What Taylor Swift's Song Slut Is Really About

Don't let the sexist slur and the exclamation point in Taylor Swift's song "Slut!" fool you; she doesn't go all Alanis Morissette by raising her voice, dropping a few curse words, and unleashing some righteous rage. But like the "You Oughta Know" singer, she does share her thoughts about being treated in a manner she finds unacceptable.

"Slut!" is one of the five songs "from the vault" Swift included on her album re-release, "1989 (Taylor's Version)." The others are "Now That We Don't Talk," "Say Don't Go," "Suburban Legends," and "Is It Over Now?" Of the additions, Swift wrote on Instagram, "To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I've ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane. I can't believe they were ever left behind." However, the track with the single-word title likely sparked the most curiosity among fans because it's so outrageous and loaded. The excitement was palpable on a Reddit thread titled "Obsessed with 'Slut!' and it isn't even out yet." 

Ahead of the album's release, Swifties theorized that their idol would explore the slut-shaming she endured during the era when her relationships with male celebrities were many and brief. These fans were proved right, but there's more to the song than that; it also tells a love story.

"Slut!" is a seamless melding of the two Taylors: the girl with the teardrop-stained guitar who draws musical inspiration from her love life and the proud feminist who told Maxim in 2015, "Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born." She touches on how her relationships are treated differently from those of male celebrities with the lyrics, "Love thorns all over this rose / I'll pay the price, you won't." In other words, she's the one who is risking relentless hateful trolling, sexist late-night talk show jokes, and negative headlines by adding another lover to her list. 

She also sings, "But if I'm all dressed up / They might as well be lookin' at us / And if they call me a slut / You know it might be worth it for once." Swift is giving fans some profound insight into what it's like for her to date in the spotlight. She can't just enjoy a casual outing with a guy she barely knows; before she steps out in public with someone, there has to be enough chemistry there for her to feel like being with them is worth the price she'll pay for it.

The song's music is dreamy, but there's an edge of bitterness to Swift's lyrics. "Everyone wants him, that was my crime," she laments. Basically, she dated someone desirable and she was cast as the villain by those who were jealous of the relationship.

Taylor Swift describes what sounds like a romance hangover with the lyrics, "Got love-struck, went straight to my head / Got lovesick all over my bed." Fans love her vivid descriptions of the ups and downs of relationships because they're so relatable, but in the eyes of the media, the value of Swift's art has too often been overshadowed by her love life. 

In the liner notes for "1989 (Taylor's Version)," she expresses her frustration with what she had to endure during the period of time when this fixation was at its worst. "I had become the target of slut shaming — the intensity and relentlessness of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today," she writes. "The jokes about my amount of boyfriends. The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath."

One such jab at Swift's dating history was the "# more boyfriends than t.s." shirt that Abercrombie & Fitch pulled from its shelves in 2013. That same year, Radar decided to give a hate group, the Westboro Baptist Church, a platform to share its opinion of Swift. "This girl is a whore," said WBC leader Ben Phelps. But as one Swiftie observed, Swift has potentially thwarted the efforts of those seeking out salacious stories about her love life. "When you google 'taylor swift slut' now her song will come up instead of slut shaming about her," they tweeted. Brilliant.