Taylor Swift edits music video after ‘fatphobia’ accusations | Taylor Swift

The video for Taylor Swiftof the song Anti-Hero, the first single from his new album Midnightswas edited a few days after its initial release to remove the word “fat” from one of its scenes.

In the original clip, directed by Swift, the 32-year-old singer and songwriter stands on a bathroom scale whose dial spins to the reading “Fat.” In the new version of the clip, seen below, Swift steps on the scale, receiving a disapproving look from a doppelganger also played by Swift, but no reading is shown.

The edit comes after some fans and commentators criticized the scale scene for perpetuating “fatphobia.” On Twitter, eating disorder therapist and body positivity blogger Shira Rosenbluth said the clip “repeated yet again that it’s everyone’s worst nightmare to look like us”, while Teen Vogue writer Catherine Mhloyi describes the scene as “lazy”: “By showing the word “fat” on the scale, she made the choice to explicitly name her demon, the fear of being called fat, which is fatphobia in its most literal sense.

Other commentators, including Whoopi Goldberg, came to Swift’s defense. “Just let her have her feelings – if you don’t like the song, don’t listen to it,” she said on The View. “Why are you wasting your time on this?” You still wanna say something about Taylor Swift – leave her ass alone. Joy Behar added: “What’s she supposed to put on the scale, ‘plump? It doesn’t work.

Swift herself has been open about her disordered eating issues. In her 2020 Netflix documentary Miss Americana, the musician opened up about how the media’s scrutiny of her body has caused her to “starve” herself at times in her life. The Anti-Hero video, she said in an Instagram post when it was released, is a depiction of her “nightmarish scenarios and intrusive thoughts.”

The Guardian has contacted Swift’s representatives for comment.