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Taylor Swift’s song “Slut!” might catch your attention with its provocative title and exclamation point, but it doesn’t take the Alanis Morissette route of raising voices or unleashing explicit rage. Instead, like Morissette, Swift uses her music to express her feelings about being treated in ways she deems unacceptable.
Featured in the re-release of her album “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” “Slut!” is one of the five tracks Swift dug up from her vault. In an Instagram post, Swift expressed her excitement about these additions, particularly praising the “insane” quality of the tracks. Among these, the single-word titled track garnered the most curiosity from fans due to its boldness and loaded connotations.
Anticipation was palpable on a Reddit thread aptly named “Obsessed with ‘Slut!’ and it isn’t even out yet.”
Before the album’s release, Swift’s devoted fans speculated that she might address the slut-shaming she endured during the phase when her relationships with male celebrities were frequent and brief. This prediction proved accurate, but the song delves deeper into a love story.
“Slut!” seamlessly merges two facets of Taylor Swift: the girl with a guitar, drawing inspiration from her love life, and the outspoken feminist who has voiced her opinions on misogyny. Swift touches on how her relationships are scrutinized differently from those of male celebrities with lyrics like, “Love thorns all over this rose / I’ll pay the price, you won’t.” In essence, she’s the one taking the risk of enduring relentless trolling, late-night show jokes, and negative headlines for adding another lover to her list.
She also sings, “But if I’m all dressed up / They might as well be lookin’ at us / And if they call me a slut / You know it might be worth it for once.” This provides fans with profound insight into what it’s like for her to date under the spotlight. She can’t simply enjoy a casual outing with someone she’s just getting to know. Before stepping out in public, there needs to be a level of connection that justifies the potential price she’ll pay.
While the music carries a dreamy quality, Swift’s lyrics harbor a hint of bitterness. “Everyone wants him, that was my crime,” she laments. Essentially, she dated someone desirable and became the target of jealousy, painting her as the villain.
Swift’s vivid descriptions of the highs and lows of relationships resonate deeply with fans. Yet, in the eyes of the media, her artistry has often been overshadowed by her love life. In the liner notes for “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” she candidly expresses her frustration with the period when this fixation reached its peak. She recounts enduring intense slut-shaming, criticizing the jokes about her dating history and the belittling of her songwriting as if it were an act of a boy-crazy psychopath.
One notable incident was Abercrombie & Fitch’s “# more boyfriends than t.s.” shirt in 2013. The same year, Radar gave a platform to the Westboro Baptist Church to share derogatory remarks about Swift. However, as one fan pointed out, Swift’s song may have turned the tables, making it so that when people search “taylor swift slut,” they’ll find her empowering song rather than demeaning stories. Truly brilliant.