Content warning: This story discusses eating disorders.
It looks like Taylor Swift is taking action to address her "Anti-Hero" music video.
Just days after the release of the Midnights visuals, a scene in which the pop star steps onto a scale reading "fat" has disappeared on Apple Music, according to Variety. Instead, the music video on the platform now shows Taylor standing on the bathroom scale as her clone shakes her head in disappointment. (At publishing time, the YouTube version of the music video still includes the close-up shot of the scale to read "fat.")
Taylor has not publicly addressed the change, though the new version of the video comes amid backlash against the scale scene's portrayal of body image issues. "Taylor Swift's music video, where she looks down at the scale where it says 'fat,' is a s--ty way to describe her body image struggles," one Twitter user wrote on Oct. 21. "Fat people don't need to have it reiterated yet again that it's everyone's worst nightmare to look like us."
Meanwhile, a Huffington Post editorial published on Oct. 24 called out the use of the word "fat" in the scene. "Taylor Swift is not, and has never been, even remotely fat," the op-ed read. "But 'fat' isn't a bad word (to be clear, neither is skinny). It's a descriptive word society has turned into an insult."
The article continued, "Alternative words this scale could have displayed: Unworthy. Unlovable. Hated. Terrible. Bad. This list could go on and on."
However, some people have also defended the scene from criticism, with Whoopi Goldberg saying that Taylor's video "reflects what she sees" as her inner struggle.
"Just let her have her feelings. If you don't like the song, don't listen to it," the daytime show co-host said on the Oct. 25 episode of The View. "Leave the girl alone."
Previously, Taylor called "Anti-Hero," the lead single of her newly released Midnights album, "one of my favorite songs that I've ever written."
"I really don't think I've delved this far into my insecurities in this detail before. I struggle a lot with the idea that my life has become unmanageably sized," she explained in an Instagram video on Oct. 3. "Not to sound too dark, but I struggle with the idea of not feeling like a person. Don't feel bad for me, you don't need to."
Back in 2020, while filming her documentary Miss Americana, Taylor got candid about her struggle with an eating disorder.
"I didn't know if I was going to feel comfortable with talking about body image and talking about the stuff I've gone through in terms of how unhealthy that's been for me—my relationship with food and all that over the years," she told Variety when it was released. "But the way that [director] Lana [Wilson] tells the story, it really makes sense. I'm not as articulate as I should be about this topic because there are so many people who could talk about it in a better way. But all I know is my own experience."