Taylor Swift just released a new version of her best-selling album, “1989,” and included some additional songs and a note to fans about the time of her life when it was originally released.
The pop singer’s update comes after years of fan speculation that she was either secretly gay or bisexual, especially because she was always surrounded by women. Swift didn’t explicitly discuss her sexuality in the release, but fans believe her missive in the prologue of the album is an answer to those lingering rumors.
“You see — in the years preceding this, I had become the target of slut-shaming—the intensity and relentlessness of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today. The jokes about my amount of boyfriends. The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath. The media co-signing of this narrative. I had to make it stop. Because it was starting to really hurt,” the Grammy Award winner wrote.
“It became clear to me that for me, there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him, and so I swore off hanging out with guys. Dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era.”
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Swift said that because she’s “a consummate optimist,” she decided to change people’s opinions of her by adjusting her behavior. “I swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships. If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that, right? I would learn later on that people could and people would,” the letter continued.
The “Bad Blood” singer has been making headlines for weeks as she’s been dating NFL star Travis Kelce, who is tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs. Prior to that, Swift had been linked to several different men over the years. Her longest relationship was with British actor Joe Alwyn, lasting from 2017 until the spring of 2023.