While it is fun to speculate that Taylor Swift's new song is about Selena Gomez, the song also contains broader themes to which many people can relate. One of Swift's lyrics — "when it was calmer, skipping the prom just to piss off your mom and her pageant schemes" — will resonate with anyone who is longing for the simpler days of high school drama, when the biggest issues many people had to worry about were prom and standardized tests.
High school can be a place to make lifelong friends and form lasting bonds. But for anyone whose teenage bonds have not withstood the test of time, Swift's lyrics about missing a childhood friend and living in different places will ring true.
Other fan theories about the fictional Dorothea include the idea that she's the speaker of Swift's "'Tis the Damn Season." The song describes someone "staying at [their] parents' house" and going back to their hometown, so it sounds like a pretty good guess. Of course, the pandemic has halted many people's usual holiday travel plans, but fans can imagine the fictional going-home holiday story from both perspectives in Swift's songs: the person who stayed in their hometown and the one who left. And really, thinking about what could have been is as good a way as any to spend the pandemic holiday.
Whether or not Gomez helped inspire Swift's song, it is safe to say both "Dorothea" and "'Tis the Damn Season" will be on repeat for Swifties as the holiday season continues.
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