Taylor Swift changes misogynistic ‘Better Than Revenge’ lyrics on ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’
Taylor Swift isn’t out for revenge this time around.
After a handful of Swifties got the “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” album a day ahead of its July 7 release, they discovered that she had changed the lyrics on her hit song “Better Than Revenge.”
In the original track, which was released in 2010, Swift sings, “She’s not a saint and she’s not what you think / she’s an actress, whoa / She’s better known for the things that she does / On the mattress, whoa.”
However, the 33-year-old swapped out the latter part of the verse with, “He was a moth to the flame / She was holding the matches, whoa.”
One fan, who got their hands on the album, posted a photo of the new lyrics on Twitter, while another user shared a short clip of the new version.
The longstanding rumor is that Swift wrote the song about actress Camilla Belle, who dated Joe Jonas directly after the Grammy winner.
Yet, now that the exes are on good terms, it appears Swift is looking to make amends with Jonas’ former flame.
However, fans had a mixed reaction to the change given the fact they’ve been screaming the same, albeit problematic, lyrics for over a decade.
“We miss brutal Taylor where she hated everyone but lover era Taylor assassinated her,” one fan wrote.
“I thought I was gonna stream the original if she changed the lyrics. But now I don’t know. Like I know she only did this to please people. And I want to support her fully. But I love the original so so much 😭,” another added.
“pathological people pleaser,” a third tweeted, referring to Swift’s song “You’re Losing Me.”
“I’m going to sing the original line over this line every single time. This moth to a flame line does not and will never exist to me,” a disappointed fan chimed in.
Yet others were thrilled by the change, praising Swift for rejecting her past internalized misogyny.
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“This is why I love her. She almost always does the right thing,” someone else tweeted. “we don’t encourage slut shaming over here.”
“And it’s better now, we won,” another stated.
“I think that was the right call shrug 🤷♀️you can’t say you regret doing something and then profit of [sic] it again 😅,” one fan noted. “Plus there really is no downside, fans who like the stolen version can still listen to that and taylor can put something out that she is proud of.”
While some fans might not agree with Swift’s decision, the “All Too Well” songstress hinted in an interview with The Guardian that she regretted making the jab.
“I was 18 when I wrote that,” she explained in 2014. “That’s the age you are when you think someone can actually take your boyfriend. Then you grow up and realize no one take someone from you if they don’t want to leave.”
Swift has been re-recording her first six albums after now-rival Scooter Braun purchased her master recordings in 2019.
At the time, Swift denied having had any opportunity to buy her music back — claiming Braun and Scott Borchetta, the former head of Big Machine Records, went behind her back.
Since then, she has re-released “Fearless” and “Red,” with “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” coming out on July 7.
