12 min read

The strength of Taylor Swift

A critical analysis/close read of Taylor's relationship with eating and working out. Plus: It's never too late to build muscle; a Murphy-bed-style gym; an online-clothing-scammers explainer. This is Link Letter 112!
Taylor Swift singing "Cruel Summer" in Mexico City during the Eras tour, 2023
Taylor Swift singing Cruel Summer in Mexico City during the Eras tour, 2023

As an enjoyer of Taylor Swift’s music (though not a Swiftie) and a person alive on Earth, I am eminently aware of her mega-production stadium tour shows. What has also captured my attention during the last several years, though, is Taylor’s physical journey. She doesn’t talk about it a lot, but she’s given significant glimpses that have added up over time to a pretty substantial picture, which I will here hyper-analyze in the Swiftian academic tradition.

In the 2020 documentary-lite Miss Americana, she disclosed she had an eating disorder, which she struggled with the most from the early- to mid-2010s (a time when she was very close with then-Victoria’s Secret model and now-Trump family member Karlie Kloss). This is her full description of that era (sorry):

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