On Thursday, Taylor Swift released the “…Ready for It?” video, the second music video from the Reputation era. Given that the lyrics are all about a man that Taylor finds extremely fascinating — probably Joe Alwyn, her current boyfriend — you might have assumed that the video would have been all about their relationship. Maybe you thought it would be sexier than Taylor’s past work because of lines like, “You should see the things we do, baby, in the middle of the night in my dreams.” That thought in particular may have been bolstered by the teaser, which showed Taylor in a nude bodysuit à la Ghost in the Shell.

Bodysuit notwithstanding, it turns out the “…Ready for It?” video has absolutely nothing to do with Joe Alwyn, or any other anonymous person Taylor may or may not be dating. This video is all about Taylor Swift’s relationship with Taylor Swift — specifically the Taylor Swift whose reputation has been tarnished by Kim Kardashian, Kanye West, and Katy Perry. This is presumably the same “old Taylor” referenced in “Look What You Made Me Do,” but this time, Taylor’s fans (and her pointed Tumblr likes) indicate that there’s a less obvious target in her crosshairs: the media.

In the video, a black-clad, possibly robotic Taylor does battle with the bodysuit-wearing Taylor, who lives in a glass box and seems to be trapped there. The Taylor in black is the "bad" Taylor, and Bad Taylor isn't real — she's just bad because the media portrayed her that way. Good Taylor is imprisoned by Bad Taylor until she sets herself free using lightning bolts and confidence. In the end, Good Taylor prevails and reclaims the narrative from those who would do her wrong.



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This is all subject to interpretation, of course, until you start looking at the posts Taylor has liked on Tumblr in the past 24 hours (and her album cover, which features her name repeated over and over in various newspaper fonts). Here’s an excerpt from a post Taylor liked, written by Tumblr user Stillgotscars: “Ready for it illuminates how the media/society have so tirelessly tried to absolutely sabotage taylor swift’s soul, ravage her kind disposition and quite overtly vandalize her reputation.” Another Taylor-approved missive from Columbusswift: “THE GIRL IN THE BLACK IS HER REPUTATION THE MEDIA GIVES HER.” And one more from Yourlittlegames: “I feel like this video is all about her breaking free from this manufactured robot the media has made her out to be.” The “media is the enemy” narrative is playing out on Twitter too, even if Taylor’s not quite as active there as she is on Tumblr.

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TAYLOR SWIFT FREED HERSELF AND KILLED THE REPUTATION THE MEDIA HAD GIVEN HER #ReadyForItMusicVideo — b. 🌸 (@jupiterdrxps) October 27, 2017

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MY KINK IS TAYLOR SWIFT SASSING BACK TO THE MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC pic.twitter.com/fYT9LlU2Fb — “VIVIAN!!!” (@allyouwantedts) October 27, 2017

This is, in a word, bullshit. “The media” is not some monolithic entity out to destroy Taylor Swift’s reputation, and for a very long time, “the media” was firmly in her corner. Consider the wave of “In Defense of Taylor Swift” pieces by women standing up for Taylor’s songwriting skills, or the almost universal critical praise for 1989. Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Pitchfork, Billboard, and Complex all included 1989 on their best of 2014 lists (and so did I, before you @ me). When Taylor’s friend Ryan Adams decided to cover 1989 in full, some critics argued that it was a pointless and possibly sexist endeavor, because Taylor’s songs were just fine as they were without a stamp of "highbrow" approval. And just this past summer, Taylor got a ton of well-deserved good press for delivering a powerful, unflinching testimony in her sexual assault trial.



But Taylor doesn’t focus on the good, and neither do her fans. She wants to stomp out the dissent, the criticism, the possibility that she is anything but perfect. This has been Taylor’s M.O. for years, but in 2017, it’s no longer just wearing thin — it’s downright dangerous. Who else do we know who’s obsessed with good press, who constantly lambasts “the media” for “inventing” stories and creating their own narrative? Oh, right — the president.

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It is finally sinking through. 46% OF PEOPLE BELIEVE MAJOR NATIONAL NEWS ORGS FABRICATE STORIES ABOUT ME. FAKE NEWS, even worse! Lost cred. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 22, 2017

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Keep hearing about "tiny" amount of money spent on Facebook ads. What about the billions of dollars of Fake News on CNN, ABC, NBC & CBS? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017

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I hope the Fake News Media keeps talking about Wacky Congresswoman Wilson in that she, as a representative, is killing the Democrat Party! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017

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The Fake News is going crazy with wacky Congresswoman Wilson(D), who was SECRETLY on a very personal call, and gave a total lie on content! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 20, 2017

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People are just now starting to find out how dishonest and disgusting (FakeNews) @NBCNews is. Viewers beware. May be worse than even @CNN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 13, 2017

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The Fake News Is going all out in order to demean and denigrate! Such hatred! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 12, 2017

This is not to say that Taylor Swift getting upset about some false dating rumor is as bad as Donald Trump accusing entire news organizations of lying about his very real misdeeds and dangerous policies — of course it isn’t. But all you have to do is scroll through Tumblr and Twitter to see that her fans have absorbed the exact same message that Trump has drilled into his supporters: “Journalists are liars and everything they say is biased against me.” In a more normal era, this might read as nothing but Taylor’s fans developing a healthy skepticism for tabloids. But this isn’t a normal era, and “media bad, Taylor good” is a tone deaf message for Taylor to be sending right now. When the president spends his entire day telling anyone who’ll listen that the media is responsible for making up stories about him, the last thing we need is someone with as much as cultural capital as Taylor taking the same tack.

Plenty of other celebrities — the Kardashians, Nicki Minaj, Lana Del Rey, and many more — have had public spats with specific journalists or the media at large about some perceived slight or another, but none have taken it quite as far as Taylor seems to be doing with Reputation. But if anyone’s responsible for Taylor’s “reputation,” it’s Taylor Swift. She’s the person who called out Kanye West, who dated Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris, who used her squad for publicity, who espoused a shallow feminism that does nothing to help women in any tangible way. “The media” didn’t do those things. Taylor did, and to say otherwise is to discourage her millions of fans from thinking critically.

Follow Eliza on Twitter and Cosmo Celeb on Facebook.



Eliza Thompson senior entertainment editor I’m the senior entertainment editor at Cosmopolitan.com, which means my DVR is always 98 percent full.

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