Taylor Swift has removed the ‘fat’ scale scene from her self-directed music video for ‘Anti-Hero’ following a backlash.
The new video has left the singer facing criticism for fatphobia.
However, others argue that the clip was simply a way for the star to give an honest portrayal of her experience with eating disorders.
Swift is no stranger to controversy, having battled everyone from Spotify to Kanye West during her career.
But her latest move has made even some hardcore fans question the star.
And now, it appears that the star has caved to pressure, with the scene in question being removed from the video on Apple Music.
Read on for more details.
Now, the country singer is a beloved figure in the world of music.
Swift released her self-titled debut album in 2006 and received a whole array of positive reviews from music critics, including a glowing piece by The New York Times.
They described it as “a small masterpiece of pop-minded country, both wide-eyed and cynical, held together by Ms. Swift’s firm, pleading voice.”
Not a bad job for a sixteen-year-old newbie writing her own material, right?
But her second album was the one that really blew up for her.
With hits like ‘Love Story’ and ‘White Horse’, Swift found herself being propelled to superstardom and the album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart.
And from then on, her fame skyrocketed.
IMDb describes Swift as “a multi-Grammy award-winning American singer/songwriter who, in 2010 at the age of twenty, became the youngest artist in history to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.”
It continued: “In 2011 Swift was named Billboard’s Woman of the Year.
“She also has been named the American Music Awards Artist of the Year, as well as the Entertainer of the Year for both the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music, among many other accolades. As of this writing, she is also the top-selling digital artist in music history.”
Swift has even received an honorary doctorate from NYU!
This was for her achievements as “one of the most prolific and celebrated artists of her generation”.
There were, of course, a few bumps in the road…
But she became a source of inspiration for other young women trying to get into the industry with their own content.
But it wasn’t all positive…
The journey wasn’t an easy one, and Swift hardly discussed the dark side until very recently.
Swift has had her fair share of bad relationships.
And it seems she uses this to help give more meaning to her music.
One of her mishaps was her relationship with fellow singer-songwriter John Mayer.
Mayer and Swift dated briefly when he was thirty-two and she was just nineteen, back in 2009 to 2010.
The star has written many songs rumored to be about Mayer, from ‘Speak Now’ and ‘Dear John’ to a track on the extended edition of her latest album Midnights.
The song is titled ‘Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’, and if you haven’t listened to it yet, it’s pretty savage!
However, more significantly is the sheer success that the album is seeing.
Since its release, Midnights has smashed all sorts of records, including becoming the most-streamed album in a single day on Spotify.
Swift described the new record as “the stories of thirteen sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.”
And that retrospective spirit does certainly carry itself through the album.
One of the themes she explores is her experience of struggling with an eating disorder.
The star first opened up about her experience in her Netflix documentary Miss Americana.
She said “it’s not good for me to see pictures of myself every day,” and that “it’s only happened a few times, and I’m not in any way proud of it.”
She continued to explain that seeing “a picture of me where I feel like I looked like my tummy was too big, or… someone said that I looked pregnant … and that’ll just trigger me to just starve a little bit — just stop eating.”
In new track ‘You’re On Your Own, Kid’, the star refers to this struggle for the first time in her music.
“I hosted parties and starved my body / Like I’d be saved by a perfect kiss,” Swift sings.
However, it’s the video for the lead single ‘Anti-Hero’ that has everyone talking.
One scene in particular has angered certain fans…
The controversial scene shows Swift standing in the bathroom with her apparent evil clone, who orders her onto the scales.
Once she steps onto them, the camera pans down to show the scales reading not a number but simply the word “fat.”
With her experience in mind, some fans were shocked by this scene.
Juliet James even wrote an article for HuffPost titled ‘I Love Taylor Swift, But There’s A Big Problem With Her New Video’.
James wrote: “The worst part of this is that the moment she got on that scale, I knew … Because fatphobia is this pervasive in our culture.
“Taylor Swift is not, and has never been, even remotely fat.”
She continued: “But ‘fat’ isn’t a bad word (to be clear, neither is skinny). It’s a descriptive word society has turned into an insult.
“They might ‘feel fat,’ 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.”
“Someone who looks like Taylor will never understand how actually being fat feels,” explained the writer.
However, others have hit back at this view, and rushed to defend the star.
Swift herself said on Instagram: “This song is a real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself.”
She said the video shows her “nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts play out in real time.”
Fans have used this fact to defend the star.
One tweeted: “If you have a problem with Taylor depicting her own eating disorders and body dysmorphia in a video about how much she hates herself might I suggest realizing that not everything is about you.”
Yet now, it appears the star has caved to pressure and has removed the controversial scene from the video on Apple Music.
The video still shows the star standing on the scales and being judged by her clone, but fails to include the clip where the scales say ‘fat’.
Although some activists are celebrating this, others are critical of the fact that the star has been pressured into removing a clip that represented Swift’s own struggles with body image.
One person said: “So the internet decided to bully Taylor Swift and tell her HOW SHE SHOULD FEEL about HER OWN EXPERIENCE? Am I getting that right? People, get it together.”
