Taylor Swift has quietly edited the music video for her new single “Anti-Hero” on Apple Music, removing a shot that some viewers found fatphobic. The change also inadvertently made it a stronger video.
Released on Oct. 21, Taylor Swift’s album Midnights was eagerly received by fans and quickly broke two Spotify records. However, her latest pop offering didn’t arrive without criticism. In particular, the music video for Swift’s lead single “Anti-Hero”, which she wrote and directed, received negative attention for a scene in which she stands on a set of bathroom scales while another version of her looks on. Rather than showing a number, the scales simply read “FAT” — an image that some viewers considered fatphobic due to it associating fatness with undesirability.
While Swift hasn’t spoken publicly on the criticism, it appears she has taken notice. The “Anti-Hero” video has now been altered on Apple Music to remove the controversial shot, instead showing Swift stepping onto the scales before her alter-ego leans over to read it and shake her head disapprovingly.
Despite this change on Apple Music, the “Anti-Hero” video hasn’t been updated across all platforms. Swift’s music video still includes the “FAT” scales on YouTube, likely attributable to the fact that the platform doesn’t allow such edits to videos that have already been uploaded.
YouTube creators can trim clips that have already gone live, but inserting those extra few seconds of Taylor judging Taylor would require the “Anti-Hero” music video be deleted then reuploaded in its entirety. This would completely erase its still-rising 34 million view count, which is a number both Swift and Republic Records would no doubt rather keep. Apple Music doesn’t publicly display such statistics.
It’s reasonable to assume the change to “Anti-Hero” was due to the unfavourable response to Swift’s original video. Even so, the removal of the controversial shot arguably strengthens the overall product. Without the word “FAT” glaring up at the audience, the more subtle implication is that it doesn’t really matter what the scale says — her critical second self will be dissatisfied no matter what.
Swift has previously been open about dealing with an eating disorder, most notably in her 2020 documentary Miss Americana.
While altering digital products after their release has long been the norm in video games, it has become increasingly common in other media as well. Other high profile examples include both Lizzo and Beyonce changing song lyrics to remove ableist language in response to fan feedback earlier this year.
If you feel like you’d like to talk to someone about your eating behavior, call the National Eating Disorder Association’s helpline at 800-931-2237. You can also text “NEDA” to 741-741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line or visit the nonprofit’s website for more information.
