As the years go by, our views on certain topics continue to change. We’ve seen a cultural reckoning around the feminist movement in the past 10 years, changing the way the general public discusses other women. The latest example of this involves Taylor Swift and the release of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). The 33-year-old pop sensation released the re-recording of her third album on July 7, and while the vocals are completely different than the original 2010 release, everything else is almost the same. Except for “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version).”
The 10th track on both the original album and the re-recording, “Better Than Revenge” has become a cult favorite song over the past few years. The general premise of the song is Swift shaming a woman who stole her boyfriend from her. Allegedly, the song is based on Camile Belle, the first woman Joe Jonas dated after breaking up with Swift. On the original version from 2010, the chorus goes “She’s not a saint, and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress, whoa/But she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress, whoa.”
However, the newly released “Taylor’s Version” replaces the second part with “He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches, whoa.” Poor rhyming aside, the change has the fandom split on whether or not to support the changed lyric. While this is the first time Swift has changed a lyric on her re-recorded albums, this isn’t the first time she’s changed a controversial lyric.
Back when calling someone gay was a much more common insult, the original version of Swift’s song “Picture to Burn” off her self-titled debut album did exactly that. The original second verse had the lyrics “So go and tell your friend that I’m obsessive and crazy/That’s fine, I’ll tell mine you’re gay.” On the version sent to radio and on deluxe versions of the album, the lyric is changed to “That’s fine, you won’t mind if I say” instead.
Should you care about the change?
There are a lot of different arguments on both sides about why this change is good or bad. On one hand, slut-shaming is much less accepted than it once was, so the lyric is quite outdated in 2023. Plus, the song’s alleged subject Belle has made references to her disdain for the song over the years on social media.
On the other though, the point of Swift’s re-recording is for her to own the masters to her music. So one would think that she would want to preserve the song as is, even if its lyrics are not as tasteful in modern times. In addition, many fans, such as TikTok user @[stuff]youshouldcareabout below, have argued that these kinds of lyrics are used by male artists all the time with no outcry. So it’s a double standard that an artist like Taylor is shamed for this behavior.
The pop-rock band Paramore, specifically lead singer Hayley Williams, has been criticized in the past for a similar situation. One of the band’s largest hits, “Misery Business,” off their 2nd album RIOT!, features the lyric “Once a whore, you’re nothing more/I’m sorry, that’ll never change.” Back in 2018, the band made the choice to stop performing the song live, acknowledging the misogynistic nature of the lyrics. But during their When We Were Young festival appearance in 2022, the band announced a reverse on that decision, and has been playing the song live since.
How does Swift feel about the song?
Back in 2014, Swift discussed her feelings on the song during an interview with The Guardian. “I was 18 when I wrote that,” she recalled, “That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realize no one takes someone from you if they don’t want to leave.” Long before she was thinking about re-recording the song, she recognized the misogyny behind the lyric.
While not directly related to the song, Swift stated during one of her Eras Tour stops that she’s over the feelings that inspired the songs on Speak Now. Before performing “Dear John” in the “Surprise Song” portion of her setlist back on June 25, she said, “I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19 except the songs I wrote.” While she feels that way about her relationship with John Mayer, it’s safe to say she feels the same way about having her boyfriend stolen from her as a teen.
Regardless of how the Swifties feel about the controversial lyric change, it seems Swift herself has made up her mind on it. That being said, we’re sure of one thing: Swifties are going to try and convince her to release “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version) (Slut-Shaming Version)” anyway.