By ELIZABETH
VALENTIN
Arts Editor
Taylor Swift released her newest music video for her song “Reputation.” The sci-fi vibe that the video has is something that is unprecedented for the singer-songwriter, as she continues to prove that the old Taylor is “dead.” Because Swift has been cryptic and left hidden messages in her videos in the past, fans have taken it upon themselves to read into this video.
Director, Joseph Kahn, who has directed several videos for Swift, posted a tweet about the song, saying “It’s an homage to sci-fi and anime.”
This has made the issue of cultural appropriation a topic of discussion surrounding the video. Some people have made the comparison between the bodysuit that Swift wears in the video to the one worn by Scarlett Johansson in “Ghost in the Shell.”
Twitter user, @reggiegotlag, noticed this similarity and posted images of the two women in their bodysuits side by side. In this post, the user said “Can you believe both Asian actress Scarlett Johansson and Asian singer Taylor Swift gave us 2 versions of Ghost in the Shell? God bless Asians.”
This tweet and others like it are comments on the lack of diversity within Hollywood. People who have made these comments believe that Asian characters or characters adopted from anime should be played by Asian actors. For Swift to portray an aspect of anime would be a form of cultural appropriation, according to these people.
Cultural appropriation has not been the only talking point surrounding this bodysuit. There was also a controversy regarding her apparent nudity in the video.
There have been several speculations surrounding this video, including that the body suit that she wears during the video that makes her appear to be nude from far away is a jab at Kanye West, who she has had drama with in the past.
In West’s infamous video for his song, “Famous,” there are a number of famous people depicted nude in a bed, one of which is Taylor Swift. Some fans believe that the body suit and her nearly nude appearance is a way for her to reference this in her video.
While some fans think that this nude appearance is a fun jab at one of Swift’s rivals, others saw it as highly inappropriate. Some people took to social media to talk about their thoughts regarding the nudity that they perceived in the video.
One user, @HaydenKirchhoff, said “Taylor Swift, why did I just see your naked body in your new music video preview?? This is not okay.”
While some people were clearly against the potential nudity in Swift’s video, others came to her defense, explaining that she is not actually nude in the video, but is wearing a bodysuit.
Twitter user, @messofadreamr13, said “That awkward moment when people are trying to shame Taylor Swift for being naked, and it’s just a bodysuit.”
Swift, herself, took to Snapchat to clarify the situation. She posted several pictures of herself wearing the bodysuit in order to show people that she is not nude in the video. One of the pictures is captioned “It truly warms my heart that ppl had so much to say about this bodysuit.”
This Taylor Swift video is highly talked about and people are highly opinionated about it. There are also several speculations that can be made, which is not unlike other videos or actions from Swift in the past. She continues to give people something to talk about.
