Taylor Swift has publicly pleaded with fans to not cyberbully her ex-boyfriends online, ahead of the release of Taylor’s Version of her iconic album Speak Now next week. The singer’s third album is set for a re-release on 7 July, meaning that the spotlight will inevitably be on the ex-boyfriends that Taylor wrote tracks about.
During her Minneapolis concert, she performed a surprise track from Speak Now – Dear John – marking the first time in 11 years that the track is played live. Before she began the performance, though, she asked fans to act with ‘kindness and gentleness’ and to not ‘feel the need to defend’ her against people she’s potentially written songs about. Read: ex-boyfriends.
'I was hoping to ask you that as we lead up to this album coming out, I would love for that kindness and gentleness to extend into our internet activities,' she said. 'I’m 33 years old. I don’t care about anything that happened to me when I was 19, except the songs I wrote.
'I’m not putting this album out so that you can go and should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I might have written a song about 14 billion years ago.'
This comes after fans rallied against Taylor Swift’s reported relationship with The 1975 frontman Matt Healy, writing an open letter with the hashtag #SpeakUpNow, calling on Taylor to ‘reflect on the impact of your own and your associates’ behaviour’ and to ‘use your platforms responsibly and intentionally’.
It’s safe to say that her fans are incredibly invested in who she is, and is no longer, dating. Fan TikTok theories and explainers for Speak Now’s tracks and their attached love interests have began already, with singer John Mayer and actor Taylor Lautner put forward as the key relationships she draws on.
For example, both Enchanted and Back to December are rumoured to recount the events of Taylor’s short-lived relationship with Lautner, with both Dear John and The Story of Us pinned to John Mayer.
The lyrics in Dear John are pretty pointed, describing Taylor as ‘too young to be messed with’ and her partner (presumed to be Mayer) playing ‘dark twisted games’ with a ‘sick need to give love then take away’.
Fans and media outlets alike are undeniably invested in Taylor’s love life and the songs they inspire, but it’s fair enough for her to ask that releasing songs from the past don’t cause vitriol towards Mayer or any other ex-partner of hers. Especially as, intriguingly, she has a policy of never explicitly confirming what tracks are about who anyway.
Mayer has spoken out before about the impact of Taylor’s lyrics, telling Rolling Stone ‘it made me feel terrible’.
‘I didn't deserve it,’ he said. ‘I'm pretty good at taking accountability now, and I never did anything to deserve that. It was a really lousy thing for her to do.’
Actor Jake Gyllenhaal also received a lot of scrutiny after his relationship with Taylor, attention that was revitalised after the re-release of her 2012 Red and the music video to All Too Well, a track that was rumoured to be about her relationship with him.
In an interview with Esquire, he pointed out Taylor’s role in ensuring supporters are ‘civil’, without naming the singer herself.
‘At some point, I think it’s important when supporters get unruly that we feel a responsibility to have them be civil and not allow for cyberbullying in one’s name,’ he said.
It seems that Taylor has taken this undeniable responsibility on board and isn’t about dwelling on the past – let’s hope for no more unnecessary ex-boyfriend (or current boyfriend) onslaughts and all focus on the new (old) music.