{"id":106643,"date":"2022-10-24T15:26:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T15:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/i-love-taylor-swift-but-theres-a-big-problem-with-her-new-video\/"},"modified":"2022-10-24T15:26:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T15:26:09","slug":"i-love-taylor-swift-but-theres-a-big-problem-with-her-new-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/i-love-taylor-swift-but-theres-a-big-problem-with-her-new-video\/","title":{"rendered":"I Love Taylor Swift, But There’s A Big Problem With Her New Video"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Like millions of others, I have eagerly awaited the release of \u201c<\/span>midnights<\/span>,\u201d the newest album from Taylor Swift. While I’ve always liked Taylor’s music, my obsession really only kicked into full gear with \u201c<\/span>Folklore\u201d<\/span> and \u201c<\/span>Evermore<\/span>,\u201d her two 2020 albums. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In fact, I combined the two into a playlist I called Everlore. I pre-ordered “Midnights”<\/span> on vinyl, and then a lavender version was pre-released at Target and, I mean, purple is my favorite color and my recently purchased Victrola turntable is lavender, so yeah, I might’ve ordered that one, too. (Apologies to my husband Thomas for finding out this way.) <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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We’re currently on a major road trip, so I probably won’t listen to it until we get home, but I had to watch the <\/span>video<\/span> for the song<\/span>Anti-Hero\u201d<\/span> on my phone this morning as soon as I got up. And I mostly loved it! (Taylor bleeds purple glitter pen ink, and I’m here for it.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Like I suspect so many of us will, I deeply related to these lyrics. \u201cMidnights become my afternoons when my depression works the graveyard shift,\u201d just as an example, should be my next tattoo. (It won’t be, but I profoundly feel \u2015 and live \u2015 these words at times.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There’s a definite sense of deep self-loading and doubt in this song’s lyrics. I love that Swift wrote about these feelings, that she’s willing to let people see that you can have what looks like everything you could want, and still feel depression’s insidious whispers. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Depression isn’t a measurement of a happy, fulfilling life. You can have both. You can have neither. The more people with major platforms openly talk about their mental health struggles, the less stigma there will be, and the more people will be willing to talk about their own struggles \u2015 and, hopefully, seek help for them.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Swift has spoken in the past about <\/span>every issue with body image<\/span>, so it is not surprising this would come through in these lyrics, where she sings, \u201cI’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror.\u201d Again, I expect this to resonate with many of her fans all too well.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Unfortunately, this is where we take a detour from my love of the music video, because at one point, the \u201cAnti-Hero\u201d version of Swift, who clearly represents her worst inner critic, has her get on a bathroom scale. When the real Taylor looks down, the scale reads \u201cFAT.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sigh. The worst part of this is that the moment she got on that scale, I knew. Before the word popped up, I felt it coming in the pit of what’s left of the stomach I had partially surgically amputated just to be more easily able to get an MRI. Because fatphobia is this pervasive in our culture. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Taylor Swift is not, and has never been, even remotely fat. In fact, some of the negative criticism she’s faced related to body image was about being \u201ctoo skinny.\u201d Swift has admitted this bothers her, but she has also talked about how she’s seen comments speculating about her maybe being pregnant, and how those comments have resulted in her not eating. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But \u201cfat\u201d isn’t a bad word (to be clear, neither is skinny). It’s a descriptive word society has turned into an insult. It took a lot (therapy, time, support from other fat activists) for me to be able to use \u201cfat\u201d to describe my body in a neutral way, and I’d be lying if I said there are never days when it doesn’t ‘t still pop into my head in exactly the same way this video means it to.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The obvious difference is that unlike Taylor, I’m not just fat; I’m often the fattest person anyone knows. I’m “<\/span>superfat<\/span>\u201d and that comes with a lot of baggage that I didn’t pack, yet still have to carry. Someone who looks like Taylor will never understand how actually being fat feels. They might \u201cfeel fat,\u201d because our culture has turned body size into feelings, and because even thin women are harmed by our society’s insidious and painful messaging about bodies, but it is not the same as actually being fat. There are millions of lived experiences erased by this message, including mine, and it sucks. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are so many other words that this scale could have displayed that would have better conveyed the feelings Swift has experienced related to body image, without making it about fatness \u2015 or for that matter, thinness. Because to be clear, I wouldn’t support this scale saying \u201ctoo skinny,\u201d either. (But it did n’t, and there’s a reason \u201cfat\u201d is what her brain tells her is the worse word here.)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Alternative words this scale could have displayed: Unworthy. Unlovable. hated. Terrible. bad. This list could go on and on. The point would then be that the scale cannot measure your worth, but if you let it, it will lie to you about your value. For her millions of fans, I would’ve loved this to be a message of, \u201cYour body size is n’t what’s most important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Instead, we see a thin woman being told she’s fat by the scale, which sends the dangerous message that even thin people (especially women and femmes) are actually not <\/span>thin enough<\/span><\/em>. While I’m writing this from the perspective of a fat person, I want to be clear that this message harms thin people, too. That’s not a maybe, not in a video that already has 16 million views and 1.4 million likes in less than two days. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I’m not trying to \u201ccancel\u201d Taylor Swift. If anything, I feel very sad that with all of her success and talent, weight gain is still one of her worst fears. But it’s not hard for me to understand. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She was only 15 when she became famous. (At 15, I was hospitalized for my eating disorder for seven weeks.) She’s literally lived more than half her life, starting as a young, impressionable teen, in the spotlight. She’s grown up in an industry where she’s lucky to still have the major career she does, especially as a woman, because so many young artists don’t maintain this level of success for so long. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I am not sure there’s anyone who can live in (let alone grow up in) her world without absorbing these messages on a profound level. Becoming fat could quite literally end her career \u2015 because that’s how insidious fatphobia is in the world in general, forget about the entertainment industry. Let that sink in for a moment. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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However, this is exactly why I would love nothing more than for Taylor to change this scene in the video. Edit it out, or change the word. either works. There’s a responsibility that comes with a platform her size, and given how many of her fans are young, sometimes second generation Swifties, this is truly something that could have a powerful, positive impact. But as it stands, it’s a profoundly negative one \u2015 especially for her actually fat fans of all ages. It also allows her industry to perpetuate the very attitudes that led to her feeling this way. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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When Lizzo was recently <\/span>called out<\/span> for using a word in her lyrics that is an insult for many disabled fans, she changed the lyrics. <\/span>Beyonce<\/span> used this same word, and also changed it. That was incredible to witness. These two brilliant, talented women listened to fans and didn’t just respond. They acted. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Given that most people view fatness as a choice, I don’t expect much, if any, outrage over this moment in the video, at least outside of the <\/span>fat<\/span> activism<\/span> community<\/span><\/a> which has been trying to start a dialogue about this scene. But if it happened\u2026 well, that would send a very potent message to millions of people. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I don’t want anyone to suffer from an ED, but fat people have eating disorders, too, <\/span>including anorexia<\/span>. We already struggle with getting treatment for these potentially deadly conditions \u2015 our pleas for help unheard, lost in the clamor of voices screaming about how our fatness itself is a disease. We’re effectively celebrated for losing weight, even if we’re \u2015 as Taylor said she did \u2015 starving ourselves, skipping or engaging meals in other harmful behaviors. We’re supposed to be trying to be thin, at any cost \u2026 even if it’s slowly killing us, the <\/span>same as it kills<\/span> our thin counterparts. That’s why this matters so damn much. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I won’t be awake at midnight obsessing over or expecting this scene to be changed or removed\u2026 but I’ll still daydream that it could happen. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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