressing what her man did, only what the showgirl did, which was apparently look attractive. This reminds me of the line in canceled, tone deaf and hot, lets off her. Just looking sexy can be an offense, but of course, not looking sexy enough can also be an offense, right? This is the catch 22 women like our Showgirl, who fit the culturally accepted standards of beauty encounter, one that's made her a target. The chorus continues with another example. If anyone called me honey, it was standing in the bathroom, white teeth. They were saying That skirt don't fit me, and I cried the whole way home. I get the picture of a group of women in the ladies room with perfectly white teeth and probably hair they spent three hours on and perfect outfits and manicures and all of that, and they're criticizing the showgirl about her skirt. Could be an implication that it's too tight, that she's overweight something that would definitely be triggering for anyone who struggled with disordered eating, which Taylor has, and which is extremely common for women in any kind of showbiz. This story also shows how women often become the most vicious enforcers of misogynistic standards, turning their anger against one another, instead of against the system that oppresses them. Most likely those white teeth women were envious of our showgirl, and so try to tear her down to make themselves feel better. That's usually how those things go. So they were saying, oh, honey, like with mock pity. Another thing I think is interesting here is that I see this song as being sung to her man. So she's telling him these stories. One about how she often gets unsolicited attention from men in public, and one about how she got picked on and cried about it. Admitting she was so hurt by those comments, shows her vulnerability with him. And the first story shows that she isn't worried about him being jealous or possessive. He's secure in their relationship and in himself. So together they can laugh about these stories and quickly get back to the main point, which is that with him, these words feel entirely different, which helps her recognize perhaps for the first time, How messed up it is that she's been treated otherwise her whole life. She says, but you touched my face, redefined all of those blues when you say honey. Touching someone's face is one of the most intimate gestures there is communicating, tenderness and sensitivity. It's also in contrast to other things a romantic partner could be touching, right? The face shows a focus on who she is rather than on her body and what it can do for him. We've talked before about this album's commentary on sexual objectification, on how women's bodies are commodified, viewed as a collection of alluring or exciting body parts rather than one aspect of a full person. That's what she's become used to, but here he focuses on her face, on her. He touches her face and redefines all of those blues. Blues refers to sadness like I've got the blues. So her sadness is transformed when he touches her face and calls her honey. Redefined is an important word here because it explicitly emphasizes the idea of changing the narrative. Part of changing the story is redefining your terms. Honey used to be a veiled insult, but now it's a sign of true affection based on friendship and respect. What else has she redefined? Perhaps her definition of success? That motif of redefinition occurs subtly in the first verse. It begins. Summertime spritz pink skies. Summertime spritz is a cocktail usually made with soda, sparkling wine, and a splash of clear liquor, like Aperol. This drink is decidedly not brown or sour. It's light, refreshing, clean, slightly sweet, but not cloyingly so, and clear in color, transparent, just like their communication in this song. Pink skies makes me think of Opalite, especially since Opalite can have a pink hue. But now she doesn't need a complicated metaphor to convince herself the skies are better now. They're just pink. The next line says, winter green kiss all mine. I imagine this as her guy chews wintergreen gum maybe, so now it's a flavor that reminds her of him, but there's also another color there. We had blues, then pink skies, and now green. It's starting to sound a little bit like a rainbow, where you find the pot of gold perhaps. Definitely gives a colorful, vibrant feel to their relationship. Kiss reminds me of the other two times the word has been used on this album. I think there's just two. First we had paying the check before it kisses the mahogany grain from father figure. So that use of kiss was ostentatious, a display of wealth and charisma designed to impress, if not intimidate. The second time was an eldest daughter in the bridge, Ferris wheels, kisses, and lilacs. That time the kisses were innocent, but they were also from a distant past she wasn't sure if she could ever reclaim. Now in honey, she has, and those sweet minty kisses are all hers. She repeats the line from the intro. You can call me honey if you want, because I'm the one you want. And then she says, you give it different meaning 'cause you mean it when you talk. This indicates that most people did not mean it when they said it. Like we heard in the chorus. People have typically used honey and sweetheart when they were trying to insult her, but this guy actually means it in the original way. The broader implication is that he means everything he says. He's honest, straightforward, clear, and kind. And she sings, honey, I'm home. We could play house. We can bed down. Pick me up. Who's the baddest in the land? What's the plan? I'm home makes me think about the line from eldest daughter when she said, but now you're home only here. She's home. Play House brings in a childlike innocence and lightness. And We only play when we feel safe. There's a fun contrast there because people were playing games with her throughout this story, but not fun games, manipulative games that she learned to play too in order to survive. Now they are reclaiming the original meaning of the word play, which is to explore and experiment and have fun together. Bed down, pick me up, plays with words up and down also indicating sexual intimacy. Maybe also that he's strong enough, tall enough, this redwood tree man to physically pick her up. Who's the baddest in the land? What's the plan? I hear these as things he says to her, though it could be the other way around. I imagine who's the baddest in the land as a way he lightheartedly reminds her that she's a badass, ala canceled, that she can handle whatever comes her way. What's the plan is repeated, which makes me think maybe he asks her that a lot, which would indicate that he looks to her to decide what they're doing, or that he's happy to roll with things and let her be in charge. Then we get the line. You could be my forever night stand, honey. This is a play on one night stand, which I love. Again, it's a sense of playfulness coupled with commitment and transparent communication, and it has that word forever that she was so concerned with in Elizabeth Taylor. But here, instead of anxiety, it's coupled with playfulness and confidence. Verse two continues this sense of playfulness. Sweetie, it's yours kicking indoors. Take it to the floor. Give me more. Sweetie is maybe another pet name he calls her. It's yours. So maybe referring to his heart, being hers, kicking in doors, take it to the floor. Give me more. This makes me think of them getting home ready to ravish each other, kicking in doors because their hands are busy elsewhere. Then my favorite line of the song, buy the paint in the color of your eyes and graffiti my whole damn life. This brings up color again, but now it's the color of his eyes and she wants to graffiti her whole life. So she's going to paint her life the color of his eyes, not just some of her life, all of it. He's going to change the appearance of everything. But the word graffiti is particularly interesting. Graffiti doesn't typically cover what's painted over, but rather adds to it like adornment. It doesn't replace what was already there, like if you painted your house a new color, it adds something on top of what's already there. It gives a bit of a chaotic feel too, like it's not neat and tidy and perfectly planned out. It's messy, but entirely authentic. Graffiti also has the connotation of tagging a way of claiming ownership, making something uniquely yours. So she wants to put his tag all over her life. Then we get the bridge, when anyone called me late night, he was screwing around with my mind asking, what are you wearing? Too high to remember in the morning. Here, or she plays with the phrase called me. Instead of calling her a name here, it's calling her on the phone, referring to an ex-boyfriend who would call her late at night to basically satisfy his sexual urges, asking her to describe her body, but then he couldn't even remember it in the morning because he was too high leaving her feeling used. I imagine. She continues, and when anyone called me lovely, they were finding ways not to praise me. This is where we might think of actually romantic, where she called the other woman's gossip lovely. Maybe she's calling herself out for falling into the same trap of using terms of endearment to insult people in that song. I also hear this as people saying her art was lovely because they didn't want to say anything truly complimentary about it. Since I'm thinking her art is what she would most want praise about. But you say it lovely like you're in awe of me and you stay until the morning, honey. So when he calls her lovely, it feels like he's in awe of her. That's a powerful phrase. It's not just that he likes her, he's amazed by her. To me it communicates a deep respect for who she is and what she's accomplished. Like he can't believe this incredible person has chosen him. And you stay until the morning. The other guy couldn't even remember in the morning. But this guy stays and not just for one morning, forever. This bridge is symbolically potent. It contrasts intoxicated lust with sober love, objectification with awe, convenience with commitment. Though the lyrics don't directly explore honey itself as a symbol. The fact that it's the title of the song gives us permission to do so ourselves. So what does it mean that her happy love song is built around the word honey rather than sweetheart, for example? What might that choice imply on a symbolic level? Based on the first half of the album and the little I know about her other love songs. I would've expected her happy love song on this album to be built around the symbol of fire, representing passion. Instead, she chooses an entirely different symbol for this love. Honey is golden in color, sweet, natural, made by nature. It's the product of flowers. And I also think of how it moves slowly in contrast to fire that burns hot and then burns out without being constantly fed. It consumes In contrast, honey feeds. It has a deep golden glow, which is a little bit similar. You know, it's in the same color family as fire maybe, but honey just is, it doesn't need anything. It actually contains natural preservatives that keep it from going bad, giving it a long shelf life. And it moves slowly, right? Like if you're dripping it out of a container, you're like waiting and waiting 'cause it drips so slowly. Slow makes me think of patient. Another good quality for a lover. And while fire is nice to look at and sure it can keep you warm, it can also burn you. It's dangerous. Honey, on the other hand, can't hurt you. It can only feed you. It even has healing properties, which is what this song is all about. On an album full of disillusionment, cynicism, anxiety, and pain, honey brings a breath of fresh air. Our showgirl has finally found genuine love and appreciation in her romantic partner, someone who means what he says and says what he means. This song confirms that he really is different, not just physically, but emotionally providing the trust and connection she's been searching for since track two. Within the safety of the relationship, she reflects on how words that were supposed to show affection have been used for most of her life as weapons, communicating passive aggressive jealousy or mock pity or by lovers during late night objectifying booty calls. But in this relationship, these same words are spoken with sincerity, tenderness, and even awe. She finally experiences their original meaning. Not the corrupted ones. This makes his use of the same words, not just romantic, but healing. Restorative, returning her to something simple and pure that had been lost along the way. unlike Ophelia who was lied to and manipulated until she went insane, our showgirl has found a relationship built on honesty, transparency, and mutual respect. Where Wood showed her rewriting Ophelia's story by claiming agency, honey shows her escaping Ophelia's romantic fate as well. This theme of rewriting the narrative has been running through the second half of the album, but in honey, it takes on a new tone. We got a hint of this motif in father figure where she says, no, I'm your father figure. But in that song, it's more of a role reversal where the story stays mostly the same, but they switch roles. The motif became more apparent in actually romantic. The entire song is about her attempt to change the story. The other woman was trying to write a story where the showgirl was demeaned and destroyed by the hateful gossip, but the showgirl decided to twist that into a story of envy turned obsession turned attraction, where she takes it as a compliment. She successfully changed the narrative there, but only by being pretty hateful herself. In wishlist, she wanted to be in a different story, but she didn't quite know how to make that a reality. Wood showed her intentionally changing the narrative again, this time through satire and exaggeration in an attempt to neutralize slut shaming. She rewrote that story as one of triumphant undiluted joy, a woman who delights in her sexuality and takes it so far that there's nothing anyone else can say about her that's worse. It's good, but her story is still being determined by what other people are saying, even if she's changed the tone. Canceled also explicitly changed the narrative in an offense is the best kind of defense way. Where people wanted to make her into the evil witch villain, she again embraced the role and then transformed it into a badge of honor and a beacon of hope around which she could create a community. Across these songs, she turned rejection and criticism into something positive and proud, but they also show her at war, rewriting the narratives as a survival strategy. In honey, the rewriting motif reaches its culmination, but it also changes in an important way. Before, her new narratives were performances of defiance as self-protection, as resistance to the narratives being written about her. Now she's finally writing a story independent of the haters, reclaiming a truth that exists apart from them. Instead of reclaiming insults, now she's reclaiming endearments. And unlike previous songs where narrative reinvention often required feats of imagination or exaggeration, honey shows her returning to a true story, reclaiming the original straightforward meaning of these terms. This shows that she's finally safe enough, loved enough, secure enough to tell and receive the truth. She's no longer rewriting the story defensively out of anger, or to spite others. Instead, she's finally found a narrative rooted in truth that celebrates her own joy without needing to put anyone else down in the process. This is not bravado, not performance, it's play, which only happens when we feel safe She's finally able to put down the masks, take off the costumes, and simply be herself. She'll still need the tools she developed in wood and canceled to navigate the vicissitudes of fame, but now she knows the difference. She knows what it feels like to stop performing. Importantly, this song doesn't indicate that she has to give up her public life in order to have this private one, something that's confirmed in the final track of the album, but also hinted at here. His presence doesn't erase or diminish her past, doesn't strip color from her life up until this point. It transforms it like graffiti, adding color to a wall. The trio of songs that make up the final act of this drama, I see track 12 as more like an epilogue, reveal that the showgirl has learned she can't control what people call her, what people say about her, but she can control how she responds. She doesn't have to let those people define her. Only people who truly know and love her get that privilege. By the time honey ends, the showgirl stands in a golden glow she didn't have to earn or spin into existence. It's soft, gentle, patient, the opposite of everything fame has demanded of her the opposite of everything. The world has called her. And while she may have glimpsed this glow before like an Opalite, this is the first time she lets herself believe it's real. This story isn't a shield or a fortress. This story is home. Here are your discussion prompts. Number one, Taylor often uses colors symbolically in her songs. Think Red and Maroon. Consider her use of color in this album and in this song. What additional insights can you uncover through that exploration? Number two, compare and contrast honey with the fate of Ophelia. You could also do that with Elizabeth Taylor since it's in the mirror. Opposite location on the album. What points of similarity do you see, such as using the same word or expressing a similar idea? What points of contrast do you see? What might that add to your understanding of the album as a whole? And now for your writing prompts. Remember, you can get all of these in one place, updated with each episode by going to mara eller.com/prompts. We'll start with memoir. Number one. Can you identify moments in your own life when a relationship or connection allowed you to drop your armor? How did it change your behavior, thoughts, or sense of self? Number two, are there words, labels, or phrases in your own life that have shifted from being harmful to being empowering or vice versa? Pick one to write about in some depth. Number three, when is the last time you felt truly playful? Who were you with, if anyone, and what did you do? And now for fiction. Number one, write a story where you use one word as the focal point, playing with different ways the word has been used in your main character's life and how each use has shaped who they are. Number two, write a short story that shows how a current relationship is different from others by offering three specific glimpses of previous relationships that were painful or unhealthy in some way. Try to provide vivid details to bring those moments to life. And then contrast them with the details in a scene, including the new lover or friend. So the idea is to replicate the structure of this song, honey, where she has three examples of terms of endearment being used in hurtful ways to contrast with the way her current lover uses the same terms. Number three, experiment with trying to convey the dynamic between two characters using only the things they say to each other, particularly things they often or repeatedly say. How can their choice of words reveal what they think and feel about one another without explicitly stating it? And that's it for today's class. Next time we'll be looking at the final track, the life of a showgirl, and I'll be offering some closing thoughts on the album, but don't worry. I still have a few more episodes to come after that. Quantity still to be determined, but the point is it's not over yet, so be sure to check back in in the coming weeks for the exciting bonus episodes. Still to come. And that is it for today's lesson. If you're loving these deep dives. Make sure to follow the podcast or come join the discussion on social media. My links are in the show notes. I'd love to hear your questions, comments, and insights. Class is always about bringing you into the conversation, helping you to do your own thinking and come to your own conclusions, so I'd love to see you involved. and don't forget to sign up for, write like Taylor Swift by going to maraeller.com/writeliketaylor, Until next time, class dismissed.