Iconic singer-songwriter Taylor Swift released her 10th studio album titled “Midnights” last month and her song “Anti-Hero” soared to No. 1. However, even with the song’s great success, its music video received undeserved backlash. 

We all know the sound that has dominated your TikTok for you page, “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me”. It’s hard to escape the catchy chorus of “Anti-Hero.” 

As the third track on the album, ‘Anti-Hero’ describes the insecurities and issues Swift has battled both in private and in the public eye. 

“This song (Anti-Hero) is a real guided tour through all the things that I tend to hate about myself. We all hate things about ourselves, and it’s all of those aspects of the things we dislike and like about ourselves that we have to come to terms with if we’re going to be this person. So, yeah, I like ‘Anti-Hero’ a lot because I think it’s really honest,” Swift said in a video on her Instagram. 

Just eight hours after the release of “Midnights” the music video for ‘Anti-Hero,’ written and directed by Swift, was launched on YouTube. 

The video illustrates self-hatred, depression, anxiety and insecurities. 

There is a scene in the music video that shows Swift standing on a scale that reads “fat” while Swift’s alter ego is seen watching over her shoulder with a disapproving glare. 

Many comments were made on the video calling the scene “fatphobic.”

The scene brings to light Swift’s eating disorder and the mentality that Swift had earlier in her career. That no matter what she did, and no matter what number she saw on the scale, all she could see was “fat.”

“Taylor Swift’s music video, where she looks down at the scale where it says ‘fat,’ is a s— way to describe her body image struggles,” Shira Rose,  a body-positive blogger, said on Twitter. 

Many fans did come to Swift’s defense on Twitter, with one user stating they could relate to the feelings Swift was attempting to illustrate. 

It’s no secret that Swift’s personal life influences many of her songs; that’s what makes them relatable. All 13 songs on “Midnights” are extremely personal to the singer-songwriter. 

“It’s my first directly autobiographical album in a while…so I am feeling very overwhelmed by the fans’ love for this record. I’m also feeling, like, very soft and fragile,” Swift told Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show. 

For people to attack her for sharing her own story about her experience with an eating disorder is wrong and shameful. Can they not look past themselves long enough to understand the message she was trying to convey?