Rumors about Taylor Swift’s sexuality have persisted since the early days of her career. They have coalesced into an online subculture known as “Gaylor.” Gaylor is a novel kind of conspiracy theory known as a “Closeting Conspiracy Theory” (CCT). CCTs involve speculating about a public figure’s sexuality, gathering pertinent evidence, and producing fan knowledges, often informally, on social media. Like shipping and slash fiction (which they often involve) CCTs are largely feminized. Through a qualitative content analysis of 200 TikTok videos, this article situates Gaylor as a CCT that has developed into a kind of knowledge culture. Analyzing this knowledge culture using Emily Coccia’s notion of too-close reading and José Muñoz’s queer utopianism reveals specialized practices of knowledge production, including informal boundary work. As Gaylors get “too close” to Swift’s star text, triangulating lyrics and music videos with images and videos from Swift’s life, they produce folk literary criticism. Muñoz’s queer utopianism saturates Gaylor discourses, with many Gaylors engaging in a specific type of conspiracy-inflected queer utopianism: the doomsday coming-out. The doomsday coming-out pushes the date of the Swift’s purported coming out back further and further after each anticipated album or music video release, not unlike the date of the apocalypse in a doomsday cult. Ultimately, the function of producing CCT knowledge in the Gaylor community is propelled forward by imagining queer futures, reflecting on personal identity, building community, and pushing back against heterosexist consensus.

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《你能听到发夹掉落的声音》：盖勒衣柜阴谋论中的酷儿乌托邦主义与非正式知识生产

关于泰勒·斯威夫特的性取向的谣言从她职业生涯的早期就一直存在。他们已经融合成一种被称为“盖勒”的在线亚文化。盖勒是一种新颖的阴谋论，被称为“封闭阴谋论”（CCT）。 CCT 包括猜测公众人物的性取向、收集相关证据以及在社交媒体上以非正式方式提供粉丝知识。与航运和斜线小说（它们经常涉及）一样，有条件CT 很大程度上是女性化的。本文通过对 200 个 TikTok 视频的定性内容分析，将 Gaylor 定位为一种已经发展成为一种知识文化的 CCT。使用艾米丽·科西亚（Emily Coccia）的“近距离阅读”概念和何塞·穆尼奥斯（José Muñoz）的酷儿乌托邦主义来分析这种知识文化，揭示了知识生产的专门实践，包括非正式的边界工作。当盖勒斯“太接近”斯威夫特的明星文本时，将歌词和音乐视频与斯威夫特生活中的图像和视频进行三角测量，他们产生了民间文学批评。穆尼奥斯的酷儿乌托邦主义充斥着盖勒的话语，许多盖勒参与了一种特殊类型的受阴谋影响的酷儿乌托邦主义：世界末日的出现。世界末日的出现将斯威夫特声称的每张预期专辑或音乐视频发布后的出现日期推得越来越远，这与世界末日邪教中的世界末日日期没有什么不同。最终，盖勒社区中产生 CCT 知识的功能是通过想象酷儿未来、反思个人身份、建立社区和抵制异性恋共识来推动的。