Now go stand in the corner and think about what Taylor Swift just did.
On July 7, the singer released Speak Now (Taylor's Version), a re-recording of her 2010 album, featuring several previously unreleased "from the vault" tracks. However one aspect of the album already catching Swifties' attention is a slightly altered version of the track "Better than Revenge."
The original recording of the song featured the lyrics, "She's not a saint and she's not what you think / She's an actress / She's better known for the things that she does / On the mattress." However, in the new version of "Better Than Revenge," the latter two lines, which had for years been slammed by many listeners as misogynistic, are now, "He was a moth to the flame / She was holding the matches."
And the Grammy winner herself has reflected on the controversial original lyrics. "I was 18 when I wrote that," Swift, 33, told The Guardian in 2014. "That's the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realize no one take someone from you if they don't want to leave."
Since the original album's release, many fans have speciated that "Better Than Revenge" was written about Camilla Belle and Joe Jonas, who dated for several months after his 2008 split from Swift. However the "Anti-Hero" singer has never confirmed who the song was written about.
Speak Now (Taylor's Version) is the third album Swift has released amid her journey to re-record new versions of her first six albums following her former label Big Machine's 2019 sale of the master recordings of her catalog. She first announced the album's release at the Nashville stop on her The Eras tour in early May.
And while she's yet to perform "Better Than Revenge" on the tour, the track still has plenty of time to make an appearance as a surprise song as Swift recently revealed additional dates for the tour, extending it through 2024.