Objection Sustained: Dismissing the Evidence against Taylor Swift’s Relationship in Ours

The Basics:

Taylor Swift sings about the people who are judging her relationship – strangers, girlfriends from her partner’s past, and even her tattoo-disparaging father. She tells her partner not to worry – “Don’t you worry your pretty little mind / People throw rocks at things that shine” – before ultimately declaring that her relationship doesn’t belong to anyone but Swift and her partner: “This love is ours.” 

Literary Device: Ominatio and Bathos 

In the second verse, Taylor Swift warns that she is doomed to be attacked by a horde of lip-gloss wearing ghouls: “Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me / Lurking in the shadows with their lip-gloss smiles.” In rhetoric, ominatio is a prophecy of evil. Swift deploys ominatio when she envisions otherworldly spectres attacking her from the shadows. However, Swift’s final phrases deploys bathos to reframe her omen from spooky to ridiculous. Ghosts wearing lip-gloss are not threatening, but laughable, allowing Swift to declare: “But I don’t care.”

Analysis:

Taylor Swift imagines the detractors of her relationship as jurors in a courtroom, using the language of “judge,” “jury, and “verdict.” Swift begins by arguing that the jury does not have sufficient evidence: “They’ll judge it like they know about me and you” implies that they do not actually know. Swift continues by arguing that the jury is unqualified. They are a rag-tag assortment of individuals who weren’t busy or important enough to get out of jury duty: “And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do.” In addition to challenging whether the jury has the appropriate knowledge and qualifications, Swift objects to evidence that does not belong in the courtroom. In the bridge, Swift objects on grounds of speculation: “And it’s not theirs to speculate.” Similarly, she dismisses evidence of her father’s dismay: “And any snide remarks from my father / About your tattoos will be ignored.” Evaluating the jury and the quality of the evidence, Swift is building her own case for declaring a mistrial. 

Throughout the song, Swift is preoccupied with ownership and to whom different things belong. She begins by writing about “Strangers’ silence” and how her “time is theirs.” Swift’s time is not always her own and she must tolerate the sounds (or lack thereof) of others. The courtroom metaphor, however, illustrates that Swift’s relationship does not belong to a jury of Swift’s peers, but to Swift herself: “The jury’s out, but my choice is you.” Taylor Swift’s relationship is not within the court’s jurisdiction: “It’s not theirs”. Swift repeatedly assures herself and her partner to whom the relationship properly and actually belongs: “you’re mine”, “this love is our”, and “my heart is yours.” Swift ends the song by asserting that the relationship is not only currently theirs, but that it always will be: they can’t take what’s ours / They can’t take what’s ours.”