Is Taylor Swift the Problem?: Anti Hero Music Video

Last night, Taylor Swift officially removed “The Scene” from her Anti Hero music video. For those unfamiliar, the Midnights song references Swift’s struggle with her inner demons, including her eating disorder.

The video shows Swift meeting her shinier, more fashionable alter ego who is more than happy to take Swift on a self-destructive spiral of binge drinking and self-hatred. While this alter-ego seems like a friend at first, it quickly becomes clear she has no interest in helping the real Taylor get better, but to instead isolate herself and convince her that she’ll never be enough on her own.

“The Scene” comes midway through the video, where Taylor steps onto a scale while her alter observes. We see bare toes linger tensely while the dial spins to the word “FAT” in all caps. Her alter looks up from the scale and shakes her head disapprovingly.

In recent years, Swift has opened up about her history with disordered eating, so it’s no surprise that in a song about her struggles with mental health she would want to reference that. However, the use of fat as a derogatory word was startling to many Swifties.

Victoria (@Fatfabfeminist) writes on Twitter, “watching a thin person remind the whole world that one of their biggest fears is being fat. Is looking like me.” Victoria is not alone in feeling hurt by Swift’s actions.

Many took to Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok to discuss. Babbity.Kate on TikTok said, “I understand the theme of the music video, I’m talking about what she chose to do with this shot. {...} When she’s being hateful towards herself, she calls herself fat. In her nightmare, she is fat. That is fatphobia in a ridiculously literal way.”

It took Swift six days to remove the clip from the video, with mixed reactions to both its inclusion and its removal.

The controversy mainly focuses on her use of the word “fat'‘ and equating it to being a negative. While her fans and others relate to her experience as an individual in this society, many seem to see the scene as much more impactful without the scale. You still get the point of her feeling like she’s not enough through the scenes visuals and her lyricism.

Victoria tweeted once the video was edited, “She’s still able to allude to her ed/body dysmorphia without being harmful to fat people. It still has the impact she wanted without villainizing fatness. That’s literally all we wanted!”

Aside from removing the clip on all platforms, Swift hasn’t acknowledged the controversy. At this point in her career, Swift is in a place where she’s seen as being an incredibly savvy businesswoman that values her art over everything else. In silently removing the clip, could Swift be encouraging the audience to focus on her music and overall concept behind “Anti Hero"?

By the end of her music video the moral is clear. As Swift worded it in an Instagram post, "This song really is a real guided tour throughout all the things I tend to hate about myself. We all hate things about ourselves."