Taylor Swift caves to fatphobia accusations

A music video for a Midnights single has been edited after it was buried in "anti-fat" criticism.

A music video for a Midnights single has been edited after it was leveled with "anti-fat" criticism.

Taylor Swift has edited the music video for Midnightslead single ‘Anti-Hero’ following criticisms of fatphobia.

The concept backing the video, which was written and directed by Swift, explores the singer's “nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts.” Swift’s inner demons are anthropomorphised in a horror house, haunted by multiple “problematic” versions of the artist.

In one scene Swift steps on a bathroom scale, and the word “fat” is reflected back at her, as she and her “problematic” alter self looks on, both in disappointment. 

Deleted scene from 'Anti-Hero' music video.

This particular scene ignited backlash amongst fans and critics, with some accusing the artist of promoting an "anti-fat" message, because of the connotation that being fat is a negative thing. 

"Taylor Swift's music video, where she looks down at the scale where it says 'fat', is a shitty way to describe her body image struggles,” New York-based eating disorder therapist Shira Rose wrote on Twitter. “Fat people don’t need to have it reiterated yet again that it's everyone's worst nightmare to look like us.”

"Having an eating disorder doesn't excuse fatphobia."

Taylor Swift’s music video, where she looks down at the scale where it says “fat,” is a shitty way to describe her body image struggles. Fat people don’t need to have it reiterated yet again that it’s everyone’s worst nightmare to look like us.

— Shira Rose (@theshirarose) October 21, 2022

Seemingly in response to the criticism, Swift has amended the music video on Apple Music, so that it no longer shows the scale. Though the music video on YouTube still features the contentious scene.

Swift has acknowledged her relationship with fraught body image and disordered eating. She first spoke on it in her documentary,  Miss Americana, where she admitted that she’s seen “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.”

She further elaborated during an interview with Variety, where she said:  “My relationship with food was exactly the same psychology that I applied to everything else in my life: if I was given a pat on the head, I registered that as good. If I was given a punishment, I registered that as bad.”

She continued, “I remember how, when I was 18, that was the first time I was on the cover of a magazine, and the headline was like ‘Pregnant at 18?’ And it was because I had worn something that made my lower stomach look not flat. So I just registered that as a punishment. 

“And then I’d walk into a photo shoot and somebody who worked at a magazine would say, ‘Oh, wow, this is so amazing that you can fit into the sample sizes!’ and I looked at that as a pat on the head. You register that enough times, and you just start to accommodate everything towards praise and punishment, including your own body.”