Taylor Swift’s Version of Speak Now Includes Controversial Lyrics Change — How Fans Are Reacting

Swift has been re-recording and re-releasing her first six albums in an effort to regain control of the master recordings of her efforts after a very messy sale of said masters. With re-records, though, also comes an opportunity to rewrite history, or at least tweak it a little bit.

That’s exactly what Swift has done with one of her most controversial lyrics of all time. Fans quickly noticed the change on “Better Than Revenge.” 13 years after it’s original release, “She’s an actress, but she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress,” has not aged well.

Now, though, the line has been tweaked as, “She’s an actress, he was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches.” As the song is believed to have been written about a real person (Joe Jonas’ next girlfriend after Swift, Camilla Belle). Though Swift never confirms or denies any real-life inspirations, this new line is certainly sitting better with some fans.

For years now, Swift has been adamant that women should not be judged for who they date and how they date. This powerful stance has only made the line even more problematic in hindsight, as many have interpreted it as “slut shaming,” something that flies against everything Swift stands for.

She, of course, originally wrote the song at 19 or 20 years old. The question for a surprising number of think pieces and social media discussions has been whether or not adult Swift at 33 years old should be updating the song to reflect her current values, or stick to the original for the re-record to preserve the original.

This created a bit of a dilemma for some Swiftie purists, as despite how they may feel about the lyric itself, the change means this is not a re-record of the original track so much as it is a reimagining of it. Would they have to go against the whole point of this project and stream the original release to experience it fully as it was written by an angsty, frustrated young adult?

Many fans expressed their mixed feelings about the change on social media, with the topic quickly dominating the overall discussion and trending dominance of the re-release itself.

While Swift has not directly acknowledged the change she made, she did tout the release of the album on her social media accounts.

“It’s here. It’s yours, it’s mine, it’s ours,” she captioned her post on Instagram. “It’s an album I wrote alone about the whims, fantasies, heartaches, dramas and tragedies I lived out as a young woman between 18 and 20.”

She reminded fans that while creating the album, she’d “had to be ruthless” in selecting tracks, leaving some she still loves. As such, “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version),” like previous re-releases, features an additional half-dozen “From the Vault” tracks.

You can check out her full statement below, followed by some of the best and funniest reactions to that lyrical change as the Swifties process this new, gentler, kinder reality. The one where she’s already told them to lay off of John Mayer (who may or may not be who “Dear John” is about).