INSECURITIES

Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.
- Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell

In Taylor Swift’s most recent music video, “Anti-Hero”, she battles her own sabotaging self-doubt by portraying it as the titular anti-hero version of herself. In one part of the video, the refrain of “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem it’s me” is sung in a bubbly voice as Taylor stands on a scale. Beside her, the anti-hero version shakes her head in a judgmental way. In the original video, the camera cuts to the scale, which simply reads “Fat”. The backlash from this one word was immediate. People online labeled Taylor as fatphobic. The hate was so strong, Taylor had the video edited to remove the glimpse of the scale.

Swift has been open about her struggles with disordered eating. Many fans have praised her for being so vulnerable about her struggles, yet the belittling cries of fatphobia were stronger. Our society’s current climate favors celebrities like Lizzo who praise body positivity at any size, a highly admirable and important message. Yet someone being heavyset and happy shouldn’t mean it’s okay to drag someone who is thin and insecure. It’s still a fact that people deal with body image no matter their size.

When I was about twenty, I had a friend look me dead in the eye and say, in what I felt was an accusatory voice, “You’re afraid of getting fat, aren’t you?”
Her words took me by surprise. They were pretty true, yet to hear them said point blank because I declined dessert left me somewhat tongue-tied and ashamed. In all honesty, I never fully think I’m thin enough. That part of Swift’s video made me feel seen. I empathized with her; when stepping onto a scale, something as small as two pounds in the “wrong” direction can still make me feel defeated. I have to steel myself to be okay with whatever the number is, knowing it’s arbitrary, really.

Beauty is not a one-size-fits-all formula. I could get into semantics about true inner beauty and wildly shifting cultural standards, yet I’ll assume we all know this. We know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that a good dose of self-confidence can be sexy as hell.*

True fatphobia - a bias morphing into hate - is obviously harmful. The problem with labels is that they can be one-dimensional, and too quick to be applied. Many people who struggle with body image as Swift does are dealing with what they see in the mirror, not how other people look. As easy as it would be to simply blame the influence of air-brushed celebrities, I know that any issues I have with my body are my own. (“Hi, I’m the problem, it’s me”).

Overall, the video, backlash, and edit are an example of how it’s far too easy for people to share opinions on social media which, as they blatantly plow another person down, are really about their own insecurities. It’s playground bullying on a different level, yet the heart of it is the same.
”I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror” Swift sings, her fears and shortcomings put on display. Isn’t that what we would all rather do? Mirror mirror on the wall … let’s chose kindness overall.

*Scarlet O’Hara from “Gone With The Wind” is generally pictured as being a great beauty, even though the author says in the very first sentence that it’s her charm (or confidence) rather than her looks which gets her so much attention.