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The View co-hosts came to Taylor Swift's defense after she removed a controversial scene from her "Anti-Hero" music video that caused backlash.
"Anti-Hero" is the debut single from her critically-lauded and highly-anticipated new album, Midnights, which dropped last Friday.
The hit song co-written with her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff explores issues of anxiety and self-loathing, which is suggested in the following lyrics.
"It's me
Hi
I'm the problem, it's me
At teatime
Everybody agrees"
"I'll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror
It must be exhausting always rooting for the anti-hero
The controversial scene from the "Anti-Hero" music video–which Taylor wrote and directed and racked up 15,040,098 views on its first day of release–showed the singer stepping onto a scale and seeing the word, "fat," instead of her weight number.
When the scene was slammed with criticism online–including comments accusing the singer of being "fatphobic"–it was replaced with an updated scene that doesn't show the word on the scale but shows her party-girl alter ego looking at the result disapprovingly and shaking her head.
\u201cthe anti hero video was cool until it was fatphobic and thats all im saying about That\u201d— bucky meets olivie tmrw \ud83e\udea6\ud83d\udd2a (@bucky meets olivie tmrw \ud83e\udea6\ud83d\udd2a) 1666382446
The updated music video for "Anti-Hero" can be seen here:
Taylor Swift - Anti-Hero (Official Music Video)youtu.be
Here is the original scene cut from the video.
\u201c@PopCrave Don\u2019t worry I still have the correct version\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
On Tuesday's episode of The View, co-host Sunny Hostin said of the critics:
"They missed the point."
"For someone who's an artist, she gets to have agency over her artistry. She was describing a personal experience, and quite frankly, it's a personal experience a lot of women experience."
\u201cWhy do people need to invalidate other people\u2019s experiences? I hate that Taylor had to edit the Anti-Hero music video because people misunderstood her point of view. She just wanted to express about her life and what she\u2019s been through. About her own personal journey.\u201d— cami is a question\u2026? stan \ud83c\udf0c (@cami is a question\u2026? stan \ud83c\udf0c) 1666805456
Hostin continued:
"I've experienced it, and men. You get on the scale and you're a perfectly normal weight and all you see is fat, all you see is, 'Oh my gosh, I'm five pounds heavier than I should be.'"
Whoopi Goldberg chimed in, urging the public to "just let her have her feelings."
"Why are you wasting your time on this? You all want to say something about Taylor Swift, leave her a** alone!" she said and encouraged those who objected to the song should steer clear of it.
The discussion made Joy Behar recall a conversation she had with former View co-host Star Jones about how empowering it is to re-contextualize a word that has negative connotations.
"Take the word back," said Behar.
"If you feel like saying you're fat, say you're fat. It's like 'b*tch,' we own the word now, they can't really use it against us."
You can see the segment from The View below.
\u201cTAYLOR SWIFT ACCUSED OF \u201cFATPHOBIA\u201d: Critics are slamming the pop star\u2019s #AntiHero music video because she steps onto a scale that reads \u201cfat,\u201d but her fans are reminding people that she\u2019s been open about her personal struggle with an eating disorder \u2013 #TheView co-hosts react.\u201d— The View (@The View) 1666718100
\u201c@istanpopqueens @TheView Yes. And "fat" - the word itself - is not an offense. It's the connotation people put into it that makes it offensive.\u201d— The View (@The View) 1666718100
\u201c@TheView THANK YOU!!! honestly it\u2019s so disgusting to shame someone for their ED and insecurities in a song they\u2019re singing \u201cit\u2019s me, I\u2019m the problem\u201d.\u201d— The View (@The View) 1666718100
Loyal fans, or "Swifties," also offered support for their idol and asserted she wasn't the problem, but rather:
"Hi. It's You. You're the problem."
\u201cI\u2019m really upset about the Anti-Hero music video being edited. It was clearly art that spoke to so many of us. And I feel so bad that Taylor felt bad enough that she felt like she had to change it. I hope she knows we appreciate her art and accept her struggles without judgement\u201d— sonya - THE easter egg \u2b50\ufe0f (@sonya - THE easter egg \u2b50\ufe0f) 1666792692
\u201cthe scale scene of anti-hero mv has been edited on apple music. this is actually so sad because taylor definitely saw all the people not caring about her OWN experience with her OWN body.\u201d— fran (@fran) 1666773102
\u201c@PopCrave i hate all of you. this song and video was literally about HER telling us her deepest insecurities. and y\u2019all made it about yourself and turned it around on her. hope y\u2019all are happy.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
\u201c@PopCrave As a fat person, this ISN\u2019T fatphobia. Body dysmorphia is real, and she\u2019s clearly not fat but used to think she was. Which is common for young girls in the industry because the media speculates on their weight. Fatphobia led to her feeling that way and her eating disorder. Smh.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
\u201c@PopCrave What actually is fatphobic is how these unironicly insensitive "sensitive" people silenced Taylor expressing her struggles with body dysmorphia\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
\u201c@PopCrave this is so upsetting. taylor struggled with ed and now that she feels brave enough to show vulnerability about it people are calling her fatphobic for their own insecurities ? that\u2019s HER struggle.\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
\u201c@PopCrave As an honorary fat person, I can confidently say that this was not offensive or fatphobic. I feel like most of the people complaining that it is, are not and have not been part of the fpc (fat person club). It\u2019s really ridiculous how far people are willing to reach to be offended\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
Swift described "Anti-Hero" as one of her favorite, as well as, most personal songs to date on an Instagram post.
"I don't think I've delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before," she told followers.
"I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized and, not to sound too dark, I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person."
"We all hate things about ourselves, and 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."
Swift has opened up about her struggles with bodily self-image and eating disorder before in the Netflix documentary, Miss Americana.
In the 2020 film, she mentioned how, on a couple of very rare occasions, she became insecure after looking at pictures of herself "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.”
\u201ctaylor talking about her struggle with eating disorder\u201d— ivy (@ivy) 1666813211
Referring back to that sequence in the film, Taylor told Variety:
“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 be in the dressing room and somebody who worked at a magazine would say, ‘Oh, wow, this is so amazing that you can fit into the sample sizes."
"Usually we have to make alterations to the dresses, but we can take them right off the runway and put them on you!’ And I looked at that as a pat on the head."
\u201c@PopCrave It\u2019s crazy that you\u2019re not allowed to speak out about your own disorders and experiences with body dysmorphia because you have to appeal to everyone\u2019s visualization of your own body\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
\u201c@PopCrave The media gave her an insecurity but God forbid she speaks about it\u201d— Pop Crave (@Pop Crave) 1666866022
She added:
"You register that enough times, and you just start to accommodate everything towards praise and punishment, including your own body.”