Taylor Swift just released the music video for “Anti-Hero,” but one controversial scene has been edited out after sparking backlash from fans.
The scene in question saw Taylor standing on a scale and, instead of reading her weight, it simply told her she was “fat” in all capital letters. As of Thursday morning, that scene has been edited out on YouTube and replaced with a clip of Taylor standing on the scale and looking at what it says before turning her head toward her disapproving doppelgänger.
Apple Music similarly updated the music video to reflect the new changes. It’s believed the controversial scene was removed because fans deemed it fatphobic.
The issue fans had with that particular scene was that they felt Taylor was insinuating being fat was a negative trait. Fans argued that Taylor was expressing a fear of weight gain by equating it to failure.
Meanwhile, other fans pointed out Taylor struggled with an eating disorder and was lampooned for gaining weight during her Reputation era. They argued the scene represented her unhealthy thoughts about her body.
To recap, when announcing the track’s title earlier this month, Taylor had posted a video on Instagram, calling “Anti-Hero” one of her favorite songs she’s ever written.
The song is about “delving into [her] insecurities,” of which she said, “This song really is a real guided tour throughout all of the things I tend to hate about myself. We all hate things about ourselves. It’s all of those aspects of the things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to come to terms with if we’re going to be this person.”
Taylor nor her team have publicly addressed the alterations.
Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.