Taylor Swift is under fire for sharing her experience
You’ve probably seen the discourse on Taylor Swift’s new song Anti-Hero.
She was quick to alter a scene that received lots of backlash: upon stepping on a scale, the word “FAT” appears in big letters. “Other Taylor” shakes her head and judges “real Taylor”. If you watch the video now, you’ll notice the clip was cut out. But to many people, the damage is done.
The Criticism — what’s the big problem?
The argument is that when Taylor judges herself for being fat, she is judging all fat people. Even worse, she’s promoting the stigma that fatness is something to be ashamed of.
Most people that were offended by the video are (or were at some point) overweight. They say that Taylor can’t talk about her experience like that because she isn’t actually overweight, regardless of how she feels. It’s downplaying real mistreatment that fat people go through, according to the critics.
Overall, these are the problems people had with the short clip. She’s not actually fat and she is portraying fatness as something negative to her huge audience.
In Taylor’s defense
When we break Anti-Hero down, it’s a story of how Taylor sees herself in her worst moments. It shows how out of place she feels and the irrational criticism of her inner self. In that scene, all she is saying is “I think I'm fat and that makes me sad”. It’s not making a judgment on the experience. The scene is only a portrayal of a conversation between “real Taylor” and “other Taylor”, and it doesn’t side with or justify either side.
Even if Taylor decided to explicitly say that being fat is bad, we can (and some would argue should) have bad and immoral characters. There should be characters that are rude, because that’s the perfect opportunity for the artist to separate themselves from the art and take a personal stance. This isn’t what happens in Anti-Hero because it’s not ridiculing fatness in the first place. Taylor shows the internal turmoil that many people face, including the damaging effects of being excessively worried about body image.
If anything, the video helps promote the idea that fatness isn’t aversive.
On a side note, I was initially surprised that the scale only had a word. It’s general and ambiguous, perfect for audience interpretation. In my opinion, it’s better than showing a specific number. In that case, wouldn’t people at that weight feel self-conscious, even if they don’t align with the word fat? A word is much, much better than another option.
At the end of the day, it’s her artistic expression, and as long as she is not directly attacking others, she should be able to share her own experience.
